Iron Chef Unveiled

Robert Sietsema goes to a taping of Iron Chef and somewhat unsurprisingly, realizes the production is completely staged. The piece is epic and fraught with disillusionment, but here's the main takeaway: "It became obvious that, knowing the main ingredient all along, the chefs had developed a series of recipes the way chefs normally do—through ideation and experimentation, trying and discarding recipes before settling on the collection...We'd been promised moments of brilliant creativity, but what we saw were drones going about their appointed tasks with well-tested recipes, while swooping cameras, flashing lights, smog, and frantic commentary...distracted us from the true nature of the situation. This was no contest—it was a culinary fait accompli." [Village Voice via Eater]