Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as the show, but interesting
Review: This book is good to have some understanding on the Iron Chef show. I wish there was more interviews with the Iron Chefs and the supporting cast. Some things like the listing of all the battles, could have at least included who won the battle. It's not a real "reading" book, it's more of a skimmer book to pick up and glance. I finished it in a few hours, it gave me some insight I didn't know about the show, but still don't know why Italian Kobe gets separate intros than the rest.
Rating: 
Summary: Allez Cuisine...?
Review: This book is really, a very good book. It is translated straight from the Japanese version, and includes a lot of important things in it, but as a die-hard Iron Chef fan, I'd like to see more.
The interviews (one on each chef) and statistics are good, but I'd like to see more of those. I'd like information on a lot of the battles besides just who competes and what the theme is. I'd like to know who won each as well as highlights and commentary on a lot of the important battles. I'd also like more of an in-depth timeline as well as details on a lot of the intricate rules for basic and special matches.
Overall though, this book is very good. It gives a lot about the background of the show, but not as much on the events that took place.
Finally, I'd like an index in this. It'd make finding a challenge or theme ingredient a lot easier.
Rating: 
Summary: Iron Chef Mediocre!
Review: This book was a total dissapointment. It was vaguely written as if they rushed to have something in print just to please the popularity of the Iron Chef. Be real people, the book was searching for anecdotes, words and topics, yet I do not understand how it never thoroughly explained Kaga's "real" involvement with the "Academy." Maybe they wanted to leave out the fact that it is NOT Kaga who chooses the Iron Chefs, that it is NOT Kaga who created this "giant arena", that is NOT Kaga who spent "his fortunes" to have such an army of iron chefs, that it is NOT Kaga who chooses the theme ingredient, that is not Kaga who chose the Iron Chef's outfits, etc, etc, etc. The whole show was created by executives of Fuji TV. Kaga is a celebrity-for-hire gun and that's it! Don't get me wrong, I love to watch the Iron Chef and love what Kaga brings to the show, but to write a book and leave interesting facts off is absurd. What would you rather read, Kaga's perspective on the Iron Chefs or Otah stating that the Canadian who dubs his voice for the American audience is as fat as him and that if anybody has any inquiries about future "broadcasting" jobs, to contact his agency. Unbelievable! One last thing, please, if you are going to print a book, have a little consitency with the wording; maybe the editors are big fans of Morimoto and have carried his "fusion" technique into the book. I now have my culinary lingo of French, English and Japanese all [messed] up. Anyway, I don't want to dwell on the spelling mistakes on the Glosary of Culinary Terms, because I might come accross as a bitter person. The honest truth is that I love the Iron Chefs, but the book [was not very good]. And please, why on earth would you dedicate a chapter on the NY battle with Bobby Flay? That clown does not have 1/16 of culinary knowledge of any of the IC.
Rating:
Summary: good comprehensive overview of the series
Review: This is a rather nice little collector's item for fans of the show and even those who are just simply curious about its hype. It provides a fairly informative history of the show, nice illustrations throughout, recipes, "battle" ratings, and even restaurant location and information for selected chefs on the show.
The best sections were the personal interviews from various contributors to the show.
Rating: 
Summary: Everything you ever needed to know about Iron Chef
Review: This is THE book. Like, wow. Not a cookbook (tho there are a few recipes), this is a fan's book par excellence. PACKED full of photos, records of every battle, profiles of the chefs and the challengers. Just great...and so inexpensive. Love it.
Rating:
Summary: For fanatics only!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: For fanatics only!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Battle Book Review
Review: While recovering from knee surgery back in 1997, I stumbled across Iron Chef while channel surfing. It quickly became a Saturday night ritual, English subtitles and all. Words were hard to choose when trying to describe the show to friends, even friends that were foodies and understood the restaurant business. It was truly one of those things that you had to see in order to understand. Then -- horrors -- tragedy struck and the English subtitles were no more. Interestingly enough, the hard core fans in San Francisco stuck it out and kept watching. True the battles were a little harder to understand and the Iron Chef e-mail list was usually abuzz the next day with the language challenged trying to figure out the nuances. But the show still worked, it still had charm, it still had drama, it still had charisma, it was still high camp.........basically it was still FUN. And that is more or less what the book is. The book is FUN. It will never be mistaken for Pulizter quality writing or publishing. This is not the bible of Iron Chef-dom. It's a book about what 7 men, a cast of many and a flashy host with a penchant for Libarace style outer-wear did for 6 years, did well, and how they did it. To approach this book with the reverence and awe reserved for *serious* literature does the book and the concept an injustice. This book does what the show did, it entertains. It's all in there, the info on the chefs (and challengers alike), the list of battles, who won, who the judges were. There is also a very helpful little dictionary of japanese foods and terms. There are comments from all the major players, the ones in front of the camera and those unseen. And, they saved the best for last, the names and locations of not only all the Iron Chefs restaurants, but the restaurants of the challengers who won as well. Definitely a must have for any fan of the show who can (or someday might) travel to Japan. The recipes are not the ones I would have chosen, but everyone's an expert on food, so tastes and expectations will differ with this section. I wish there had been more on Kaga. And, the restaurant information on Ron Siegel - the only American Challenger to have beaten an Iron Chef - is not longer correct. He has left Charles Nob Hill and is now cheffing at Masa's in San Francisco. Whip up a plate of Shrimps in Spicy Sauce, pour a beer, pop an Iron Chef tape in the VCR, sit back, open the book and let yourself be entertained.
Rating:
Summary: Just plain fun
Review: Who knew that a simple but different cookign show could lead to such a phenomenon? At first glance, this book seems to be catered only to the fanatic, with battle by battle listings, and restaurant information on some of the chefs. But it is so much more - maybe not quite a mean, but much more than a hors d'oeuvre for the reader. By the time Iron Chef arrived on our shores, it was already a phenomenon in Japan, so we missed a lot of the start. But this gives us a chance to look into the making of a cult hit, from getting chefs to appear on the show initially, to the genesis of food rising through the floor. And for those of us who (through uncaring cable companies) came to the show late, an introduction to the original chefs who existed in the infamy of the show's legend. One nice thing is that the book, while analyzing the win/loss ratio and stats for each chef, it does not list the victors in the battles, only the contestants, the secret ingredient and the judges. The outcome is left to us to find out, which is good since the Food Network is about to start running "new" shows unseen in the US. With William Shatner poised to do a domestic version of this show, it is wonderful to have the chance to get more aquatinted with the (probably far superior) original. Allez cuisine!
Rating:
Summary: Allez cuisine!
Review: Yeah, I'm one of those Iron Chef fanatics. Glued to the TV when it's on, and a little out there in my own kitchen when it's not. As such, this is a great book. No spoilers in the episode listings (though sometimes I almost wish there were. . .), a few utterly random recipes, and some great background information and musings from Hattori, Fukui-san, and (duh) all seven of the Iron Chefs. Through it all, the culture gap seems to shine through in the translation, but if it didn't, I don't think it would work out right. A great companion piece to a show that is utterly addictive and just as wild as Chairman Kaga's outfits.
|
