Iron Chef Natto Battle
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Iron Chef Natto Battle is an episode of the Japanese hit television show Iron Chef featuring natto as the theme ingredient.
Iron Chef is a cooking competition television series originating in Japan, which has gained a cult following in the United States. The format follows that a challenger would take on an "Iron Chef," one of three (later four) Japanese chefs representing Japanese, French, Chinese and Italian styles of cuisine in Japan. After a one-hour battle where the chefs (each with two assistants) would create dishes that best showcased the theme ingredient, the dishes would be judged by a panel and the chef with the highest score would be declared the winner.
Originally aired on Fuji Television on October 23, 1998, the Natto Battle episode pitted challenger Tatsutoshi Kumamoto, a staunch defender of traditional Japanese cuisine vs. Iron Chef Japanese Masaharu Morimoto, who desires to expand Japanese cuisine by introducing decidedly non-Japanese elements and cooking techniques. At the time Iron Chef was in production, Morimoto was the head chef of Nobu in New York City — he commuted between New York and Tokyo — but has since opened his own restaurant, Morimoto, in Philadelphia and New York City. Morimoto is also one of the chefs of Food Network's series Iron Chef America.
The back story of the Natto Battle episode was that Kumamoto's employer, Tadamichi Ohta, who made several appearances throughout the original production of the series, disparaged what he felt was the corruption of Japanese cuisine. Morimoto's philosophy is to create "international Japanese" dishes.
Kumamoto's dishes were:
- Natto and yuba
- Natto and filefish with a sauce made from the filefish's liver; served in bowls made from hollowed-out oranges
- Abalone, daikon and natto stew
- Natto and miso soup
- Matsutake and Natto rice ball
Morimoto's dishes were:
- Steamed oyster and natto with sea urchin
- Natto sausage (with kimchi) and vegetables in a mayonnaise-based sauce
- Hot and sour soup with natto and Thai herbs
- Rice soup with grilled natto
- Natto dessert, featuring sweetened natto soaked in Coca Cola and served in coconut milk
The Natto Battle was won by Iron Chef Morimoto by a 3-1 margin, with a final score of 76-72.
