Iron Chef #3 - Pufferfish (Fugu) Battle

Fugu Spook-tacular!
Challenger Paolo Indragoli vs Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi
Iron Chef 1993 Episode 3 - Overall episode #003 - October 31st, 1993

The Chairman invites us to a macabre Halloween episode, featuring the most lethal of secret ingredients: Pufferfish aka Fugu.

Fugu contains lethal amounts of tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin that paralyzes the muscles and causes asphyxiation while the victim is fully conscious.

Spooky.

Luckily, the poison is contained in the liver, ovaries, eyes, and skin of the pufferfish. Something a certified fugu professional (CFP) would be able to remove.

Certification can be earned after three years of apprenticeship. The test has a 65% failure rate. Farewell, Judges.

Get your fugu hiki’s ready and seek medical treatment if your lips start tingling within 17 minutes of viewing. It’s time to put our lives in the hands of an Italian wielding pufferfish.

Play-In Tournament Dish: Spaghetti

We get an introduction video on spaghetti complete with b-roll of (in order):

Fields of wheat gyrating in the breeze.
Fettucine pasta on a cutting board.
Fettucine being cut from a pasta maker.
Spaghetti and tomato sauce with basil
Clip-art of a fork.

Fantastic.

We have five challengers in the play-in tournament so I'll keep it brief.

Challenger #1: Naofumi Yonezuka
Splatter Spaghetti

If you had squid ink spaghetti on your Yoshoku bingo card, you can sit back down because we all did. The guacamole on top is regrettable. I guess smooth texture is a priority when you are 27 years old but your grill is 67.

Challenger #2: Masami Matsui
Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce and Basil

The heavy-handed hitman is a traditionalist. He flame roasts a tomato to remove the skin, going on to prepare a textbook spaghetti and tomato sauce. Rather than drizzling olive oil atop the dish, he deluges a parsley olive oil moat around spaghetti castle. Hopefully he isn’t this heavy-handed when conducting wet work.

Judge Ishii is unsurprisingly highly refined in the pasta arts. Judge goes with the no-look twirl.

Challenger #3: Naoki Narita
Tokyo Bay Spaghetti Pescatore

Narita goes with a tried and true Iron Chef tactic; dumping in all of Tokyo Bay onto the theme, in this case spaghetti. Maybe I’m becoming jaded, because they judges are not fooled.

Challenger #4: Kim Young-Hee
Jjajangmyeon

Hand. Pulled. Noodles. Not traditional spaghetti, but impressive given the time limit.

All Chef has to do is add a… fermented black bean sauce? The Chef, perhaps making a statement about the origins of pasta, or perhaps intent on chaos, ended up with a plate of jjajangmyeon. While a preferable treat in its own right, jjajangmyeon is not spaghetti.

Challenger #5: Paolo Indragoli
Spaghetti al Granchio (Crab and Tomato Sauce)

Indragoli hit the judges with the crab flambe!

The Judges stare into the flames and discern visions not of a mustachioed Italian plumber crawling into pipes and rescuing princesses, but instead of a mustachioed Italian chef in Shibuya crawling into pipes and rescuing princesses. Perplexed, they must know more.
The other competitors know they are beaten and return to the Mushroom Kingdom.

The winner of the spaghetti Play-In tournament is Challenger #5 Paolo Indragoli and his Spaghetti al Granchio!

Meet the Challenger:

Paolo Indragoli

An Italian Chef in Shibuya who is an absolute delight. Happy go-lucky and enthusiastic. Previous challengers have been business-like and reserved. Indragoli embraces the chaos of Iron Chef without a command of the language, and is having fun doing it.
At one point, Chef Indragoli misunderstands the time limit and finishes 30 minutes early. Not to be deterred he begins un-plating his dish with a smile on his face. Ain’t nothing gonna break his stride.

Showdown:

Challenger Paolo Indragoli vs Iron Chef Chen Kenichi!

