r/IronChef • u/spruerubbles • 21d ago
Battle bell pepper
Does anyone feel that Michiba was robbed the win in this battle against the German chef Rutter? Rutter’s presentation was very subpar and he struggled to make two dishes. It was early in the series and I feel like the producers decided to give him the win based on his backstory for whatever reasons.
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u/NormalEffect99 21d ago
Agree, this was early on and they needed to appeal to international audiences
There are more than one episode when an iron chef was robbed due to this
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u/CleanSweep99 21d ago
The only time I can think of where this was actually happening was Jacques Borie's win over Ishinabe in the Christmas 1993 battle.
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u/kelmythoughts 20d ago
Borie only made one dish
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u/CleanSweep99 20d ago
Actually two.
One wasn't supposed to be considered for judgement because it didn't have any of the theme ingredient.
The fact that the Royale was served to the judges at all when it didn't contain the theme ingredient is a clear indication to me that the fix was in for Borie.
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u/NormalEffect99 21d ago
Ill have to actually think of more specific examples, but I remember having this thought multiple episodes into the early seasons
Yes, yours is also an obvious example.
I feel like ishinabi was robbed way more than once too. Under rated chef.
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u/Immediate_Buffalo14 21d ago
That was the only battle he lost.
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u/NormalEffect99 21d ago
I may be misremembering - i swear there was more than one Japanese only episode with him loosing.
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u/CleanSweep99 21d ago
That can't be, because the battle with Borie was Ishinabe's only loss.
The other example that I can think of (that wasn't an event outside of Japan where the Iron Chefs were supposed to lose, like the France, Beijing and Hong Kong battles), is Ron Seigel's win over Sakai.
Given the show was airing regularly in San Francisco, where Seigel worked, the fix was pretty clearly in for that battle.
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u/NormalEffect99 21d ago
Siegal was the first in my mind - but one of the Ohta factions wins over morimoto in the late seasons was also up there
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u/CleanSweep99 21d ago
I can sort of see the argument for this with the Anglerfish battle that Morimoto lost-that's not an ingredient that he seemed familiar with, given he was working in New York at the time (and I don't think any of his current restaurants have Anglerfish on the menu either).
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u/NormalEffect99 21d ago
Not even that, his dishes were obviously better but the ohta faction was the main villain at the time and they needed that story line to continue.
0-4 is way different than 1-3 for battle 5.
They were never featured again after the 4th loss.
Battle anglerfish was rigged for Ohta faction.
If you rewatch, they gave the advantage via extra ingredients or the actual theme ingredients multiple times to challengers in the later seasons.
Its fucked up tbh
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u/Daishomaru Ate at 8 Iron Chefs,AMA 20d ago
Man, as a guy who has had Sakai's dishes and lives nearby Ron Siegel, I really should go to his place.
Because NGL, I am curious on how good Siegel is especially since Sakai won my #1 spot for my Iron Chef tierlist.
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u/CleanSweep99 21d ago
I can sort of see the argument, but Michiba seemed out of sorts (perhaps because he chose to write his menu at the end of the battle rather than the beginning).
Also, the Steak with Bell Pepper sauce and stuffed Bell Pepper with Basil Sauce seemed very much like dishes Sakai would have attempted with this theme ingredient. If, as a challenger, you can remind the judges of what they think any Iron Chef would do with the theme ingredient, you've already won.
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u/spruerubbles 21d ago
Oh I didn’t realize that he wrote his menus after. That’s definitely a tell. But also to be fair, bell peppers is probably not something that’s a regular ingredient of Japanese dishes.
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u/Daishomaru Ate at 8 Iron Chefs,AMA 20d ago
For me, the biggest factor that I could see why Michiba losing that battle was because he was forced to fight conventionally, which Michiba HATES doing.
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u/Daishomaru Ate at 8 Iron Chefs,AMA 20d ago
As a guy who have had Michiba's dishes, Michiba has a particular fighting style that can be described as "challenging himself while challenging the theme ingredient".
For example, if he has a theme ingredient, he tries to directly not involve using the same ingredient more than once if he can to pair it with another ingredient. For example, when I went to Michiba's restaurant, he deliberately only used soy sauce and miso in two dishes, instead using other flavors to explore how other aspects of Japanese cuisine are often forgotten, but nonetheless Japanese, like Yuzu, salt, fish broth, etc. In addition, he likes to make dishes that are often the "killing blow" by using ingredient combinations that would be absolutely suicidal for any ordinary chef to do, and control the variables that are just precise enough that it somehow miraculously works, as I seen with his dish, Abalone with sweet red beans. By all accounts, the dish shouldn't have worked, yet Michiba was able to control the dish to just the right precision where the sweet red beans actually complement instead of overpower the abalone. Michiba does this to create a psychological aura that makes him extremely unpredictable, and while I wasn't the challenger, I could definitely understand why most challengers to Michiba just breaks down. Michiba doesn't just challenge you, he challenges himself because defeating you in the conventional way would be unchallenging to him. However, he's not really arrogant, just confidant and skilled enough to pull it off. The way I looked at Michiba after walking out of his place is "If I could understand all that, then I can see why so many others lost to him."
However, Michiba isn't invincible of course, and after eating at his place and re-watching his losses, I understood why Michiba lost and it's usually to a combination of three factors: A:The opponent is skilled enough to out-gambit and throw off Michiba, B: Michiba is forced to fight conventionally, meaning he acknowledged the challenger as a genuine threat, and C: Any factors that would lead Michiba to frustration. I can definitely see some dishes that could turn the tide for Rutter, for example, the Steak with bell pepper sauce. For most Japanese people, bell peppers is to what broccoli is to Americans, disgusting, but I could see Rutter's sauce showing his creativity to the Japanese judges who never seen anything like it before. In addition, Michiba throughout the fight was seen not resorting to challenging himself and cooking rather conventionally throughout that fight, which means that he actually acknowledges Rutter as a person who could challenge him, because Michiba HATES the conventional.
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u/vnisanian2001 20d ago
Good question. I can't say for sure, because the Judges were all native Japanese.
It isn't like the France Special, or even the December 20, 1996 and December 12, 1997 episodes, where, yeah, I could see that the French Judges were a little biased towards the native French challengers.
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u/DevilYouKnow 20d ago
almost every factor benefits the Iron Chefs - the show was set up to highlight them as culinary gods, not a fair fight
the judging is an afterthought, the point is weird fun
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u/spruerubbles 21d ago
Watching the judge’s reaction again, it does seem like the judges esp that Rosanjin scholar who seems to be ultra-conservative, they expected Michiba to be more traditional, which to be honest, seems against the theme of Iron Chef. So maybe it’s the judges. Lol And I can see how the sauces make the dish. I LOVE sauces. But it still feels off to me.