Post by Man Alive! on Apr 16, 2007 16:20:51 GMT -5
"Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you what you are."
-Brillat-Savarin
*music plays*
Fukui: Nearly a decade ago, a man's fantasy became reality in a form never seen before: Kitchen Stadium, a giant cooking arena. The motivation for spending his fortune to create Kitchen Stadium was to encounter new, original cuisines that could be called true, artistic creations.
*cut to Kaga yelling "Allez Cuisine"*
To realize his dream, he secretly started choosing the top chefs of various styles of cooking. And he named his chefs the Iron Chefs: The invincible chefs of culinary skills. Iron Chef Japanese is Rokusaburo Michiba, Iron Chef French is Hiroyuki Sakai, and Iron Chef Chinese is Chen Kenichi.
Kitchen Stadium is the arena where Iron Chefs await the challenges from master chefs from around the world. Both the Iron Chef and challenger have one hour to tackle the theme ingredient of the day. Using all their senses, skill, and creativity, they are to prepare artistic dishes never tasted before. Every battle, reputations are on the line in Kitchen Stadium, where master chefs pit their artistic creations against each other. What inspiration does today's challenger bring? And how will the Iron Chef fight back? The heat will be on!
Kaga: If memory serves me right, one of the best restaurants in Taiwan is undoubtedly the one operated by the Grand Hotel, Taipei.
In 1996, their head chef, Gao Jinyi, narrowly lost a battle here to Iron Chef Chen. Now, this talented chef has contacted me with a request to send another master chef into my Kitchen Stadium. However, his culinary hit man is an unusual legend of Taiwanese cuisine, in that he is a man . . . with no taste.
Today’s challenger: the former foodservice consultant to the Grand Hotel . . . Chu Si-Hung!
Born in Hunan in 1930, Chu fled to Taiwan during the 1948 Revolution, and promptly went into training as a chef. He joined the staff of the Golden Dragon restaurant of the Grand Hotel in 1958, and soon rose to the position of executive chef, in charge of banqueting, and personally trained Gao Jinyi in the secrets of Imperial cuisine. He was in fact a contender for the position of head chef.
However, in 1989, Chu’s wife died after a sudden illness. A week later, Chu himself suffered a debilitating stroke.
Chu: “When I woke up in hospital . . . I couldn’t taste anything. I could still move my arms and speak, but my sense of taste was gone.”
For most chefs, this unfortunate turn of events would have spelled out the end of their career. But for Master Chu, it was the birth of a legend.
Rehabilitating from his stroke, he was repositioned by the Grand Hotel as a foodservice consultant, creating new and exclusive dishes for the hotel’s high-class clientele. Instead of relying on his own palate, he began allowing the sous-chefs around him to taste his creations, and learned to read their reactions in order to bring out the best flavor. His perceptiveness in the kitchen allows him to expand his own culinary horizons, despite the fact that he cannot taste a thing.
And just as the great composer Beethoven created his best works while deaf, so too was this period of Master Chu’s career the most productive. Chefs in Taiwan still tell the story of the Grand Hotel’s wedding banquet.
Chu was called in to rescue a stewed shark’s fin dish for the bridal banquet. The fin had been discovered to be a fake and totally unsuitable for the dish.
Gao Jinyi: “He looked at that fake fin for about a minute, then said, ‘We’ll make Joy Luck Dragon Phoenix.’ The sous-chefs asked how, and his reply was: ‘I don’t know, but I will by the time we’re finished.’”
The improvised dish was a success with the bridal party, and shortly after this Master Chu’s fortunes improved. He was blessed with sons-in-law for two of his three daughters, and he himself remarried. Shortly after this, after more than five years of rehabilitation, Master Chu finally regained his sense of taste. He has now opened his own restaurant, the Yinshinannu in downtown Taipei, featuring some of the best examples of Hunan, Szechuan and Imperial cuisine.
So now, Master Chu! Show us the skills that a man with no taste can bring into the kitchen, and enhance your legend- in my Kitchen Stadium!
Chu: “Win or lose . . . I promise you, I will hold nothing back.”
*Kaga steps into Kitchen Stadium. The camera pans around a large column, showing Kaga stepping up to center stage. The Chairman looks around at the many features and ingredients in Kitchen Stadium, and his eyes land on a yellow bell pepper in front of him. He picks it up, and takes a bite. Suddenly, a large smile spreads across his face, as the camera pulls back, revealing the once-empty Kitchen Stadium now full of Gourmet Academy chefs. Flames burst onto the screen, and in both Japanese and English characters appears the words: Iron Chef. The camera pans once more around Kitchen Stadium, and the day’s events are now ready to begin*
Fukui: Welcome to Kitchen Stadium! Tonight, a master chef who spent an entire portion of his life without any sense of taste is stepping into Kitchen Stadium to do battle with one of the Iron Chefs. But before the battle begins, allow me to introduce our guest for tonight's battle, former Lower House member Shinichiro Kurimoto- glad to see you again, sir. And with me as usual is our resident food commentator Doctor Hattori- great to have you here, Doc! So, in these brief moments before Chairman Kaga strides onto the stage, Doc, tell me... how can a chef possibly cook without a sense of taste? After all, the most successful part of the challenger's life took place when he had no ability to taste!
