| Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Cooking show |
| Developed by | Daniel Calin |
| Presented by | |
| Starring | |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Production companies |
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| Original release | |
| Network | Netflix |
| Release | June 15 – July 2, 2022 |
| Related | |
Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend is an American cooking show reboot of Iron Chef and Iron Chef America. Alton Brown returns to co-host the show with Kristen Kish, and Mark Dacascos again serves as The Chairman. Contestants challenge the Iron Chefs in a cookoff with a secret ingredient, and in this series, the highest scoring challenger battles with all five Iron Chefs one more time in hopes of becoming an Iron Legend. The series debuted on Netflix on June 15, 2022, for its first season of eight episodes.
Five new Iron Chefs have been introduced: Curtis Stone, Dominique Crenn, Marcus Samuelsson, Ming Tsai and Gabriela Cámara. Challenger chefs compete against the Iron Chefs to prepare a dish centered around a secret ingredient revealed by The Chairman. Hosts Alton Brown and Kristen Kish provide real-time commentary on how the competition proceeds, with Kish occasionally filling the role performed by Shinichiro Ohta on the original show and Kevin Brauch on Iron Chef America as floor reporter. Each episode has three judges, Nilou Motamed, Andrew Zimmern, and a third guest judge. Unlike prior iterations, Brown and Kish also try the dishes and participate in deliberation with the judges, although their votes are not counted in the final score. At the end of the season, the highest-scoring challenger returns to face off against all five Iron Chefs in hopes of becoming an Iron Legend and receiving a Golden Knife.
Each episode has three judges, Nilou Motamed, Andrew Zimmern, and a third guest judge.
| Episode | Title | Iron Chef | Challenger | Challenger specialty | Secret ingredient(s) or theme | Winner | Final score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Battle Street Food" | Curtis Stone | Mason Hereford | Sandwiches | Street Food (Theme)
Lamb (Secret Ingredient) |
Curtis Stone | 85–78 |
| 2 | "Battle Tailgate" | Marcus Samuelsson | Esther Choi | Korean Fusion | Tailgate (Theme)
Ribs (Secret Ingredient) |
Esther Choi | 86–81 |
| 3 | "Battle Milk" | Dominique Crenn | Curtis Duffy | Farm (Theme)
Milk (Secret Ingredient) |
Dominique Crenn | 87–82 | |
| 4 | "Battle Medieval" | Gabriela Cámara, Dominique Crenn, Marcus Samuelsson, and Curtis Stone | N/A (Battle of Iron Chefs) | Medieval Times (Theme)
Game birds, Mushrooms, and Grapes (Secret Ingredients) |
Gabriela Cámara and Marcus Samuelsson | 85–84 | |
| 5 | "Battle Chocolate" | Ming Tsai | Claudette Zepeda | Regional Mexican cuisine | Youth (Theme)
Chocolate (Secret Ingredient) |
Claudette Zepeda | 81–77 |
| 6 | "Battle Chili Peppers" | Gabriela Cámara | Yia Vang | Hmong cuisine | Chili Peppers (Secret Ingredient) | Gabriela Cámara | 86–81 |
| 7 | "Battle Live Sturgeon" | Ming Tsai | Gregory Gourdet and Mei Lin | Live Sturgeon (Secret Ingredient) | Ming Tsai | 86–85 | |
| 8 | "Battle for Iron Legend" | All 5 Iron Chefs | Esther Choi | Sea (Secret Ingredient) | Iron Chefs | 83–82 |
In January 2022, Netflix announced that it would reboot the Iron Chef franchise with a new iteration subtitled Quest for an Iron Legend for eight episodes, initially.[1] The release date of June 15, 2022 was announced that May with Alton Brown returning to co-host the show with Kristen Kish and Mark Dacascos reprising as The Chairman.[2]
Tsai, Samuelsson, Crenn, and Stone were previously challengers on Iron Chef America, with Tsai, Samuelsson, and Crenn having also competed on The Next Iron Chef. Samuelsson was also a challenger on the aborted Iron Chef USA pilot from 2001. Past Iron Chefs Masaharu Morimoto and Wolfgang Puck appear as guest judges during the first season. Morimoto was the third Iron Chef Japanese on the original Iron Chef and was one of the Iron Chefs on Iron Chef America, while Wolfgang Puck served as one of the Iron Chefs for the Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters pilot miniseries before retiring.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 57% of 7 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10.[3] Jim Vorel at Paste enjoyed the show appreciating the preserved balance of "patently absurd" and "undeniably impressive" from previous iterations.[4] However, Wenlei Ma disagreed in her review for news.com.au feeling it lacked the weirdness of the original Iron Chef and was too polished, later calling it "soulless" and "not worthy of the Iron Chef name."[5]
