‘Ultimate Recipe Showdown’ Shows How to Fix ‘Iron Chef’

Posted on February 18, 2008 by Gary McCarty

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Last night I watched Food Network’s new show, Ultimate Recipe Showdown, in which home chefs compete in various approaches to a single food and then are judged by hidden-away panels.

This is what I’ve long argued would make Iron Chef America at least somewhat credible: Get the damn judges out of the show, sequester them away to do blind tastings, and most of all, jettison Karine Bakhoum and banish her forever.

It seems, however, that Food Network just isn’t making many new Iron Chef shows. I think I’ve seen exactly two since the brouhaha that ensconsed Michael Symon as "The Next Iron Chef," so ratings and advertising dollars may be an issue.

To me, the issue is honesty–and the inclusion of that ridiculous, phony Chairman who facetitiously claims to be related to Japan’s Chairman Kaga.

Maybe viewers and advertisers agree.

It’s hard to gauge, but this new Showdown series, as tepid as it is with its lackluster format and hosts (though Guy Fieri does his best to brighten things up), offers the network a solution to the aged and dated format of Iron Chef, in which the Iron Chefs are rarely defeated except when they come out on stage and commit cooking seppuku.

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