Iron Chef

I summon . . . Iron Chef! It's the second-most-watched show on the Food Network, and surely the most innovative, imaginative, and downright weird cooking program in the history of food on TV. The Japanese import started running on the Food Network last June with dubbed translations for the Iron Chefs and subtitles for the host, Kaga Takeshi (one listen, and you'll know why the Food Network lets him speak for himself). It features four chefs, each with an oversized personality, fashions usually not seen outside a Siegfried and Roy show, and a floor reporter who darts from rice cooker to ice-cream maker to stove breathlessly shouting out the components of each dish as if he's delivering secrets of state across enemy lines.