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W h a t I s I r o n C h e f ?
Iron Chef has been described as many things, but overall, it is, quite simply, one of the most interesting and amazing shows on television today.
So what exactly is Iron Chef? A cross, if you will, of Wok with Yan and The American Gladiators. I'll give your mind a few minutes to try to put those
two together. For those of you who envision full-contact cuisine, with flying knives and roundhouse kicks, I'm afraid there is disappointment. For that is not the aspect
of American Gladiators that is included. Iron Chef is, at its core, nothing more than a simple cooking competition, between two top-notch chefs (the challenger and the IC). Where the gladiators come in is in
the (almost overblown) production values given to the show. Iron Chef is, without a doubt, one very flashy endeavour, with energetic hype and panache. One hour of the most
intense cooking you could imagine, at the end of which will have you on the edge of your seat, awaiting to hear the outcome. Not to mention likely more than a little hungry.
Plenty of pages have chronicled Iron Chef in excellent detail; follow the links at the bottom-right of this page... So what is this page for?
W h a t D O E S T a k a s h i S a y ?
Kaga Takashi, the show's host, begins every competition with these words (punctuated with the Gong of Fate) They are not
Japanese; instead, they are french, a call to culinary arms!
A la cuisine!
Which, translated, stands for "Start Cooking!" (taken literally, it would translate 'To the Kitchen!'). Granted, it doesn't sound the most clear when Takashi shouts it out,
for he is enunciating with a rather strong Japanese accent. Some references (including the Iron Chef books) have accidentally attributed this quote as being 'Allez Cuisine' which,
unfortunately, means absolutely nothing at all. Translated, it would be 'Go Kitchen' -- if they wanted to use the word 'allez', the correct form would have
been 'Allez Cuisiniez!', which would then mean 'Go Cook!' (Cuisine is Kitchen, Cuisiner is the verb To Cook). Now, it is possible that the show doesn't get its french
right, but in listening to the show itself, one can hear that it is indeed 'A la Cuisine'
A la Cuisine - Clip 1
A la Cuisine - Clip 2
A la Cuisine - Clip 3
Listen carefully... phonetically, it sounds like 'Aa laa kwuizeene' -- The important part here is the first two words, mushed together into one when spoken by Takashi.
The second syllable rises in pitch to form the 'laa' sound (as in the lau part of laugh, or la in the musical scale). If it was supposed to be 'allez', it would start with a similar 'aal' sound, but end
with a sound akin to a hard A (or, just pronouncing the letter A, also sometimes written as eh).
Listen to the sound the quotes make; quite surely, the second syllable does not end with an eh/A sound. It ends with a definite aaa-like sound. (hard to sound serious with
phonetics, isn't it?) Another tact is to notice that the two syllables are pretty much identical (ie, they rhyme); again, this points to 'A la' instead of 'Allez'.
So, if you're being invaded by a bunch of chefs, and need to inspire your culinary troops... you know what to shout. }:)
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