Apron Of Love

I'm Back

2007-03-14T20:54:00.000-07:00

I know, it's been ages since I've updated and there probably aren't many visitors coming here anymore.

Unfortunately, after my last post things got pretty nutty with work, a move, and tons of other things going on in real life. It's not that I didn't want to post, I just didn't have the time. One thing led to another, and I kept putting it off and putting it off. My interest also waned a bit for the show after the World Cup challenge, so I've been letting episodes pile up as of late.

Now that I have time again, I want to start updating, and I'm picking up with the year end special for 2006. I will go back and update the second half of last year, including part two of the world cup. I was going to start with that, but I'm on the road and that episode is back on a DVD somewhere at home.

I'm hoping for semi-weekly updates from this point out, and hopefully I can keep at it for some time to come.

Thanks for your patience...

Idol Chef

Ai Epu vs TV Announcers - Part One

2006-12-13T19:34:00.000-08:00

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

Yuuko Posts Are Coming

2006-07-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

Just a brief note... since these will be buried in the archive.

The Ogura Yuuko episodes are being posted (the few that I have). I will link them all here as I put them up, in preparation for the recap of the June 14th episode. Which I have finally gotten around to watching and it is probably one of the best episodes yet. Hopefully it should be up by the end of the week.

Ogura Yuuko - Queen of Choco!

You Got Grapefruit In My Chocolate

Chocolate Croquette - Best Episode Ever

Massive Updates

2006-07-02T16:57:00.000-07:00

Decided to spend most of this weekend catching up on posting, and 4 new episodes from this year are now up for your enjoyment. Next on my plate is the return of Ogura Yuuko, one of my personal favorites. However, although this is the next episode in the airing order, I do want to go back and review some of her finer moments. So before moving forward, I'm going to take the time to move back and add her earlier episodes to the site.

I also spent a lot of time sorting through which episodes I actually have. I went back as far as I could on the official sites, to determine which ones are missing. I'm going to post a list here, just in case anyone has access to these missing episodes. If anyone has a lead on anything from 2001 and earlier, I have nothing from those years. I also have major gaps from 2002 - mid-2003, but I want to get actual dates for what I'm missing. If you have any of these, drop an e-mail.

As always, comments are appreciated and I hope everyone is enjoying the site.

Missing Episodes

2003
07/12, 07/23, 08/30, 10/18, 11/29

2004
01/17, 02/21, 03/13, 05/15, 05/29, 06/12, 07/24, 07/31, 08/07, 08/28, 12/08

2005
01/12, 02/16, 03/16, 04/20, 04/27, 05/25

Apron of Love Cup - Part One

2006-06-28T13:05:00.000-07:00

Air Date:

Contestants:
A Team: Sugita Kaoru (杉田かおる), Matsuzaki Shigeru (松崎しげる), Sugimoto Aya (杉本彩), Kaai Gamon (河相我聞), Matsubara Nobue (松原のぶえ)

B Team: Mie (未唯), Aoki Sayaka (青木さやか), Yinling (インリン), Umezawa Tomio (梅沢富美男), Takahashi Keiko (高橋恵子)

Guest Judges: Yumi Kaoru (由美かおる), Nakao Akira (中尾彬), Higashino Kouji (東野幸治)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
A Team: Beef / Croquette and Ground Beef Cutlet

B Team: Squid / Seafood Fried Rice

Recap: In honor of the World Cup, the Ai no Apron staff decided to host an Ai no Apron Cup. Bringing together some of the best and worst Ai-Epu chefs in first an elimination match, then a final cooking battle. It was a bit confusing at first for me to figure out how this was going to work, but it ended up being very simple.

There are 10 chefs, who by random selection were put into two teams of five. Each team (A Team and B Team - I'm using that rather than Block which is used on the show, as I did with the earlier special like this), would have different theme ingredients and dishes to cook. From the 10 chefs, four would be chosen to fight it out in the final battle. The four chefs would be decided upon by points awarded by the four judges (three special judges and Kentaro), with each judge being able to award up to 25 points for each dish. So a perfect score would be 100. They had four spots set aside in the studio, where the current top four scorers would sit. Then, as the judging continued, chefs would be 'eliminated'.

Yes, it's confusing. The easiest way to view it is the same as the regular ranking board. The four with the highest ranking (or highest score) out of the ten, will be in the final battle.

They setup a light board that would randomly choose the teams, and Joushima quickly got things under way. It was interested that aside from Yinling, the B team had the strongest line-up. The battle was also to be extremely short, only 30 minutes allowed for cooking.

Cooking Time was a bit of a jumble, as they had 10 chefs to keep track of during the battle. In fact, many responses were very brief as everyone seemed to feel the time crunch. Yinling's rice looked a bit odd, as she had mixed egg in with her rice before frying it. But what was really odd is that was the correct thing to do. Meanwhile Umezawa was doing everything with a big flourish, being the highest ranked Apron Boy and known as the 'King of the Apron'. They barely checked in with most of them and Cooking Time was as short as usual (and with 10 chefs, that was way too short).

A Team was up first for judging, and started with Kaoru. She gave it her all, and hoped that it would be enough. Her dish looked very odd with a lot of garnish, she also used pieces of whole white bread when making her cutlet. Yumi had problems determining what was up with her croquette. The cutlet had huge chunks of bread and egg still in it. Things aren't going to go well if you can't tell the croquette apart from the cutlet. After judging, she only scored 23 out of 100 possible points. But it was still enough to put her in the lead (since she was the first one judged). It was amusing because made a big deal of her being in the top spot.

Next up was Kaai Gamon, who is a singer/actor and I think may own a ramen restaurant. Either that or he was in a drama that featured one. They kept calling him a Pro, so I presume he probably owns one. But can he do fried foods? Obviously not, as neither dish really lived up to expectations. He scored 28 points out of 100, taking over the lead.

Matsubara was up next, and to be honest, I'm really sick and tired of her constant crying while being judged. Her dish wasn't perfect, but she started bawling which started Yumi cry, which started others crying. I don't think I've seen anyone cry so much on this show, whether she is being critiqued or complimented. Which is what happened here, with her croquette not being good but her cutlet being fine. But we wasted over five minutes with the crocodile tears. She scored 40 out of 100, moving into first.

Matsuzaki did well with both of his dishes, though he could have done a bit better. Overall they were good, which gave him a score of 68 out of 100. So far, everyone judged was moving into first knocking Kaoru further and further down. She was on the verge of being eliminated, and if the next person scored 24 points, Kaoru would be eliminated.

Which pretty much was a given, seeing that Sugimoto Aya was the last person on the A Team to be judged. Her croquette was perfect, and the sauce that she made to go with it was fantastic. Her cutlet could use a little work. It also appears that there may be a bit of rivalry between her and Mie. They really wanted Kaoru to understand how good it was, so they had her try it. Then, with a score of 86, Kaoru was eliminated. She was not happy about giving up the chair.

