When it comes to real life, there are many passions that drive someone. For some, it could be the drive to become a doctor to save lives. For others, a comic book creator who strives to create stories for their audience. But when it comes to the food world, it is the chefs where the manipulation of food is their passion. When it comes to the best of the best, look no further than the Iron Chef who is capable of creating dishes never before seen. With the theme changing constantly, these Iron Chefs have either won or lost on battles against the best.
However, there might be those that aren't familiar with the original holders of the Iron Chef title or are more familiar with its younger American brother series that was popularized on the Food Network after the smashing success of the original show. Here are the Iron Chefs, their cuisines, and their best battles in Iron Chef Japan.
7 Chen Kenichi
Chen Kenichi is the son of the Father Of Sichuan cooking, Chen Kenmin. He is the nicknamed The Szechuan Sage and is heavily regarded as Iron Chef Chinese. Being the longest-running member within the Iron Chefs, he is known for his incredible creativity when it comes to Chinese cooking. Seeming prevailing with ingredients that seemingly don't appear that often.
There are many notable matches that the Iron Chef has faced over the years, but none were as memorable as Chen Kenichi versus Dominque Corby. A beautiful match that resulted in two ties. Another memorable match was between Chen Kenichi and Junichi Itoh where he had to use an ingredient never used in Chinese cooking, yogurt.
6 Yutaka Ishinabe
Yutaka Ishinabe is the first French Iron Chef to appear in the show. The chef had only eight matches in total, but all of them were a spectacular showcase of his skillset and made him into one of the most memorable and entertaining contestants throughout the series.
He is notably referred to as "The Artist" thanks to being incredibly creative with his approach with virtually all of his dishes. His most memorable battle was against Jacques Borie. Ironically, it is also the only match where he has lost.
5 Masaharu Morimoto
Masaharu Morimoto is the third Iron Chef Japanese who took over the mantle one week following Kobe's departure. His style is best known for its usage of Japanese fusion, combining the qualities of cuisines that he has been exposed to as well as his presentation.
His most memorable battles include Keiji Nakazawa, Bobby Flay and being a target from Ohta faction of Japanese chefs.
4 Masahiko Kobe
The only Iron Chef Italian in the entire show, Masahiko Kobe was introduced four years into the run of the show. As a result, he has the least experience out of all of the Iron Chefs.
However, his cuisine is paramount, as he is known as the "Prince Of Pasta." Nonetheless he lost his opening battle, ironically with the theme of pasta. His most memorable battle was against the Serie A group of Italian chefs.
3 Koumei Nakamura
Koumei Nakamura was the second Iron Chef Japanese and also arguably the most tragic. When he first started, he was often compared to Iron Chef Michiba and took his win/loss ratio the most seriously.
Unlike his predecessor and successor, Koumei Nakamura was the most traditional Japanese chef. His most notable fights included his last battle in the show Toshiro Kandagawa, and the egg battle where he fought in Chef Morimoto's one year anniversary in the egg battle.
2 Hiroyuki Sakai
He is the Iron Chef that took over the mantle of Yutaka Ishinabe and has the third-highest track record of win/loss. He is known for his impressive presentation regarding his food, while also being dangerous when it comes to his seafood dishes, garnering the nickname of "Seafood Sakai" by many fans.
His impressive French cuisine allowed him to garner numerous victories throughout his appearances on the series, which included his fellow Iron Chefs such as Chen Kenichi. Alongside Chen Kenichi, his other notable matches included Rory Kennedy, Club Mistral, Toshiro Kandagawa and Alain Passard.
1 Rokusaburo Michiba
The original Iron Chef Japanese, Rokusaburo Michiba is a legendary chef who was known for his incredibly bold approach to Japanese cooking. Rather than taking a more traditional approach, he didn't hesitate to implement techniques and ideas from outside of his homeland. This has resulted in him having one of the most imaginative approaches to cooking and the biggest respect for many.
However, his approach didn't always sit well with some chefs and these included those that are into traditional forms of Japanese cooking. One of his most notable battles was against Toshiro Kandagawa who is strict with the teachings of Japanese cooking. His tenure as Iron Chef became so legendary that he eventually had an episode dedicated to him.
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October 31, 2020 at 05:30AM
