Original Air Dates: 1993 - 1999 (Fuji TV - Japan)

It has been shown on the Food Network in the U.S. for several years. While it's the same show, they have over-dubbed much of the Japanese. Interestingly enough, they don't over-dub the words of the host, preferring instead to provide sub-titles. This is reportedly done because when they tried to dub him, it never seemed to sound quite right.

VOICE-OVER FROM THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE VERSION:

 Nearly a decade ago, a man's fantasy became reality in a form never seen before, Kitchen Stadium, a giant cooking arena. The motivation for spending his fortune to create kitchen stadium was to encounter new, original cuisine, which could be called true, artistic creations. To realize his dream, he started choosing the top chefs of various styles of cooking, and he named his men the Iron Chefs, the invincible men of culinary skill. Iron Chef Japanese is Masaharu Morimoto, Iron Chef French is Hiroyuki Sakai, Iron Chef Chinese is Chen Kenichi, and Masahiko Kobe is Iron Chef Italian. Kitchen stadium is the arena where Iron Chefs await the challenges of master chefs from all over the world. Both the Iron Chef and challenger have one hour to tackle the theme ingredient of the day. Using all their senses, skills, creativity, they're to prepare artistic dishes never tasted before. And if ever a challenger wins over the Iron Chefs, He or she will gain the people's ovation, and fame forever. Every battle, reputations are on the line in Kitchen Stadium, where master chefs pit their artistic creations against each other. What inspiration will today's challenger bring, and how will the Iron Chefs fight back? The heat will be on!

The concept of the show is that an slightly odd man who really loves food, portrayed by Kaga Takeshi, lives in his castle with his "Iron Chefs." The Iron Chefs are, in actuality some of the top chefs in Japan. Each week, Kaga chooses a challenger chef (mostly Japanese chefs, but non-Japanese are occasionally chosen as well). The challenger picks one of the Iron Chefs to compete against and Kaga then chooses a theme ingredient (daikon radish or beans or crabs or something) and both chefs prepare a full meal that uses the theme ingredient in every dish.