Dressed in his gold satin power duds, he rose from below stage, cloaked in smoke, ready for battle. His knives were sharpened, chopsticks at the ready, a three-minute ice-cream machine at hand, should the fight turn frosty.
Roy Yamaguchi, as Iron Chef
Asia, drew no challenge on
the U.S. show -- for nowBy Betty Shimabukuro
bshimabukuro@starbulletin.comBut, alas, it was not to be.
Roy Yamaguchi, in his first turn as Iron Chef Asia, did not draw a challenge.
"Iron Chef USA: Showdown in Las Vegas," two television specials headed for the UPN network, were taped last week at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, with Yamaguchi as one of four culinary champions.
The specials are modeled on the Japanese cult hit, "Iron Chef," which stages gladiator-style cooking battles between a stable of prominent chefs and their challengers.
Yamaguchi, in a telephone interview from Las Vegas, described the production as the biggest he's ever encountered, filling the Garden Arena with hundreds of production people, $300,000 worth of appliances and every exotic ingredient from truffles to foie gras.
His costume -- a big part of iron chefdom -- is a "Chinese-looking, happi-coat, kimono-type deal," in gold satin with a gold "sushi-maker" hat, he said.
"I look like I could be in the Power Rangers. Maybe that's good; they're a big hit. It could be another career for me."
But Larry Thompson, the show's executive producer, fully expects that Yamaguchi's next career with be as a permanent iron chef. Thompson is banking on the show being picked up as a weekly prime-time series early next year.
And Yamaguchi, although he didn't get to play this time, will be first up, he said. (Yes, the challenger's selection of which chef to battle is supposed to be unrehearsed, but hey, this is TV. It's not like the rules are enforceable by the police.)
Thompson is a veteran movie and TV producer who lists 15 TV movies, two series and five films to his credit. His television productions have included the bio-pics of Sonny and Cher, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Lucille Ball.
Thompson recalls watching the original "Iron Chef" for the first time: "It was the most bizarre show I'd ever seen in my life -- these Japanese chefs running around with squid and all that. I told my wife, 'I could do that.'" By which he meant he could make a show like that.
Negotiations with Fuji TV for the licensing rights to bring "Iron Chef" to the United States took 13 months, during which Thompson also ate his way across the country, looking for the right iron chefs and iron challengers (and gaining 35 pounds along the way).
Yamaguchi was an obvious choice, Thompson said. "Roy Yamaguchi personifies Iron Chef Asia. His style of cooking and his food introduced the West to the food of the East."
That his chosen chefs are quite telegenic is no accident. "I'm doing television!" Thompson declared.
"These are four handsome chefs -- these guys are too pretty to be in the kitchen all the time -- however, no one would say they were lacking in culinary talent."
Indeed, Yamaguchi and fellow iron chefs Todd English (America) and Alesandro Stratta (Italy), besides being running wildly successful restaurants, are James Beard Award winners, as is the first show's challenger, Marcus Samuelsson. Jean Francois Meteigner (Iron Chef France) has amassed a number of national awards.
Yamaguchi said the program may be largely show biz, but it is still involves serious cooking, as the chefs race to produce five immaculate dishes in one hour, with a secret ingredient they don't get to see until the last moment (he insists that part is not faked).
"It's brutal. What I saw was just brutal. Those guys were exhausted," he said of the first battle between Stratta and Samuelsson.
"You got about a minute to think about what you're going to do. And then you have 59 minutes left."
The first "Iron Chef" special will air Aug. 31 (locally on KFVE); the second during the November sweeps.
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