Secrets of ‘Iron Chef’ Revealed

Posted on October 19, 2007 by Gary McCarty

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Someone going by the name of Magenta Fusion, claiming to have insider knowledge, sent me this:

To me the problem is not the judges, but rather the so-called Iron Chefs themselves. If you disagree, then just have a look at their scores. Even with a very tilted playing field in favor of them winning, they still lose nearly half the time. When they do win, it is usually by only a point or two. The only thing that is keeping anyone in awe of these hacks is the well-kept secret that the "secret ingredient" is KNOWN IN ADVANCE. Well, let me clarify that a bit. Contestants are given a list of five possible secret ingredients in advance, and weeks of advance warning. So they have all the time in the world to think about what to do with these five possible choices. Next secret is that on Iron Chef America, they only have to plate ONE dish of each type within the hour time period. This is actually obvious if you pay attention. They are given plenty of extra time to work up and plate the other dishes needed. Suddenly an hour with three chefs working to prepare a REHEARSED set of dishes of a previously known ingredient in an amply-equipped kitchen isn’t that impressive, eh? At least in the Japanese version, they had to plate ALL portions within that hour, and frequently enough for 5 or more judges. There. The secrets are out.

I always figured the chefs knew the ingredient(s) in advance, but I was under the impression that original "Iron Chef" in Japan also required only one plate of each dish at the end of the hour. It’s always been rather bizarre on "Iron Chef America" that the Chairman (idiot that he is) can unveil the "secret ingredient" and two seconds later everyone is cooking in unison! I also think there’s a break between the time the cone of silence is lifted from the secret ingredient and the time the actual cooking commences, although maybe not if both teams have rehearsed everything in advance.

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