History YMMV / IronChef

* ReplacementScrappy: In-Universe, Nakamura was initially seen as one, according to Chairman Kaga's commentary on his retirement episode, due to the fact that he had to deal with the massive legacy that Michiba had left behind, and he initially had a lot of confusion to his new role as an Iron chef, including at one point only having a 66% win-rate. However, as Nakamura gained confidence (According to Kaga, during a saury battle), Nakamura ended up [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap pulling himself out of the heap by learning how to make new dishes]].

** This Troper always thought Ohta had a little crush on Fukui-san... he always seemed to work so hard to get Fukui-san's attention/approval...

*** Hey, that one actually worked for Morimoto, especially given that natto squicks even the Japanese. His reasoning for that is actually pretty sound: the carbonation of the soda helps to soften not only the beans but the rather pungent aroma of the natto. Not only did it work for him but he got a win too.

*** Hey, that one actually worked for Morimoto, especially given that natto squicks even the Japanese. His reasoning for that is actually pretty sound: the sweetness of the Coca-Cola helps to mellow out the rather pungent flavors of the natto without taking too much from the flavor. Not only did it work for him but he got a win too.

** Favored heel [[LoveToHate Toshiro Kandagawa]] has also died as of April 2021 due to complications from COVID.

** For Komei Nakamura, it's his infamous failed Potato Battle. Both he and his opponent put out such unpalatable dishes (especially Nakamura who earned a lot of flack from Chairman Kaga) that the match was declared a no contest for the ''only'' time in Iron Chef history. He may have won the rematch but it certainly did not help his reputation for the rest of his run (see below under Woobie).

** What also didn't help is that he was sandwiched between two very dynamic chefs that were mavericks in the field of Japanese cooking. Michiba was fully willing to push the boundaries and do new techniques while still making mostly Japanese friendly dishes, Morimoto was a dynamic who bulldozed those boundaries by incorporating different ''cuisines'' to fit multiple palates, and Nakamura...took foreign ingredients and made common Japanese foods. It was like he seemed too scared to push further and backpedaled to making what he was comfortable with, which was not the purpose of Iron Chef (especially when you considered how many of these chefs managed to win with ingredients they weren't used to like Chen with yogurt, Sakai with lotus root, and Michiba with foie gras in his very ''first'' battle). The poor guy also looked like he really didn't want to be in the Stadium, especially since his expressions looked less like he meant business and more like he was ready to burst into tears when he was chosen.

** What also didn't help is that he was sandwiched between two very dynamic chefs that were mavericks in the field of Japanese cooking. Michiba was fully willing to push the boundaries and do new techniques while still making mostly Japanese friendly dishes, Morimoto was a dynamic who bulldozed those boundaries by incorporating different ''cuisines'' to fit multiple palates, and Nakamura...took foreign ingredients and made common Japanese foods. It was like he seemed too scared to push further and backpedaled to making what he was comfortable with, which was not the purpose of Iron Chef. The poor guy looked like he really didn't want to be there, especially since his expressions looked less like he meant business and more like he was ready to burst into tears.

*** Hey, that one actually worked for Morimoto, especially given that natto squicks even the Japanese.

** What also didn't help is that he was sandwiched between two very dynamic chefs that were mavericks in the field of cooking. Michiba was fully willing to push the boundaries and do new techniques while still making mostly Japanese friendly dishes, Morimoto was a dynamic who bulldozed those boundaries by incorporating different ''cuisines'' to fit multiple palates, and Nakamura...took foreign ingredients and made common Japanese foods. It was like he seemed too scared to push further and backpedaled to making what he was comfortable with, which was not the purpose of Iron Chef. The poor guy looked like he really didn't want to be there, especially since his expressions looked less like he meant business and more like he was ready to burst into tears.

* TheWoobie: Koumei Nakamura. In his tenure as Iron Chef Japanese II, he initially had a struggle trying to live up to Michiba's massive reputation as a maverick of Japanese food and a symbol of Japanese culinary liberalism while also being his own man. He did get his confidence, but after the duel between Alain Passard, Nakamura felt the struggle of being a champion, which led him to make common Japanese foods of foreign ingredients, such as Ostritch Katsu and Lamb Sushi, which the judges slammed him for. Him being also known as the guy "who made that one potato dish Chaiman Kaga really hated" didn't help his reputation, and fighting very tough opponents, from Robuchon's Japanese branch head chef and Toshiro Kandagawa also stressed him out, with the latter fight and Nakamura saying "If I lose, I will step down as Iron Chef". When Kandagawa beat him, even he shown up to his retirement to lend support for Koumei.

* TheWoobie: Koumei Nakamura. In his tenure as Iron Chef Japanese II, he initially had a struggle trying to live up to Michiba's massive reputation as a maverick of Japanese food and a symbol of Japanese culinary liberalism while also being his own man. He did get his confidence, but after the duel between Alain Passard, Nakamura felt the struggle of being a champion, which led him to make common Japanese foods of foreign ingredients, such as Ostritch Katsu and Lamb Sushi, which the judges slammed him for. Him being also known as the guy "who made that one potato dish Chaiman Kaga really hated" didn't help his reputation, and fighting very tough opponents, from Robuchon's Japanese branch and Toshiro Kandagawa also didn't help, with the latter fight and Nakamura saying "If I lose, I will step down as Iron Chef". When Kandagawa beat him, even he shown up to his retirement to lend support for Koumei.