Then, with the A Team having been scored, it was time for the B Team. First up, Yinling. Who they referred to as the Typhoon of Ai Epu.

Before even revealing her dish, they asked her what position she was aiming for. She wanted the top seat. Everyone kind of chuckled at her boldness, then she revealed her dish and everyone was shocked. They then flashed back to cooking time where she was making fried rice to perfection. It turns out that she used to watch her mother cook this all the time. Kouji was really amused and in a bit of disbelief that she actually cooked that. Then came time to pour the seafood over the rice and it really came out as a gelatinous mess. She got chastised a bit for just dumping it over the rice rather than making it look nice. Yumi took a spoon and tasted it.

Then the impossible happened...

It was delicious. The reaction around the studio was amusing, as both Kaai and Kaoru were stunned. But it wasn't a mistake, it was really delicious. Nakao also found it extremely good. Joushima and Kiriko were floored. Kouji, her harshest critic in the past was also extremely happy to pronounce it was a fine dish. Kentaro explained that it was done exactly right. Mie and Umezawa asked to try it, and both also said it was perfect.

Now to really understand what was happening, you have to keep in mind that there were three Special Epu's yet to be judged. Aoki, Umezawa, and Mie. You can do the math in your head, Umezawa and Mie were pretty much a lock for the final four, as was Sugimoto. Aoki should have the final spot, but if Yinling scored really well Aoki would be in trouble. When Aoki was asked about it, she never though that Yinling would be her rival for the final four. If Yinling beat Sugimoto, Aoki probably would not make it.

The judges entered their scores, and Yinling received a total of 84 points, only 2 less than Sugimoto. Kiriko got extremely emotional congratulating her, even bursting into tears. It seems that everyone was really happy with her success. Which is one of the reasons I like this show, because even if you are a bad cook, everyone wants you to do well. Which is why there has been such a focus on getting Aoki a Special Epu ranking. But in terms of the Ai no Apron Cup, Kaai was eliminated, and Aoki looked very concerned. But with only four more dishes to judge, the episode ended.

Normally, I'm used to three-hour specials, so I was surprised to find that they did not continue the judging of the last four chefs. If this had been intended, you would have figured they would have stopped after judging the A Team. I think that what happened with Yinling was so surprising, that they decided to use the week to promote the conclusion.

Next week: Will Yinling make it to the final four battle? Will Aoki?

Mie - The Other Pink Returns

2006-06-21T10:19:00.000-07:00

Air Date: 06/21/2006

Contestants: Mie (未唯), Mori Kumiko (森公美子), Nakazawa Yuuko (中澤裕子), Miss Debbie (デヴィ夫人), Aoki Sayaka (青木さやか), Yinling (インリン)

Guest Judges: Ootomo Kouhei (大友康平), Maino Umi (舞の海), Sekine Tsutomu (関根勤)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Shrimp / Mixed Tempura Bowl and Egg Custard

Recap: This week, the episode revolved around the return of Mie (of Pink Lady fame) to the show. While she has been a regular on many of the specials, her appearances as a normal contestant have been rare. However, the few times that she has been on, she has always had the number one ranking. But since it's been quite some time since she had been on, she has slowly slipped down the ranking board to 8th. Which may have been acceptable, if not for the fact that Aoki is now ranked above her in 7th place. She was quite amazed. Also present was Mori Kumiko, who while a celebrity, had a good reputation for her cooking (even writing a cookbook). It was setup as the battle of these three versus the demon cooks (which was a bit mean to call Nakazawa that, because she was new to the show).

As expected by now, Cooking Time flew by, with most of the focus on the three top chefs. Which was nice, because it's fun watching the 'pros' go at it. They started talking rivalry, and Miss Debbie was asked who her chief rival was. She presumed that it was Yinling. Interesting was the new camera angle they had on Yinling, basically a 'down epu' shot.

Tasting Time as it has lately, had Aoki up first and just as before everything went smoothly. Aoki is steadily improving across the board, and it's really paying off. She did fine with both dishes, and once again Emi-chan had to throw in that one little comment that really irritated Aoki. Nakazawa was next, and although her custard was a bit soupy, it still tasted good. She appeared to have the same problem with her tempura, as it was a bit soggy.

Miss Debbie was next on the block, they were going to get through all the poor cooks before the final showdown between Mie and Mori. I always feel a bit sorry for her, as she tries and just can't get it right. They actually tried training her on how to cook a bit late last year and early this year, without much luck. Her custard was doomed from the start, as she forgot to turn on the oven. Which meant that it was raw and not going to pass. Her tempura was extremely salty, and resulted runs to the bucket. It turns out she made her sauce using nothing but wrong ingredients. To follow up that disaster, it was Yinling's turn. When everyone saw her custard they shouted out 'shiroi' (white). She used the entire egg rather than the yolks, so it was like fried egg custard. When it came time for Joushima and his reaction, Sekine suggested that he just imagine Yinling in one of her 'cheesecake' photos. Joushima responded that it didn't work. I don't think I even need to describe how bad her tempura was, it as a huge mass of ingredients and a complete mess. Bucket runs began anew.

Mori was next up, and having some experience as a chef, everyone was looking forward to her dishes. Before the tasting, they played a 'good luck' video from Shimatani Hitomi (島谷ひとみ). Hitomi is a well-known pop-singer with several hits (Perseus, Falco, Angelus, etc). I couldn't pick up the connection, but I would presume that they are good friends. Her custard was a big hit, in fact both of her dishes were. Even Aoki and Mie agreed that both were very good.

Before they started judging on Mie, they gave a brief background of her history. She has been appearing on the show almost since the beginning. Back in December of 2000, she hit the Special Ranking (and may have been the first to ever reach that mark). I'm still not clear how she fell out of the Special Epu ranking, but there may be a rule that there can only be a certain number of Special Epu's. Looking over the history, I don't see anytime that she wasn't scored as the Number One Epu after competing. I would presume that as people are ranked above you, you can eventually be pushed out.

Her custard was perfection, nobody had anything but good things to say about it. The thing that really clinched her dishes came with the tempura, where she had the sauce on the side with what I believe was sesame seeds to dip the portion in as well. Everyone was also impressed with the 'crunch' that went with eating it. It was so good, the last two judges didn't want to pass it down.

Judgement Time was a relatively easy decision. Nakazawa actually ended up in the Bottom Epu ranking, not bad for a first timer. Meanwhile, Debbie and Yinling ended up far outside in the rain. They are now on the street corner outside the studio. Oddly, there are a couple even further away. As for the three best cooks, Mie easily regained her #1 Special Epu ranking, tied with Pinko and Peter. Aoki now is placed halfway into the Special Epu category (She did lose a spot, but it was only because Mie moved ahead). Mori is right in the middle of the Top Epu ranking.

