ICT: Battle Cabbage: Chen vs. Yamada

BATTLE DATA FILE
Japan Original Airdate: 5/6/94
Episode: 27

The Challenger: Hiromi Yamada, a top Italian chef in Japan. A severe car accident that killed two people caused him to withdraw from the public eye in October 1991...now, three years later, he's been spotted at a small restaurant in the outskirts of Tokyo, and now he's ready to make his comeback in Kitchen Stadium.

The Iron Chef: Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi. Earlier in the Iron Chef Timeline, we saw him turn back the challenge of Kyoto chef Munetaka Takahashi--can he make it two in a row?

The Battle:

I don't care what anybody says, this is already in at least the Top 5 for Most Intense Backstory to a challenger there ever is. And this is why the original Iron Chef trumps all...

"A bit subdued, the atmosphere here in Kitchen Stadium..." Fukui begins, alluding to the challenger's accident and his quest for a comeback. Calling the shots with him and the unsuccessful Challenger Hattori is, once again, actress Mayuko Takata. (I can certainly see why she has a ton of fanboys...help me, I think I'm becoming one too...)

"Indict the incident, not this chef's dishes," Kaga says when he first enters. He even goes so far as to say that, were it not for the accident in 1991, Yamada would surely be the top Italian chef in Japan (which, arguably, he was at one point). "Why don't we drag him out in the spotlight once again," he adds. And here comes Yamada into Kitchen Stadium, with his ex-apprentices, friends, and even his daughter looking on.

Then, without batting an eye, Kaga once again calls for his Iron Chefs...and Yamada calls out Iron Chef Chen Kenichi!

"When I first met the challenger, he came across as a man with spirit: a man with a core," Kaga begins. "That gave me a hint for today's ingredient. It's a vegetable in season that has a core to it." And even though Kaga's beginning to stretch his "inspiration" for these theme ingredients, nonetheless he rips off the veil and reveals...CABBAGE!

Remember this: "With cabbage, eat the first 8 layers."

Yamada's quest for a comeback begins in earnest with the Chairman's spirited battle cry: "ALLEZ CUISINE!"

Hattori expects a pairing with meat, saying cabbage alone isn't all that exciting. And we see Chen is taking a page out of Michiba's book, writing down a list of ingredients, a menu, or something along those lines. Yamada is boiling then chilling heads of cabbage, apparently to preserve the color.

Chen's got tobanjan in the wok already, while Yamada is breaking down celery root--which Fukui doesn't recognize, despite having seen it in the last battle! "Weren't you guys watching when I did this?" Hattori wails. "Hey, your battle's over," Fukui retorts. And there's fire from Chen's wok already...

Yamada has the beginnings of a risotto in a pot on this side, with saffron in it. Chen's wok has even more stuff sizzling away, and there go 15 minutes already!

Yamada has the celeri-rave boiling away in milk ("French class today?" Fukui calls out Hattori), to soften them up...something Hattori DIDN'T do in his battle...and he's got buckwheat flour out on his side, a pasta for sure in his future...

Chen's taking the first chop at his cabbage, while Yamada is kneading away at that dough...and we get a look at the Royal Box--former challenger Hiroyuki Kitami (who we unfortunately didn't see--apparently he lost against Sakai), who once worked with Yamada, is sitting next to his daughter Yayoi.

Chen is breaking down a chicken, and there's word that pork's standing by as Chen takes a violent chop which sends a chicken piece flying. And Yamada's got foie gras...which Hattori predicts he'll wrap in cabbage and then steam. Laying out the boiled cabbage leaves on his cutting board is a good indicator of that, it seems...

Chen, meantime, is putting cabbage leaves over chicken in a dome shape...looking perhaps for a soup to pour into it? Either way, they think he'll steam it...and Yamada's coating his foie gras for a sauté job...but the scallops hit the heat first, then the foie gras! What's going on here...?

Chen has prawns and cabbage in his food processor, perhaps for a dumpling...adding in egg whites after it goes for a spin. And there goes the foie gras AND the scallops into the lettuce wraps on Yamada's side!

Chen has some cherries out on his side, coated in some white powder of some kind...he has his food-processed prawn/cabbage combo in plastic wrap now, with the cherry inside (a dim sum dumpling, they speculate). And as he tosses some more cabbage, taking a few bites as he goes (adding caviar into that), 30 minutes are now gone!

Yamada put cubes of butter on top of his lettuce wraps and sticks that into the oven, while Chen is looking to make a shu mai (quite literally, apparently, since "shu" in Chinese means "cabbage").

More leaves on Yamada's side, as he's salting some red mullet into those leaves...and Chen is tying some cabbage together (what appears to be the shu mai)...

