5 Responses

• Couldn’t agree more. I always thought Iron Chef was goofy, but with seriously cool cooking. It looks like Iron Chef America got the formula flipped, creating a seriously uninteresting show with goofy cooking. I’m still keeping my hopes up for something better next week, though.

• I think this offering is much better than the first American pass at Iron Chef, which featured William Shatner as the chairman and Todd English as the featured Iron Chef. His dessert had lit sparklers on it, for god’s sake. Magnesium ash: yummy.
  Mark Dacascos makes for a pretty good chairman, I think — the guy’s a highly accomplished martial artist. Sure, there’s no payoff yet, but the first time they have him punch through a block of ice, you’ll be glad he’s on board.
  I agree that Bobby Flay’s an annoying prima donna, but isn’t loving to hate him part of the appeal? Overall, I was pretty pleased with the new Iron Chef. They’ll never match the pure weirdness of the original, but it was plenty entertaining. And Alton Brown’s commentary was pretty impressive.

• Alton was good, but I wish they had a Fukui-san character as well. There were too many quiet moments on the show–Alton needs someone to talk to!
  The show wasn’t so bad; I’m glad they got rid of Puck and added Morimoto. Jeff Steingarten is a great writer but a pretty annoying commentator–hope not to see much of him either.
  My biggest gripe though? The breakdown of scoring. I can accept that Bayless lost to Flay–but on plating? RRRRGH. I’d like it much better if the score was simply out of 20.

• Mark Dacascos is probably best known as Mani in Brotherhood of the Wolf, the, uh, French kung-fu 18th century horror-mystery movie from last year.

• D.C.’s Donna Enters Kitchen Stadium

  The newest version of the Japanese hit show Iron Chef has received some mixed reviews, but local fans of the show’s American incarnation have special reason to tune in to the Food Network this Sunday at 9 p.m.: D.C.’s own Roberto Donna will take on Iro…