Next Up: The Apron of Love Cup Special

Ranking ( out of 118 ):
Mie: 1
Aoki Sayaka: 8
Mori Kumiko: 18
Nakazawa Yuuko: 60 (New Entry)
Miss Debbie: 114
Yinling: 114

The Return of Pinko and Yuuko

2006-06-14T15:29:00.000-07:00

Air Date: 06/14/2006

Contestants: Nami Etsuko (奈美悦子), Asagi Kuniko (麻木久仁子), Izumi Pinko (泉ピン子), Ogura Yuuko (小倉優子), Aoki Sayaka (青木さやか)

Guest Judges: Kusakari Masao (草刈正雄), Oowada Baku (大和田獏), Katsumata Kunikazu (勝俣州和)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Pork / Mabo Tofu and Fried Gyouza

Recap: This episode features not only the return of Izumi Pinko (who has consistently been a Special Epu and in the #1 Epu ranking), but Ogura Yuuko as well (who I've recently posted a number of her previous episodes, having been over a year since the last time she was on the show). Pinko was going to be in for a surprise tonight however, since she made the fatal mistake of mentioning that she was terrible when it came to cooking Chinese. So it should be no surprise that tonight's theme ingredient was pork and featured two Chinese dishes. Pinko was not amused. Aoki figured this could be her chance to advance to the Special Epu ranking.

Cooking Time started and with a surprise from Pinko, as she brought her own knife. Pinko is a bit of a curmudgeon, so it didn't take long for her to start snapping at the other cooks. This attitude would work to her advantage as we will see later. Yuuko was promising a 'miracle' in that she would get a Top Epu ranking. For all her complaining, neither Pinko or the other cooks appeared to have much trouble with these dishes. As it has been recently, Cooking Time was fairly short.

As it has been lately, Aoki was first up when it came to Tasting Time. Just like the prior week, they pretty much flew through tasting her dishes. Though again, Emi had to make at least one sly comment about the overall taste. Pinko nudged Aoki a bit not to take it. After Aoki, Yuuko-chan was next up for the tasting, once again promising a 'miracle'. Her gyouza looked a bit white (not extremely fried) and they tasted good, but then Kusakari got a very strange look on his face. It tasted okay, but something wasn't quite right. Oowada tried them next and found them a bit dry. They still couldn't figure out what was bothering them about the taste, when Emi pointed out that Yuuko had used beef instead of pork as the main ingredient. Then they went to the replay, which showed Yuuko with pork in one hand and beef in the other, trying to ask Pinko which was which, and the response she got was to 'shut up'. Pinko's attitude when pressed was that she wasn't responsible if Yuuko can't tell beef from pork. That left the 'miracle' to occur with her Mabo, which wasn't going to happen since aside from her strange flavoring of baking powder and alum, it also had beef in it. Then the judges decided that Pinko needed to taste her creation, which had an amusing reaction. Then Pinko figured that Yuuko should taste it herself, which resulted in a very humble apology to Pinko.

But the fun was not going to stop there.

Asagi was up next, who managed to injure herself trying to keep up with Pinko. Her gyouza looked very good, with an asparagus garnish. Everyone was impressed with that, though Pinko pointed out that they were being judged on the gyouza and not the garnish. However, the gyouza tasted delicious, but there was one small problem. She used ground beef in both of her dishes as well. So even though both were good, they didn't use the theme ingredient. Nami did a great job on both of her dishes, they really liked the taste of her tofu dish.

Finally, it was Pinko's turn to be judged. From what I can tell, I guess in a drama that she has done, her role was the cook in a Chinese-style cafe. Which is why they find her dislike of this cooking style so amusing. Her gyouza were perfect and her tofu dish was even more amazing. When asked to compare Pinko's and Aoki's, Kusakari couldn't really compare. They were both good in different ways.

Ranking Time really hurt both Yuuko and Asagi, because they failed to use the theme ingredient more than anything else. The other three did very well. Nami dropped a little, but remained in the Top Epu ranking. Aoki found herself in between the Top and Special Epu ranking. While Pinko continues to reign as the Number One Epu (third time in a row).

Ranking ( out of 113 ):
Izumi Pinko: 1
Aoki Sayaka: 7
Nami Etsuko: 11
Asagi Kuniko: 85
Ogura Yuuko: 103

Updates Ahead

2006-06-10T15:25:00.000-07:00

A major project came and went at work which has kept me from doing any recent updates. I'm actually behind several episodes myself, only having had a chance to watch the first of two Apron Boys episodes that aired in May. I really want to get to the second because Hard Gay is one of the contestants.

This week we had both Nori-chan and Kaoru-chan competing, and next week marks the return of Ogura Yuuko (who puts chocolate in everything, and I mean everything). With any luck there should be a rash of updates shortly.

Kinpachi Sensei - Class 3B Battle

2006-06-07T12:43:00.000-07:00

Air Date: 06/07/2006

Contestants: Kondo Haruna (近藤春菜), Mihara Junko (三原じゅん子), Kawakami Maiko (川上麻衣子), Sugita Kaoru (杉田かおる), Aoki Sayaka (青木さやか), Horikoshi Nori (堀越のり)

Guest Judges: Takeda Tetsuya (武田鉄矢), Ijuuin Hikaru (伊集院光), Hori (ホリ)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Onions / Hayashi Rice and Onion Gratin Soup

Recap: This episode centered around the TBS Drama Series 'Kinpachi Sensei'. One of the judges was none other than Takeda Tetsuya, who played the role of Kinpachi Sensei. In addition to rounding up two actresses who appeared in the Drama (Mihara and Kawakami), it turns out that Kaoru-chan also was a former classmate. Facing off against them was Aoki, Nori-chan, and Kondo Haruna. It must be the time of year for these types of specials, I seem to recall last year there was one for 'Sukeban Deka'. The intro was amusing when Kaoru recalled who had a crush on Takeda back then. With the theme ingredient and recipes, you would presume that things would go rather smoothly. But I was semi-surprised by the looks of dismay from the regulars. As for the newcomers, Mihara apologized before they even got started.

Cooking time was a bit extended, to talk about the low ranks of both Kaoru and Nori. Also some chat about hairstyles, and Aoki was asked if she intended to keep striving for the Special Epu ranking. They then focused on how each of the former students were preparing their hayashi rice.

When it came to Tasting Time, Aoki was up first. They literally flew through her presentation. Both dishes were extremely good, though she still received some pointers from Hattori. I also discovered that Hori is apparently an impersonator, as he did the first of many impressions during this judging. The sparks also appeared to fly again between Aoki and Emi, I still feel there is another grudge match in their future.

