Editing Iron Chef (section)

==Features==
The host of the show is the flamboyant [[Takeshi Kaga]], known on the show as the aristocrat {{Nihongo|'''Chairman Kaga'''|鹿賀主宰|Kaga Shusai}}. He begins most episodes with his signature words, taken from [[Arthur Rimbaud]], "If memory serves me right...{{Lang|ja|「私の記憶が確かならば…」}}"(Jadis) ''si je me souviens bien''..." and starts the cooking time with the phrase "''Allez Cuisine!''". The show has two regular commentators, [[Kenji Fukui]], who narrated the action on the floor, and [[Yukio Hattori]], a food scholar and founder of the [[Hattori Nutrition College]]. A floor reporter, [[Shinichiro Ohta]], reports to Fukui on what the challengers and Iron Chefs are preparing, their strategy, and their comments, breaking Fukui's train of commentary with a polite "''Fukui-[[Japanese honorifics|san]]?''". One or two guest commentators (who also serve as judges) also made frequent appearances. The commentary covers ingredients, history of contenders, and other background information to give viewers context for what was happening in the kitchen.

===Story===
The [[kayfabe]] "story" behind ''Iron Chef'' is recounted at the beginning of every episode of the English dub. A title card, with a quote from famed French food author [[Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin]] first appeared: "Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you what you are." Then, it was said that Kaga "realized his dream in a form never seen before" and specially constructed a cooking arena called "Kitchen Stadium". There, visiting chefs from "around the world" would compete against his Gourmet Academy, led by his three (later four) Iron Chefs. Chairman Kaga himself was a showpiece, dressed in outlandish examples of men's formal attire. The English name ''Iron Chef'' comes from the show itself: Kaga would use this translation of the Japanese title when summoning his chefs at the beginning of the "battle".<ref>{{Cite book |title=Iron Chef:The Official Book |last=Hoketsu |first=Kaoru |author2=Fuji Television |year=2000 |publisher=The Berkley Publishing Group |location=New York, NY |isbn=0-425-18088-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ironchefofficial00hoke/page/4 4] |url=https://archive.org/details/ironchefofficial00hoke/page/4 |access-date=February 11, 2009 |url-access=registration |edition=Tibetan }}</ref>

=== Iron Chefs ===
From the beginning of the show in 1993, the three Iron Chefs were: Iron Chef Japanese [[Rokusaburo Michiba]], Iron Chef Chinese [[Chen Kenichi]], and Iron Chef French [[Yutaka Ishinabe]]. After the first season, Ishinabe decided to step down and become an 'honorary Iron Chef', thus passing the mantle of Iron Chef French to [[Hiroyuki Sakai]] in 1994. Ishinabe returned for two more battles during season three. At the beginning of season four in 1996, Michiba announced his retirement and debuted [[Koumei Nakamura]] as the new Iron Chef Japanese. Michiba returned on rare occasions for special Kitchen Stadium battles. In 1997, Chairman Kaga announced a new, additional Iron Chef to the group: Iron Chef Italian [[Masahiko Kobe]]. He was the youngest of the Iron Chefs and battled sparingly throughout the rest of the show, ascending to the stage separately from the three main Iron Chefs, and surrounded by a chamber string ensemble. In 1998, Nakamura also decided to retire and passed the title of Iron Chef Japanese to [[Masaharu Morimoto]].

