An Iron Chef Fans Diary, April, 2002

  Tuesday, April, 2nd, 2002

  I drove four other people to a shift leader class in Madison, North of Nashville.

  Friday, April 5th, 2002

     I was off, but all the Shift Leaders had to come to a meeting with the new assistant 

  manager, Steve, before we could get our checks. Steve had left the Army and joined  

  Jack nine months ago. He gave us a speech about how he was going to fire us.

  It doesn't matter what else he said, after "I'll fire you" a dozen times.

     Sending people to shift leader classes is another way for a manger (George) to get

  bonuses. Getting a really offensive Assistant Manager to run off all of the shift leaders

  so George can send more people to classes is a way to get more bonuses.

  Friday, April 5th, 2002  "New" Battle ???
  Main Ingredient: Cod Roe
  Cooking Style:  Neo Japanese
  Iron Chef:  Masaharu Morimoto  Challenger: Yasuhiko Yoshida

  Saturday, April 6th, 2002 Tie Breaker 
  Main Ingredient: Green Onion   
  Cooking Style: Neo Japanese   
  Iron Chef:  Masaharu Morimoto   Challenger:  Yasuhiko Yoshida

  Fortunately we have hundreds of wild onions in our back yard.

 The previous owner must have let some onions go to seed.

  Sunday, April 7rd, 2002 repeats of N.Y. Battles 1 and 2, R.A.W., and Viewers Choice.
   Iron Chef  Masaharu Morimoto battles Bobby Flay twice, then he struggles to get his

   new restaurant "Morimoto" open on time.

Tuesday, April 9th, 2002

I drove four other people to a shift leader class in Madison, North of Nashville again.

Tuesday, April 9th, 2002   I had a chance to fix some of the lobster pages.

                                        I had a little fun with the R.A.W. thing. 

           Fast Food

                Wooden Chef's Signature Cajon Fried Chicken Pieces on

                 Portabello Mushroom and Black Rice with Seven Sauces

O.K., I'm not an Assistant Manager, but I have been promised the position, and I know

that Steve isn't going to last long with all that angry yelling and negative attitude.

Friday, April 12th, 2002

I was scheduled to be off, but was called in to unload the truck, worked from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.

None of the younger guys could unload four pallets stacked eight feet high ?  

Friday, April 12th, 2002  
Main Ingredient: Truffles  
Cooking Style:  Maverick Japanese vs. Traditional Japanese
Iron Chef:  Rokusaburo Michiba   Challenger: Dr. Hattori 

Saturday, April 13th, 2002

I was supposed to be off, but was called in to work from 12:15 to 9:45 p.m., 9 hours.

Saturday, April 13th, 2002 repeat
Main Ingredient: Giant Pike Eel   
Cooking Style: Neo Japanese vs. Traditional Japanese   
Iron Chef:  Masaharu Morimoto     Challenger:   Handa

Sunday, April 14th, 2002

I was called in early.

Sunday, April 14th, 2002
Main Ingredient:  Sardine

Cooking Style:  Neo Japanese vs. Traditional Japanese

Iron Chef:  Chen Kenichi  Challenger: Hideki Maruyama

Wednesday, April 17th, 2002

I was called in to work early again.

After work I continued working on the lobster pages.

Have I mentioned that I don't like Microsoft's Front Page?

Friday, April 19th

I was called in to unload the truck again. Are they trying to work me to death or get me to quit ?

Friday, April 19th, 2002 NEW
Main Ingredient: Cabbage 
Cooking Style: Szechwan Chinese vs. Japanese  
Iron Chef:  Chen Kenichi  Challenger: Hiromi Yamada

Elaine taped the show for me while I was at work, she said it was good, and bought a head of cabbage.

Saturday, April 20th, 2002 Couch Potato Weekend

Main Ingredient:  Potato (4 pm Eastern)  
Cooking Style:  Neo Japanese vs. French  
Iron Chef:  Masaharu Morimoto    Challenger: Micheal Noble

Saturday, April 20th, 2002 Couch Potato Weekend  (7 p.m. Eastern)

Main Ingredient:  Potato (New?) 
Cooking Style: Szechwan Chinese vs. Japanese  
Iron Chef:  Chen Kenichi    Challenger: Katsuyo Kobayashi

Poor Chen gets whipped by the Julia Childs of Japan, his second loss to a woman.

Sunday, April 21st, 2002, a repeat of the previous nights potato battle. 

Monday, April 22nd, 2002

I will be in Shift Leader class all week, driving three other people to the Harding Place Store.

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2002

I've been working on a big overhaul of the whole website, but it's too big and is taking too

long, so I'm just going to try to upload several pages a day until I get it all up there.

 Most notably, the 27 pages of lobster recipes that needed redoing are ready to load.

The Carrots Battle that was the last one in Ohio is about ready. There are pieces of several
other battles that I've been working on sporadically.   
I probably should hang up a "Under Reconstruction"  sign.

My "career" at "Jacque en le Carton" is hard work and taking up a lot of my time and energy.

At this point I am still optimistic.

Several of you have wished for an old fashioned "slow chat room" type forum and I've

been looking into that. I may have it working by the end of the week

Wednesday, April 24th, 2002 I initiated the Forum.

Friday, April 26th, 2002  New
Main Ingredient: Kinoko ( the Japanese word for Mushrooms - 5 kinds )  
Cooking Style:  Szechwan Chinese vs. Japanese
Iron Chef: Chen Kenichi   Challenger: Hideki Ohsaka

Chen brought some of his own special Chinese mushrooms along so that he would have 6 kinds.

Ohsaka (340 pounds) said he would shave his head if he lost this battle.

 He lost, but we didn't see him shaving.

We cooked along with this battle and got six of the nine dishes.               

Saturday, April 27th, 2002 repeat
Main Ingredient: Sushi   
Cooking Style: Japanese    
Iron Chef:  Masaharu Morimoto     Challenger:  Nakazawa

I worked on finishing the Duck recipes.

Katie made me a chocolate birthday cake with fudge icing. Christie and Charlotte helped decorate.

Sunday, April 28th, 2002 Wooden Chef's 55th birthday

     So even though I'm not on the schedule because I asked for the day off, my friend Jennifer still called me at 7:00 a.m. and wanted me to come in and help her at work, but I told her it's my birthday and I'm taking the day off !

       Elaine and I are working on a nice dinner, Pork Chops with Fake Shake and Bake® made from corn meal, bread crumbs and onion soup mix.

Elaine's Pork Chop Coating:

2/3 cup cornmeal

2/3 cup bread crumbs

2 bags of onion soup mix

2 quart size sealable plastic bags

coats 6 pork chops

 Also, we are having "super stuffing" mushrooms stuffed with ricotta cheese and minced garlic with chopped green onions from our garden for garnish. I was planning a dessert with red spiced apple slices, pineapple rings, and cherries stacked with layers of cottage cheese, but we're having birthday cake and strawberry ice cream instead.

Sunday, April 28th, 2002 repeat

Main Ingredient: Unisex Salmon    
Cooking Style: Japanese    
Iron Chef: Masaharu Morimoto   Challenger: Shuichi Fujii

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 Network. The recipes presented here are loosely based on the dishes appearing on

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are ©Copyright 2001 - 2002 by Brett Pijan, unless otherwise noted.