After tasting some of the best that the Ai Epu's had to offer, Takeda now faced Nori-chan's creations. Which started off with Onion Gratin soup that had penne pasta as a major ingredient. Luckily, since she boiled everything together, there really was no taste to her dish. As Hattori pointed out, it really wasn't soup. Unluckily, she didn't have the same luck with her hayashi rice. Once again, she focused more on her rice presentation than the dish. Which meant that everyone watched with terror (again) as she poured her concoction over the rice. If that wasn't bad enough, she packed the rice so hard it was impossible to get a spoon into it. And I've run out of descriptive phrases to explain how it could get any worse and did. Curry powder apparently was her secret ingredient. Success would not find Nori-chan tonight.

Next up was the first of Kinpachi Sensei's class, Mihara Junko. Much like Nori's, there wasn't much taste to her soup. She actually did a good job with the hayashi rice. Though more amusing was Hori's impression of Joushima. Up next was Kaoru, who should have gotten the hang of this by now. Her soup looked more like udon, and by now both myself and the other judges had caught onto something. If Takeda didn't like something, he would just pass it down the table without commenting. So Ijuuin forced him to comment this time. It wasn't that good, but in comparison better than her hayashi rice, which like Nori's featured an odd ingredient... extract of plum. It was amusing because Takeda was holding back his reactions the entire night, so Ijuuin got caught out again. Emi's wrinkle-meter went off, and then as a clincher they had one of Kaoru's 'classmates' (Mihara) try it.

The rest was academic (pardon the pun). Kawakami did very well on both of her dishes, impressing everyone. Hori and Joushima did synchronized judging. Last up was Kondo, who didn't even have her soup judged on the air. Her hayashi rice looked really good, but was hiding an ingredient that proved hard to identify. They finally determined it was chocolate (guess they decided to get ready for Ogura Yuuko's visit early).

When it came time to judge, Hori dressed up like Kinpachi Sensei and ran outside to find Kaoru and Nori's nameplates. He ended up placing both of them on the outer wall of the studio. Meanwhile, Aoki stayed right where she had been, while Kawakami won the trophy for the evening.

Ranking ( out of 116 ):
Kawakami Maiko: 11
Aoki Sayaka: 16
Mihara Junko: 52
Kondo Haruna: 95
Sugita Kaoru: 112
Horikoshi Nori: 112

Apron Boys Special - Boys?!?

2006-05-24T10:31:00.000-07:00

Air Date: 05/24/2006

Contestants: Hazama Kanpei (間寛平), Ishidazuka Hidehiko (石塚英彦), Yama-chan (山ちゃん), Peter (ピーター), Razor Ramon - Hard Gay (ﾚｲｻﾞｰﾗﾓﾝＨＧ), Maeda Ken (前田健)

Guest Judges: Akiyoshi Kumiko (秋吉久美子), Cunning Takeyama Takanori (カンニング竹山隆範), Megumi

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Shrimp / Seafood Frid Soba and Shrimp Shumai

Recap: This was going to be an interesting episode just from the guest list. Now I'm no expert on the gay scene in Japan, but I do know that the contestants this time around are all 'Apron Boys', some of whom are gay, some of whom are acting gay, and some of whom may be just cross-dressers. But the theme based on the contestants should be obvious. Peter had been crowned a Special Epu in an earlier episode, so it should be an interesting to see if he can keep that standing. There was an amusing bit during the intro, where Megumi wanted to see Hard Gay's eyes (because he always wears shades... I think he's her type).

Cooking time was brief as always, with the focus mainly on Peter's cooking style. There was an impressive trick that Ken did in order to create a fried soba bowl using two strainers. Then it was Tasting Time, and for Ken-chan a special surprise judge. Apparently he has a crush on Cunning Takeyama and has been vocal about it at appearances elsewhere. So they brought him out as a guest judge.

First up was Ishidazuka, who hadn't had much luck on a previous edition of Apron Boys. His shumai looked a bit strange and pretty much fell apart when touched. However, they tasted very good even though he used hamburger with the shrimp. As for the fried soba. It really wasn't that fried, and the shrimp and other ingredients were basically just boiled in water. The bucket runs began... Yama-chan was up next, and his shumai was okay. But his fried-soba included sour cream as one of the ingredients, so it looked pretty disgusting. It appeared to maybe be okay at first, but as the judging continued everyone concluded that it was pretty bad.

Hard Gay was up next, and did an interesting trick with his shumai. He left the tails in the shrimp so they stuck out of the top of the shumai. Everyone liked it. He did well with his fried soba too, although there were some doubts at first. Hazama was next to be judged, his shumai wasn't even aired it was good enough. However his fried soba was really bad, and like many others he mistook baking powder for something else. The bucket runs began again.

When it was time for Ken to be judged, they did a short segment featuring an apartment and kitchen tour, followed by the required 'Fridge Check'. Ken is a pretty skilled cook, doing well with both dishes. Of course the cameras had to focus on the reactions from Cunning Takeyama. Peter also maintained his style, getting rave reviews from everyone on both of his dishes.

Judgement Time forced Megumi to take a stroll outside and I think she wishes she had taken a coat with her. Yama-chan and Hazama both ended up outside, though neither achieved the Worst Epu ranking. Peter retained the Special Epu ranking, while Ken is just outside as the highest ranked Top Epu. (Note: Remember that as of a few weeks back, Apron Boys are being ranked separately from the Apron Girls. They used to be mixed)

Ranking ( out of 23 ):
Peter: 1 (Special Epu ranking)
Maeda Ken: 3
Razor Ramon - Hard Gay: 7
Ishidazuka Hidehiko: 10
Yama-chan: 19
Hazama Kanpei: 20

Rivals and Redemption

2006-05-17T17:56:00.000-07:00

Air Date: 05/17/2006

Contestants: Natsuki Youko (夏樹陽子), Matsubara Nobue (松原のぶえ), Daita Hikaru (だいたひかる), Ooshima Miyuki (大島美幸), Aoki Sayaka (青木さやか), Horikoshi Nori (堀越のり)

Guest Judges: Nakajou Kiyoshi (中条きよし), Katou Cha (加藤茶), Katsumata Kunikazu (勝俣州和)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Cabbage / Cabbage Rolls and Potafu (cabbage stew)

Recap: This was a great episode because you had two different things happening during the show. The first was a grudge match between Aoki and Natsuki, who have butted heads earlier. The second was whether or not Matsubara could finally redeem herself after some very poor performances earlier. Throw Nori-chan into the mix (Ying-Ling must have had another engagement) and you are in for a fun evening.

