What emerged in each episode was food so glorious, many viewers would have given anything just to be able to taste it.

Seven different chefs competed over the run, but during our viewing years, the three stars were Iron Chef Chinese, Chen Kenichi; Iron Chef French, Hiroyuki Sakai; and Iron Chef Japanese, Masaharu Morimoto. Each chef owns a restaurant in Japan (Kenichi a Chinese restaurant, Sakai a French restaurant, Morimoto a Japanese restaurant).

Iron Chef French, Hiroyuki Sakai. Photo courtesy Fuji TV.

The host and comic relief, Takeshi Kaga, was not a real “eccentric millionaire” with a castle and a culinary academy, but a well-known Japanese actor, Shigekatsu Katsuta.

While we loved all the Iron Chefs, we had a special fondness for Chef Sakai, based on the niceness he projected as well as the style of his food. He also has the most wins, and was named “King of Iron Chefs” after winning at the show’s grand finale.

Yesterday, thanks to Benihana restaurant, we met our favorite Iron Chef, who is executive culinary advisor to the restaurant chain. The occasion was an intimate lunch for journalists, and it reminded us how fun a lunch or dinner at Benihana can be.

The meal can also fit into most diets, as each table gets a personal chef who can customize the ingredients on the menu—top-quality beef, chicken, seafood and vegetables—to one’s diet (hold the butter, add the monounsaturated safflower oil). There are no tempting desserts (just ice cream and sorbet) and no bread.

BENIHANA: FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

Although we spotted a few private rooms used for business lunch meetings, Benihana is a communal experience. Whether your party is large or small (or just you), you sit around the teppanyaki (griddle/flat top) table as your chef prepares your meal: grilling, slicing and flipping until the cooked food is moved from the grill to your plate. Adults and kids alike will be mesmerized.

Benihana was founded in 1964 in New York City by Hiroaki “Rocky” Aoki, an alternate on the 1960 Japanese Olympic Wrestling Team.

Our chef, Carlos, amazed us by flipping a raw egg back and forth on the flat side of a cleaver; then, as a final show, flipping the egg into the air and landing it on the blade edge of the cleaver, breaking the egg in half. Pretty amazing stuff. (The eggs were used in the house’s signature fried rice.)

The meal begins with a delicate Japanese onion soup, followed by a salad with very tasty ginger dressing. The restaurant has added a sushi menu (there’s also a sushi bar), and the sushi we had was delicious.

WE FINALLY GET TO TASTE IRON CHEF FOOD

As much as we enjoyed our seafood entrée, the star of the lunch was a special creation prepared by Chef Sakai: Cercle de St. Jacque. A flat cake of seafood and vegetables—langoustine, live scallop, squid and seafood mousse with lotus root, taro root and chives, bound with a long strip of cucumber, the circle of seafood was garnished with a white miso seafood sauce and black Italian truffles. It’s not yet on the regular Benihana menu, but we’ll be the first to order it if it appears.

Thanks to Benihana, part of our fantasy—the opportunity to taste Chef Sakai’s food—has been realized. If anyone wants to send us to Tokyo to dine at his restaurant, La Rochelle, we can be packed in an hour.

There are 63 Benihana restaurants in the U.S., and several overseas. Check the company website to find the one nearest to you.

The New York City location, on West 56th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, is convenient to City Center, shopping, Central Park and much more.

Chef Johnny Gnall hasn’t made kale chips yet (see the review), but he does dehydrate.

Dehydrated foods are used in a myriad of applications, says Chef Johnny. From Michelin-star kitchens to backwoods cabins full of deer jerky, people have long been removing the moisture from their food in a variety of ways. The technique began thousands of years, initially to preserve meat and other foods.

You can purchase a dehydrator (they’re reasonably priced—here’s a good model) and dehydrate your favorite fruits and veggies into crisp snacks—with no preservatives, sugar or salt.

You can also dry meat, fish, granola, herbs and flowers (to decorate cakes or make your own potpourri and sachets). It‘s easy to get hooked on dehydrating.

A desiccant—familiar as the small, white silica gel packets placed in some packages of foods and in boxes of shoes—absorbs moisture. Desiccants are made in a variety of forms but not all are safe near food. So go for the small white packets, which are.

Then, all you need is some cheesecloth, a plastic food storage container and an airtight plastic bag to place it in.

What food should you dehydrate? Stick to fruits and vegetables. This simple technique isn’t successful for jerky.

RECIPE: DEHYDRATED CITRUS RIND

While dehydrated citrus rind isn’t a snack like dried apple chips or carrot slices, it will provide you with a delicious seasoning that works in certain situations that don’t work with fresh lemon, lime, grapefruit or orange zest.

A favorite way to use dehydrated citrus rind is to grind it and add it to savory rubs for meat and fish. Try it finely ground in whipped cream: It will add an earthy twist to your favorite dessert. Experiment with your daily recipes to see where it best adds a flavor spark.

Dried foods have a long shelf life in airtight containers, so you can fill your shelves with little jars of your creations for creative cooking. You may find yourself unlocking some unique flavors.

Preparation

 
The dehydration procedure alters the citrus flavor profile somewhat, concentrating it and adding a slightly different shade of citrus to your kitchen’s repertoire.
  

Rhythm Superfoods kale chips are a healthy snack, bursting with vitamins and flavor. Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

Segments of our chip-happy society embraced them, and they remain one of the fancy chip alternatives we serve to guests.

But what about veggies that don’t slice neatly into a round chip?