-Brillat-Savarin
*music plays*
Fukui: Nearly a decade ago, a man's fantasy became reality in a form never seen before: Kitchen Stadium, a giant cooking arena. The motivation for spending his fortune to create Kitchen Stadium was to encounter new, original cuisines that could be called true, artistic creations.
*cut to Kaga yelling "Allez Cuisine"*
To realize his dream, he secretly started choosing the top chefs of various styles of cooking. And he named his chefs the Iron Chefs: The invincible chefs of culinary skills. Iron Chef Japanese is Rokusaburo Michiba, Iron Chef French is Hiroyuki Sakai, and Iron Chef Chinese is Chen Kenichi.
Kitchen Stadium is the arena where Iron Chefs await the challenges from master chefs from around the world. Both the Iron Chef and challenger have one hour to tackle the theme ingredient of the day. Using all their senses, skill, and creativity, they are to prepare artistic dishes never tasted before. Every battle, reputations are on the line in Kitchen Stadium, where master chefs pit their artistic creations against each other. What inspiration does today's challenger bring? And how will the Iron Chef fight back? The heat will be on!
Kaga: If memory serves me right, one of the best restaurants in Taiwan is undoubtedly the one operated by the Grand Hotel, Taipei.
In 1996, their head chef, Gao Jinyi, narrowly lost a battle here to Iron Chef Chen. Now, this talented chef has contacted me with a request to send another master chef into my Kitchen Stadium. However, his culinary hit man is an unusual legend of Taiwanese cuisine, in that he is a man . . . with no taste.
Today’s challenger: the former foodservice consultant to the Grand Hotel . . . Chu Si-Hung!
Born in Hunan in 1930, Chu fled to Taiwan during the 1948 Revolution, and promptly went into training as a chef. He joined the staff of the Golden Dragon restaurant of the Grand Hotel in 1958, and soon rose to the position of executive chef, in charge of banqueting, and personally trained Gao Jinyi in the secrets of Imperial cuisine. He was in fact a contender for the position of head chef.
However, in 1989, Chu’s wife died after a sudden illness. A week later, Chu himself suffered a debilitating stroke.
Chu: “When I woke up in hospital . . . I couldn’t taste anything. I could still move my arms and speak, but my sense of taste was gone.”
For most chefs, this unfortunate turn of events would have spelled out the end of their career. But for Master Chu, it was the birth of a legend.
Rehabilitating from his stroke, he was repositioned by the Grand Hotel as a foodservice consultant, creating new and exclusive dishes for the hotel’s high-class clientele. Instead of relying on his own palate, he began allowing the sous-chefs around him to taste his creations, and learned to read their reactions in order to bring out the best flavor. His perceptiveness in the kitchen allows him to expand his own culinary horizons, despite the fact that he cannot taste a thing.
And just as the great composer Beethoven created his best works while deaf, so too was this period of Master Chu’s career the most productive. Chefs in Taiwan still tell the story of the Grand Hotel’s wedding banquet.
Chu was called in to rescue a stewed shark’s fin dish for the bridal banquet. The fin had been discovered to be a fake and totally unsuitable for the dish.
Gao Jinyi: “He looked at that fake fin for about a minute, then said, ‘We’ll make Joy Luck Dragon Phoenix.’ The sous-chefs asked how, and his reply was: ‘I don’t know, but I will by the time we’re finished.’”
The improvised dish was a success with the bridal party, and shortly after this Master Chu’s fortunes improved. He was blessed with sons-in-law for two of his three daughters, and he himself remarried. Shortly after this, after more than five years of rehabilitation, Master Chu finally regained his sense of taste. He has now opened his own restaurant, the Yinshinannu in downtown Taipei, featuring some of the best examples of Hunan, Szechuan and Imperial cuisine.
So now, Master Chu! Show us the skills that a man with no taste can bring into the kitchen, and enhance your legend- in my Kitchen Stadium!
Chu: “Win or lose . . . I promise you, I will hold nothing back.”
*Kaga steps into Kitchen Stadium. The camera pans around a large column, showing Kaga stepping up to center stage. The Chairman looks around at the many features and ingredients in Kitchen Stadium, and his eyes land on a yellow bell pepper in front of him. He picks it up, and takes a bite. Suddenly, a large smile spreads across his face, as the camera pulls back, revealing the once-empty Kitchen Stadium now full of Gourmet Academy chefs. Flames burst onto the screen, and in both Japanese and English characters appears the words: Iron Chef. The camera pans once more around Kitchen Stadium, and the day’s events are now ready to begin*
Fukui: Welcome to Kitchen Stadium! Tonight, a master chef who spent an entire portion of his life without any sense of taste is stepping into Kitchen Stadium to do battle with one of the Iron Chefs. But before the battle begins, allow me to introduce our guest for tonight's battle, former Lower House member Shinichiro Kurimoto- glad to see you again, sir. And with me as usual is our resident food commentator Doctor Hattori- great to have you here, Doc! So, in these brief moments before Chairman Kaga strides onto the stage, Doc, tell me... how can a chef possibly cook without a sense of taste? After all, the most successful part of the challenger's life took place when he had no ability to taste!