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#IRON MONEY MAKING TV#

'You have to have certain stuff that the chefs want. 'I think to just say you have no idea what the ingredient is when you come in is impossible, because you have to stock the kitchen,' said Knowlton. Before the show, they're told the secret ingredient could be one of three items. It turns out the chefs do know in advance. Speaking of the 'secret ingredient' - just how secret is it? The chefs always seem so surprised. Some more turkey ice cream! Just had that last night.'' 'When you have battle quail or battle turkey and you see the ice cream flip on,' he said, 'you're like, 'Oh great, here we go again. Knowlton said sometimes he sees the chefs cooking food he'd rather not taste. The judges have their own frustrations, as well. 'I've never cooked a bad meal for them!' he said. Symon said his dream judges would be his mom, dad and grandfather. 'You know, I'd be going 'Woo hoo, go, girl! Those are some nice moves! Hook me up with that bathing suit!' So it's really important that we have culinary people on. 'It's like me trying to judge an Olympic swimming event,' she said. 'You can hit them with a pan later,' she joked.Ĭora says the best judges come from the culinary world, because those who don't are out of their element.

#IRON MONEY MAKING PROFESSIONAL#

Even if you don't agree, you have to be professional about it. There are times when you want to put a chokehold on someone but, you know, you just stand there and take in their feedback and appreciation. It's part of the gig.īut sometimes, Cora said, it's easy to feel frustrated with the judges. 'I feel like really want honesty, and I owe it to them,' Knowlton said. One of the regulars is Andrew Knowlton, a restaurant editor for Bon Appetit magazine. There have been 106 judges over the years. I mean, it is like being on a professional team.'Īnd ultimately, it is a panel of judges that decides their fate. They lose every now and then, but when their season starts looking bad, they worry about being traded. As for the iron chefs, they have got to stay on top, you know. 'You can come in from a restaurant in wherever, you know, Nebraska or something,' Brown said. Symon, Flay, Mario Batali, Morimoto and Cora are household names and stars in the industry. It's theater, and we're here to put on a great show.' How is it cooking on a stage that looks like it's made for Bon Jovi? I think it makes it great fun. 'But you've got all this smoke being brewed in here. 'It is similar to what restaurants do every day of our lives … much quicker, but similar,' he said. The fog makes for dramatic moments but also hides some of the secrets.Ĭhef Michael Symon, the newest Iron Chef, said recently he was filming his ninth one in two and a half weeks. The chefs also get $500 per episode to buy specialty groceries so rare they are impossible to get in the Kitchen Stadium pantry.Īnd just to make it all a little more fun, 150 pounds of dry ice is pumped through the studio all day long. Then there are the deluxe kitchens and the overstuffed pantries stocked with 800 pounds of food for each episode, everything from the basics to the bizarre. There are thousands of feet of cable and 160 moving lights. One hundred and twenty-seven crew members and 10 cameras dodge about in the stadium. It takes an army of people and supplies to get it all just right. This one guy nailed its head to a cutting board and skinned it while it was alive.' I think the first I ever saw an original 'Iron Chef' episode was on a Japanese station in San Francisco, and I remember they had live eels. And the food was just sometimes plain revolting. You know, it had such strange pomp and circumstance.

'The original was more of a 'Godzilla' movie. 'This is, I think, more of an athletic event,' said Alton Brown, 'Iron Chef' master of ceremonies.

The original Kitchen Stadium was in Japan. This degree of culinary competition is not an American invention. Regardless, the chefs must incorporate the theme ingredient into each dish, even the dessert - which explains the corn and sea urchin custard and trout ice cream served during past challenges. Sometimes it's a hearty protein, like fish or Kobe beef, and other times it's a vegetable, or even a root such as ginger. The twist, and there is always a twist, is the secret ingredient, revealed at the start of each battle. What follows is a duel - a race to make five dishes in just one hour. The premise of the show is fairly simple: start with the best chefs, the 'Iron Chefs,' then add a guest chef who challenges one of the regulars. 'Nightline' was allowed behind the scenes to discover the secrets that make 'Iron Chef' so palatable. That irreverant mix has millions of viewers tuning in every week to see elite chefs throw down in Food Network's hallowed cooking ground: Kitchen Stadium.

#IRON MONEY MAKING TV#

July 25, 2008— - 'Iron Chef America,' one of the most popular food shows in history, is part cooking show, part reality TV and part steel cage match.

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