Allez Cuisine: A Complete Look at 'Iron Chef' Quiz

Answer: False

In the show's first year, challengers would face each other in a preliminary battle themed around a dish, such as gyoza or gazpacho, and the judges would decide which chef did the best rendition. The winner of the bout won the right to challenge any one of the Iron Chefs in a 90 minute battle. If they won against an Iron Chef twice, the title of Honorary Iron Chef would be rewarded to the challenger.

The lengthy time, the preliminary battle and the fact that beating an Iron Chef twice was a rare feat, proved unpopular with viewers of the show, so by the end of season 1, the rules were scrapped, and battles were shortened to 60 minutes. Also changed was the number of judges, starting out at 3, they were increased to 4 and in the case of a tie, would go into a 30 minute overtime battle with a new theme ingredient. The term of Honorary Iron Chef was then given to Iron Chefs retired from competition.

The rule of serving the first dish in 20 minutes came from 'Iron Chef America', introduced in season 11.

Answer: Yutaka Ishinabe

Yutaka Ishinabe began as the original Iron Chef French, nicknamed 'The Artist' for his creative ways with handling ingredients. He participated in only 8 battles, and won 7 of them. For worldwide viewers, he was only featured in 1 episode of the dubbed series, ironically it was his only loss to native French chef Jacques Borie.

He retired after this loss, mostly due to the show's stressful nature and his feeling that he was unable to reach the high standard to his dishes with the lack of time.

Hiromi Yamada was a challenger specializing in Italian cuisine, whilst Jun Kurogi and Yosuke Suga are the current Iron Chef Japanese and French respectively in the 2012 revival of 'Iron Chef'.

Answer: Foie gras

An awful set of circumstances, a French chef, Yôsei Kobayakawa, decided to challenge Michiba with foie gras as the theme ingredient of the day. Despite being extremely favourable to the challenger, Michiba took it to stride and with a stroke of his brush, created a menu where Japanese cuisine fully accepted foie gras.

In one dish, Chef Michiba used foie gras in a salad with raw flatfish and a citrus sauce. Taking the cue from anglerfish liver, he used foie gras and paired with a ponzu citrus sauce to balance out the fatty nature of the theme ingredient. The dish wowed the judges, and Chairman Kaga considered this dish as one of the best he's ever had.

Michiba would amass 33 wins with only 5 losses and 1 draw.

Answer: A cleaver

Like any Chinese chef, he wielded a cleaver upon his entrance to Kitchen Stadium. The son of the 'God of Szechuan Cooking' Chen Kenmin, Chen Kenichi had the longest career in 'Iron Chef' history, starting from day 1 all the way to the end of the series, racking up 66 wins, 24 losses and 3 ties in his time of competition.

Answer: The Delacroix of French Cuisine

Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic movement artist. Sakai, being born with artistic talent, had some of the most intricate plating designs ever on the show. Iron Chef Sakai often employed ring molds to give his dishes definition in the finished look.

When he took over Chef Ishinabe, Sakai believed he was only going to stay on for 6 months tops. He never imagined that he would keep his position for 6 years, racking up the highest number of wins with 70 wins and only 15 losses with 1 draw.

Answer: True

Iron Chef Kobe would run like the wind to the ingredient stand, quicker than any of the other Iron Chefs and his challengers. The reason behind it was due to his debut battle, where he lost in the theme of short-form pasta! He stated that time mismanagement contributed to his poor performance. From that point on, he would run with amazing speed to the stand to save precious time for plating or making adjustments to his dishes.

Before joining the show, Masahiko Kobe was attached to the Italian restaurant Enoteca Pinchiorri. When he was called up, he believed he was only going to be a challenger, but days before leaving Italy for Japan, he got the shock that he was joining ranks as an Iron Chef at the age of 26. His record was 16 wins, 7 losses and 1 draw.

Answer: Koumei Nakamura

Initially rejecting the offer, Nakamura entered Kitchen Stadium with big shoes to fill as Michiba's hand-picked replacement. Chairman Kaga, in a somewhat selfish request, asked for a French chef to take on Nakamura in his debut, saying that he couldn't resist wanting to relive the magic of Michiba's debut battle with foie gras. The Chairman got what he asked for, and magic was made yet again with Nakamura when he won in outstanding fashion.

Toshiro Kandagawa was a regular challenger who often employed chefs under his wing as his 'hitmen' against the Iron Chefs. Shinichiro Ohta was the floor reporter who covered the action. Koji Kobayashi was a challenger who worked as a delivery truck driver, due to his stubborn belief that no restaurant in Japan could match his hard-earned Italian caliber. Chef Kobayashi would defeat Chen Kenichi in the pumpkin battle.

Answer: He is the only Iron Chef to have had a no contest.

The only no contest occurred during the potato battle, when both the dishes of challenger Yoshinori Kojima and Iron Chef Nakamura were criticized by the judges to the point that Chairman Kaga demanded both men to do a rematch. While Nakamura won the rematch, it was an embarrassing setback which didn't bode well for Nakamura. In his tenure as Iron Chef he had the worst win/loss percentage in history, with the pressure of living up to Michiba's form and the executives of the Nadaman watching his moves.

After two straight losses, Nakamura would put it all on the line in a battle against the show's greatest rival, the 'Don of the Kansai' Toshiro Kandagawa, saying that if he lost, he would retire as Iron Chef. His fate was sealed when the judges gave the win to Kandagawa. His total record was 22 wins, 11 losses, 1 tie and the aforementioned 1 no contest.