Cooking time started off with a discussion of Aoki's current position on the Ranking Board. Having crept into Top Epu territory, she now is after the trophy. Further down the Ranking Board, Youko also has her eyes on the trophy. They also focused on Nobue's breakdown in an earlier episode, while being judged on her dishes. She really wanted to prove that she could do it.

First up for judging was Daita Hikaru, and although it appeared that she struggled a bit with the cabbage rolls, they were actually okay. She really did well with the stew, everyone was impressed. There was some advice given, but overall both dishes were good. Next up was Aoki, and they intro'ed her segment with a little recap on the bickering between her and Natsuki back in April. Things got off to an interesting start, because Nakajou thought the taste wasn't quite right. It was only OK, which got an interesting look for Aoki. But then the other two judges disputed his claim, because they were really impressed with her cooking. Even her use of pasta to hold the rolls together while she was simmering them. When it came time for her stew, she even included a side of brown mustard to add some spice to the dish. Everyone enjoyed it as well, even Emi-chan (who Aoki has butted heads with before as well).

It was only fair to judge the other half of the grudge next, so it was Natsuki's turn. Rather than making several cabbage rolls, she made one giant one. Even though it was large, everyone liked it. When asked to make a comparison, it seemed that Natsuki might have the edge, which resulted in some snide remarks flying in both directions. Natsuki shouldn't have been too quick to think she had the edge, as the use of milk in her stew pretty much ruined her chances of beating Aoki. It was so bad it actually caused Katou to spew the soup all over the table. Natsuki needed a cool cloth to calm down, pretty well ruling out revenge for today.

Judging then turned to Matsubara, who was trying hard to return her nameplate to the studio grounds (it currently is out on the sidewalk). She did a good job with the cabbage, but what really counted was Katsumata's opinion. He was very impressed, not only with the rolls but her stew as well. So much so, that he jumped up and hugged her, not once but twice. In fact, it was so good, Aoki might not be the best cook of the evening.

It was good that they all had some good cooking, because Nori-chan was next up. Starting off with a mutant cabbage roll, which was wrapped in tripe and raw, it caused a run to the bucket. It was followed by a stew that was just as bad. She put both powdered cheese and butter in it. Ooshima had the same problem as Nori-chan, with her cabbage roll being raw inside. More bucket time. She took a page from Natsuki's cookbook and put both milk and heavy cream into her stew. However, it actually turned out better than Natsuki's.

When it came to judgement time, it turned out to be a good thing that Nori-chan was on the show. Because while running her nameplate out to the street, Katsumata was able to pick up Matsubara's and place it on the Ranking Board in the Top Epu section. Then came time to determine the ranking of Aoki and Natsuki. As expected Natsuki dropped off Ranking Board while Aoki moved further up towards the Special Epu ranking (earning herself the night's trophy in the process).

One note before I close out this episode. Next week is a very special Apron Boys special... featuring Hard Gay!

Ranking ( out of 113 ):
Aoki Sayaka: 16
Matsubara Nobue: 25
Ooshima Miyuki: 69
Natsuki Youko: 84
Daita Hikaru: 92
Horikoshi Nori: 110

Apron Boys Special - Ninja Cooking

2006-05-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

Air Date: 05/10/2006

Contestants: Hashimoto Tooru (橋下徹), Satou Hiromichi (佐藤弘道), Koumoto Jun'ichi (河本準一), Umezawa Tomio (梅沢富美男), Kyoumoto Masaki (京本政樹), Tsuchida Teruyuki (土田晃之)

Guest Judges: Ken Naoko (研ナオコ), Aoki Sayaka (青木さやか)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Beef and Seafood (Squid and Fish) / Hamburger and Seafood Fry

Recap: This week was an Apron Boys special, which means the ranking will seem a bit off because it looks that the men are now being ranked separately from the women. The recipes were pretty basic, nothing too complex. Which is why not having a lot of 'Cooking Time' may not have been such a big deal this time around. The majority of this episode featured the results of the 'Win a Tuna with Ishihara Corp' contest that ran along with the Ai Epu vs. Ishihara Special that aired in April. (Before the episode aired, you could enter a contest to win a very expensive tuna and have it carved up and served to you by members of Ishihara Studios). Throughout this episode they would show segments from when they delivered the tuna to the various winners.

Hashimoto Tooru was the first up and there was a nice moment when Joushima read a letter from Tooru's son. He did very good with the hamburger steak, but he knew that he was in trouble with the seafood fry. It looked really bad and was apparently very greasy. Next up was Tsuchida Teruyuki, and they didn't even judge his hamburger onscreen it was so good. However, he too had problems with his seafood fry, mainly due to the bones still being in the fish.

Umezawa Tomio (who I believe is a well-known kabuki actor) was next, and turned out to be a very skilled cook. He spent quite a bit of time preparing the hamburger steak, cooking it in a sauce and preparing a side of spinach with it. He also spent the time deboning his fish and preparing the seafood fry. Which resulted in nothing but compliments as well (many comments about how totally different it looked from the previous ones). Kyoumoto Masaki was not going to fare as well. I believe that he was the star of a ninja TV series, because they kept on flashing back to that. Much like the others, his best dish was the hamburger but that wasn't saying much. It looked like he was about to cry during the critique, but at least it was much better than his seafood fry. He did what so many of the contestants do, and mistook baking powder for flour. This resulted in many a run to the bucket, including himself when he tried his own creation. It was fun because they would show shots from his show whenever someone made the bucket run.

Satou Hiromichi (a host of a kids show), decked out his hamburger with cheese, bacon, and an original sauce. Everyone liked it very much. Once again, the seafood fry was his downfall, as it was poorly cooked and still had bones in it as well. The amusing thing that was occurring now, is that Masaki was constantly adding asides. So when a bucket run was needed, he actually cheered that he wasn't the only one. Last up was Koumoto Jun'ichi, and his hamburger was good enough to not be judged on TV. But once again baking powder came into play. So another Apron Boy taken down by the seafood fry.

The last segment before ranking finished out the tuna delivery. Probably the best bit was when a little league team discovered that Ying-Ling would be carving their tuna. Then is was Judgement time, and most of the men ended up in the middle ranks. However, there was one clear winner and loser. Masaki found himself out on the street, with Aoki encouraging a passerby to step on his nameplate. Meanwhile Tomio found himself alone in the Special Epu ranking.

Ranking ( out of 17 ):
Umezawa Tomio: 1 (Special Epu ranking)
Tsuchida Teruyuki: 6
Koumoto Junichi: 8
Hashimoto Tooru: 9
Satou Hiromichi: 14
Kyoumoto Masaki: 17 (Worst Epu ranking)

Site Updates

2006-05-06T13:54:00.000-07:00

I know things have been a bit behind, real-life interferes from time to time. I'm still steadily collecting episodes and should be caught up with the most recent two by Monday at the latest. One of the issues I'm facing now is that there is a delay for the show to be made available to everyone. I only just finished getting the most recent episode.

