Iron Chef "Bogus" Says Voice Critic Who Saw It Live

About a year ago, Village Voice restaurant critic Robert Sietsema attended a taping of Iron Chef America at the Food Network's Chelsea studios. Thanks to a friend's invite, the Food Network had no idea he was watching and waiting to blow the cover off the whole phony operation once the episode finally aired. Now Sietsema is here to report that the series is “more bogus than even I had imagined.”

How bogus is it? Well, for starters, what’s edited to look like “extreme urgency” on TV, with chefs hustling to finish up to five dishes in under an hour, is in reality just “drones going about their appointed tasks with well-tested recipes.” Sietsema confirms the chefs aren’t actually sweating it because they know what the “secret ingredient” is going to be in advance and are thus able to plan out what they’re going to cook.

Once the dull cooking round ends, Sietsema is shocked to see that the judging doesn't start immediately while the food is still fresh, but actually takes two hours to shoot. So guess how these slick Hollywood types pull it off – they have the sous chefs cook new versions of the dishes all over again during the judging process! Sietsema also thinks it’s bogus how Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto pulled an expensive white truffle out of his pocket and grated it over one dish; challenger Fortunato Nicotra of Felidia had no such advantage, and lost big-time to Morimoto.

The whole 3,330-word exposé is enough to disillusion you with the entire TV game show industry. Let’s just hope Sietsema never goes to an American Gladiator taping and ruins that with his muckraking – some of us still need heroes to believe in. How shocked are you to hear Iron Chef America’s a hoax?

Photo by Liz Johnson, who had a better time behind the scenes.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in Food on February 20, 2008 5:18 PM

Comments [rss]

itsallshitanyway

Im so sick of Alton Brown. I want to learn how to make a new meal, I don't give a flying fuck what year the seeds I use were imported here, I don't care why people call it pepper instead of pep, I don't care that Alton knows this information. You know why? Because in the end, all this food is going to end up in my toilet, as shit, just like his history lessons.
I think that everytime I see Chopped and these pretentious foodie dickwads sit there and pick at the dumbest shit on the plate. Once the douchebag with the...omg I just realized I can't describe any of the douchebags very differently. Ok, one of the white douchebags, actually said " I just wish you had been more honest with the sauce"Ok, asshole. I'm sorry my sauce is a lie, would you like me to make you a grilled cheese made out of gold? would that be good enough, or would that be too " over zealous " of a flavor for you? Again, all this food (which Food Networks wastes like crazy, throwing out anything Guy Fierris fatass won't finish eating) comes out your asshole as shit. So no matter how amazing these dishes are, how perfect the ingredients are, it will end up as shit. SHIT. And Guy Fierri definitely strikes me as the kind of fat loser in High School who just never learned how to be cool and social, so when he got on tv he became this obnoxious fat piece of shit that goes to ppls establishments and pigs out in front of them while interrupting them every five seconds and not paying for the food. Fat asshole. " That is bank! Thats money right there. Stay tuned on triple D! We got all sorts of stuff happenin here! " Ummm yeah that's how a loser talks. You know how a cool guy talks? " That's delicious, I would come back here any day. You guys have something great here, I'm glad we could see you at work" or something realistic like that. Fierri is a pretentious douchebag trying to look cool for the camera, and again, he grew up the fat kid in school that never learned anything about being normal in social situations, so now he goes up to you in a restaurant and puts a fucking camera in your face while you try to eat. He even grabs food off people's plates, the fat hunk of shit.

And if this sounds like too much hate for you, fuck off, you know you think the same shit sometimes if not even worse.

