was a

celebrity chef A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become a celebrity. Today, chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations, usually through the media of television and radio, or in printed publications. While television ...

specializing in

Italian cuisine Italian cuisine (, ) is a Mediterranean cuisine David 1988, Introduction, pp.101–103 consisting of the ingredients, recipes and cooking techniques developed across the Italian Peninsula and later spread around the world together with wave ...

, most notable as the "Iron Chef Italian" on the

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

Iron Chef is a Japanese television cooking show produced by Fuji Television. The series, which premiered on October 10, 1993, was a stylized cook-off featuring guest chefs challenging one of the show's resident "Iron Chefs" in a timed cooking battle bui ...

'', where he appeared wearing a chef's uniform decorated like the Italian Flag (green, white and red) and holding a tomato (in some episodes, an apple).

Biography

According to the ''Iron Chef'' storylines, Kobe was slated to be an Iron Chef in 1993, but was considered too young and immature. To fix this issue, he moved to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

for about 4 years to train, becoming the fourth Iron Chef upon his arrival home. In reality, Kobe had little to do with the show before he moved to Italy (although he was aware of the show's existence), and was asked to be on ''Iron Chef'' near the end of the four years. Originally believing that he would be a challenger, Kobe found out that he was to be an Iron Chef mere days before his departure from Italy. Because of his quick turnaround from culinary apprentice to Iron Chef, Kobe is often considered to be a "junior Iron Chef", having little experience compared to the other Iron Chefs. Kobe, unlike his three fellow chefs, typically rises alone in

Kitchen Stadium is a Japanese television cooking show produced by Fuji Television. The series, which premiered on October 10, 1993, was a stylized cook-off featuring guest chefs challenging one of the show's resident "Iron Chefs" in a timed cooking battle bui ...

, many times accompanied by a group of

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

s. It was also to be noted that challenging chefs who were to face Kobe always had the fact explicitly mentioned during the challenger's bio, something that was rarely done with the other three Iron Chefs. Kobe, known as the "Prince of Pasta", is the only Iron Chef to have lost his opening battle–with pasta as its theme. Out of concern for his apparent time mismanagement during the battle, subsequent battles he ran to the theme ingredient stand in the opening seconds (compared to his opponents who simply walked) in order for him to gain precious seconds that could be used for cooking. His tenure as an Iron Chef saw him battling in 24 battles, with a 16–7–1 record. He is also the only Iron Chef to lose a dessert battle, though he is one of three Iron Chefs to have never lost consecutive battles, nor did he lose against an Italian chef after his opening loss, going 7–0. After ''Iron Chef'', Kobe opened his own restaurant, the Ristorante Massa, in the Ebisu district of Tokyo. In the post-series New York Battle special in 2000, he assisted Iron Chef French

Hiroyuki Sakai is a Japanese chef who specializes in French cuisine. Sakai is best known as the second, final, and longest-serving Iron Chef French on the Japanese television show ''Iron Chef'', first appearing at the beginning of 1994 (after Yutaka Ishinabe ...

in delivering a lecture on preparing salmon to students at the

Culinary Institute of America Culinary arts are the cuisine arts of food preparation, cooking and presentation of food, usually in the form of meals. People working in this field – especially in establishments such as restaurants – are commonly called chefs or ...

. He died on March 14, 2019, aged 49, from injuries sustained in a fall at one of his restaurants.

Notes

1969 births 2019 deaths Japanese chefs Chefs of Italian cuisine People from Yamanashi Prefecture {{food-bio-stub