# More Iron Chef America Knives



## SpikeC (Mar 12, 2011)

Watching battle cabbage, and Bobby Flay is using generic looking knives, butt the challenger is using J knives! I saw a honesuki used to break down a big sea bream, and a wa handled something chopping cabbage. I'm pretty sure that I saw a Nenohi gyuto in there too. The guy is plating with tweezers!


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## Jameson (Mar 22, 2011)

I have seen dozens of different knives on Ironchef the past few months. The only ones I could clearly pause and positively identify (LOVE DVR!) were:

Shun (looked to be a 6 or 8 " chefs)
Henckels Pro S
Korin (just said korin looked to be 8" or so gyuto) FORGIONNE was using it
Misono 440 (clear as day) looked to be 10" or larger gyuto

Would really like to hear what others have seen. I am not in any way saying that it matters, just nice to know...

Love this forum by the way...

JC


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## Tristan (Mar 22, 2011)

Iron Chef Japan, chef Morimoto (there's a morimoto everywhere) was dual wielding what looked like Nenox S1s to mince Natto beans.


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## bob (Mar 22, 2011)

A little ot. Spotted one of the contestants using a nenox in this season's top chef.


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## mhlee (Mar 22, 2011)

I haven't seen her recent battles but I've seen Iron Chef Cora use a Masanobu Gyuto. Batali used a Misono Carbon Gyuto (Dragon) when he was on the show. I saw Mark Ladner, Batali's assistant on the show, use a Glestain once when trimming fish. I don't recall what kind of chef's knife or gyuto he uses.

From what I can tell, Iron Chef Symon uses a Nenox (can't tell which handle, but it looks like a Karin to me).


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## Eamon Burke (Mar 22, 2011)

Tristan said:


> Iron Chef Japan, chef Morimoto (there's a morimoto everywhere) was dual wielding what looked like Nenox S1s to mince Natto beans.


 
If you are implying that there are other Morimotos, I would agree. But the Masiharu Morimoto from IC America is actually the Japan chef from Iron Chef Japan. He's one tough cooking hombre.

And he has a full set of red bone handled Nenox.


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## UglyJoe (Mar 22, 2011)

Morimoto I'm pretty sure is actually a Nenox rep. Not that that is a bad thing at all. I've seen a Carter on there before (not sure which battle). In the first battle that Garces had his opponent was using Suisin western handled knives. I've been trying to figure out what knife David Kinch was using (the guy from the battle cabbage referenced in the first post). It was a wa handled gyuto, but had a longer, flowing neck than any I could find online with no machi. Looked like a custom, very nice knife. Kinch's food has a lot of Japanese influence, so he probably got it in Japan from someone I can't find online.

Batali's sous, Ladner, used a deba and yanagi for a lot of Batali's later fish episodes, but I could never tell what the make was, and he didn't use them with traditional japanese technique, more like french technique with japanese knives.

Morimoto and his sous always blow my mind with how precise they are even in the time limits. Katsuramuki is hard enough as it is, but doing it all with yanagis in a big rush and hitting it just perfect makes me a little sick inside.


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## SpikeC (Mar 22, 2011)

Has anyone ever seen Morimoto use a Henckels Morimoto knife?


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## chazmtb (Mar 22, 2011)

Never. I have only seen the custom nenox/stag handle. The only double bevel I see him use on a regular basis is the custom yo-deba.


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## RRLOVER (Mar 22, 2011)

Recently i saw a very cute,very young female chef sharpening an S1 on a waterstone in her intro/bio to iron chef.She was cooking Italian food,did i mention she was easy on the eyes.I can't say i was looking for knives when she cooking:razz:


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## SpikeC (Mar 22, 2011)

I recently saw a chef on the Iron Chef Japan shown sharpening a Yanagi during his intro- he wasn't very pretty, tho...............


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## Eamon Burke (Mar 22, 2011)

I don't think anyone uses the knife lines they endorse, except people who aren't serious cooks, like Rachael Ray and Guy Fieri. I haven't even seen Alton use his "Angles" very often.

I mean, they are cooks. They know as much about knife design as NASCAR drivers know about Automotive Engineering. We are a collection of people who blur that line, but most cooks can only say something like what I hear from 90% of my coworkers: "I want a sharp knife that won't slip and I can rock".


