Iron Chef: The Official Book (Hardcover)

~ Kaoru Hoketsu (Author), Fuji Television (Translator), Kabushiki (Author) "THE NEW YORK BATTLE: FOR better of worse, it was the event that brought Iron Chef to the attention of America..." (more)
Key Phrases: executive head chef, katsuo dashi, theme ingredient, Asako Kishi, Mayuko Takada, Tenmei Kanou (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"All chefs are equal in the eyes of an ingredient." So challenges Fuji Television's heart-palpitating Iron Chef: The Official Book, translated by Kaoru Hoketsu. In his foreword, Gourmet Academy chairman Takeshi Kaga remembers the early days of the competition: "Battles were fought and gourmet dishes created." Readers must hold on to their saliva glands, as they are whisked through "exclusive stories and recipes behind meals never before attempted, meals filled with lobster, foie gras, truffles, and other delicacies." The book reveals the show's apparatuses with the breathtaking hype familiar to its television audience, via "The Rules of the Game," Iron Chef interviews and profiles, "Testimony of the Cast and Staff" and various "Prestige Menu[s]." Nearly a household name, the Iron Chef will please legions of fans with this volume.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Although the Japanese build many of America's television sets, Japan has contributed little to television programming beyond Godzilla and Saturday morning cartoons. So who would have suspected that they'd take the U.S. by storm with their hit cable cooking show, Iron Chef? Speaking the international language of good eating and using over-the-top showmanship, the culturally revealing show has attracted an ardent following. Fans of the Food Network's series will revel in Iron Chef: The Official Book , jam-packed with chronologies and other tidbits about this hour-long video extravaganza that mixes cooking shows, sports, game shows, and plenty of showbiz pyrotechnics. The book documents the show's genesis from an idea of Takeshi Kaga, the spectacularly coifed chairman of the Gourmet Academy. Diehard fans who follow the art and the antics of these gifted chefs will create plenty of demand for this exhaustively detailed guide to the show. Recipes are for experts only, but those who want to eat the Iron Chefs' creations may use the book's inventory of the worldwide restaurants where iron chefs cook for the public. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover (May 8, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425180883
• ISBN-13: 978-0425180884
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #882,147 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For fanatics only!, March 2, 2003

By	therosen "therosen" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This is the definitive work on the Iron Chef television program. It is deep in detail for those fanatics looking for those extra insider tidbits on the program. The book brings out the trials and tribulations of the Chefs as they fought to stay on top. It also contains a deep mathematical analysis of the Iron Chefs that can only be appreciated by the true believers. The camp seriousness that pervades the show appears in the book as well.

If you care about knowing why Chairman Kaga's voice was subtitled, while everyone else was dubbed, this is the book for you.

If you want to know which Iron Chef talked Chen Kinichi out of walking away from the show, this book is for you.

If you're an Iron Chef fanatic, this book is for you.

If you're an aspiring chef or casual viewer, this probably isn't the right book for you.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars My guilty pleasure, September 6, 2001

By	P. Wung "Engineering is my vocation, volleyba... (Tipp City, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I started watching the Iron Chef show as a lark. I thought it was fun and funny. Very cheesy and very funny. The whispered notes of disbelief, the cries of : "very sophisticated", "very well controled", "this is so good" really got me to giggle about the silliness. This book prolongs and deepens all the silliness. It is written as a serious review of all the shows in the series, with features on certain challengers deemed worthy by the author and of course all the Iron Chefs. It kind of walks the fine line between treating the show as reality and as a farce. Regardless of how you feel about the show, the book is superficially fascinating. I would never have thought that I would be the owner of a book on a TV show, a Japanese TV show featuring Chefs as gladiators and a comically dressed emcee who looks like he was dress by a crazed Andrew Lloyd Webber. I love the show, I never miss a new episode, I even sit through some of the old ones I have already seen. I like this book. I wouldn't feature it prominently on my bookshelf. I would, however, stealthily break it out whenever anyone speaks fondly of the show. Then I can share my guilty pleasure.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top entertainment, ok book, October 25, 2006

By	Pei Kang "Author of Legacy of Fire and Wind: ... (NYC, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Iron Chef: The Official Book (Paperback)

Iron Chef is the most ingenious TV show ever created, well, the REAL original IC show, at any rate.

The over-the top cheesy quality, the bad-English dubbing, the dumb air-head actresses(who sometimes come up with surprising smart comments); the exotic ingredients, and of course--the challenges. The stuff that no normal person would ever cook, or dream of touching on his dinner plate.
The combination of sports arena quality and the sideshow of Prices Right, equals=valuable hours of your life spent on watching TV!

the book is very in depth, though not quite a "cook" book, the only true thing it lacks it the statistical point. Who won the battles, etc.

I am very disappointed in Food Network for not continuing to buy more Iron Chef shows and or continuing to show the reruns; and not to make them into DVDs....instead they're being despots and forcing us to watch that horrible horrible horrible mutant child that came out of that so called "chef".
Yet again, an original anime/comedy/whatever show is ruined...just like how they mangled Godzilla. the "Other Thing" show lacks the corny flavor, the second commentator (Fuki-San was awesome), the REAL chairman, a REAL Chef, REAL ingredients; Fun challengers, (ok, Ming Tsai was funny, but that's it);my respect for Ming grew after watching that only good episode...he was funny, relaxed, self-assured and he kicked Flay's butt!!
awful musical score (sure the soundtrack of the ONLY incarnation of IC was from.....movie, Backdraft), pathetic judges (they ALL annoy me, for some reason).

watching the "OTher Thing" gives me a stomach ache, a headache....and I keep rambling.

SCOUR THE EARTH for lost videos/tapes/bootlegs of the ONLY IRON CHEF. If you're a true fan, don't even bother watching "Other Thing".

"If my memory serves me correctly....this book will give me recollections of funny and good times."

+150 on the Wow meter for the show, 6+ for the book;
-100 on the Puke-O-Meter for "the Other Thing"