Finally. #IronChefGauntlet
A photo posted by Alton Brown (@altonbrown) on
Nov 28, 2016 at 9:16am PST
Variety — Food Network is heading back to Kitchen Stadium. The cabler plans to reboot its “Iron Chef America” franchise with a fresh incarnation dubbed “Iron Chef Gauntlet.”
The cooking competition will be hosted once again by Food Network regular Alton Brown, who gained fame through his “color commentary” reporting on “Iron Chef.” “Gauntlet” is expected to begin production early next year for a second-quarter premiere. Details of the new format are thin other than it promises to offer some new twists on the cooking-showdown format.
The original “Iron Chef” aired for 12 seasons on Food Network and helped burnish the credentials of such foodie TV stars as Bobby Flay, Masaharu Morimoto, Michael Symon, Marc Forgione, Geoffrey Zakarian and Alex Guarnaschelli. The competition pits one notable chef each season to face a series of challengers in a bid earn or retain the title of “Iron Chef.”
This is excellent news.
This show, in its “Iron Chef America” format, has everything. It has food, incredible drama, sweating chefs, INSTANT REPLAY, an area called Kitchen Stadium, a chairman who does a karate chop and says “In the words of my uncle, ‘allez cuisine!'” to start the competition, and of course, Alton Brown doing running commentary.
Not only does Brown do color commentary during the competitions, he talks to the chefs while they’re cooking under extreme conditions. He asks them questions and sometimes they yell at him to stop bothering them.
It is near-perfect television.
This is why I love “Iron Chef.” Here is the Battle of the Melon: