Iron Chef:

Subversive cultural product or another ethnocentric format?

Renee Powers

JOUR621 – Semati

November 27, 2011

Introduction

Ryori no Tetsujin, also known as Iron Chef, began in Japan in 1992 and ran

regularly until 1999. The show, hosted by Ota Shinichiro, featured culinary “battles”

in a gladiator-style kitchen arena called “Kitchen Stadium.” The backstory of the

show revolves around Chairman Kaga Takeshi, who invites world-renown chefs into

his castle to compete against his in-house chefs. Each battle revolves around a

secret ingredient, which must be incorporated into every dish. At the end of the

allotted hour, other chefs and celebrities judge each dish on taste, creativity, and

presentation. The program is filmed as though it is a sporting event, complete with

Shinichiro’s “sideline” commentating and instant replays of precarious or

particularly impressive cooking techniques.

Iron Chef reruns are regularly broadcast in the United States on the Food

Network. Though it began without subtitles or dubbing in 1993 on Japanese-

language channels in large U.S. cities (Frankel, 1999), the show now on the Food

Network is dubbed into English, though Chairman Kaga’s dialogue is subtitled. The

English dubbing maintains an American accent, though Chairman Kaga displays an

English accent in voiceovers and the host, Shinichiro, continues to utilize basic

Japanese forms of address. It’s clear that the airing of this show in the United States

was not intended to appeal to Japanese citizens residing in the U.S. Rather, it was

reconfigured to appeal to United States citizens and other Anglophones. The appeal

of the original Iron Chef in the U.S. is its elaborate and wacky host, the exaggerated

theatrics of the show, the element of competition, and the exotic dishes offered to

the Chairman at the end of the competition. Some components of this are

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maintained to a degree in the American remake of Iron Chef, aptly named Iron Chef

America.

Iron Chef America, which began in 2005 on the Food Network, was not the

United States’ first attempt to adopt the Iron Chef format. In 2001, Iron Chef USA,

starring William Shatner ran for only two episodes before being cancelled. Instead

of paying homage to the original in the way Iron Chef America does, Iron Chef USA

attempted to completely recreate the theatrics and flamboyance of Iron Chef to the

point of mockery. In USA Today, Ann Oldenburg (2005) attributes Iron Chef USA’s

failure to the fact that it “focused more on the studio audience screaming at the

chefs and host William Shatner sampling the dishes” (p. 1E). In The New York Times,

Alessandra Stanley (2005) suggests that it is simply impossible to recreate the

original Iron Chef’s appeal. This initial reenactment did not resonate with audiences

in the United States and was soon cancelled. Or, perhaps, viewers were not ready

for competitive cooking shows. The importation of Iron Chef into the United States

created buzz around the format of the competitive cooking show. Since the failure

of Iron Chef USA, we have seen a spiked interest in this format, with shows such as

Cooking Under Fire (PBS), Hell’s Kitchen (Fox), Top Chef (Bravo), and The Next Food

Network Star (Food Network) gaining more viewership on basic cable and premium

channels alike (Oldenburg, 2005). Four years after the first attempt at a

Westernized adaptation of Japan’s Iron Chef, Iron Chef America was created.

In Iron Chef America, the Iron Chef representing Japanese-style cuisine is

Masaharu Morimoto, an original chef on Iron Chef. Other Iron Chefs and their

specialties include Bobby Flay (Southwestern), Cat Cora (Greek and Mediterranean),

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Jose Garces (Latin fusion), Marc Forgione (modern American), Mario Batali (Italian),

and Michael Symon (Mediterranean). Chefs wear microphones during the show and

often respond to the host’s commentary. The set of Iron Chef America is Kitchen

Stadium in New York’s Chelsea Market, similar to its predecessor’s set. Each

episode centers on a secret ingredient, though it is not usually as exotic as the

ingredients featured in the original competitions (e.g. Iron Chef America has featured

parmesan cheese, cranberries, and garlic whereas Iron Chef typically features

ingredients unusual to Western audiences, such as octopus or sweetfish). The

competition begins with the Chairman incorporating martial arts and exclaiming,

“Allez cuisine!” in the same way Chairman Kaga does on the original Iron Chef and

ends with a round of judging. Iron Chef America judges typically include celebrity

chefs and American celebrities with a passion for food.

The backstory of Iron Chef America honors the original version and features

kung-fu film star Mark Dacascos as the nephew of Chairman Kaga. The show is

hosted by Food Network personality Alton Brown, who Washington Post staff writer

Bonnie Benwick (2005) identifies as an “amiable food wiseguy” that makes him “a

natural for this job” (p. C8). Oldenburg (2005) reports the show’s draw: In its first

year, the addition of Iron Chef America to the Food Network raised the network’s

ratings by 40% during its time slot. Additionally, the ratings among the most

difficult demographic for cooking shows, men ages 18-49, grew 77%. The premiere

of the show saw 2.3 million viewers. Since its premiere, Iron Chef America has

gained impressive notoriety. In fact, First Lady Michelle Obama hosted the program

at the White House in 2009. In this episode, the White House executive chef,

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Cristeta Comerford, and Iron Chef Bobby Flay competed against celebrity chef

Emeril Lagasse and Iron Chef Mario Batali using ingredients from the White House

garden (Burros, 2009).

The Iron Chef format has been adapted to audiences in the United States, the

United Kingdom, Israel, and Australia. Also currently on the Food Network is The

Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs, a reality competition show in which Food Network stars

compete to be a regular chef on Iron Chef America. Alton Brown hosts and judges

include Iron Chef America’s Michael Symon and Iron Chef UK’s Judy Joo. The purpose

of this project is to consider the Iron Chef franchise while attending to conversations

of global communication. In light of the apparent global movement of this cooking

competition format, this paper will answer the following questions: Why is the

dubbed version of Iron Chef so popular in the United States? How does Iron Chef

complicate and contribute to the global adoption of television formats? In what

ways does Iron Chef America validate or demonstrate hybridity and/or

glocalization? And how does Iron Chef in the United States address media flow? I

contend that Americans’ general interest and intrigue in Japanese culture,

compounded by the universal popularity of cooking programs, laid the foundation

for a Japanese television show to thrive and be successfully replicated in the United

States, yet the popularity of Iron Chef America undermines the potential subversive

flow of the original program on U.S. television.

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The universal appeal of cooking shows

Lisa Abend (2010) reports that the term “Foodie” came into popular

consciousness in the 1980s. Soon thereafter, the Food Network was born. Inspired

by Julia Child’s success, the Food Network is now watched by a million viewers each

day and even has its own spin-off network, the Cooking Channel. Food Network

stars have essentially become celebrities. What is it about food and cooking

programs that draw such universal appeal? Cooking shows are part of the lifestyle

television boom of the 1990s, alongside home décor and fashion programs. These

programs contribute to a “transformative aesthetic,” which the cooking show in

particular, “…displays the transmutation of food not merely from raw ingredients

into a cooked dish, but importantly, from raw ingredients into a stylized dish” (de

Solier, 2005, p. 467).

Cooking shows are not necessarily meant to teach the viewer how to cook,

rather provide entertainment involving food preparation or enjoyment and skilled

chefs. The move of cooking television programs from daytime to primetime

illustrates the growing fascination with this format. It is no longer aimed at only

housewives, rather appeals to a larger demographic. This pertains to the idea of

cultural capital (Straubhaar, 2007) in that viewers accumulate a specific cultural

capital in watching such programs. Isabelle De Solier (2005) writes, “Watching TV

cooking shows can be understood as a form of productive leisure, as viewers invest

their free time in the ‘work of acquisition’ of culinary cultural capital, as a means of

improving the self through food knowledge” (p. 471). In this way, food programs

can appeal to the working class who may work in food service and may want to

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know more about and be entertained by that which is familiar to them, but it may

also appeal to more bourgeois viewers. De Solier (2005) argues that many cooking

programs construct “aesthetic hierarchies of culinary taste” that explicitly promote

bourgeois tastes (p. 471). Thus, cooking shows can educate and be enjoyed by a

range of viewers and are universally appealing.

The popularity of Iron Chef in the United States

As a cooking competition show, Iron Chef distinguishes itself from other

programs on the Food Network. It combines the traditional elements of cooking

shows with the suspense and excitement of a competition. According to an

Electronic Media article by Daniel Frankel (1999), Iron Chef is produced by Japan’s

Fuji Television and, after negotiating with several networks in the United States,

was picked up by the relatively young Food Network in 1999. Prior to the regular

airing of dubbed and subtitled episodes on the Food Network, Iron Chef ran on

Japanese-language stations in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Additionally, the show became popular with online audiences and had an ample

English-speaking fan base from the Internet, including “The Simpsons” creator Matt

Groening. Though the show is “tailor-made for the eclectic taste of Japanese

audiences” (Frankel, 1999, p. 6), it has gained a rather enthusiastic fan base in the

United States. However, Frankel reports, to appeal to a larger demographic in the

U.S., “…the decision was made for the majority of the dialogue to be dubbed, while

any dialogue that Mr. Takeshi [Chairman Kaga] engages in would be kept in its

native tongue, with subtitles added” (p. 6). Eileen Opatut, senior vice president of

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programming and production at the Food Network, tells Frankel, “We loved

watching it with subtitles, but we realized that not all American viewers can see

subtitles from across the room. We also recognized that some elements are so

special in their Japaneseness, that we wanted to keep them in Japanese” (p. 6).

Opatut reports that the Food Network bought 26 episodes initially in 1999 and

almost immediately purchased 26 more for the 2000 season.

Regarding the show’s “Japaneseness,” Mark Gallagher (2004) contends the

popularity of Iron Chef in the United States can be attributed to its combination of

popular genres as well as its comic appeal. He writes, “The program combines

conventions of the celebrity-judged game show, the television variety show, the

samurai film, and the cooking program, all genres that circulate in the media

marketplaces of the contemporary Eastern and Western worlds” (p. 176). Aside

from the charm of the format, Gallagher also reasons that Iron Chef has comical, and

possibly ethnocentric, appeal to Westerners. He suggests the comedy of the show

depends on racial stereotypes. Gallagher would argue that it is not necessarily

Americans’ fascination with Japanese culture that contributes to its popularity;

rather it is Americans’ belief in “the unthreatening eccentricity of Japanese culture”

(p. 180). Through interviews with college students who are fans of Iron Chef,

Gabriella Lukacs (2010) acknowledges that part of the appeal of the show is the

exoticism of how the students conceptualize Japan: “the exact opposite of the

ordinary, transparent and rational North America” (p. 417). William M. Tsutsui

(2010) affirms this argument and contends that decades of martial arts films and

monster movies have contributed to “an abiding impression of the Japanese people

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as somehow crazy, silly, and unpredictable…Japanese culture has come to be

regarded as wacky, cheesy, and inherently inferior in the American popular

imagination” (p. 52). Regardless of whether or not the intention is ethnocentric,

there is a marked interest in Japanese culture in the United States. It is in this

context that we can discuss the hybridization and/or glocalization of Japanese

popular culture in the United States.

Iron Chef, Iron Chef America, and the glocalization of formatted programming

In an attempt to explain Iron Chef’s appeal in the United States, Gallagher

(2004) writes, “If the program’s cultural proximity to the United States was greater,

it would closely mirror existing U.S. programming and the lack of differentiation

would limit its distinctive appeal” (p. 180). Cultural proximity is the amount of

cultural knowledge or capital that is shared (Straubhaar, 2007). The more closely

two cultures share cultural knowledge, the closer they are in terms of cultural

proximity. However, Gallagher wrote this prior to the air of Iron Chef America,

which does mirror U.S. programming and is still quite successful. Gallagher

continues, “The very universality of food programming—its generic content and

iconography—grants its high degree of legibility across cultures” (p. 181). It is this

facility in legibility that makes the format of Iron Chef easily adoptable. Also

contributing to the success of Iron Chef America is the basic understanding of a

television format as a concept. Once adopted, a producer can suit a format to its

national audience, thus formats are easily “customized to domestic cultures”

(Waisbord, 2004, p. 368). This, in effect, is the very definition of glocalization, the

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effectiveness of which I will contrast with the effectiveness of hybridity in this

section.

Hybridization is where global and local meet. Consumption of hybrid

materials relies on interpretation of appropriation through one’s own framework.

In other words, one may argue that hybridity relies on the gradual adaptation of

cultures to suit another culture’s ideals (Straubhaar, 2007). On the other hand,

glocalization is used to discuss “deliberate borrowings and adaptations of global

forms by local, national, and regional actors” (Straubhaar, 2007, p. 53). To glocalize

a cultural artifact, a producer tailors a global artifact to the audience, sometimes

through offering content or advertisements specific to that culture. Silvio Waisbord

(2004) defines glocalized formats as “the adaptation of programming formula to the

tastes of domestic audiences” (p. 368). Rather than waiting for an artifact to assume

a hybridized identity, producers will force a glocal identity upon it. This requires a

delicate balance of all cultures involved.

Iron Chef USA and Iron Chef America are both examples of glocalization, not

hybridity, as they are both “deliberate borrowings” of a cultural product. The

cultural proximity of Iron Chef USA differs from that of Iron Chef America, which is

why it was not successful. Whereas Iron Chef America focuses on the

“transformative aesthetic” (de Solier, 2005) of cooking and elements of competition,

Iron Chef USA attempted to capitalize on the “unthreatening eccentricity of Japanese

culture” (Gallagher, 2004). In other words, rather than reworking the format of the

show to appeal to traditionally Western audiences, Iron Chef USA attempted to

capitalize on the mocking of Japanese culture as understood by stereotypes in the

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West. Indeed, the success of Iron Chef America and the failure of Iron Chef USA is

proof that glocal adaptations of non-Western material are more successful than

entire imitations of originals.

Glocalization requires a delicate balance between the two cultures it

attempts to blend. In regards to glocalized television, this often means adapting the

format to adhere to national narratives, while attending to the cultural proximity of

the cultures involved. Albert Moran (1998) defines a format as “that set of

invariable elements in a program out of which the variable elements of an individual

episode are produced” (p. 13). Elsewhere, Moran (2008) characterizes the format

as a type of programming recipe to be reproduced in accordance to local and

national audiences. Formatted programming is popular with the television industry

because adopting a formatted show provides a proven track record of success

(Esser, 2010). In fact, in a study of formats adapted for primetime television in the

United States, Andrea Esser (2010) found “formats were more successful on average

in attracting audiences than nonformatted programming” (p. 288). Producers seek

out formatted programs also because it is more financially sound investment to

adopt a proven format than it is to create a show from scratch. A show from scratch

may fail, which is a financial risk that many networks cannot afford to take. There is

predictability to formatted shows while also allowing producers to adjust them to

specific cultural values. Waisbord (2004) illustrates how formats speak to the

inherent values and tastes of a locality in the way they rework and tweak the

skeleton of an established program: “Because formats explicitly empty out signs of

the national, they can become nationalized—that is, customized to domestic

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cultures” (p. 368). These values and tastes of a locality can be understood in terms

of cultural proximity. There are values inherent to Japanese and American cultures

that provide a shared space for adaptation of the Iron Chef format.

As Waisbord (2004) points out, there is cultural proximity inherent in

formats themselves. Iron Chef and Iron Chef America both speak to the cultural

values of competition and the transformative aesthetic in cooking. However, Iron

Chef USA did not attend to the cultural capital inherent in the original format.

Rather, it attempted to recreate the campiness that the West finds humorous in the

original Iron Chef. This was not successfully delivered. Perhaps there was too much

“Japaneseness” to this adaptation. On the other hand, Iron Chef America is a

successful glocalization of the Iron Chef format without relying on cultural

stereotypes. Some might argue this kind of glocalization goes so far as to eliminate

any “Japaneseness” from the artifact (Tsutsui, 2010). Yet Waisbord (2004) would

contend that this removal of Japanese culture is exactly why it is successful. He

writes, “Locality needs to be evicted so it can be reintroduced as long as it does not

alter the basic concept” (p. 378). The show incorporates the element of competitive

cooking but the details are easily legible. The dishes, ingredients, and techniques

are often familiar to viewers, as are many of the Iron Chefs themselves, having

somewhat gained celebrity status through their own shows on the Food Network.

Both the United States and Japan see food preparation as cultural capital, thus

formats carry meanings. Iron Chef speaks to the values of both cultures therefore, as

a format, is an example of cultural proximity.

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Flow, subversive flow, and Iron Chef around the world

Flow refers to the exportation and importation of cultural products such as

television programs. Joseph Straubhaar (2007) occasionally refers to flow as the

cultural interpenetration of artifacts on a number of levels, or the adaptation of

cultural products that transcends traditional borders. Flow can be characterized

and influenced by migration, multinationalism, and hybrid identities. For instance,

the large population of Japanese immigrants on the West coast of the United States

influenced Japanese-language television providers to bring Iron Chef to the U.S.

Straubhaar (2007) contends that flow is influenced by cultural proximity and

identity. In other words, programs become popular and successful in other

countries because they speak to the identity of the viewer and/or the values of the

locality. Additionally, formats can appeal to other kinds of proximity, including

genre proximity and thematic proximity. This appeal can assist in the flow of a

cultural product. This flow is further facilitated by digital technology such as the

Internet and the prevalence of satellite television.

Waisbord (2004) writes, “Western domination of the global television

market remains undisputed in terms of program sales” (p. 362). There is a general

consensus that flow is rather uneven, that cultural products such as film and

television flow primarily from the United States to other countries, to the degree

that Americana has largely been adopted as a second culture worldwide. Hollywood

products tend to dominate the television and film industries abroad. However,

through the adaptation of reality and game show formats, we are beginning to see

flow as more multi-directional.

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On the other hand, cultural products that flow against the grain, that is from

East to West or South to North can be considered subversive flow. What is

interesting about Iron Chef in the United States is how it flows in the opposite

direction. Again, the success of this flow is dependent on Straubhaar’s discussion of

multiple proximities. Formats, especially reality and game show formats, are

especially inclined to subversive flow. Iron Chef and Iron Chef America demonstrate

the success of subversive or contra-flow as both a canned program (with dubbing

and subtitling) and a program format.

Daya Kishan Thussu (2009) argues flow is not one-way, that it is multi-

directional yet uneven. This is achieved through localization of Americana, or the

specific tailoring of content to the culture as well as through local advertising and

marketing within Western content. Digital technology and migration also assist in

these contra-flows, or subaltern flows, which he defines as global flows that

originate “from the erstwhile peripheries of global media industries” (p. 221).

Thussu suggests that this unevenness in flow has the potential to reimagine

Western hegemony. The popularity of Iron Chef in the United States is an example of

a subaltern flow, which is potentially subversive, in that it does not follow the

typical West to East flow. Furthermore, Iron Chef has become a franchise in itself in

the United States, which could work to challenge Western hegemony.

These days, it is difficult to find the original Iron Chef on the Food Network. It

does not run as regularly as it did prior to the success of Iron Chef America. Instead,

Iron Chef America and its spin-off reality competition, The Next Iron Chef, are often

broadcast during primetime and as network filler. The frequent airing and favoring

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of Iron Chef America has potentially appropriated the once subversive contra-flow of

Iron Chef on U.S. television. Thussu (2009) contends that dominant Western flows

are becoming stronger as contra-flows develop and are adopted. Thus, despite the

potential subversion of Iron Chef, Western hegemonic ideals will continue to thrive

in the United States through the Food Network favoring Iron Chef America over the

original. Moreover, the appeal of Iron Chef draws upon racist stereotypes (Lukacs,

2010), thus its popularity in the United States has nothing to do with the cultural

power of Japan, rendering its subversive potential useless.

Regardless, the success of Iron Chef America in the United States contributes

to its being sold as a format worldwide. Waisbord (2004) observes: “Executives

from around the world immediately take note of whatever seems to work (or fail) in

U.S. television” (p. 364). In other words, the United States sets the standard for

successfully adapted formatted programming. If it is successful in the U.S., it is likely

to work elsewhere. This is evident in the Australian, British, and Israeli adaptations

of the program, as well as the American spin-off reality competition, The Next Iron

Chef.

Conclusion

To conclude, the original Iron Chef dubbed in English became popular in the

United States due to Americans’ fascination with Japanese culture and the

unintentional humor of the exaggerated theatrics. Contributing to this is an

underlying ethnocentric (mis)understanding of Japan. Tsutsui (2010) writes,

“Depicting Japan as ‘a nation of lovable kooks,’ the localization of media products

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such as MXC and Iron Chef is reaffirming a familiar spot for Japan in a marginalized,

inferior, and comically foreign corner in most Americans’ mental maps of the world”

(p. 54). As a cooking competition, Iron Chef as a format was easily adopted, though

was not successful in its first application. The point of adapting global television

formats is to rework a successful program within local narratives. Iron Chef USA

assumed the local narratives were ethnocentric, relying on cultural stereotypes of

Japanese culture to mock. Waisbord (2004) writes, “Cultural difference is a

business matter rather than a political project” (p. 378). Treating Japanese culture

with respect is not the end goal of Iron Chef USA or Iron Chef America. Rather, the

purpose is simply to maximize profit. Regardless, though Iron Chef USA’s ultimate

goal was to earn revenue, its political incorrectness could be seen as a hindrance to

that goal.

Once the show was adapted to pay tribute to the original instead of

attempting to imitate the original, it became successful. This adaptation is

ultimately an example of glocalization of a formatted program. However, we must

keep in mind Waisbord’s words of caution: “Just because formats are ‘glocalized,’

they do not necessarily usher in multiculturalism or stimulate cultural democracy”

(2004, p. 380). This glocal adaptation is problematic because it further perpetuates

Western hegemony under the guise of potentially subversive contra-flow. Future

discussion of glocalization and contra-flow as a kind of cultural imperialism is

necessary. The failure of Iron Chef USA and its adherence to stereotypes calls for

deeper investigation in this area of inquiry.

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Lastly, this project is not an exhaustive discussion of the Iron Chef franchise.

Future research might delve deeper into the nuances of the various iterations of the

Iron Chef format, specifically Iron Chef UK, Iron Chef Australia, and Krav Sakinim, the

version of the show filmed in Israel. It would be relevant to the field of global

communication to look into these programs to evaluate their success in their home

countries and how they each contribute to their subsequent local cultural identities.

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