The Most Entertaining Iron Chef

Iron Chef, Masaharu Morimoto.

Well, before we get back to some regular reviews, lets talk about one of my favorite TV shows, which is Iron Chef. There are two versions, the original Japanese version and the New American Iron Chef.

The original Japanese Iron Chef was the stuff of legends. This was the standard from which all other shows are compared two. It basically set off the trend of competitive cooking. I remember the first time I watched it. It was a battle of shrimp and I kept asking my friends what the hell are they doing. There the show sets off the premise of secret ingredients, different style of cooking and weird english translations. All this under the time constraint of 1 hour. It was fascinating to watch them make gourmet meals out of the most bizarre ingredients.

After the original Japanese show retired and went off the air, the American versions has sprung forth and taken the baton. Like the Japanese versions, there are different styles of cooking mixed in with the secret ingredient. So far they have enlisted chefs Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, Masaharu Morimoto, Cat Cora and Michael Simon to be Iron Chef. Out of those thee one I find the most entertaining to watch is Masaharu Morimoto.

Now I'm not saying he is the best Iron Chef. That will depend on their win loss records. But I'm saying he is probably the most entertaining to watch. The reason is that you never quite know what he is going to do. He is perhaps the most unpredictable out of all the Iron Chefs. He is not afraid to take chances, and he absolutely believe in his own convections, even if he has to lose points with the judges. Often times he'll make something raw with the secret ingredient, I just know that the western palates of the judges would not appreciate it. Yet I think secretly he doesn't really care. He'll make what is exciting to him. How can anyone forget some of his foolish fish deserts, or the time he made noodles out of fish.

That kind of craziness not only serves to inspire younger chefs, but also teaches one of the limitless boundary that food can present. We just have to throw out our preconceived notion of what is acceptable food. Therefore, Hypertaster salutes Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto for his fearlessness, and hope that he will continue to delight us with his culinary inventions.

Special shout out to my friend Tung, who was able to score me an autograph menu from his restaurant in Philadelphia.