Apron Of Love

Blog covering both the new and old episodes of the Asahi Television show 'Ai no Apron' or 'Apron of Love'

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Ai Epu vs TV Announcers - Part One


Air Date: 12/13/2006

Contestants:
Ai Epu: Captain: Aoki Sayaka (青木さやか), Macha Macha (まちゃまちゃ), Hoshino Aki (ほしのあき), Sugita Kaoru (杉田かおる), Aota Noriko (青田典子)

Announcers:Captain: Takeuchi Emi (武内絵美), Maeda Yuki (前田有紀), Dou Mariko (堂真理子), Marukawa Tamayo (丸川珠代), Shimohira Sayaka (下平さやか)

Guest Judges: Antonio Inoki (アントニオ猪木), Umezawa Tomio (梅沢富美男), Hamaguchi Masaru (濱口優)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
A Team: Pasta / Lasagna

B Team: Shrimp / Seafood Yakisoba












Recap: The episode opens with the introduction of the two teams, it's Ai Epu vs the women announcers and it's an all-star lineup/grudge match. The Ai Epu team is lead by Aoki Sayaka and features some top competitors and stars, including Macha Macha (known to be a good cook) and Hoshino Aki (kawaii). The announcer team was lead by none other than Takeuchi Emi, with other notables including Dou Mariko from Music Station. Obviously, all the sniping that was going back and forth this entire year has finally resulted in the expect battle.

Which started anew before the cooking even began, as the announcers all appeared in Santa outfits, much to the disdain of the Ai Epus. A quick recap to show how long the Sayaka/Emi battle has been brewing, then a sneak peek at the tears to come. (If you have seen earlier episodes where Emi-chan was a contestant, you know that both ended with her in tears.) Then it was down to business.

The format was the typical team battle challenge. First round, the captains pick which team members will be assigned to one of two dishes. They will compete one on one against each other, with individual dishes being scored on a scale of 1 - 20 by the judges. The points will be tallied, and then the captains will compete against each other in a free-style cooking challenge. Pride is on the line, as the teams are fighting the teams and the captains the captains. The teams went to work while the captains looked on.

The format has really changed since I last watched the show, with all the cooking time recap coming during tasting time. Tasting time starts immediately, with flashbacks to the cooking when the cook is introduced. All the announcers also had little taped comments from their on-screen partners.

The lasagna dishes were judged first, with Macha Macha facing off against Maeda Yuki. Macha Macha did a good job on the meat and white sauce for the lasagna, but mixed up the cheese. It took a bit for the judges to pin down the use of mozzarella, which made it taste more like pizza than lasagna. Maeda did not fare as well, with her dish being too salty and crunchy. Antonio is a famous wrestler/martial artist, so it appeared there would be some sort of punishment. Hamaguchi, the other judge, volunteered to take it. He received a pretty hard slap, but Maeda still needed to be punished. Antonio wound up and gave her a big bear hug. Which caused hilarity later as Umezawa kept joking about wanting to hug the contestants (especially Hoshino).

Dish One Points: Ai Epu - 68 / Ann. - 25

Next was the heavyweights, Hoshino Aki versus Dou Mariko. Aki-chan might be cute but she can't cook, it was pretty bad and undercooked. It was also very hot, which resulted in some laughs as Aki-chan blew on the food to cool it off before feeding it to Antonio. Compared to Dou's dish, she needed every point she could get, as it was perfect. There was some really amusing commentary from Tamori (her co-host), but I couldn't make heads or tails of it.

Dish Two Points: Ai Epu - 48 / Ann. - 70

The B Team was up next with their seafood yakisoba. Sugita and Tamayo went first, with expected results for Sugita. After all this time, you would think she could cook one dish to perfection. Unfortunately, she ended up with the worst score for the Ai Epu team, and causing them to drop out of the lead. The announcers were now up by one point after Tamayo's decent attempt at the dish.

Dish Three Points: Ai Epu - 34 / Ann. - 56

The last two were Aota and Shimohara. Both dishes were very good, getting rave reviews from all the judges. Shimohara gave the edge to the Announcer team, by just three points.

Dish Three Points: Ai Epu - 85 / Ann. - 88

At this point, the announcers were up by 4 points. Aoki was grumbling, having to deal with both Aki-chan and Kaoru. Emi-chan was having none of it, and she was now ready to beat Aoki in their one on one match.

Next post: Part Two: The battle to end all battles!

Ranking - Part One:
Ai Epu: 235 Points
Announcers: 239 Points