(Note: Please play Backdraft by Hans Zimmer as you read this post out loud in a deep Takeshi Kaga voice.)
If memory serves us correctly, it has been nearly a decade since the end of the Japanese Iron Chef and the closing of Chairman Kaga’s beloved Kitchen Stadium. Yes, a decade since the legendary Masaharu Morimoto departed the battlefields where he proved himself, time and again, against the foes who would steal his title of Iron Chef Japanese: the traditionalist Tadamichi Ohta, the sushi master Keiji Nakazawa, and the notorious dickbag Bobby Flay.
But as the masterless samurai moves forward in search of battle, never stopping, never ceasing, Morimoto continued to compete as an Iron Chef in America, where he soon became friends with Bobby “Bag Of Dicks” Flay. And it seemed, as he built restaurants throughout his new homeland, as if Morimoto had moved on from Chairman Kaga’s grand experiment.
Until…the memory of Kitchen Stadium was…DESECRATED! (Dramatic horns!) A new Chairman, young and handsome and somewhat boring, had commissioned a new Kitchen Stadium, and he brought new Iron Chefs to fight culinary battles much like Kaga’s. But Chairman Hiroshi Tamaki is not, and never will be, the true Chairman…for his face is not interesting, nor does his voice boom like gongs of insanity.
Has Morimoto grown furious at the perversion of the sacred battleground of Kitchen Stadium? Does he seethe with rage at the vision of this pretender wearing the magnificent, resplendent robes of Chairman Kaga? Does he wonder with confusion why there are statues of naked men in Kitchen Stadium?
We may learn the answers to these questions one day, for Morimoto tweeted photos of his visit to the Japanese set of the new Kitchen Stadium last month, where he shot an episode of Iron Chef. If he should deign to show up on the set, there is only one conclusion.
Has Masaharu Morimoto returned to his old battleground to avenge his master? Will Chairman Tamaki throw his own prodigy Jun Kurogi at the old master? Will the volume keep intensifying as you read this paragraph?! MASAHARU MORIMOTO, TELL US WHAT IS GOING ON IN THIS PHOTO AS YOU EXPRESS THE BEAUTY OF YOUR JAPANESE CREATIONS THROUGH THE SKILL OF YOUR KNIFE!
Allez cuisine.
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