There was a change with the April 19th episode, where they present the winner of that episode with a trophy. The losers (or those who don't make it on the Ranking Board) are forced to clean all the dirty dishes. I didn't catch this until I was checking the Japanese Wikipedia entry for the show (which has gone through a major re-edit), but was able to see for myself when watching that episode.

With traffic picking up a little, I'm going to focus on getting the Wikipedia translations finished by the end of next week. Then should be back into the routine of working on posting the older shows.

Thanks for your support.

Miri and Marie: Two Extremes

2006-04-26T16:37:00.000-07:00

Air Date: 04/26/2006

Contestants: Okada Miri (岡田美里), Takada Mayuko (高田万由子), Marie (マリエ), Takano Yuri (たかの友梨), Sugita Kaoru (杉田かおる), Manabe Kaori (眞鍋かをり)

Guest Judges: Okuda Eiji (奥田瑛二), Hanada Masaru (花田勝), Katsumata Kunikazu (勝俣州和)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Chicken / Chicken Curry Udon and Chicken Rice

Recap: This episode was a battle of the Celebrity vs the Ai-Epu. It also featured perhaps the shortest cooking time I have ever seen, lasting barely long enough to have a quick chat with each of the chefs. They then segued into the reward that Aoki Sayaka had won during the Christmas special. In this episode, one of the celebrity judges was a star baseball player. The reward for Aoki's team was going to the stadium during a game. She actually was given the opportunity to throw a pitch (which while they called it a strike, was far from it). While normally I would complain about these segments taking away from the show itself, Aoki really had come into her own as the star of the show. While she usually comes off as this very gruff and tough competitor, there are times where you can see that she can still be a bit shy and nervous. I can't wait until the next show which is going to feature the Apron Boys, and Aoki will be one of the judges.

Kaori was the first to be judged and everyone was pretty pleased with the Chicken Rice. However on her second dish, there was way too much in the way of vegetables. She also overloaded the dish with some spices, such as cumin. The one issue most of them would have is that the Udon dish turned out to be more like a straight curry rather than a soup-based curry dish.

Which is what happened to Kaoru as well. Things looked okay with her rice and I think she was hopeful that she would edge closer to the Special Epu ranking (she is only a handful of episodes away from hitting the Iron Rule). However, she really messed up on her Udon. She added flour to the mix to thicken her soup-base, which resulted in one solid mass of udon noodles. Not only was there a reference to the Alien movie, but to the way the mass would appear to look like certain forms of kanji.

Mayuko on the other hand did a great job with both of her dishes and Yuri then followed up strong as well. There seemed to be a little friendly competition going on, and it seems that everyone had singled out Miri as the one they would all have to beat.

But before the judges could have a chance to taste Miri's dishes, they had to endure what Marie had cooked up. They did a special feature on her during the show, including a tour of her kitchen and doing the typical 'refrigerator check' that they do it hese segments. She seems to live quite the ritzy life, with her parents having homes in Tokyo, Nice, Monaco, and the United States. Unfortunately this type of life is not conducive to cooking your own meals (apparently her family has their own personal chef). Which means that both of her dishes were disasters. She put fish in with the chicken rice and neither of them were fully cooked. Her curry had an entire chicken leg sticking out of it, and there was way too much cayenne pepper used in the dish. Not only did all the judges go running for the 'bucket of love', but after trying her own dish Marie did as well.

Luckily, everyone got to enjoy Miri's cooking in the end. She was definitely a ringer, having written books on cooking and teaching cooking to her circle of friends. The judges were asking for seconds it was so good.

Judgement Time was a bit anti-climatic. Miri beat out Yuri for the Special Apron ranking and nabbed the trophy as well. Kaoru found herself moving up just a tiny bit from before, but at least no longer ranked a the Last Apron. That honor instead went to Marie, who has gotten probably about as far as one can go outside the studio without leaving the district. Both her and Kaoru ended up doing the dishes at the end of the episode. As I mentioned earlier, the next episode will feature the Apron Boys and will air on May 10th, 2006.

Ranking ( out of 111 ):

Okada Miri: 3 (Special Apron Ranking)
Takano Yuri: 14
Takada Mayuko: 45
Manabe Kaori: 69
Sugita Kaoru: 109
Marie: 111 (New Entry - Last Apron Ranking)

Trophy Or Towel: Dawn of a New Era

2006-04-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

Air Date: 04/19/2006

Contestants: Yoshiyuki Kazuko (吉行和子), Aoki Sayaka (青木さやか), Yingling (インリン), Asaji Youko (浅茅陽子), Natsuki Youko (夏樹陽子), Macha Macha (まちゃまちゃ)

Guest Judges: Satomi Koutarou (里美浩太朗), Inohara Yoshihiko (井ノ原快彦), Hamaguchi Masaru(濱口優)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Unagi (Eel) / Eel Tempura and Chirashi Sushi

Recap:

The focus of this episode was having both Satomi Koutarou as a celebrity judge and Yoshiyuki Kazuko. I'm not familiar with either, but Koutarou's big appeal is that he was one of the actors who portrayed 'Mito Komon' in the long-running drama series of the same name. Most fans of J-Drama and anime may be familiar with the story, about a wandering feudal lord who used to go around Japan fighting evil. He would usually be undercover until the climactic moment when he would reveal his true identity by flashing an imperial seal.

The cooking segment was again relatively short, I think the only reason it went as long as it did was that they needed to focus on the Yoshiyuki's struggle with her live eel. She did not want to kill it, so she asked for assistance from one of the judges. Koutarou happily obliged and helped her out.

When it came to Tasting Time, Natsuki was up first. Her tempura dish was okay, although it was more like fried eel versus an actual tempura. What really impressed the judges was the way that her sushi dish looked... until they tasted it. The presentation was fantastic, but it didn't taste that good.

Macha Macha was next up, and also missed the entire concept of tempura. Both her tempura and sushi was extremely plain looking (very white). Not only did the tempura have no taste, but it turns out that it was half-raw. Her very plain-looking sushi actually tasted pretty good. Which led to comparisons about how how her dish was the exact opposite of Natsuki's.

There were a lot of expectations placed on Aoki, considering her focus over the past few months. Questions were immediately raised about the tempura which was heavily fried. Her Top-Epu ranking was in question. This also led to a semi-heated exchange between her and Emi-chan. I sense a cooking battle between those two in the near future. On the other hand, she did a really good job with her sushi dish. While tasting it, there seemed to be some interesting insinuations about her feelings for Joushima. They even replayed a bit from the trip to Ishihara Studios where they somehow ended up sitting to next other on the bus.