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## Citizen Snips (Mar 23, 2011)

i would say they probably (with the exception of MM) dont know much about knives. they probably have people sharpen their brand new knives all the time and just phone nenox and tell them they need a new set. i doubt very much they have the time we all make in our lives to appreciate and sharpen our own cutlery.

i might be completely wrong but that is the feeling i get. look at their knives when they show them. there is no scratches or anything which leads me to believe they are right out of the box.

ive seen them all use a bunch of different knives and i also saw a challenger taking the sides off a large fish with a yanagi although i couldn't make out the brand. 

i guess we just take this obsession too far for the professional chef


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## mr drinky (Mar 23, 2011)

Citizen Snips said:


> i might be completely wrong but that is the feeling i get. look at their knives when they show them. there is no scratches or anything which leads me to believe they are right out of the box.


 
With that said, I have seen some of the sous chefs' knives look a bit beat up on Iron Chef, and the challenger knives are probably not promotional. Btw, it kills me when Flay opens cans with his knives. I've seen that a few times. 

Sometimes, I think Top Chef is a bit interesting to watch knives on too. I bet a lot of them buy new knives for the show, but every once in a while there is a surprise, like Hung in the past. Also, Blais was using a wa handled suji or yanagiba on the last show. It was a quick shot. The only down side with TC is that there are a lot of Shuns floating around.

k.


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## SpikeC (Mar 23, 2011)

Last nights IC Japan had Saki against an actual Frenchman, Saki used Nenox and the Frog had a roll of at least 10 knives that all had matching metal handles. 
Flay uses knives to open cans because he can't figure out how to use a can opener!


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## mr drinky (Mar 23, 2011)

SpikeC said:


> Flay uses knives to open cans because he can't figure out how to use a can opener!


 
That is so true. The can opener is his nemesis. 

k.


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## shankster (Mar 23, 2011)

Speaking of Bobby Flay,did you see him get murdered by my fellow Canadian Chuck Hughes? That was a total surprise.Those judges were merciless.


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## mr drinky (Mar 23, 2011)

What was the challenge? I saw a rerun last week where Cat Cora got hammered too.


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## shankster (Mar 23, 2011)

It was "Canadian Lobster' challenge. Flay looked pretty p!ssed off with one of his sous chefs.She was messing up bad.


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## ecchef (Mar 23, 2011)

I'd pay good money to see Flay cut his own head off on tv. :happy1:


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## shankster (Mar 23, 2011)

Lol! I hear that.I try to only watch the show when Morimoto is on,but to be fair I haven't seen any of the new Iron Chefs in action.


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## UglyJoe (Mar 23, 2011)

Symon is really good. I particularly try to catch his episodes and Morimoto's episodes. The new guy (Forgionne?) seems pretty good as well, but he's only had a couple of battles that I have seen.


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## SpikeC (Mar 23, 2011)

Symon is pretty entertaining.


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## aser (Mar 23, 2011)

Saw one of Chuck Hughes' sous cut lobster knuckles w/ a Suisin western gyuto.


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## Citizen Snips (Mar 24, 2011)

symon is a tool. it took me a while to realize it but its truth in my eyes.

garcia and MM are the only 2 i want to watch.

fogione is the son of larry whom i used to work for and i still couldn't be bothered to watch his battles


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## steeley (Mar 24, 2011)

You watch the food network :evilgrin:


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## Cadillac J (Mar 24, 2011)

mr drinky said:


> Blais was using a wa handled suji or yanagiba on the last show. It was a quick shot.


 
I noticed that too! My girlfriend was watching with me and I pointed it out to her...she rolled her eyes at me as usual.


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## rysara (Mar 24, 2011)

It's so funny that when ppl go onto iron chef america, you can tell what they are looking for. If they are just looking for bragging rights, they will pick Flay or Cora. If they are looking for a challenge, they will pick Morimoto or Batali. I think Batali is the only one with a perfect record... correct me if I'm wrong, I don't keep up with the show at all. Morimoto rarely gets picked and I think it's funny. 

And I saw Blais and his wa-suji last night! I coulda sworn it was a devin thomas knife and my gf was getting mad cuz I kept pausing it to see if there was any kanji or the trademark 'devin' arc on it. Turns out it was a japanese suji tho. Antonia uses Shuns and a yangiba that I can't quite tell who makes it and Mike has either a Togiharu or Kikuichi hammered knife.


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## rysara (Mar 24, 2011)

RRLOVER said:


> Recently i saw a very cute,very young female chef sharpening an S1 on a waterstone in her intro/bio to iron chef.She was cooking Italian food,did i mention she was easy on the eyes.I can't say i was looking for knives when she cooking:razz:


 
I also saw her. She is Emma Hearst. I met her. She and the chef proprietor of the restaurant I work for are part of the Slow Food Movement and we did an event together. She is pretty friggin hot in person. I didn't like in her intro that she had that nenox knife she was just sharpening jammed tip down into her cutting board. Made me cringe a little bit.


