‘Iron Chef America’: How the Cooking Competition Films Entire Seasons in 3 Weeks Using 120 Crew Members
Iron Chef America had a popular run of 11 seasons from 2005 to 2014. It received two additional runs on Food Network and then an eight-episode season on Netflix in 2022. As of now, Netflix hasn’t announced a second season, but it’s possible.
A lot of work went into producing each episode. It was not just about a 60-minute foray into food prep. Iron Chef America was a well-oiled machine that recorded entire seasons in just three weeks in Manhattan.
The origin story of ‘Iron Chef America’
Kitchen Stadium didn’t just come from the brilliant minds at the top of Food Network. The original aired in Japan from 1993 to 1999 over seven seasons. Five chefs, all masters of different types of cuisine in Japan, were announced as Iron Chefs.
Each week, one challenger would enter the arena and challenge an Iron Chef to a one-hour battle to prepare five dishes for three hungry judges who scored the dueling chefs on a 100-point scale in various categories. The winner got the higher point total.
Food Network, which was looking for a new hit in 2005, embraced the original format and brought it to American audiences. Kitchen Stadium went from Tokyo to New York. One of the original Iron Chefs, Masaharu Morimoto, even came over to the American show. The premise lasted four seasons longer than the original with Alton Brown as a co-host.
In the summer of 2022, fans of Iron Chef America got to see a reboot of their beloved franchise with the eight-episode Netflix series Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend.
Behind-the-scenes secrets of ‘Iron Chef’s one-hour competition
In 2010, Kim Severson of the New York Times sat down with three Iron Chefs (Bobby Flay, Jose Garces and Masaharu Morimoto) at a panel in New York. Eater attended and dished on the behind-the-scenes secrets of the show.
It took three weeks to shoot an entire season’s worth of episodes at two episodes per day. Only one Iron Chef needed to be on set for both episodes. Recording in front of a live studio audience started around 9 am in Manhattan, according to The Village Voice. Take a look at some extraordinary numbers behind the production:
- 10 cameras
- 127 crew members (according to ABC News)
- 160 moving lights
- 800 pounds of food per episode, more than 9 tons of food per season
- 150 pounds of dry ice per day to make the fog
- Thousands of feet of cable, much of which audience members had to step over on the way to their seats
If you think the “secret” ingredients are a surprise, think again. Chefs and challengers got a short list of three to four possibilities months before the show. Then they were told which ingredient was chosen 45 minutes before the Chairman shouted “Allez cuisine!”
Chefs could stock their pantries with $500 worth of food, including rare ingredients found nowhere else. The food went into the overstuffed pantries. The food equipment they worked with on the set were high-end stoves, cutlery sets, and appliances found in world-class kitchens.
Challengers got to pick their Iron Chef opponents well in advance because of the scheduling needed to pull off the three-week recording schedule, according to Eater. It’s no wonder most of the Iron Chefs owned their restaurants in New York.
Both the Iron Chef and the challenger had to cook their five dishes twice. The first time was for the cameras. Then they got a break. Then they got to cook their dishes a second time for the judges with one chef going first followed by the second one. Judging took as long as two hours. How did the Iron Chefs like the format?
One Iron Chef had a love-it-hate-it attitude toward the show
Masaharu Morimoto, the only Iron Chef to be a master on the original and American versions, told the TimesTalk audience, “This is a very special kind of job, an honor, to do this. [Sometimes I] love it, hate it, love it, hate it.”
Bobby Flay, a challenger on the Japanese version and Iron Chef America, enjoyed the competitive nature of the show. “It’s the month I don’t look forward to, I have to admit. but people love it. I like the competition — I was an athlete as a kid, so this is my last form of athleticism.”
Jose Garces echoed Morimoto. “It’s a great way to document one’s worth. To compete on a national stage is a thrill and an honor.”
Will the vaunted Food Network show live on with Netflix? Time will tell. So far, the streaming service has greenlit just the first eight-episode run of Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend, which aired in June 2022.