...now truffles on Yamada's side! That's coating the fish, and Chen's cherry dumplings have been lightly dipped in hot water.

20 minutes are gone, and Yamada has the pasta machine out on his side! He's running the soba dough from earlier through there. He's slicing them up as if it's fettucine...

The chicken cabbage dome, bowl and all, has hit the steamer, and as the 15-minute call is announced, Yamada's risotto has hit the frying pan and Chen's cherry dumpling is deep-fried. And Yamada's pasta has hit the water.

Yamada just flipped the entire rice galette over (which Fukui thought was getting overcooked, but Hattori says he did that on purpose), and the pasta is out of the water and into a frying pan, tossed with some cabbage, bacon, and long onions.

5 minutes left as we see Chen taking something out of the fridge, while Yamada is plating the cabbage wraps with foie gras and scallops. And Chen's plating as well, though who knows what he just plated (apparently it's the tobanjan stuff from the very beginning)...

And Yamada's cabbage wrap is sitting on top of the risotto! (THAT came out of left field...) 3 minutes left as his tomatoes hit the wrap with fish and truffles inside, and Chen still has his cherry dumplings in the wok with some kind of spicy sauce now.

Down goes Yamada's pasta, with a little cheese and some prosciutto added to that, down goes Chen's cherry dumpling, and out comes Chen's shu mai with a minute to go!

Caviar goes down on the fish cabbage wrap on Yamada's side, and Chen's chicken/cabbage dome comes out of the steamer with 10 seconds to go...Yayoi is straining to see what her father is doing, while Yamada is all smiles as the last few seconds tick away

"And THAT'S IT! The cooking's done, the Cabbage Battle is OVAH!"

Challenger Yamada's 4 dishes:
--Cabbage and Anchovy Fondue
--Soba Pasta, Cabbage and Truffles Flavor
--Steamed Tilefish and Celeriac
--Grilled Foie Gras and Scallops in Cabbage

Iron Chef Chen's 4 dishes:
--Cabbage Appetizer with Spicy Sauce
--Chicken-in-Cabbage Soup
--Stir-fried Cabbage and Cherries
--Steamed Cabbage Dumpling

On the panel today for the Cabbage Battle:
--Former Lower House Member Shinichiro Kurimoto
--Actress Mayuko Takata
--Rosanjin Scholar Masaaki Hirano

Yamada, as per tradition, will start first. He says variety was his goal, and the fondue is up first. Takata and Kurimoto are speechless.

Next is the pasta--Hirano doesn't see any lost flavor by boiling the cabbage.

"It feels like the cabbage is still alive," Kurimoto says of Yamada's next dish. While I wonder what he means by that, I notice Hirano is actually offering some useful commentary for once: he says the boiling of the cabbage (presumably at the very beginning, when he chilled it shortly thereafter) was the key to keeping not only the flavor, but the texture intact.

Kurimoto likes the balance of Yamada's last dish, saying it's a bit like "a coalition government convincing the socialist party to stay with the coalition, to maintain the flavor of reform." Well, I'm not going to argue that it's a good, albeit strange, analogy...

And here's Chen's opening salvo: the cabbage in spicy sauce.

"This reconfirms that the temperature of the food when served is critical," Hirano says. Interesting...I actually learned something from the old man!

His colossal chicken soup is next, and gets great acclaim from all three judges. Nothing much to say here, except for his next dish...I'll certainly give him presentation points for this one (it's shaped like a flower on a plate), but Takata says she could've done without the cherries.

Kurimoto doesn't like his shu mai, though. He couldn't recognize the cabbage, or what it was supposed to be. The herbs were a little overpowering. Somehow, though, Hirano likes it...

It's gonna be a close call, either way, judging from the panel's reactions. Kaga extends a direct "good luck in the future" to Yamada before announcing the verdict...well then, who takes it? Is it the Iron Chef or the Comeback Kid? Whose cuisine reigns supreme?

"Challenger, Hiromi Yamada!"

And look at that! Yamada has taken his first step towards a comeback in his career with a big win over Iron Chef Chen. And just as Fukui says...

"We'll be watching the rest of the way."

My take: Yamada's dishes, without a doubt, looked more appetizing. I'm not saying that simply because he used more decadent ingredients (remember Hattori and the truffle battle?). But while both chefs were quite creative in their approaches (an anchovy fondue? A huge chicken soup with a cabbage dome? Never would've thought of that), Yamada simply had the artist's touch to him. Sympathy votes? Hardly--Yamada earned it for sure. Although it makes for a nice storybook ending to this chapter of Iron Chef history.

Watch this battle at the Iron Chef Collection here.