SC - RE: Iron Chef Competition - long

[Susan Fox-Davis]

Golly this sounds like fun!  Despite what some poo-heads say, what
could be so wrong about making an arts contest fun and exciting?

Debra Hense wrote:

> Thorbjorn and Dame Selene Colfox
> I am combining your messages and answering both at the same time.
>
> Thorbjorn wrote:
> <<<I guess I just don't like competitions were the goal is to not lose points,
> I much rather the goal would be to earn the most points.>>>
>
> Dame Selene Colfox wrote:
> <<<This needs work.  I find it needlessly complex.  What is wrong with the original
> method?  The only change we made to the TV version was to increase the number of judges
> from 4 to 5, obviating the need for a tie-breaker.>>>
>
> I haven't ever seen the show, just what people have told me about it. And
> the points is just something I threw out so that people could and would
> give me input on how they rather it was judged.  I have no idea about
> how they score so if you could elaborate I would appreciate it very much.

I recommend you do.  It runs Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays on the Food Network.If you'd like
I tape I think I can run up something for you this weekend.  It it a HOOT.
The atmosphere is pure Japanese martial arts hype, the announcers come from
a Sumo background and the excitement level is high.  The scenario is:  The "Chairman",
popular stage actor  Takeshi Kaga, has created a luxurious Kitchen Stadium to stage honorable
combat between his "Iron Chefs," his specially-selected iron men of cuisine, and challengers
from the culinary world.  There are 4 Iron Chefs, each specializing in a different regional
cuisine, Japanese, Chinese, French and Italian.  The challengers come from everywhere, mostly
Japan but sometimes America, China and even Italy, and have backgrounds from the finest
five-star restaurants to one guy who ran an outdoor food stand.  I'd say the Iron Chefs win
about three quarters of the time, and I've only seen one woman ever win. There is always a
theme ingredient, which must be used in all the dishes.  Usually at least 4 and as many as 6
or 7 dishes are produced.  Never let Iron Chef French near the ice cream machine on a fish
night, bleccch! Web pages:  <http://www.ironchef-fujitv.com/> and <www.foodtv.com>

Okay, the points system.  Simple really.  There are four judges; two popular performers,
usually but not always one male and one female, who are actors, singers or sports figures;
one "lower house member" [think congressman.  I wonder how this guy got this cushy job?] and
an elder lady, either a culinary expert or a 'fortune teller'.  Culinary expert Kishi is,
let's say, the Ras of the panel, very exacting and authenticity-minded.  Each judge grants a
point value to each of the Chefs' presentations, up to 20 points.  If Judge A grants Chef X
18 points and Iron Chef Y 17 points, then Judge A selects Chef X.  THAT is what it added up
at the end to select the victor.    In the case of a tie, the individual points are counted.
If that's still a tie, a 30-minute tiebreaker round is added, using whatever ingredients are
left including the same theme ingredient.

A typical result looks like this:

                  Judge A     Judge B     Judge C     Judge D
Chef X              18           18            17              15
Iron Chef Y       17           19            18              18
X            Y             Y                Y

Victory goes to Iron Chef Y!

My variations;  we used 5 judges instead of 4 to prevent the tie problem.  I made up nice
little judging forms that broke it down to 10 points for the food and 10 points for
presentation.


> Because I haven't seen it, I'm not trying to recreate the show in its entirety.
> I am however trying to give it a bit of Calontir twist with the emphasis on
> teams.  Thus, the bartering for excess ingredients. But, bartering may be
> one of the parts that gets thrown out depending on comments received.
>
> One of the goals may be to serve the results to Royalty, for their feast
> one night at Lilies.  So, the sops rights may be right out as a fund-raising
> idea to recoup costs.  (Lilies is a Calontir war where Calontir fights against
> Calontir.  Non-Calontiri take whichever side they think will be the most
> fun.) Teams may be asked to declare for a side ... for a war point.
>
> This is currently being planned for Lilies - June 9 through 16th at Smithville
> Lake near Kansas City MO.  Keep checking the Calontir Web page for
> updated info:  http://calontir.sca.org/

Well if it's Lilies, you'll want a theme ingredient that reflects the theme of Purple
andGold.  Grapes or raisins would be ideal, providing you can get fresh grapes that early in
the year.

If you don't sell tickets and serve this to the Royals, try to get some funds from Kingdom.

And don't let the French chef near the ice cream maker.

Best, Selene