Despite his sub-par track record, Nakamura would do extremely well in special battles, winning many of them, including a win over Michiba in a 100 minute Osechi battle, and a memorable tie result against French chef Alain Passard in the 'Iron Chef World Cup' with foie gras as theme ingredient.

Answer: Nobu, New York

Nobu in New York was partly owned by actor Robert De Niro, and Morimoto was head chef during his tenure. As the leader of 'Neo-Japanese' cuisine, he pushed the boundaries of tradition with a powerful imagination, often using ideas from America to make his dishes truly unique, or in some cases, irk the traditional chefs.

His appointment as Iron Chef drew a lot of ire from traditional Japanese chefs, who felt Morimoto didn't represent what Japanese food was all about. This led to a massive feud with chef Tadamichi Ota and the Ota Faction, a large group of chefs who oppose Morimoto and the 'Neo-Japanese' movement.

Iron Chef Morimoto had a record of 17 wins, 8 losses and 1 draw.

Answer: True

In his first battle, a gentleman's agreement was made between Hattori and Chairman Kaga, stating that if he could beat an Iron Chef, he would be standing up there as one of the gladiators of Kitchen Stadium. To add to the pressure, Chairman Kaga invited French chef Joel Robuchon as guest of honour and judge. Hattori did his best facing against Iron Chef Michiba with truffles as theme ingredient, but faced humiliation with a sake and soft roe with truffles starter that didn't go so well for Chef Robuchon.

His second battle was against Iron Chef Koumei Nakamura. This was Nakamura's retirement battle, and Hattori challenged him to avenge his family in a centuries-long feud against the Nadaman, with maguro tuna at their disposal. Iron Chef Nakamura would taste victory in this battle.

Answer: Cabbage

Hiromi Yamada had a life of triumphs and trials. In the 80s, Yamada had a promising career, revolutionizing artistic plating design and his innovation of cold pasta dishes brought him to the spotlight, he lived a lavish lifestyle with fame from the media and the culinary world.

However, tragedy struck in 1991, when he crashed his car while speeding, and killed a friend and a pedestrian. He sold his $2 million home, but struggled to pay his debts, and disappeared from the spotlight. Wanting to help kickstart a comeback for him, Chairman Kaga 'dragged' him to showcase that he's still a skilled professional, and that the focus should be on his talent, not the scandal. He won the battle with a strong set of cabbage dishes.

Yamada would come back to face off again in the 2012 revival series, this time against the new Iron Chef Chinese Yuji Wakiya, with the theme of cabbage once again.

Answer: Asako Kishi

According to the '2000th Dish Special', Asako Kishi tasted over 1300+ dishes in her career, with only Chairman Kaga exceeding her. One of the toughest critics to impress, she would give somewhat frank comments about taste and balance, and hardly gave a full score to any chef. Sadly, she passed away on September 22, 2015, exactly 2 months before her 82nd birthday.

Shinichiro Kurimoto was a politician of the Lower House, who served as regular judge and tasted over 800 dishes on the show. Akebono is a former sumo Yokozuna who appeared for special battles as judge, and Kazuko Hosoki was a fortune teller who also sat at the 4th chair, and was even more critical than Kishi-san at times.

Answer: Ron Siegel

Recommended by ex-mayor Willie Brown, Ron Siegel flew from San Francisco to Tokyo to do battle with Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai. He faced the pressures of the time limit, and the language barrier with his assistants despite the major advantage of theme ingredient, lobster! Sakai had two previous losses in lobster battles, and was also under pressure of his own. It would be Ron who pulled off an amazing victory over Sakai, impressing the judges with his powerful sauces and beautiful presentation, the first American chef to win on the show.

Gillian Hirst was an Australian chef who took on Koumei Nakamura in battle ostrich, and lost in a tight fight. Bruno Menard was a native French chef who lost to Sakai in an escargot battle, while Spano Stelvio was a native Italian chef who battled and lost to Chen Kenichi in the piglet battle, the only battle boycotted by Chairman Kaga due to the Iron Chefs poor win-loss record at that time.

Answer: Yoghurt

Of all the things to use, it was yoghurt that tested both chefs, especially Chen Kenichi, who was beyond perplexed upon seeing the ingredient. While Chef Itoh was confident in his approach, Iron Chef Chen on the other hand was confused and unsure, but took it to stride with dishes including cold handmade bell pepper noodles with a spicy yoghurt sauce, deep fried crab fu young, and a Mongolian style shark's fin stew.

The judges were impressed by Chen, and gave him a shocking victory, so shocking even he wasn't expecting it. Kishi-san gave her comments on the loss, stating that Chef Itoh may have focused too much on using yoghurt as a sauce, but was still impressed by his cool form in Kitchen Stadium.

Answer: Lobster

It was lobster, and for many, it seemed to spell doom for Sakai, having lost three previous lobster battles and to Chen in a 'Mr. Iron Chef' competition. But the ingredient brought the best out of both combatants when Sakai made an amazing hot stone steamed lobster, where he heated up stones and poured them in a steaming poissonniere full of lobsters, kelp and broth that sizzled wildly.

It was Hiroyuki Sakai who grabbed a well deserved victory, and tearfully embraced his friend Chen Kenichi in celebration, but it wasn't over just yet...

His coronation as 'King of Iron Chefs' included one final bout, against French master chef Alain Passard, who was tied in his 'World Cup' battle against Iron Chef Japanese Koumei Nakamura. With the theme of Longang chicken, the 'best poultry in the world', the chefs battled their best to close Kitchen Stadium with a bang. It would be Hiroyuki Sakai who tasted victory over Passard.