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CHEF & SHATNER: Today's secret theme ingredient... Romulan Ale.
On November 16th, 2001, William Shatner will boldly step into the role of Captain, er, Chairman and helm two one-hour, American-style TV specials based on the Japanese culinary-classic show Iron Chef.
Iron Chef USA: Showdown in Las Vegas will serve up a heaping plate of smoking-hot action as top chefs from around the world roast, toast and sauté their way to gustatory glory.
In the spirit of the original Iron Chef, a stadium was built in Las Vegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena. It is here that guest Challengers will compete against their choice of four world-famous Iron Chefs who specialize in American, Italian, French and Asian cooking. A panel of four celebrity (and not-so-celebrity) judges will taste the dishes and determine the winner of the battle.
 Of interest to Brian's Belly readers, one of the guest judges will be Steven Schirripa, a.k.a. Bacala from The Sopranos. Steven is an enductee here in the Brian's Belly Heavyweight Hall of Fame.
Will the specials attract enough attention to make this a series? We guess it all depends on whether the unexplainable excitement of Iron Chef the original series (IC:TOS) can be captured using a language that we all understand. We've all seen the original show at 3AM alongside the likes of Don West shilling baseball cards and Miss Cleo telling young women who the father of their children is. But will we watch this in primetime, or click on through?
 Part of the fun of watching IC:TOS are the clever accent-adjusted voiceovers, the fast-paced and always-interrupting Ota and the always-giggling Asian actress. We can only hope that the new Shatner-helmed specials will be able to capture the hearts of Americans the way the Japanese version did. If not, they can always re-shoot them in Klingon or Esperanto and loop them for our amusement.
Well, regardless of any musings, we are excited about the new show- and one thing is for sure... Brian's Belly will be watching. Mi amas William Shatner.
Iron Chef USA: Showdown in Las Vegas premieres Friday, November 16th, 2001 at 9PM on UPN.
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