** Iron Chef Chen battling his mentor, Sozo Miyamoto, in a Szechuan vs Szechuan prawn battle, with both of them serving a variation on Chen Kenmin's chili prawns.

* TheWoobie: Koumei Nakamura. In his tenure as Iron Chef Japanese II, he initially had a struggle trying to live up to Michiba's massive reputation as a maverick of Japanese food and a symbol of Japanese culinary liberalism while also being his own man. He did get his confidence, but after the duel between Alain Passard, Nakamura felt the struggle of being a champion, which led him to make common Japanese foods of foreign ingredients, such as Ostritch Katsu and Lamb Sushi, which the judges slammed him for. Him being also known as the guy "who made that one potato dish Chaiman Kaga really hated" didn't help his reputation, and fighting very tough opponents, from Robuchon's Japanese branch and Toshiro Kandagawa also didn't help, with the latter saying "If I lose, I will step down as Iron Chef". When Kandagawa beat him, even he shown up to his retirement to lend support.

* BrokenBase: While not hated, the three Iron Chef Japanese in the original Japanese show qualify, both in-universe and reality. Michiba and Morimoto are disliked by the puritan Japanese culinary world for being too liberal with their ingredients and not sticking to the Japanese, which fans of Michiba and Morimoto like about them. On the contrary, people who like Nakamura and the same critics of Michiba and Morimoto tend to like that he's more grounded in tradition, but the people who disliked Nakamura criticized him for being too conservative.

* TheWoobie: Koumei Nakamura. In his tenure as Iron Chef Japanese II, he initially had a struggle trying to live up to Michiba's massive reputation as a maverick of Japanese food and a symbol of Japanese culinary liberalism while also being his own man. He did get his confidence, but after the duel between Alain Passard, Nakamura felt the struggle of being a champion, which led him to make common Japanese foods of foreign ingredients, such as Ostritch Katsu and Lamb Sushi. Him being also known as the guy "who made that one potato dish Chaiman Kaga" didn't help his reputation, and fighting very tough opponents, from Robuchon's Japanese branch and Toshiro Kandagawa also didn't help, with the latter saying "If I lose, I will step down as Iron Chef". When Kandagawa beat him, even he shown up to his retirement to lend support.

* TheWoobie: Koumei Nakamura. In his tenure as Iron Chef Japanese II, he initially had a struggle trying to live up to Michiba's reputation as a maverick of Japanese food while also being his own man. He did get his confidence, but after the duel between Alain Passard, Nakamura felt the struggle of being a champion, which led him to make common Japanese foods of foreign ingredients, such as Ostritch Katsu and Lamb Sushi. Him being also known as the guy "who made that one potato dish Chaiman Kaga" didn't help his reputation, and fighting very tough opponents, from Robuchon's Japanese branch and Toshiro Kandagawa also didn't help, with the latter saying "If I lose, I will step down as Iron Chef". When Kandagawa beat him, even he shown up to his retirement to lend support.

** An in-universe example, on the original show everyone considered Iron Chef Morimoto very avant-garde, to the point where some accused him of straying too much from what was considered "Japanese cuisine" to deserve being Iron Chef Japanese. On Iron Chef America, he's seen as a ''traditionalist'', both because [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny what was new over a decade ago isn't much anymore]]. Moreover, Americans tend not to notice the American influences on Morimoto's cuisine, and also tend not to care about the supposed purity of Japanese cuisine (which seriously upset Kandagawa and the Ohta Faction, but Americans, whose cuisine is hardly "pure" anything to begin with, tend to think mixing of culinary ideas is almost always a good thing).

* CreatorsPet: ''The Next Iron Chef'' could have had the subtitle ''We're Going To Keep Doing This Until Alex Guarneschelli Wins''.

** The fact that a (sadly undubbed) episode had ''bread'' as a theme. Kaga, your [[Theatre/LesMiserables Valjean]] is showing. [[note]]Takeshi Kaga (the actor) was the first Japanese man to portray Jean Valjean in a production of ''Les Miserables''.[[/note]]

** The fact that a (sadly undubbed) episode had ''bread'' as a theme. Kaga, your [[Theatre/LesMiserables Valjean]] is showing. [[note]]Takeshi Kaga the actor was the first Japanese man to portray Jean Valjean in a production of ''Les Miserables'.[[/note]]

** The fact that a (sadly undubbed) episode had ''bread'' as a theme. Kaga, your [[Theatre/LesMiserables'' Valjean]] is showing. [[note]]Takeshi Kaga the actor was the first Japanese man to portray Jean Valjean in a production of ''Les Miserables'.[[/note]]

* HilariousInHindsight: Okay, look at the picture on the main page. One of the things we remember Kaga for is his dramatic pepper chomp. Fast forward to 2006, where Takeshi Kaga played Soichiro Yagami in ''Manga/DeathNote''. Among other things, Soichiro's son [[LightIsNotGood Light]] was known for...shall we say, epic potato chip eating. Cue jokes about just ''where'' he got that from.