Rhythm Superfoods shows how to do it, with its curly kale chips—a raw food slowly dried at 118°F or lower. Instead of baking or frying, foods cooked with raw food techniques maintain nutrients that are lost at higher heats.

The result is a nutrient-rich alternative to standard chips, 106 calories per ounce (Terra Chips have 140 calories, potato chips have about 155 calories, depending on the brand).

The chips are made in five flavors: Bombay Curry, Kool Ranch, Mango Habanero, Texas BBQ and Zesty Nacho.

Kale is a nutritional powerhouse, says the manufacturer, with one serving providing 150% Daily Value (DV) of Vitamin A and 117% of Vitamin C.

The brand is certified organic by the USDA, gluten-free, cholesterol-free and vegan.

Read the full review.

Buy Rhythm Superfoods Kale Chips.
 
WHAT DOES DAILY VALUE MEAN?

Daily Value, a term found on food labels, is based on the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for individuals four years of age and older. Both values have been established by the FDA to help consumers use food label information to plan a healthy diet.

For a 2,000-calories-per-day diet, the Daily Values are:

 
For example, the Daily Value for fat, based on a 2,000-calorie diet, is 65g. A food that has 13g of fat per serving would state 20% DV on the label, or, the percent Daily Value for fat per serving is 20%.

That’s why we switched to Coleman Natural Hickory Smoked Bacon, which is naturally cured.

It contains no preservatives, MSG or added nitrites or nitrates. As with all Coleman Natural meats, the animals are raised without antibiotics or added hormones. If there is guilt-free bacon, this is it.

In order to cook our bacon to perfection, we asked the experts at Coleman Natural for the best way to cook bacon.

THE BEST WAY TO COOK BACON: 7 GREAT TIPS

In A Skillet

 
In The Oven

EDITOR’S NOTE: We tried this technique and prefer it to skillet-frying. Not only can you “walk away”; the aroma of the cooking bacon is minimized.

TYPES OF BACON

Bacon lovers should check out the history of bacon and the different types of bacon. How many have you tried?

A birthday party idea for your favorite bacon lover:

Have a BLT party, including a tasting of the different types of bacon. Put the different types on platters and let guests build their own sandwiches—or enjoy the bacon right from the fork or toothpick.

CHOCOLATE & BACON

We tasted more than 40 different combinations of chocolate and bacon. Here are our favorites.

Ginger is a terrific flavor, adding exotic sweet and floral notes and a spicy kick to any number of cuisines and recipes. It is equally adaptable to sweet and savory foods.

In your kitchen, is the ginger always powdered in a shaker jar? Or do you head to the produce aisle for a piece of fresh ginger root?

Dried ginger has its place, but doesn’t hold a candle to the vibrant flavors of raw, fresh ginger. From Vietnamese spring rolls to slow-cooked stews with braised pork and big hunks of raw ginger (not to mention, pickled ginger with sushi), the root is where it’s at. Dried ginger in the spring roll would be just too sharp; and in the stew it would not have the roundness it needs to develop.

So today’s tip is: Cook with fresh ginger.

Fresh ginger root. Photo by Jan Schöne | SXC.

To start you off, here’s a delicious recipe for honey ginger carrots. If you have kids, Try baby carrots (actual miniature carrots, not the whittled-down thumbs sold in plastic bags), and serve them like sweet little chicken fingers. We promise they will get gobbled up.

HONEY GINGER CARROTS RECIPE

Ingredients

 
Preparation
1. Blanch the carrots until fork tender but not soft; plunge into an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Set aside to dry in a colander or on paper towels.
2. In a sautée pan over medium high heat, melt some butter until it begins to brown. Reduce the heat to medium and add ginger. Cook for about a minute, stirring occasionally.

3. Reduce heat a bit more and add the honey, then the carrots, stirring continuously. If things get dry, reduce the heat and add a touch of butter or a very small amount of water.

4. Once the carrots are coated and the water has evaporated, remove from heat and transfer to a dish. Toss in the chopped parsley and lavender. Then chow down.
MORE USES FOR FRESH GINGER

 
STORING GINGER ROOT

Fridge. Wrap the ginger in a paper towel, then place it in a plastic storage bag. It should stay fresh in the crisper drawer for up to three weeks.

Freezer. If you’re not going to use the ginger soon, freeze it. We peel and freeze slices that quickly defrost (or, just pop the frozen slices into the dish you’re cooking).

Another option is to peel and grate the root with a microplane grater. Set a sheet of plastic wrap on the counter and spoon the ginger in a vertical line. Roll up the plastic, twist the ends and freeze. When you want some ginger, unwrap the plastic and break off a chunk. It defrosts quickly.
 
GINGER FACTS

Native to Southeastern Asia, ginger has been used for more than 5,000 years in Chinese medicine.

The oils in fresh ginger cause the stomach to produce more digestive enzymes, which help to neutralize stomach acids and relieve diarrhea, heartburn, nausea and stomach cramps. Slices of fresh ginger in hot water make a very soothing ginger tea that clears the sinuses as well.

Ginger has also been shown to help in blood circulation and anti-clotting, as well as lower cholesterol levels. It may also be an anti-carcinogen and provide relief from migraine headaches.

The ginger plant, Zingiber officinale, is a rhizome, a plant with a horizontal, often underground, stem that is edible (although the leaves are often eaten as well). While we call it a root, it’s actually a stem.

Here’s more on the healthfulness of ginger, one of the seven highest anti-oxidant spices.