Iron Chef Japan

There are 8 varieties of bell pepper available to the chefs from the Netherlands: red, yellow, green, purple, orange, dark red, black, and white.

The chairman offers five varieties of the theme ingredient, mushrooms: Shiitake, Maitake, Enoke, Shimeji, and 'regular' mushrooms.

The chefs have eight cuttlefish fished from the waters near Chiba available for use in the battle.

The chefs have 50 live conger eels from Harima Sea to use in their dishes.

Because it is a special occasion (300th competitor), the other three Iron Chefs (Sakai, Morimoto, and Kobe) are all sitting in the royal box, watching the battle. This is unusual, as the other Iron Chefs are not usually in the stadium when not competing.

There are 70 white and 70 green asparaguses for the chefs to utilize.

Because it is a special occasion (300th competitor), the other three Iron Chefs (Sakai, Morimoto, and Kobe) are all sitting in the royal box, watching the battle. This is unusual, as the other Iron Chefs are not usually in the stadium when not competing.

The chairman provides to types of foie gras for the chefs to use: 15 duck livers from France and 5 goose livers from Hungary.

The chairman provides 50 jumbo mushrooms from Australia for the chefs to utilize.

Each chef is allowed to use 10 pike eels. The eels were alive and from the waters near Akashi.

The theme ingredient is sea urchin roe from Iwate Prefecture. The actual urchins on the stage are purple sea urchins. The already prepared roe is all natural and preservative free.

While Iron Chef Kobe is mentioned in the opening credits, he is not one of the Chefs the Challenger has the option of choosing. The Chairman only introduces three Iron chefs.

After the credits of this episode, a short segment aired featuring Michael Noble. He invited all Japanese citizens to come try his restaurant in Canada.

There are four types of potatoes available to the chefs: Danshaku (20 kg), May Queen (20kg), Apios (5kg), and New Potatoes (10kg).

A Canadian television crew is also in the studio to film the battle for Canadian television.

The theme ingredient is Black Pig from Kagoshima. These pigs are raised entirely on sweet potatoes. The chefs have available a loin, ham, fillet, and belly from 1 pig and the the innards, feet and ear from 3 pigs.

There are several exceptions to usual Iron Chef rules.

1) Chefs were allowed to prepare rice before the battle. The challenger used "Koshi-hikari" rice (domestic) in a ration of 80 new to 20 old. While the Iron Chef used California rice in a ration of 50 akita-komachi to 50 koshi-hikari.
2) Chefs are allowed to remake their sushi before serving the tasting panel.

While the main theme is sushi, the chairman has five secret ingredients for the chefs: 20kg of tuna, 40 conger eels, 50 strips of dried gourd shavings, 80 eggs, and 30 gizzard shad (fish).

There are 12 lobsters (6 for each chef) from Tasmania. Each lobster is worth around $400.00 and weighs about 9 pounds. The largest of the lobsters are said to be 30 years old.

Unlike other battles, the 3 Iron Chefs who are not competing sit in the royal box. They are interviewed periodically through the battle.