Iron Chef America - Ponderings.
May. 4th, 2004 01:11 pmChatting about the recent "Iron Chef America" series, and I starting thinking about what I would like to see with future episodes.
Since the "torch", so to speak, was passed on to the US show, there's no reason to bring back the Japanese Iron Chefs. Which is good, because it allows the Food Network to bring on a host of challengers from the US, Canada, and Mexico. Though I *would* like to see a battle between Iron Chef Italian Masahiko Kobe, of the original series, and Iron Chef Mario Batali of the new series.
I would also *LOVE* to see them get rid of Bobby Flay. I utterly loath that smarmy, arrogant, twit. Plus, with the addition of Wolfgang Puck, he's redundant, as both of them do varients of neo-southwestern cusine. Now I realize, as the only one on the series that did battle in the original kitchen stadium, (and rather infamously at that), that having him back for the "battle of the masters" was needed. Fine, now dump him. Replace him with a pan-asian chef to serve as Iron Chef.
(On Edit), Also, Iron Chef Italian acted as an "auxilary" Iron Chef, only called out on special battles. The US version could do the same, except I would have two "auxilaries", one for French or neo-continental cusine, and one "Iron Chef Cajun" to show off specialties from that region.
Alton Brown did very good colour commentary for the series, but I have to admit I'd like to see him tag-team with one of the other iron chefs or a challenger. I don't think he'd do well on his own, but maybe in a tag-team situation.
Also, we already have the theme ingredient, but what if we did an occasional show where the chefs also had to *avoid* certain things. For instance, a no-dairy handicap, or a vegan-friendly qualification. (Though, let's be honest, there's no way that Iron Chef will ever appeal to the PETAphiles. However, as an additional challenge, it could be quite interesting to see.)
Just a few random thoughts.
Since the "torch", so to speak, was passed on to the US show, there's no reason to bring back the Japanese Iron Chefs. Which is good, because it allows the Food Network to bring on a host of challengers from the US, Canada, and Mexico. Though I *would* like to see a battle between Iron Chef Italian Masahiko Kobe, of the original series, and Iron Chef Mario Batali of the new series.
I would also *LOVE* to see them get rid of Bobby Flay. I utterly loath that smarmy, arrogant, twit. Plus, with the addition of Wolfgang Puck, he's redundant, as both of them do varients of neo-southwestern cusine. Now I realize, as the only one on the series that did battle in the original kitchen stadium, (and rather infamously at that), that having him back for the "battle of the masters" was needed. Fine, now dump him. Replace him with a pan-asian chef to serve as Iron Chef.
(On Edit), Also, Iron Chef Italian acted as an "auxilary" Iron Chef, only called out on special battles. The US version could do the same, except I would have two "auxilaries", one for French or neo-continental cusine, and one "Iron Chef Cajun" to show off specialties from that region.
Alton Brown did very good colour commentary for the series, but I have to admit I'd like to see him tag-team with one of the other iron chefs or a challenger. I don't think he'd do well on his own, but maybe in a tag-team situation.
Also, we already have the theme ingredient, but what if we did an occasional show where the chefs also had to *avoid* certain things. For instance, a no-dairy handicap, or a vegan-friendly qualification. (Though, let's be honest, there's no way that Iron Chef will ever appeal to the PETAphiles. However, as an additional challenge, it could be quite interesting to see.)
Just a few random thoughts.