Editing Iron Chef America (section)

==History==
[[File:US Navy 071113-N-8102J-367 Team members assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion Gulfport, Miss., give a set of BDUs with her name to Chef Cat Cora, from Food Networks Iron Chef America.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Team members assigned to [[Naval Mobile Construction Battalion]], [[Gulfport, Mississippi|Gulfport, Miss.]], give a [[Battle Dress Uniform|BDU]] with her name it to Chef [[Cat Cora]]]]

''Iron Chef America'' first aired as a special titled ''Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters.'' Unlike ''Iron Chef USA'', ''Iron Chef America'' quickly earned legitimacy with the appearance of Iron Chefs Hiroyuki Sakai and Masaharu Morimoto. ([[Chen Kenichi]] was also originally slated to appear, but he was absent due to a scheduling conflict.) The first ''Battle of the Masters'' involved Sakai and Flay, with the theme of [[trout]]. There, Sakai had made two dishes of note: one was gift-wrapped to commemorate the opening of Kitchen Stadium America, while the other was trout [[ice cream]], a dish that would be repeatedly recalled and referred to later on when anyone used the ice cream maker. Other battles in ''Battle of the Masters'' were Morimoto taking on Batali, Morimoto taking on Wolfgang Puck, and a tag team battle where Morimoto and Flay teamed up against Sakai and Batali. ''Battle of the Masters'' was largely successful and a regular series was commissioned.

The regular series is taped in New York, while ''Battle of the Masters'' took place in Los Angeles at Los Angeles Center Studios. Because of his other interests, Puck was forced to decline to appear in the regular series, and Morimoto took his place. Later that season, Cat Cora debuted as an Iron Chef during "Battle Potato", becoming the first female chef to hold the rank.

The second season of ''Iron Chef America'' began airing in July 2005. This season saw its first and second ties on the American show: the first aired on July 31, 2005, with both challenger and Iron Chef receiving 45 points. In this case, unlike ''Iron Chef'', there is no overtime, although a rematch was suggested by Alton Brown. The third such tied result occurred in Season Three, when [[Susur Lee]] challenged Bobby Flay in Battle Bacon.

Starting November 2006, Australia's [[Special Broadcasting Service|SBS]], the domestic rights holder to the original ''Iron Chef'' program, started airing ''Iron Chef America: The Battle Of The Masters'', replacing the original Japanese incarnation of the program. On December 9, Season 1 of ''Iron Chef America'' began airing. The show was scheduled to run until February 17, 2007, but due to viewer feedback, SBS ended broadcast of ''Iron Chef America'' three weeks early and resumed showing the original ''Iron Chef'' on February 3, 2007.

Starting in Season 8, Mario Batali was dropped from the show's opening sequence, though he continued to appear in on-air promos for the show. Despite his appearance during the special battle in which he was teamed up with [[Emeril Lagasse]] against Flay and [[White House]] Chef [[Cristeta Comerford]], for a time it was not clear if he would return to compete in ''Iron Chef America'' on a regular basis.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}} In a July 2010 interview with Slashfood's [[Allen Salkin]], Batali explained that his absence from the series was due to travel conflicts with the show's summer shooting schedule and expressed a desire to appear in 2 to 3 battles for Season 9.<ref name="Batali's Humble Dream - Behind the Apron (July 29, 2010)">{{cite web |url=http://www.slashfood.com/2010/07/29/batalis-humble-dream-behind-the-apron |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100731061557/http://www.slashfood.com/2010/07/29/batalis-humble-dream-behind-the-apron/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 31, 2010 |title=Batali's Humble Dream - Behind the Apron |date=July 29, 2010 |first=Allen |last=Salkin |author-link=Allen Salkin |access-date=30 October 2010 }}</ref> However, in a May 2012 interview with ''[[The Atlantic]]'', Batali later explained that he resented the decision to move away from serious food critics to "skinny little actresses" and other personalities he felt weren't credible enough to judge his cuisine.<ref>"Mario Batali on 'Sadistic' TV and Martha Stewart on Raising Chickens", The Atlantic, May 25, 2012 {{cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/05/mario-batali-on/257715/|title=Mario Batali on 'Sadistic' TV and Martha Stewart on Raising Chickens
|date=May 25, 2013|first=Corby |last=Kummer |website=[[The Atlantic]]
|author-link=Corby Kummer|access-date=7 June 2013}}</ref>

After the 2014 season, the show was put on temporary hiatus, but on July 25, 2017, Alton Brown tweeted and Food Network announced that Iron Chef America would be returning in last quarter of 2017 as "Iron Chef Showdown".<ref name="foodnetwork.com">{{cite web|url=http://blog.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/2017/07/iron-chef-showdown/|title=Get Ready to Go Back to Kitchen Stadium for All-New Series Iron Chef Showdown|website=foodnetwork.com|access-date=25 March 2018}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{cite tweet|user=altonbrown|first=Alton|last=Brown|number=889862848603578371|date=25 July 2017|title=Introducing... #IronChefShowdown on @foodnetwork.}}</ref>