Dr. Yukio Hattori has passed away at 78. Farewell, Doc.

https://digital.asahi.com/articles/ASSB53W2RSB5UTFL008M.html?iref=comtop_7_05

I was speaking to the Sommelier about how I loved watching the show back in the day and he was like “oh he’s here today! let me tell him to take a photo with you!”. I almost cried lol 🥹 Chef Sakai was so cute and kind! I can’t believe he’s 82!!

I found my copy of this book and totally forgot how detailed it is! It looks like it can be found on Ebay for pretty cheap. It's loaded with history, interviews, stats, recipes, etc and I highly recommend it!

I have finally acquired all 9 of the PONY CANYON Iron Chef VHS Tapes. All are in excellent condition and work perfectly. I have already completely digitized one of the tapes, and will be completing all 9. These will be added to the Iron Chef HD Collection on https://archive.org/details/theironchefhdcollection in the future when they are complete.

In the provided images I took of these tapes, I took front and back photos and then I used google translate to make english versions of the images so you can read them.

Importantly, If you look close at the Google Translated image of the Michiba Series 2 tape, on the back it shows the famous 'RICE BATTLE' which will be part of the digitization.

All videos will be recreated remastered and upscaled in HD, including a seperate new HD version of the famous missing Rice Battle. I believe a portion of this battle was provided on here not too long ago but this will have the missing VHS footage (still not 100% complete episode though but very close).

Every Iron Chef fan should be able to watch these tapes as they have been part of Iron Chef history for decades now. I myself have always had the museum mentality: all archival things should be free and accesible to all. I also don't believe in the exclusivity mindset of hey look what I got you cant have it kind of way... its just childish. When they are released on my page on Archive, I will also be providing English Subtitle Translations for every tape so you can enjoy them!

The famous Rice Battle however will be getting a newly translated subbed/dubbed version like the other 3 I have released so far. More to come.

:)

From the Japan Cup Battle (1/2/02). This is the last time the original 7 Iron Chefs would ascend into Kitchen Stadium. The reason why Kaga is not here will not be mention to avoid spoilers (but I think I mentioned it already.) After this battle, Sakai and Morimoto would go to America to start up Iron Chef America. Sakai would make an appearance on Masterchef Australia. Morimoto would be Iron Chef Japanese on Iron Chef America and do a battle on the short lived Iron Chef reboot in Japan in 2012. Chen would do a battle on Iron Chef Thailand later on 2013 before his death in 2023. Kobe would pass away in 2019. Michiba would also do a battle in the short lived Iron Chef reboot in Japan in 2012. I attempted to translate the video but couldn't get it to work due to low audio from my monitor.

The motivation for spending his fortune to create Kitchen Stadium was to encounter new, original cuisines, which could be called true artistic creations.

To realize his dream, he first secretly started selecting the top chefs of various styles of cooking. And he named his men the "Iron Chefs". The invincible men of culinary skills.

Iron Chef Japanese was Rokusaburo Michiba (and later Komei Nakamura, and later Masaharu Morimoto).

Iron Chef French was Yutaka Ishinabe (and later Hiroyuki Sakai).

Iron Chef Chinese was Chen Kenichi.

And Masahiko Kobe was Iron Chef Italian.

The Kitchen Stadium was the arena where Iron Chefs awaited the challenges of master chefs from around the world. Both the Iron Chef and challenger had one hour to tackle the theme ingredient of the day. Using all their senses, skills, and creativity, they were tasked to prepare artistic dishes never tasted before.

And if ever a challenger won over the Iron Chef, he or she gained the people's ovation and fame forever.

But that man (Takeshi Kaga, who, by the way, will be turning 75 on October 12) had even bigger dreams. He was always on a quest to see and experience more from around the world in exotic locales like Paris, Beijing, New York City, Kyoto, and Hong Kong.

Kitchen Stadium was the arena where viewers met the master chefs from around the world, and their artistic creations. In every battle, reputations were on the line, as a challenger brought his or her inspiration, and the Iron Chef formed a way to fight back.

Happy 32nd anniversary to Iron Chef. Thank you for six years and 295 episodes (plus four post-series specials). And yes, to truly immerse myself in the mood, I am actually listening to the music from Backdraft as I am typing this.

https://archive.org/details/theironchefhdcollection

It is with great pleasure that I officially announce the release of the Uncut English USA version of the King of Iron Chefs Tournament (length 2 hours 12 min). The release of this colossal episode marks the official grand finale episode completion of HD Remasters of every single American Syndicated episode of Iron Chef Japan, essentially replacing the Digital Distractions collection that has been floating around the internet these past 25 years. 