Yingling... well what can be said about her cooking that hasn't already been said. Her tempura was terrible, she cooked the entire eel in baking powder. Her sushi was even worse, the smell alone was enough to make people almost sick. I'm kind of unclear on what she put into it, it appeared to be juice of some kind. Lots of trips to the bucket of love ensued, and there was some kidding about placing her under arrest. Hamaguchi had hidden a copy of the imperial seal that Mito Komon would use, and kept whipping it out to ward off the evil of Yingling.

Asaji pretty much did both dishes to perfection. Compliments were flying during the tasting. Which left Yoshiyuki as the last one to be judged. She was apologetic right from the start, and her tempura looked very fried much like Aoki's. That received a pass. However, the sushi was another matter. She had problems with the rice and I think she realized that it wasn't going to be very good. They reassured her that nothing could be worse than Yingling's. While it was pretty bad... they all tried to be as encouraging as possible.

Judgement time revealed a new change to the show. From this point on, the top ranked cook every show will be awarded a trophy. However, anyone who doesn't make it onto the Ranking Board, has to stay after the show and was all the dirty dishes. Aoki dropped a little, while Asaji moved quite high on the board. Yingling ended up on the guard booth outside the building, and Yoshiyuki also found herself just outside the studio.

Ranking ( out of 108 ):
Asaji Youko: 14 (new entry)
Aoki Sayaka: 22 -> 29
Natsuki Youko: ?? -> 48
Macha Macha: ?? -> 53
Yoshiyuki Kazuko: 93 (new entry)
Yingling: 96 -> 103

Ai-Epu vs Ishihara: Intro and Part One

2006-04-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

Air Date: 4/12/2006 (3 Hour Special)

Contestants:

Team Ai-Epu - Captain Aoki Sayaka (青木さやか)
Sawada Ayako (沢田亜矢子), Sugita Kaoru (杉田かおる), Kawashima Naomi (川島なお美), Rinka (梨花), Satou Tamao (さとう珠緒), Tomochika (友近), Yingling (インリン), Yasu Megumi (安めぐみ), Hoshino Aki (ほしのあき)

Team Ishihara - Captain Watari Tetsuya (渡哲也)
Tachi Hiroshi (舘ひろし), Kanda Masaki (神田正輝), Fukae Takuji (深江卓次), Tokushige Satoshi (徳重聡), Kimura Noboru (木村昇), Watanabe Kuniko (渡邉邦門), Miyashita Yuuji (宮下裕治), Ikeda Tsutomu (池田努 ), Kaneko Norihito (金児憲史)

Guest Judges:
Toake Yukiyo (十朱幸代), Takashima Reiko (高島礼子), Takeshita Keiko (竹下景子), Higashino Kouji (東野幸治)

A great special where they changed up the format a great deal. Building on the setup used earlier this year in the TOKIO vs Ai-Epu battle, they've made a few modifications and brought in audience participation. The special is still divided into three stages, with the major change being made to Round 1.

Round 1 - 4 x 4 Battle: 8 members of each team compete in groups of four. They are divided into the A and B Blocks. Each Block is tasked with making a single dish from the theme ingredient. Not only must they make enough for the judges, but enough for 100 special invitees from the public. They will be scored by both the Judges and the public.

Round 2 - 4 x 2 Battle: 4 members of each team compete in groups of two. Again they are divided into the A and B Blocks. Each Block must make two dishes from the theme ingredient. Only the Judges score during this round.

Round 3 - Captain vs. Captain: The two captains compete in a battle ala "Iron Chef"

Since this is a long episode, I'm going to break the show into three segments to make it easier to follow. The challenger team is from Ishihara Promotions, a well-known group of actors who star in many action and police dramas (especially in the 70's and 80's). They arrived at the studio in police cars (many of which were their signature car in a particular movie/series it seems) to great fanfare. Special Note: Throughout the show they teams are subdivided into Blocks, which is a bit confusing to read. I'm going to use A-Team/B-Team versus A-Block/B-Block.

Round 1

A-Team: Sugita Kaoru (Captain), Rinka, Yingling, Yasu Megumi vs. Kanda Masaki (Captain), Fukae Takuji, Kimura Noboru, Kaneko Norihito

B-Team: Sawada Ayako (Captain), Satou Tamao , Tomochika, Hoshino Aki vs. Tokushige Satoshi (Captain), Watanabe Kuniko, Miyashita Yuuji, Ikeda Tsutomu

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
A-Team: Tuna / Green Onion Soup
B-Team: Onion and Potatoes / Curry Rice

Special Guest Judge: Toake Yukiyo

Recap: Almost from the beginning you knew things were going to be interesting. Not only did they have to carve up an extremely large tuna, but the Ai-Epu A-Team consisted of some of the worst cooks on the show. Having just Yingling is bad enough, but with Kaoru and Rinka... who could guess what end result would be. As I mentioned earlier, they also had to produce enough to feed 100 people in addition to the judges, so this was cooking on a very large scale.

The first stage focused on the carving of the tuna itself, which the Ishihara team didn't have too much trouble doing. The Ai-Epu team was having difficulty, but Rika came up with a very inventive way of tackling the issue. Team Captain Kaoru also made a very wise decision and relegated Yingling to the job of cutting up the green onions. There wasn't much focus on the B-Teams, as cutting up onions and potatoes aren't very exciting. The Ai-Epu A-Team took an interesting approach and put the eye of the tuna into their soup. The Ishihara A-Team appeared to be doing things with a bit more finesse, so it was going to be interesting to see the results.

When it came time for the B-Teams to begin mixing their Curry spices, each side seemed to have some issues. There was a little burning on the Ai-Epu side, while Ishihara appeared put quite a bit of flour into their curry. Which resulted in a very light-colored curry. At this stage, it was really up for grabs based on the cooking stage.

When it came time for the tasting, the teams served their dishes to the guests outside in pink and blue bowls. After tasting the dishes, they would then drop either a pink or a blue ball into a bin, to show which one they liked the best. Meanwhile, inside the studio, they judges were having their say.

Ishihara A-Team was up first, and had a tough time with their soup. It fell flat with all the judges, it wasn't inedible but it just wasn't good. But then it was time for Ai-Epu A-Team. Everyone was expecting the worst, which is why it came as a complete shock to everyone that it was extremely delicious. It was pointed out that Yingling had only helped with the cutting, but still I think everyone was delighted with the result. They even commented that maybe putting two negatives together (Yingling and Kaoru) was actually a positive thing.

Next was the B-Teams, and again Ishihara got off to a very rough start. While the Yukiyo liked it, the other judges quickly made dashes to the Bucket of Love. Team Ishihara was a bit skeptical, so they not only had some of the team members taste it, along with getting some great reactions from the guests outside. But it wasn't a complete success for the Ai-Epu team, as it seems that their dish really didn't taste like curry.