itsallshitanyway

Im so sick of Alton Brown. I want to learn how to make a new meal, I don't give a flying fuck what year the seeds I use were imported here, I don't care why people call it pepper instead of pep, I don't care that Alton knows this information. You know why? Because in the end, all this food is going to end up in my toilet, as shit, just like his history lessons.
I think that everytime I see Chopped and these pretentious foodie dickwads sit there and pick at the dumbest shit on the plate. Once the douchebag with the...omg I just realized I can't describe any of the douchebags very differently. Ok, one of the white douchebags, actually said " I just wish you had been more honest with the sauce"Ok, asshole. I'm sorry my sauce is a lie, would you like me to make you a grilled cheese made out of gold? would that be good enough, or would that be too " over zealous " of a flavor for you? Again, all this food (which Food Networks wastes like crazy, throwing out anything Guy Fierris fatass won't finish eating) comes out your asshole as shit. So no matter how amazing these dishes are, how perfect the ingredients are, it will end up as shit. SHIT. And Guy Fierri definitely strikes me as the kind of fat loser in High School who just never learned how to be cool and social, so when he got on tv he became this obnoxious fat piece of shit that goes to ppls establishments and pigs out in front of them while interrupting them every five seconds and not paying for the food. Fat asshole. " That is bank! Thats money right there. Stay tuned on triple D! We got all sorts of stuff happenin here! " Ummm yeah that's how a loser talks. You know how a cool guy talks? " That's delicious, I would come back here any day. You guys have something great here, I'm glad we could see you at work" or something realistic like that. Fierri is a pretentious douchebag trying to look cool for the camera, and again, he grew up the fat kid in school that never learned anything about being normal in social situations, so now he goes up to you in a restaurant and puts a fucking camera in your face while you try to it. He even grabs food off people's plates, the fat hunk of shit.

And if this sounds like too much hate for you, fuck off, you know you think the same shit sometimes if not even worse.

itsallshitanyway

Im so sick of Alton Brown. I want to learn how to make a new meal, I don't give a flying fuck what year the seeds I use were imported here, I don't care why people call it pepper instead of pep, I don't care that Alton knows this information. You know why? Because in the end, all this food is going to end up in my toilet, as shit, just like his history lessons.

I think that everytime I see Chopped and these pretentious foodie dickwads sit there and pick at the dumbest shit on the plate. Once the douchebag with the...omg I just realized I can't describe any of the douchebags very differently. Ok, one of the white douchebags, actually said " I just wish you had been more honest with the sauce"Ok, asshole. I'm sorry my sauce is a lie, would you like me to make you a grilled cheese made out of gold? would that be good enough, or would that be too " over zealous " of a flavor for you? Again, all this food (which Food Networks wastes like crazy, throwing out anything Guy Fierris fatass won't finish eating) comes out your asshole as shit. So no matter how amazing these dishes are, how perfect the ingredients are, it will end up as shit. SHIT. And Guy Fierri definitely strikes me as the kind of fat loser in High School who just never learned how to be cool and social, so when he got on tv he became this obnoxious fat piece of shit that goes to ppls establishments and pigs out in front of them while interrupting them every five seconds and not paying for the food. Fat asshole. " That is bank! Thats money right there. Stay tuned on triple D! We got all sorts of stuff happenin here! " Ummm yeah that's how a loser talks. You know how a cool guy talks? " That's delicious, I would come back here any day. You guys have something great here, I'm glad we could see you at work" or something realistic like that. Fierri is a pretentious douchebag trying to look cool for the camera, and again, he grew up the fat kid in school that never learned anything about being normal in social situations, so now he goes up to you in a restaurant and puts a fucking camera in your face while you try to it. He even grabs food off people's plates, the fat hunk of shit.

And if this sounds like too much hate for you, fuck off, you know you think the same shit sometimes if not even worse.

Tom Thumb

I take it the Japanese version is fake too...?

sinking_ship

taste was great. i still like good eats. pittsburgh is lucky to have a lidia's. i think all food network's budget goes to fuzzy lighting and low cut tops. cookin' in brooklyn is pretty good also. it's on tlc i think.

Tim N.

I'm with you, Jacque. And JC's Bra, not only is Lidia great, but most of the PBS cooking shows (Jacques Peppin, Ming Tsai, Mike Colamecco, etc) are way better than anything on the FN, except maybe for Alton Brown.

Interesting thing is Alton Brown's show is a lot like Rosengarten's show was, with a little more attitude.

I miss Molto Mario when he would try to teach three people to cook and immediately start to completely lose patience. Was like watching a big red time bomb.

aydiosmio

Alton Alton Alton!

aveB4life

alton is fine. i dont like the big girl who is a judge on most iron show episodes.

JenChungsBaby

I guess it would help if I knew how to spell her name. It's Lidia.