Challenger Indragoli gets into the spirit with a powerful point. Love the enthusiasm. It is Iron Chef Kenichi’s first battle and he looks like he was just chosen to be lab partners with the kid who eats boogers. Furious but resigned to his fate. Always a rollercoaster of nerves with Iron Chef Kenichi. His first battle being with a lethal ingredient should be a great combination. 50% chance he has to take off his hat (worry not, there is a smaller identical hat underneath).

The Chairman is definitely standing on a box. Back to #TeamBox.

Tale of the Tape:

The Chairman’s Fit:

Speaking of the Chairman's fit, I'm glad you asked

Today the Chairman is concierge at an upscale hotel for vampires. May I reccomend the steak tartar at Royal Farms on route 175? *whispers* It’s off menu. *Winks for an uncomfortably long time.*

The Reveal:

Fudge.

Challenger Indragoli is disbelief. Iron Chef Kenichi pretends he didn’t hear anything. The Chairman is feeding off their fear.

Challenger Indragoli is at a large disadvantage here, having (presumably) not worked a lot with fugu in his Italian cuisine. That being said, Iron Chef Kenichi could be equally inexperienced with this ingredient as well. Iron Chef Michiba is backstage throwing chairs right now.

The Chairman's Wisdom:

“If fugu has too much water, it will turn white. If too little water, it will turn yellow. Light yellow is best.”

For once, this was helpful. I’m not going to criticize the b-roll, which as you can imagine is fugu sashimi spirals under florescent blue light.

Allez! Cuisine!:

The live fugu will be prepared by certified fugu professionals (CFP). The judges breathe a sigh of relief. The chefs will have the non-poisonous parts of the fugu at their disposal to prepare at least one dish in one hour.

In the Booth:

Play-by-Play Kenji Fukui (right) and Color Commentator Dr. Yukio Hattori (left) are in the booth. These are the untranslated episodes so we only have to assume the following exchange took place:

Fukui: Why nature be like it do?

Dr. Hattori: Nature be like that sometimes…

Fukui: Right you are!

The Battle:

Challenger Indragoli starts singing! A kitchen stadium first. He’s building a report with the same assistant who left another challenger’s ACL hanging in episode 1. Very wise.

Iron Chef Kenichi starting quickly with butterflied fugu wrapped around asparagus to be steamed. Challenger Indragoli hasn’t touched the fugu yet, and has instead been building a Mediterranean citrus sauce (tomatoes, orange, lemon, olive oil, butter).

Meanwhile, how is it going in Iron Chef Kenichi’s panic room?

To Iron Chef Kenichi’s credit, he has dealt with the fugu (see Knife Life below), and is figuring out how to use his time while it steams. Hint: it involves a wok.

Challenger Indragoli’s fugu first makes an appearance 15 minutes in, and looks to be a light sautee to go with his Mediterranean citrus sauce. Looking good, but looking done already.

Perhaps a little too unflustered and enthusiastic, challenger Indragoli begins plating with 30 minutes remaining!

It turns out it was a rule lost in translation. Challenger Indragoli checks with his translator and begins un-plating with a smile on his face. Remarkable poise. Tough break. Advantage Iron Chef Kenichi.

Okay, I’ll just un-cook this poisonous fish then….

It’s finally Wok o’ Clock for Iron Chef Kenichi. Cornstarch dusted fugu nuggets into a brown stock. Can’t be bad. He pulled this out pretty late in the game.

Challenger Indragoli decides to use his excess time to supreme some oranges and mount a defense for his misunderstanding of the time limit from earlier.

I dunno man, a vampire told me to meet in this warehouse and bring my knives. How’s today going for you?

Iron Chef Kenichi’s steamed “fugu wrapped asparagus” turned out to be “fugu adjacent asparagus.” He may be able to fix this on the plate.

Last-minute white stir-fry from Iron Chef Kenichi. Fugu nuggets, ginger, mushrooms, and tomatoes. This will dress up the sad asparagus wraps.

