Iron Chef Rating: 8    A man dressed in flamboyant garb, solemnly studies the yellow bell pepper in his hand.  As the music swells, he takes a large, dramatic bite out of it.  A victorious smile spreads across his face. As the camera pulls away to reveal a large group of Japanese men, dressed in chef garb and standing stiffly at attention, the man breaks character and has to stifle a laugh.      The man is Chairman Kaga, the show is Iron Chef , and the opening, with its show of contrived pageantry and self-knowing goofiness, is absolutely perfect.      I've seen alot of cooking shows.  The vast majority of them at their hearts want to teach the viewer something.  IC makes no such effort; this show exists purely to entertain.  The format is simple.  A challenger squares off against one of the show's in house Iron Chefs .  A theme ingredient is revealed, and the pair have one hour and the seemingly infinite resources of Kitchen Stadium to prepare a variety of creative dishes within one hour. The dishes are then tasted and scored by a panel of four.  Points are tallied up, and Kaga announces a winner. Make no mistake; competition is at the heart and soul of IC.  These guys aren't even trying to win any prize, other than The people's ovation and fame , that is.  This is a cooking show the way that pro- wrestling is a study into the arts of professional athleticism.      The show treats every battle with an enthusiasm normally reserved for a soccer match.  The frenetic activity of the chefs is covered by announcers, dubbed from Japanese, in exactly the same way that a _base_ball game would be.  Usually the challenger will bring along a contingent of supporters to cheer him on.  Sometimes the challenger will pick which Iron Chef, who each specialize in a _style_ of cooking such as French, Japanese, Chinese, or Italian, he'll duel, sometimes the choice seems to rest with Kaga.  It is also usually for the challenger to be portrayed has having some sort of ax to grind or point to prove, usually involving restoring honor to something or other.     Part of the charm is that the chefs involved don't know in advance what the theme ingredient is going to be.  The selections run anywhere from peaches to king-crab to natto (aka sticky beans ).  The show can take a gruesome turn when the theme ingredient is still alive, since the chefs show no concern for the niceties of  mercy in their haste.  I remember doing a little shrieking at the sight of a lively octopus being dumped into bread crumbs and then being beheaded on camera (this particular episode prompted the folks at PETA to do a little shrieking of their own).  Often the dished incorporate such luxurious ingredients as foi gras, truffles, and caviar, sometimes all at once.  During one memorable battle, a challenger used a few hundred dollars worth of lobster to flavor a few stalks of white asparagus, then discarded the lobster.  This kind of price be damned extravagance epitomizes Iron Chef.  The end results of the battles are almost highly praised, though the occasionally nasty comment does get through., and some of the combinations look odd to American eyes, and evidently sometimes to the Japanese as well.      Infectious enthusiasm is the shine on this star.  Cooking is more often regarded as a necessary chore than a vehicle for fame and adoration. Iron Chef , for all its pomp, knows that its success lays in its rich mixture of grandeur and over the top enthusiasm.  I'm very glad they didn't edit out Kaga's suppressed giggle at the end of the introduction. Annie Review are _base_d on a 1 to 10 scale, with 1 being very bad and 10 being outstanding.