JenChungsBaby

Ditch the Food Network and its Dunkin Donuts-endorsing celebs and watch Lydia's Kitchen on PBS instead, IMHO the best food show on TV. And it's based out of Lydia's real live actual kitchen in Queens (Little Neck or Douglaston, I forget which one). A long time ago she also owned a restaurant in Forest Hills. There are many times that I've wished that Lydia Bastianich was part of my family.

http://www.lidiasitaly.com/index2.htm#Home

Matt Joyce

This man has crushed the meaning in my life with his cold vice like grip on reality. Where will I escape to now as this fantastic reprieve from the mundane is now closed forever to my logical mind. Curse you village voice critic... you will rue the day!

maevemealone

JacqueMehoff: I'm with you! I loved his show, he was intelligent, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and didn't talk to you like you didn't know what butter was. I'd even welcome back a Jacques Torres pastry with blowtorches episode to just get a break from the inanity.

AHT

Next you're going to tell me the Chairman really isn't the nephew of Chairman Kaga.

...oh. Never mind.

(Seriously. Can we get the 'Duh' chorus from those car commericals in here to serenade this guy with?)

SP

jluther, thanks for that link. The best news to comeout of this is that nintendo is developing an Iron Chef game for the wii. w00t!!!1!

Toby von Meistersinger

Next thing we know it will be revealed that politicians do not write their own speeches!

JacqueMehoff

Others may be in disagreement with me but I enjoyed David Rosengarten's show Taste.

Quenepa

I'm shocked that show is still on - it's really hard to watch from the beginning apple biting to the judges....

Streamwise

Its been open knowledge for a LONG time that the chefs got a list of 3 ingredients beforehand and planned their menus accordingly. And if you were too dumb to figure out how 5 people supposedly tasted a multi-course menu immediately after it was 'prepared' then maybe you need to keep watching some more "reality" shows....

Tim N.

I don't know what's less shocking: finding out that Iron Chef is fake, or that the Village Voice is all indignant that they got taken in.

Food Network used to have Julia Child (in reruns, but still), Wolfgang Puck, Anthony Bourdain, Mario Batali, Emeril Lagasse, Sara Molton, and Jack McDavid. Now they've got Rachael Ray, Rachael Ray, Rachael Ray, Rachael Ray, Rachael Ray, Rachael Ray, some trailer trash competing for $1000 over who has the best tuna casserole recipe, and a rigged Iron Chef.

Slappy may be right, maybe it is a metaphor for America.

Tim N.

I don't know what's less shocking: finding out that Iron Chef is fake, or that the Village Voice is all indignant that they got taken in.

Food Network used to have Julia Child (in reruns, but still), Wolfgang Puck, Anthony Bourdain, Mario Batali, Emeril Lagasse, Sara Molton, and Jack McDavid. Now they've got Rachael Ray, Rachael Ray, Rachael Ray, Rachael Ray, Rachael Ray, Rachael Ray, some trailer trash competing for $1000 over who has the best tuna casserole recipe, and a rigged Iron Chef.

Slappy may be right, maybe it is a metaphor for America.

slappy

Check out the Bush administration for the last 8 years. Now there's a transparent dumb-ass reality show if I ever saw one.

slappy

Reality shows are fake. duh

gothamistgal

Yeah, good thing Food Network told all the viewers of the show about this when they did a special "behind the scenes" episode. Sounds like Sietsema came up with some really breaking news that the producers are horrified he set loose.

JacqueMehoff

Food Network sux now anyway.

should be re-named the king nerd channel.

yeah, I'm looking at you a. brown. I'll stick to watching re-runs and re-makes of Nostradamus on the History channel.

jluther

Yeah. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Chef describes the whole setup.

smokedgouda

I guess I am the only one who thought the "secret" ingredient was not supposed to be secret, but a wink-wink sort of secret. How naive of me.

Food TV has gone completely south since a few years ago. I can't remember the last time I even watched it. My faves were Molto Mario, Hot Off the Grill with Bobby Flay, Boy Meets Grill, Emeril Live, and even some of Alton Brown's explanations. Most everything else is watered down for Joe and Joanne America.

dkstar1

The next thing they'll try convincing us of is that pro wrestling is fake.

But seriously, this is old news. Amateur Gourmet reported on this awhile back.

Old news and not really too big of a surprise.

HughGass

this is old news

marblehill

I don't believe it! This is the worst news of the entire past 15 minutes. Next we're going to find out that Late Night with Conan O'Brien is NOT a live broadcast at 12:35am every night.

Rocknrope

I never thought the "secret" ingredient was an absolute surprise, even in the Japanese version. I always thought that they knew it would be one of three ingredients, and had to plan menus accordingly. I mean, how realistic is it to have every possible ingredient on hand for what a chef potentially wants to make?