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## mr drinky (Mar 24, 2011)

rysara said:


> I didn't like in her intro that she had that nenox knife she was just sharpening jammed tip down into her cutting board. Made me cringe a little bit.


 
I guess when you are from a billionaire family you don't need to worry about knife tips.

k.


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## Eamon Burke (Mar 24, 2011)

rysara said:


> I think Batali is the only one with a perfect record... correct me if I'm wrong, I don't keep up with the show at all. Morimoto rarely gets picked and I think it's funny.


 
I've seen both of them lose, but I think it's funny that Batali doesn't get a lot of points for presentation, but taste is always top-notch. And MM always stupifies judges with presentation. Also, they tend to pick chefs that relate to their specialty. They aren't going to have an Italian chef from the west coast battle Bobby Flay in battle basil.

I've always wanted to see Bobby Flay in Battle: Ancho Chile.

WHY AREN'T THESE EPISODES ONLINE?! You guys bring up a sore spot for me.


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## mr drinky (Mar 24, 2011)

Here is the iron chef record as of time of writing.

Win/Loss/Draw/Total Battles

Mario Batali	19	5	0	24	79.2%
Cat Cora 18	14	1	33	57.5%
Bobby Flay 30	15	2	47	66.0%
Marc Forgione	1	1	0	2	50.0%
Jose Garces	6	2	0	8	75.0%
Morimoto 19	11	1	31	62.9%
Michael Symon	19	4	1	24	81.3%


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## WildBoar (Mar 24, 2011)

I don't think Batali is in the ICA lineup anymore; they no longer show him in the the intro segment of the newest episodes. I'm surprised Morimoto's winning percentage is so low, as it always seems like he blows away the competition.

I do find it curious the Japanese lady is always a judge when Morimoto is on the show... I also think the Iron Chef who will compete on a given show is predetermined; I would bet they bring them in to bang out a couple/ few shows on consequtive days. They are all busy people; no way they would show up for each show and wait to see if they are picked.


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## shankster (Mar 24, 2011)

WildBoar said:


> I don't think Batali is in the ICA lineup anymore; they no longer show him in the the intro segment of the newest episodes. I'm surprised Morimoto's winning percentage is so low, as it always seems like he blows away the competition.
> 
> I do find it curious the Japanese lady is always a judge when Morimoto is on the show... I also think the Iron Chef who will compete on a given show is predetermined; I would bet they bring them in to bang out a couple/ few shows on consequtive days. They are all busy people; no way they would show up for each show and wait to see if they are picked.



I think you're right about Batali not being on the show anymore and i think the challengers can only pick from a list of who's available on the day of taping.Plus the secret ingredient is not so secret.


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## mr drinky (Mar 24, 2011)

If you want a tell-all of the IC show, you can read this village voice article. 

http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-02-19/restaurants/iron-chef-boyardee/

Some of the highlights: 

* They use body doubles for the chefs that are not competing.
* The competing duo is known before hand as is the secret ingredient (more or less).
* They tape multiple shows on one day. (That is why that Japanese lady David mentions often has the same suit on.)
* The 'mad rush' dishes that aren't that rushed actually are not the ones tasted. They prepare the dishes again later on for judging. 

That's TV I guess. 

And here is an article from the challenger's point of view.

http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070528/CUSTOM04/70523008

k.


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## UglyJoe (Mar 24, 2011)

Cool reads. Those articles are pretty much exactly how I thought the show worked. I figured they either knew a list of possible ingredients ahead of time or that they were told what "class" the ingredient was, so they could at least partially prepare. I also figure they probably have water, stock, etc. at a simmer and all the ovens on and ready to go as well. Don't know what the guy from VV was so upset about, it's obvious if you watch the show just a couple of times that things aren't exactly like they seem, and that doesn't bother me. Heck, some of the time what they plate in the show and what actually get's presented to the judges don't even look the same.

There have been a couple of times when the chefs (challengers or IC) have decided to go off the cuff and make up something as they go (usually a desert or cocktail in response to the judges or Alton saying something). Very often that doesn't work at all... well the cocktails usually don't hurt them, but every once in a while a spontaneous decision to use the ice cream machine will.


