Greetings, Iron Chef fans.

This is the report on the Special "200th Dish" Competition, aired originally
in Japan on August 28, 1998.
It was broadcasted as 2 hour special back then, but this report is of
two parts, since they showed it as two one hour shows here in So California.

This is the special episode to commemorate the 200th dish prepared in
the Kitchen Stadium. All-star French and All-star Chinese teams were
organized for this occasion. It is the extended 90-minute competition
where theme material (Kaga picked three: see below). The theme was pre
announced to the teams so they can prepare for the dishes of "the
highest degree of perfection".

And what team they organized!

French Team:
------------
        Hiroyuki Sakai (Captain: Iron French)
        Yutaka Ishinabe (ex-Iron French)
        Tetsuo Jyo (ref: Wine battle, 3/7/97)
  Chef Ishinabe is one of the reasons why people at Fuji-TV came up with the
  program Iron Chef. He is a extreme perfectionist French chef, and to date,
  I believe Sakai doesn't even come close to him. Just his presence here makes
  this episode the one to watch.
  And Jyo, who is genius when it comes to sauce preparation, has the record
  of beating up on Sakai, 4-0.
  All in all, this is an extremely talented, accomplished team of (Japanese)
  French chefs. It's a question of how Captain Sakai can make use of these
  two living legends.

Chinese Team:
-------------
        Kenichi Chen (Captain: Iron Chinese)
        Yuji Wakiya (ref: Papaya battle, 3/14/97)
        Shozo Miyamoto (ref: Carp battle, 12/1/95)
  Wakiya is an accomplished Chinese chef (Chinoi cuisine) who defeated
  Chen over Papaya (a very un-Chinese material). His cooking has more a
  French appearance than Chinese, but that is no accident. He apparently
  took lesson from Chef Ishinabe after he lost to Sakai in prior battle.
  Miyamoto is a 1992 silver medal winner of World culinary competition,
  the same award Chen won earlier. His cooking is Shanghai style. In their
  prior battle, Chen narrowly defeated Miyamoto in the Carp competition
  (not the same one you saw last week; that was Chef Miyazawa.


Theme Ingredients:
------------------
Kaga announced three theme materials this time, the three of "his
favorites".
They are: Pork, Banana, Suppon turtle (terrapin)

I know what you are thinking... What an odd combination. But then, they
are no ordinary chefs either. See what they can do with them.
So, you know port, you know banana. What is Suppon? It is a special kind
of turtle that I think only Japanese eats. Well, yours truly has
never tried it; never had an opportunity. It is, after all, not
something you encounter in a family restaurant. You have to go to a
gourmet restaurant specializing in Suppon dishes. Generally, they start
from sake mixed with its blood (yak), then soup, sashimi, broiled, and
often nabe (boiled). I have never seen French used it, and I don't think
Chinese eats this stuff. Then again, they might.

Oh, you found a big cake in the center of the kitchen with "2000"
decoration on it. That was donated by the Chef Yasumasa Takagi (ref:
Strawberry, 12/19/97). If you recall, he is the one who did the "White
Christmas" dish where he poured flaming liquor over the chocolate igloo
to drop the raspberry garnish on top of the tart underneath. One of the
best desert presentation.

The Best and the Worst of...
----------------------------
Prior to entering the competition, they briefly showed some of the best
and worst dishes (in their own judgment). Hattori (the regular
commentator, and the owner of the famous cooking school), Nakamura (the
ex-Iron Japanese) and Morimoto (current Iron Japanese) shared the
dubious honor.

Hattori made a sake drink mixed with shirako (fish sperm), which was so
bad, it made the famous French chef Robchaun (who was unfortunately
present at the time) dislike sake since.
Nakamura once had the Potato battle with Chef Kojima, where the
logistics for both chefs were so bad (like "forgot to turn on the rice
cooker..."), they had to re-do the competition.
Morimoto's smoked asparagus stick salad was not liked by any of the
judges (ref: battle Asparagus, 5/15/98). Though he ultimately won that
contest, no one finished the salad.

On the other hand, the "best" were shared by two Iron chefs.
One of Chef Chen's battles (which I failed to take note) was noted here, 
as two Szechwan chefs worked out their best.
And the other "best" was ex-Iron Japanese Rokusaburo Michiba who battled
against a French chef Kobayakawa (Foie Gras Confront 10/23/93) 
using Foie gras, and created a classic Japanese style foie gras dish
that no one has seen nor heard before.
In the new "Tetsujin Daizen - Complete book of Iron Chef", this foie
gras salad prepared by Michiba is described as the "dish that established
the credibility of Iron Chef show".

The Competition
---------------
One of the highlight of the episode so far, are the sight of three
master French chefs peeling the potatoes. You will never see one of them
ever doing that in their own restaurants (they are not given the usual
assistants for this competition).

Chinese team (Wakiya) prepared three different mix of "salt mold"
material preparing for the pork roast. I had to listen carefully to make
sure that was the Chinese team. The pork looked very much French.
Chef Miyamoto (Chinese team) pulled out Tachi-Uo (scabbard fish), a long
eel-like fish, deep fried it to make it look like a dragon.
Miyamoto also worked out a pair of suppon turtle carved out of pumpkins.

As for French team, Chef Jyo assumed the responsibility of "sauce chef".
Chinese chefs were quoted as saying, "what's scared us most about the
French team is Jyo's sauce".
Chef Ishinabe was working on a "pork roll", which he commented
originated during the rein of Louis 14. It takes time to prepare, so it
couldn't have been done during the usual 60 minute competition, Ishinabe
said.
Sakai was working to make the pork ribs look like a "crown", to go
against Chinese team's dragon. It looks like both teams will deliver the
"hot looking" dishes.
Sakai was also working on the grid of cucumber slices, with which he was
wrapping foie gras moose.

Iron Japanese Morimoto commented "I've been looking to see if those
super chefs can work as a team. So far they are doing fine".
Iron Italian Kobe commented "Being an Italian chef myself, I am focusing
on the French team with great deal of interest..."

The program was continued to next week, when the competition came to the
45-minute  (the half-way) point.

Bon appetite till next week!

-ICR