With five minutes left in the battle, Challenger Indragoli heads over to chop it up with Iron Chef Kenichi who is not in the mood.

Challenger Indragoli re-plates his one dish at the correct time as the Iron Chef observes confidently. He’s got this in the bag.

Challenger Indragoli punctuates the countdown by taking a martial arts stance towards Iron Chef Kenichi, who just claps politely. Never raise your hands towards an Iron Chef. Not in the Chairman’s house.
Fortunately for Challenger Indragoli, this disrespect would be forgotten when Bobby Flay would later treat Kitchen Stadium like a FedEx Field restroom.

That Knife Life:

Iron Chef Kenichi butterflies fugu with a Chinese chef’s knife. Disappointingly, the fugu is destined to fall off asparagus spears later in the episode. The Iron Chef is usually a wrap-star.

The Judges’ Table(s):

Novelist and actor Tamio Kageyama (65 battles).
Giggles at the word “blowfish.”

Actress Mitsuko Ishii (7 battles).
Judge Ishii microdoses tetrodotoxin to build up an immunity to fugu.

Rosanjin scholar Masaaki Hirano (42 battles).
The winds teleth *ALL* fish are blowfish with enough pressure.

Dishes:

Challenger’s Dish:

Fugu with Mediterranean Citrus Sauce

Challenger Indragoli’s crowning achievement after one hour. Sautéed fugu left to cool half an hour atop citrus cross sections, black olives, and a tomato, olive oil, citrus, and butter Mediterranean sauce. The dish looks great, but it will be hard to win with a single dish that was left out on the window sill.

Judge Ishii is amused, but not in a good way. She goes as far as to dissuade Judge Kageyama from consuming more. This is a poisonous fish, after all, and Judge Kageyama sure isn’t capable of taking care of himself. This is about as strong of a negative reaction as you will see on this show. Iron Chef Kenichi, go have another drink. You’ve won.

Judge Hirano predictably swerves and goes on a high minded rant about Neptune’s bounty and how he found this suit and 16 acorns in a toolshed.

Iron Chef Kenichi completes two dishes:

Iron Chef’s first dish:

Fugu Stir-Fry with Steamed Asparagus

Iron Chef Kenichi may not win any points for presentation for either dish, but this was a solid attempt to rescue a steamed preparation with a stir-fried preparation of fugu. It alone may not be enough to beat the challenger, but if the Iron Chef’s second dish is serviceable, it should put him in the lead.

Iron Chef’s Second Dish:
Doubanjian Spicy Soup with Pufferfish and Rice Vermicelli Noodles

This is Iron Chef Kenichi’s wheelhouse. Doubanjiang, stir-fries, brown stock. The rice vermicelli is a nice twist, using lighter noodles to pair with fish. This is the best dish served today, and the Iron Chef made it seem like an afterthought, completing most of it effortlessly in the latter third of the episode.

We get another Triple Oishi! This battle is ova!

Whose cuisine reigns supreme?!

Iron Chef Kenichi with his first victory!

The Challenger’s enthusiasm could not make up for a critical time management mistake and a flavor that made judges spit out their food. There is no coming back from that. I would have liked to see Challenger Indragoli back in a later season with a better understanding of the rules, unfortunately that will not come to pass. Indragoli has returned to Italy and is presumably delighting all those around him with shadow puppets, coin tricks, and balloon animals.

Iron Chef Kenichi was calmer that normal, especially once it hit Wok o’ Clock. He used his time effectively to fix his steamed asparagus dish and as and afterthought, made the star of the day, the douanjian fugu noodles. Triple-Oishi well earned.

Episode notes:

My favorite dish was Iron Chef Kenichi’s Doubanjian fugu noodles. It may look uniformly brown, but he put a ton of aromatics in it alongside spicy bean paste. Iron Chef Kenichi can mess-around and get a triple-double.
This was the first and only Pufferfish fugu battle.
Next up, episode #004 - Tofu!