===Iron Chef statistics===
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Iron Chef
!Title
!Wins 
!Losses
!Draws
!No Contests
!Total
!Win %<ref name="ReferenceA">Based on weighted average (.5 victory for a draw).</ref>
|-
|{{Color box|gold|border=darkgray}} {{Nihongo|[[Chen Kenichi]]|陳 建一|Chin Ken'ichi}}
|Iron Chef [[Chinese cuisine|Chinese]]
|align="center"|66
|align="center"|24
|align="center"|3
|align="center"|0
|align="center"|93
|align="center"|72.6%
|-
|{{Color box|green|border=darkgray}} {{Nihongo|{{sortname|Yutaka|Ishinabe}}|石鍋 裕|Ishinabe Yutaka}}
|Iron Chef [[French cuisine|French]] (I)
|align="center"|7
|align="center"|1
|align="center"|0
|align="center"|0
|align="center"|8
|align="center"|87.5%
|-
|{{Color box|red|border=darkgray}} {{Nihongo|{{sortname|Hiroyuki|Sakai}}|坂井 宏行|Sakai Hiroyuki}}
|Iron Chef French (II)
|align="center"|70
|align="center"|15
|align="center"|1
|align="center"|0
|align="center"|86
|align="center"|82.4%
|-
|{{Color box|white|border=darkgray}} {{Nihongo|{{sortname|Masahiko|Kobe}}|神戸 勝彦|Kobe Masahiko}}
|Iron Chef [[Italian cuisine|Italian]]
|align="center"|16
|align="center"|7
|align="center"|1
|align="center"|0
|align="center"|24
|align="center"|68.8%
|-
|{{Color box|blue|border=darkgray}} {{Nihongo|{{sortname|Rokusaburo|Michiba}}|道場 六三郎|Michiba Rokusaburō}}
|Iron Chef [[Japanese cuisine|Japanese]] (I)
|align="center"|33
|align="center"|5
|align="center"|1
|align="center"|0
|align="center"|39
|align="center"|85.9%
|-
|{{Color box|purple|border=darkgray}} {{Nihongo|{{sortname|Koumei|Nakamura}}|中村 孝明|Nakamura Kōmei}}
|Iron Chef Japanese (II)
|align="center"|22
|align="center"|11
|align="center"|1
|align="center"|1
|align="center"|35
|align="center"|66.2%
|-
|{{Color box|silver|border=darkgray}} {{Nihongo|{{sortname|Masaharu|Morimoto}}|森本 正治|Morimoto Masaharu}}
|Iron Chef Japanese (III)
|align="center"|17
|align="center"|8
|align="center"|1
|align="center"|0
|align="center"|26
|align="center"|67.3%
|}

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===Show staff===
* [[Kenji Fukui]], Announcer/Commentator (English voice: [[Bill Bickard]])
* [[Yukio Hattori]], Commentator (English voice: Scott Morris)
* [[Takeshi Kaga]] (as Chairman Kaga), Host (English voice: Duncan Hamilton, Kent Frick)
* [[Shinichiro Ohta]], Kitchen Reporter (English voice: [[Jeff Manning]])
* Kyoichi Tanaka, Director
* Masahiro Ito, Screenwriter
* [[Kundō Koyama]], Screenwriter
* Setsuko Yuuki, Food Coordinator
* [[Dave Spector]] served as translator and commentator for "New York Special".

===Original format===
Originally, challengers vied with each other in preliminary "battles" to earn the right to face an Iron Chef in a 90-minute competition, and should a challenger win twice against Iron Chefs, the challenger would be given the title of "Honorary Iron Chef".  However, this format proved unpopular, the preliminary round was scrapped and the main contest was reduced to the now familiar 60 minutes. The awarding of honorary Iron Chef titles to challengers was also discontinued (although this was largely a moot point as few challengers ever defeated two Iron Chefs in separate contests), but was given as an emeritus title for a retiring Iron Chef.  Once honorary titles were no longer issued, challengers who beat an Iron Chef had to settle for, according to the English version's introduction, "the people's ovation and fame forever".

In each episode, chefs have one hour to cook and improvise a multicourse meal around a theme ingredient that must be present in each dish. Before the actual taping, the chefs are given a short list of possible themes, allowing the producers of the show to get any ingredients that may be needed.  Judges' primary goal was said to be determining which chef was able to "best express the unique qualities of the theme ingredient". In rare cases, the format changed—[[angler fish]] battles were typically 75 minutes in length, and [[noodle]] battles had the Iron Chef stop after 50 minutes of cooking, only to resume after the challenger's dishes were tasted so that the noodles could be served right after cooking.

