This Wired story and accompanying diagram offer a peek into how Iron Chef America is staged and shot in Food Network’s “Kitchen Stadium”. Because the pace of the show is so fast, with lots of quick shots and handheld camera, it’s not always easy to get a sense of where things are on the stage. For example, I always thought Alton Brown’s station was over by the Judges’ Table, sort of up and away from the action, but he is right in front of the chefs. That makes sense, actually, because often when Alton makes a comment about something he can’t quite figure out, the chefs will answer him directly, which they probably wouldn’t do if he wasn’t so close.
My guess is that the layout of the original Kitchen Stadium set at Fuji Television was probably similar, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen any diagrams to corroborate that. Food Network stopped airing the original “Iron Chef” a few years ago, but their new network, the Cooking Channel, will be running it Monday-Friday at 11:00 p.m., so it might be possible to figure it out from watching a few of those episodes. While I have come to appreciate ICA for its own merits, I have to say that it definitely comes nowhere near the high camp entertainment level of the original show. Maybe ICA would be more entertaining if they dubbed all of Alton’s commentary into slightly-out-of-sync Japanese.
