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Formats: Iron Chef Thailand
13 July 2015
Thailand’s first, biggest and longest professional TV cooking competition show is Iron Chef Thailand, a local remake of Japanese format Ryori no Tetsujin produced by Fuji Television in 1993.
The Thai remake, which costs about THB1.5 million/US$44,400 an episode, debuted on Thailand’s terrestrial station Channel 7 on 25 January 2012 and has aired 180+ episodes (season 1-4d) over the last three years.
Being the first of its kind cooking showdown among professional local chefs, the greatest challenge for the production team of 70 is “keeping up with viewers’ expectations and making it even better than the original”, says Kitikorn Penrote, executive producer/chief executive of Heliconia Entertainment.
The strategy for the current season includes rescheduling the show from late-night Wednesdays (11pm-1am) to a more family-friendly, weekend afternoon slot on Saturdays (11.45am-12.45pm). This meant a 50% decrease in airtime.
The format began airing in the new time slot on 4 April this year, with one less segment – Cooking with Iron Chef, where guest celebrities learn simple dishes from the Iron Chef/Challenger Chef. The segment previously aired in the second half of the two-hour show. “The reschedule targets family households and fulfils audience demand,” explains Palakorn Somsuwan, managing director of Bangkok Broadcasting & TV (BBTV Channel 7).
“Despite the late-night weekday slots, we realised how significant Iron Chef is to the local food scene. People began to take an interest in food, appreciating the food served on their table, respecting chefs and some even were inspired to become chefs themselves,” Somsuwan says.
Iron Chef Thailand features seven Iron Chefs, each specialising in different cuisines. The Challenger Chef chooses one Iron Chef to compete with, and cooks at least five dishes using two secret ingredients/cooking tools revealed at the start of the show. The first dish must be presented to the judges within the first 20 minutes of the battle.
Channel 7 also aired spe...
Thailand’s first, biggest and longest professional TV cooking competition show is Iron Chef Thailand, a local remake of Japanese format Ryori no Tetsujin produced by Fuji Television in 1993.
The Thai remake, which costs about THB1.5 million/US$44,400 an episode, debuted on Thailand’s terrestrial station Channel 7 on 25 January 2012 and has aired 180+ episodes (season 1-4d) over the last three years.
Being the first of its kind cooking showdown among professional local chefs, the greatest challenge for the production team of 70 is “keeping up with viewers’ expectations and making it even better than the original”, says Kitikorn Penrote, executive producer/chief executive of Heliconia Entertainment.
The strategy for the current season includes rescheduling the show from late-night Wednesdays (11pm-1am) to a more family-friendly, weekend afternoon slot on Saturdays (11.45am-12.45pm). This meant a 50% decrease in airtime.
The format began airing in the new time slot on 4 April this year, with one less segment – Cooking with Iron Chef, where guest celebrities learn simple dishes from the Iron Chef/Challenger Chef. The segment previously aired in the second half of the two-hour show. “The reschedule targets family households and fulfils audience demand,” explains Palakorn Somsuwan, managing director of Bangkok Broadcasting & TV (BBTV Channel 7).
“Despite the late-night weekday slots, we realised how significant Iron Chef is to the local food scene. People began to take an interest in food, appreciating the food served on their table, respecting chefs and some even were inspired to become chefs themselves,” Somsuwan says.
Iron Chef Thailand features seven Iron Chefs, each specialising in different cuisines. The Challenger Chef chooses one Iron Chef to compete with, and cooks at least five dishes using two secret ingredients/cooking tools revealed at the start of the show. The first dish must be presented to the judges within the first 20 minutes of the battle.
Channel 7 also aired special/holiday versions, where celebrity guests and viewers tried to cook dishes demonstrated by the chefs.
Iron Chef Thailand’s highest TV rating is 3.2 (25 TVS). The highest-rated localised format on Channel 7 is The Money Drop Thailand, with 10.8 TVR.
The original Japanese Iron Chef debuted in Thailand in 2003 on pay-TV TrueVisions , followed by multiple networks in Thailand, including terrestrial MCOT in 2010, and on Channel 7, which premiered the 2012 version of Iron Chef Japan on 15 June this year, on Mondays at 1am.
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