As we recently reported Iron Chef, the grandaddy of cooking competitions, is returning to television screens everywhere later this year. The reboot will see five brand new Iron Chefs take on all comers for eight episodes with the most successful challenger given the chance to become the very first Iron Legend.
However, you won’t find this new version of Iron Chef on its longtime home of Food Network. In a stunning twist the series will be moving over to the streamer Netflix where Eytan Keller and Daniel Calin will be executive producing and showrunning the reboot.
So of course this begs the question. Why did the owners of the Iron Chef property decide to move the series from Food Network, who has had great success with cooking competitions? And why, quite frankly, is that a good thing for fans?
We may never know the exact details of why Iron Chef is making the jump but a good guess would have to do with money. Netflix is known to green light massive budgets when it comes to new properties and can easily outspend Food Network when it comes to production.
By comparison, Bravo’s Top Chef has a prize of a quarter of a million dollars while the second season of Tournament of Champions had a prize of … $25,000. Yeah, Food Network isn’t exactly known for spending a ton of money. And this probably had a lot to do with the producers moving to Netflix.
Iron Chef and the fans need a fresh start and five new Iron Chefs.
Netflix Orders Supersized Reboot of ‘Iron Chef’ https://t.co/Fx1Et0v73e
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 20, 2022
But more important, by moving to Netflix it opens Iron Chef to a much broader base of cooks with vastly different styles to choose from. Which isn’t something anyone would have accused Food Network of, especially in the latter seasons of the series.
It felt like as Iron Chef America went on, Food Network was less interested in entertaining and innovative battles and instead wanted to create a steady stream of new on-air talent. This became even more obvious once the show gave up the entire idea of Battles and Kitchen Stadium and instead went with The Next Iron Chef format.
The title of Iron Chef used to mean something. It meant you were the best of the best and instead Food Network turned earning the title into a reality show where you won it and wanted to award the title to more and more people. Maybe it’s just me but watching Iron Chef and what it stood for be watered down like that was irksome.
By moving to Netflix, it gives the series a completely fresh start with five brand new Iron Chefs, none of which have to come from the stable of Food Network television personalities. Instead they will hopefully be chefs who are celebrities second and incredible cooks first.
No one is happier to see the return of Iron Chef than me. I adored the original Japanese version and the early seasons of Iron Chef America. It will be great to see the format hopefully return to glory and what made it the crown jewel of cooking competitions.
What do you think Guilty Eats Nation? Do you agree that Iron Chef needed a fresh start? Leave a comment below and let us know or join the conversation on our Twitter and Facebook pages.