Iron Chef Episode

The Iron Chef was the most extravagant Japanese cooking show in the nineties when the country’s economy was booming. In one episode the cost of food alone could go as high as US$7,115,520. The TV show was so successful that it lasted nearly 7 years and continued to influence all the food shows in the world until this day.

All the best chefs in the world, including Alain Passard and Pierre Gagnaire were lured into competing with the Japanese Iron Chefs every week. The show invited me as the guest judge because of my knowledge of food. I said “yes", only if I could say what I want. The other judges were polite but not me. So the Japanese gave me a nickname, “Karakuchi" which means chilli mouth.

When the Best Iron Chef, Michiba Rokusaburo presented me with a dish of lobster, I said to him, “Take it away, it’s too tough."

He bowed deeply and accepted the comment by replying, “Yes, I overcooked it."

The audience cheered, for they were getting tired of politeness and they loved me.

I was asked to return many times. During the show, I noticed the verdict was not always fair.

There were three judges, two of them were Japanese. They always sided with the TV station. They felt if their own Iron Chefs lost too often, they would lose face. So the two Japanese judges gave higher marks to the Iron Chefs to make sure they won instead of the challenger.

This annoyed me, so I cooked up a scheme to counter it.

The full mark was 10. The two Japanese judges, being polite in their nature, would give the Iron Chef 8 and the challenger 5 or 6. If the challenger was a better cook, I would give him 10 and the Iron Chef 0. It balanced the winning points in favour of the challenger whom I liked. This happened a few times. The TV station got smart and increased the number of judges to four or even five. I lost interest and never appeared on the show again.

Well, the guest appearances as a judge opened doors for me to the best restaurants in Japan. Even Nobu treated me as a VIP when I walked into his TriBeCa restaurant. Years later, I retired from movie making and led groups of top gourmets to eat around the world. I managed to get reservations at the finest restaurants in Japan.

Another funny thing happened not too long ago. I received a big sum of money as royalties for image rights.

A Pachinko machine maker used content from the ‘Iron Chef’ to create a game. They made it very difficult for the iron balls to enter the “Karakuchi" hole!