_Iron Chef_ -- Search and Destroy

very weird to think the og iron chefs were pretty young at the time of filming, watching the show they come across as these timeless ancients, wizened wizards summoned from a stone tablet by the chairman minutes before the cameras start rolling

chen was always my favorite, very zen, more bemused than competitive and yet still intimidating somehow

Sakai was my favorite to watch, but Chen's dishes were always the one I wanted to eat.

rip iron chef Chen Kenichi

elvis otm. sakai and morimoto, legends of kitchen stadium, but Kenichi was reliable and a formidable chef. he gave me a lot of joy just to watch him do his thing

Morimoto bored me, give me Michiba any day. But Chen felt like the soul of the program, I loved his good humour and casual focus. So hard to beat.

just watched a couple of Chen challenges from the late 90s, what a guy

Jeez, in checking on the other chefs, hadn't realized Kobe aka Iron Chef Italian had died back in 2019 from a fall in one of his restaurants. That sucks!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masahiko_Kobe

(All the other chefs are still with us.)

Apparently, fearsome judge Kishi Asako passed in 2015.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asako_Kishi

Oh man, she was amazing.

Chairman Kaga still showing you how to live

https://www.office-k3.com/kagaplus/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/IMG_8800_.jpg

Shifting from Liberace to Bilbo Baggins without missing a beat.

Hey this is cool -- Sakai and Chen back in 2010 talking about the show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC2gigq5JJ4

Also, this is a supercut of dreams:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRmMqjZQR-4

And finally for now at least, the introduction of Kobe as Iron Chef Italian -- theme song missing because of that little copyright issue but otherwise as god intended, in the original Japanese with subtitles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7DQRhVi54w