===Theme ingredients===
Featured ingredients tend toward the exotic and expensive. Many theme ingredients reflect the Japanese origin of the show—river [[eel]], [[tofu]], [[udon]]—though ingredients more familiar in the West, such as [[bell pepper]]s, summer [[sweetcorn|corn]], and [[peach]]es, are spotlighted, as well. In one episode devoted to [[asparagus]], the challenger boasted that he used over $1,000 worth of [[lobster]] (which he then discarded) simply to flavor his asparagus in this battle against Iron Chef  Morimoto.

Initially, a minimum of three dishes was to be prepared, although some challengers have finished only a single dish; four is the typical number. The record for highest number of dishes prepared for a battle was eight, first set by challenger Kenji Kaji against Iron Chef Michiba in "Battle [[Umeboshi]]".  Five (later six) servings of each dish are prepared, one each for the chairman and judges, and one for photography and presentation.

===Assistant chefs===
Each chef is also given two assistants, who are supposedly students of Kaga's "Gourmet Academy" (in reality, they are students of [[Hattori Nutrition College]]).  If the challenger does not speak Japanese, students who can speak in the challenger's native language are sometimes provided. In a notable exception, San Francisco chef [[Ron Siegel]] struggled with his assistants, who did not speak English. One assistant, Kenichi Miyanaga, became a challenger himself, taking on Iron Chef Morimoto in a [[sweetfish]] battle.

===Commentary and judging===
Throughout the cook-off, running commentary is made in a booth near the cooking area by an announcer, Kenji Fukui; a commentator, Yukio Hattori, and one or two of the guest judges, with one floor reporter (sometimes two; normally Shinichiro Ohta) providing details of the action on each side. The commentators and judges discuss the style of cooking, culinary traditions and unusual food preparation. At the end of the hour, after end-of-battle interviews with both competitors, each dish is presented to the camera, with a description of its properties (written by the show's screenwriters based on the chef's explanation) read by the announcer. Then, a panel of three (later expanded to four, and later still, five) judges, of which typically one is a professional critic, tastes the dishes and judges them based on taste, presentation, and originality.  Each chef may be awarded up to 20 points by each judge, with 10 given for taste and five each for presentation and originality.  The chef with the greatest score wins the competition. (In earlier four-judge episodes, the win went to the chef who won three of the four judges, or, failing that, the chef who makes the highest points total.)

Chairman Kaga tastes the dishes along with the judges.  While he occasionally makes comments and seeks input from judges during tasting, he generally does not participate in scoring; he did do so, however, during the ''2000th Dish'' Battle.  During this episode, a team of French cuisine chefs—captain [[Hiroyuki Sakai]], the original Iron Chef French Yutaka Ishinabe, and former challenger Etsuo Joh—battled a team of Chinese cuisine chefs composed of captain Chen Kenichi, former challenger Sozo Myamoto, and former challenger [[Yuji Wakiya]] (who would later be Iron Chef Chinese on the 2012 revival).  To break the tie, Chairman Kaga asked them to allow him this one instance of selfishness, and he cast his vote for the French team.

===Ties===
In the case of a deadlock (as was possible during the era of the four-judge panel), first place is awarded to the chef with the greater number of points. On the rare occasions that the scores were also tied, an immediate "overtime battle" was held to determine the winner. In overtime, the chefs are given 30 minutes to prepare dishes with a different key ingredient, having to make do with what remains of their pantry or with items that were previously prepared for the main battle. The overtime battles are aired as a separate episode. On one occasion, the overtime battle itself resulted in a tie, prompting Chairman Kaga to declare both the Iron Chef and challenger winners.<ref>This occurred during a challenge between Iron Chef Chen Kenichi and French challenger Dominique Corby of the [[Tour d'Argent]] in episode #IC1C16, where the main theme was ''[[foie gras]]'', and in episode #IC1C17 (overtime), where the theme was asparagus.</ref>