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## Eamon Burke (Mar 25, 2011)

Well, when the secret ingredient is bacon and they go grab some Wagyu beef and rare soft cheeses, and seafood fresh from south africa...it would be criminal to actually have all that food hanging around just in case one of the chefs needs it!


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## Audi's or knives (Mar 25, 2011)

So do you think they are given a hint of the secret ingredient and then they submit a listing of items they would like to be available, a sorta grocery list i suppose. At least thats what I always thought, wish they would do a blind reveal episode to really see how creative the chefs can be. Gets me thinking how much time the Top Chef contestants really get to prepare for the quick fires, gotta love post production editing.


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## Citizen Snips (Mar 26, 2011)

it works like this. the challenger gets 3 possibilities of what the secret ingredient could be. they submit their recipes and menu items which are disclosed to the IC. this makes it easy to have the ingredients that are needed on hand. it also puts the battle in the hands of the IC to lose seeing as how they know what they are up against.


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## Eamon Burke (Mar 26, 2011)

Yep, Morimoto talks about that in a Google Talks session. He said he often will do 3 episodes a season, which are all filmed in the same month. He is given a list of 3 possible ingredients for each battle, and has to prepare 5 dishes for each possible ingredient. So he has to create FORTY FIVE brilliant, television-worthy, Moritmoto-reputation-level dishes that can be made in under 1 hour, in a few weeks. Sounds exhausting.

The only thing I don't like about that show is that there is no slow cooking. Some things just take longer than one hour!


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## aaronsgibson (Mar 26, 2011)

Has me kind of wondering how they went about it for the original Iron Chef? I think I remember seeing a book out about it some time ago but I can't help but think that they didn't do anything as much as this show does. I even remember seeing they setting up the dinning area while they were a little half way done, and they had to make ALL of the dishes. So I'm thinking that they really did eat right after they finished. Maybe someone else can chime in and give a little more light on the subject. But that is why the original will always be the best.


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## Eamon Burke (Mar 26, 2011)

I think the American one is better. 

Why? 

Alton.


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## SpikeC (Mar 26, 2011)

There is an idea for another show-Iron Chef Slowfood! 24 hours to transform the secret ingredient!


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## shankster (Mar 26, 2011)

What does everyone think of the show "Chopped"? Seems like a true "black box" test.Some of the ingredients are pretty wacky though.


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## SpikeC (Mar 26, 2011)

Just don't ask the guy from VV! Whata grump!


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## stereo.pete (Mar 27, 2011)

I love the show chopped for several reasons. The first reason is that from what I can tell they are 100% legit when it comes to surprising the competitors with the ingredients. Second, unlike Top Chef (another favorite of mine) they don't look at the last meal prepared as the end all be all, they look at the complete meal to make their final decision. I feel this second reason is why Top Chef is not my absolute favorite show currently as some of the past winners clearly had a very weak body of work. Third, my wife has a crush on Scott Conant so that is another reason why we watch  .


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## shankster (Mar 27, 2011)

Chopped is a fun show to watch cause I'm always thinking, mmm what would I do? I still haven't seen "Chopped All stars".It hasn't aired in Canada yet.


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## Eamon Burke (Mar 27, 2011)

Chopped is a great format, but the judges are usually 2/3 moronic opinion-givers, and Ted Allen is MEAN.

The format is really great, it's what I actually do every day, my wife just can't get in on it.


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## Eamon Burke (Mar 27, 2011)

A 24 hour Iron Chef would probably be all about dishes like this:


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## Jay (Mar 27, 2011)

Citizen Snips said:


> i would say they probably (with the exception of MM) dont know much about knives.


 
I ran into Morimoto at Korin twice, and I get the impression that he's very passionate about his knives and stones. He certainly has a lot invested in them.


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## gentlecook (Nov 5, 2013)

Holla guys!

Cant find records of the Ironchef America on youtube and google gives errorish links.

maybe someone had this records in another place?
(or maybe HDD =))
actually interested in records with Morimoto.

thank you!


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## Chefu (Nov 5, 2013)

I was lucky enough to have Morimoto and his sous chef do a private demo for about 10 of us where I work. He broke down a 80 lb tuna and then did several quick sushi dishes / maki rolls. His sous chef was using some "well used" knives that he had brought with him. Morimoto himself was using an 8" ZKramer as a deba to break down some 4 lb whole fish. I took him to lunch the next day along with his sous chef but he was slightly aloof when I would ask him questions. Basically all I got out of him was that he preferred aogami to shirogami. I do have a good relationship with Inotada Productions in Osaka where Morimoto took Anthony Bourdain on his show and I have gotten several knives that I really like.


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