Despite this being the final episode of this run, this does not mark the end of new Iron Chef HD episodes to the Iron Chef HD Collection, as there will now be newly translated episodes (previously only available in Japanese) that will continue to be added to the collection over time. Plus, I will complete the specials (Millenium Battle, New York Battle, 21st Century Battle, etc...) remastered in HD and translated as needed. 

I would like to sincerely thank every single devoted Iron Chef fan out there who has helped tremendously with this project over the past year, with so many of you contributing wonderful videos, knowledge, and insight to this project.

About this episode and why it is so special: Originally this episode was translated into English for Food Network but was chopped up into 3 parts (2 parts Lobster battle with Chen versus Sakai and 1 part Chicken battle with Sakai versus Alain Passard). In Japan this episode was a huge single marathon episode that aired in one night on September 24th 1999. There were many parts of this marathon that were cut from the American release including the introduction, small intros to each judge, an intermission between the battles containing Data and Statistics regarding the use of ingredients, food, money, and resources during the show's entire run, the March of The Past Challengers, and finally the long closing / conclusion which showcased a long speech from Hiroyuki Sakai, a closing speech from Chen Kenichi, farewell address from Chairman Kaga, the lowering of the Iron Chefs back into the podium, and the stinger teaser scene at the end teasing the coming of the Millenium Battle. 

The only creative addition that is new to this particular release is the ending credits scene which I created myself and occurs just before the stinger at the end. I felt the show needed a proper and emotional credits send-off to give it the respect it deserved all these years.

This newly released episode contains all deleted scenes remastered in HD, with remastered audio, new English dubbing, remastered music (all original release songs added back in), new subtitles for Chairman Kaga... bringing the episode to a massive length of 2 hours and 12 minutes long... a huge episode to watch. So get your popcorn ready!!

I will post another post to this subreddit that showcases the exact details on how the creation of this newly remastered episode was possible and all software I used to make this happen. 

In the meantime, ENJOY THE REAL GRAND FINALE TO IRON CHEF THE WAY YOU NEVER HAVE BEFORE!!!!

https://archive.org/details/theironchefhdcollection

From Melon Battle (8/22/1997)

He also messes it up on the Tomato Battle (8/18/1995) but recovers from it a bit faster.

From the Milk Battle (8/1/1997). The theme is revealed to be Milk, Kaga then announces a special addition to this battle. Then 2 cows walk in so you can get milk from the source if you choose. Causing surprise, excitement, and especially laughter from Kaga. I would say this is the only time an animal walks into Kitchen Stadium because all of them either ascend or descend into the Kitchen Stadium from the Ingredient Reveal.

So I am about 75% done with this abosolute monster of an episode to edit into the full 2 hour american release version. but i thought you all might want a little sample of the progress.

For those who do not know these scenes were never released in the US and were cut from the grand finale of the show. What they contain are a scene which shows data and statistics about the whole run of the show, and more importantly the infamous 'Entrance of the Challengers' which every former challenger came back for the end of the show, unbelievable that this was cut from the US release.

Cool fun fact during the march of the challengers, as far as I know and maybe someone can help me if I'm wrong this is the only time that the song 'Show Me Your Firetruck' from the movie Backdraft appears in it's entirety due to the shear length of the scene.

These two scenes alone took over a week to edit and remaster, using over 11 different pieces of software to fix video, remove overlays, isolate audio, remaster audio, create new voices, new sound effects, new overlay graphics, and so forth. The final 2 hour special will be posted to the Iron Chef HD archive when done. but for now... ENJOY!

Back in it's heyday there was a boardgame, book, and T-shirts - all of which I have. There were Iron Chef dinner parties complete with theme ingredient and competition. It was amazing this show was so immensely popular!

Wow. What an honor!

https://archive.org/details/2-fois-gras

Enjoy! Don't mind the URL having that about the fois gras lol. Gonna work on getting the other seasons up as well.

As requested, here is the HD upscale of the mid title sequence, the one where Chairman Kaga bites the bell pepper.

Here is a new video series I am working on newly translating/subbing/dubbing called 'The Making of Iron Chef.' This is the first of more to come. If this your first time seeing behind the scenes footage of this show or if you have seen other clips like this, post a comment below and let us know where.