The Next Iron Chef, Season 2
By: Catherine Verdico |
Monday September 21, 2009 |
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2nd Season premiers October 4th |
| Let the games begin! In the highly addicting world of culinary competition television shows, Food Network presents its second season of The Next Iron Chef, which premieres October 4th at 9/8c. In it, 10 world – class chefs battle it out to become the next Iron Chef. If you’ve been living under a very large rock since the mid – nineties and are unfamiliar with the amazingness that is Iron Chef, let me take you to school for a minute. The original Iron Chef ran from 1993 – 1999. The format of the show went a little something like this; in each episode, guest chefs would choose to “battle” one chef from a panel of rock star Iron Chefs. They would then have one hour to cook a multi – course meal with a secret ingredient that was usually something us Americans have never even heard of. This was the “straight out of Japan” version, bad voice – overs and all. The original Iron Chef was awesome and hilarious, in large part due to the incredibly flamboyant host who looked like a Japanese Michael Jackson. I remember watching it pretty religiously in grade school and being endlessly entertained by the fact that the English voices that were used to translate for the chefs, judges, etc, were so far off from what that person probably sounded like. For instance, you have this big, burly, macho – man chef with his voice being translated by means of a 13 – year – old girl. It’s pretty spectacular. I also loved the commentator whose translated English voice sounded like Speed Racer. You keep waiting for him to finish each sentence with “HA HA!” Actually…I think he did. Hmmm… So then, in 2005, Food Network had at the Iron Chef franchise again with Iron Chef America. Same idea, just Americanized. And not as funny. This version’s panel of Iron Chefs included very well – known names like Bobby Flay, Mario Batali and Cat Cora.  With the success of Iron Chef America, it seems the next obvious step was, of course, turn it into a reality TV show! The whole purpose of this new show would be a Top Chef – like cooking show with the prize being a spot on the coveted Iron Chef panel on Iron Chef America. That’s a pretty cool prize, actually. How’d you like to tell people you’re an Iron Chef?! Sticking with the Iron Chef tradition, The Next Iron Chef is hosted by Mark Dacascos, who also hosts Iron Chef America, and is a very animated little man. So much so that he gets his own sound effects. I’m not kidding. Every time he whips his head around there’s a very cartoony “Whoosh”. It’s pretty funny and a nice homage to Japanese Anime. I love how, whenever there is a panel of judges on a reality show, it has become the “norm” to have a Simon, Paula and a Randy. These are, of course, the famed American Idol judges, known for their distinct characters. (Simon the jerk, Paula, who’s always nice and sometimes medicated, and Randy, who just says “dawg” a lot.) The three judges for The Next Iron Chef are all food experts in some way. Anya Fernald (aka Randy Jackson), is a chef and food advocate and educator. Ok, so she doesn’t say “dawg”, but she’s usually pretty nice. Donatella Arpaia (aka Paula Abdul) is an accomplished restaurateur from New York. I call her Paula because, well, she looks like her and starts fights with the crotchety old – man judge. Jeffrey Steingarten is that crotchety old man and a renowned food critic. Hey, every show needs a pretentious, know – it all judge, right? It makes for good TV. Well, that’s debatable.  Now, I love reality cooking shows. I watch Chopped. I’ve seen The Next Food Network Star. And I bow down to the mother of all reality cooking shows, Top Chef. That brings me to my one big problem with The Next Iron Chef. It’s a total, unapologetic rip – off of Top Chef. I mean, I guess, how many ways can you do a reality cooking show? I get it, but come up with something a little different. The format is exactly like Top Chef. First, the contestants do a quick 30 –ish minute challenge, then a longer challenge that gets judged and sends someone home. Something else kind of random popped into my head as I was watching the first episode… you know how, with reality shows, within that first episode, there are people you instantly like and instantly hate…or love to hate? With The Next Iron Chef, I really didn’t get a feel for any of the contestants. I was actually kind of put off by most of them. It seemed like many of them were trying the play the “love to hate ‘em” type. It’s still an absolutely addicting show, very entertaining, especially if you love cooking. A little theatrical at times, but hey, it’s a total guilty pleasure show. If nothing else, watch it for the amazing head – whoosh sound effects of Mark Dacascos. |
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