The final judging came in, with Ai-Epu scoring a 60 with the judges, while Ishihara only got a 30. The outside guests voted strongly in favor of the Ai-Epu team as well, with the combined scores at the end of round one being 136 to 54, over an 80 point lead for the Ai-Epu team.

Part Two shortly

Ai-Epu vs Ishihara: Part Two

2006-04-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

Round 2

A-Team: Rinka / Sugita Kaoru vs. Kimura Noboru / Tachi Hiroshi
B-Team: Yingling / Kawashima Naomi vs. Tokushige Satoshi /Kanda Masaki

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
A-Team: Pasta / Spaghetti with Meat Sauce and Macaroni Gratin
B-Team: Octopus / Octopus Rice and Fried Octopus

Special Guest Judge: Takashima Reiko

Recap: This Round features 8 chefs, 4 dishes, and 2 theme ingredients. The teams of four are split into pairs, with each pair responsible for 2 dishes. It sounds confusing, but it makes sense when you see it. A slight change from the January special, they seemed to be running out of time so they skipped some of the judging segments (as they've been doing in the regular show.

Cooking Time was again a matter of all the interesting things happening to one team. There isn't much challenge in making pasta, but when it comes to live octopii... it was the usual Kitchen Studio fun with them crawling onto the stage even before the battle started. Hiroshi looked very apt at his cooking as did some of the other members of Team Ishihara. Meanwhile Yingling was up to her usual antics, frying the entire body of the octopus instead of just pieces of it.

Tasting Time began with Rinka up first, presenting her Spaghetti with... Meat?!? Yes, she apparently forgot the tomatoes. Then she mixed up what kind of cheese was supposed to go into the macaroni. Noboru, who was her competition, did fine on the spaghetti as well as the macaroni. Not a very good start for the Ai-Epu team. Next up was Kaoru, who remembered to put in some tomatoes and was told that her spaghetti tasted like Mom's. There was a great dig on how much drinking she does on the show. They didn't show the tasting of her macaroni, but both dishes were given an okay rating. Hiroshi was her competition and pretty much hit it out of the park. Everyone was impressed with both dishes and there was some playful flirting with Emi-chan and the other women. In fact, all the Ai-Epu's sampled his macaroni gratin it was so good. Ai-Epu was in big trouble and up next was Yingling.

There is no way to be nice about this, this was probably her biggest disaster yet on the show. It opened with her fried octopus, which was leaking ink onto the plate. To the point that Kouji started asking her "Are you crazy" in English. We discovered that she fried it in a combination of baking powder and anise. Kouji got really brave and cut the head open, which brought about Alien references. The rice wasn't much better, though it got really amusing when Kouji and Wataru Tetsuya started getting into it over how bad it was. Kouji challenged him to eat her cooking, which he did. He soon was introduced to the Bucket of Love. Satoshi had some problems, but nowhere near as bad as Yingling. In fact, he was told that he was a Pro compared to Yingling. They didn't even show the judging of his rice. Ai-Epu lost more ground at this point.

All their hope lay with Naomi, who is apparently known for her attention to detail. We didn't see the judging of her fried octopus, but they loved her rice. Masaki was the last one up and the only hope Ai-Epu had was for him to fail miserably.... which he did not. Both dishes were a success as well.

The scores for each chef follows...

Kawashima Naomi: 100
Tachi Hiroshi: 100
Kimura Noboru: 90
Kanda Masaki: 90
Rinka: 60
Sugita Kaoru: 50
Yingling: -50
Tokushige Satoshi: -10

Team Ai-Epu - 160 / Team Ishihara - 270

Final Score: Team Ai-Epu lost their 82 point lead by only scoring 296 points at the end of both rounds, as Team Ishihara finished with 324 points. Now it would come down to the two captains battling for the title.

Final round shortly

Ai-Epu vs Ishihara: Part 3 (Final)

2006-04-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

Round Three

Contestants: Captain Sayaka Aoki (Assistant: Kawashima Naomi) vs Captain Watari Tetsuya (Assistant: Tachi Hiroshi)

Guest Judges: Toake Yukiyo, Takashima Reiko, Takeshita Keiko

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Bamboo Shoots / Captain's Choice

Recap: The final battle was staged just as it had been during the New Year's Special. One theme ingredient that must be used in a series of dishes. The dishes are left up to the cooks, much as you would see in an episode of Iron Chef. Each Captain has an assistant that they select from their team before the match starts. They can be used for a five minute period during the Cooking Battle, and are used at the Captain's discretion. Both took the stars of the previous battles (Naomi and Hiroshi). Before going into battle, there was a segment which featured the entire staff and Aoki going to Ishihara studios and seeing the vast collection of vehicles that they've used over the years. They also were treated to a huge feast from the head chef of the studio, who is used to cooking for hundreds of people at a time (actors, production staff, extras, etc). During the intros, Takeshita Keiko presented to each Captain a special knife engraved with their names.

As the battle started, Aoki was definitely under pressure. Tetsuya was working on several dishes at once, his main focus on a bamboo shoot and seafood stew. Secondary dishes were appearing to be bamboo shoot rice and salad, and bamboo shoots with caviar.

Aoki was also working on a rice dish, which would combine bamboo shoots with shrimp sauteed in champagne. She had to get the assistance of one of the Ishihara team members to keep the cork from shooting into the audience. Her other dishes were a bit of a mystery early on in the battle. Things began to get a bit clearer once the assistants were called on for help.

Tetsuya was first to go for the 'Help Time' button, having Hiroshi plate a combination of fish and shoots and then cook them with a blowtorch. He also got the okay to bring the rest of the team into play on helping with the presentation. They began the process of heating a large number of stones over a charcoal furnace/grill. There was some ribbing about leaving Satoshi on the sidelines, but he soon came over and helped. Before time was up, the entire team sprinkled the caviar dish with gold foil.

After Hiroshi returned to the assistant's chair, Aoki called on Naomi. She quickly (to the amazement of everyone) chopped up some shoots and created a Shumai dish with mushrooms. Before her time was up, she also got a chance to start some bamboo shoot steaks for Aoki. These would be the other two dishes created. She also got some assistance from her team with the presentation, asking them to get some flowers for decoration and to carve up one of the bamboo stalks used for soup bowls. (much like Leader did during his battle with Aoki in the New Years Episode).

The battle was over shortly, with Tetsuya looking extremely confident.

All the special judges participated in the judging and this segment pretty well focused on their reactions. Aoki was up first with her bamboo steaks, which had been sauteed in butter, soy sauce, and sake. The immediate reaction was 'shoppai' (salty) and there was a strong sake taste as well. It was still good, but just a little too much of some of the ingredients.

Tetsuya brought out his bamboo shoots and caviar, which everyone enjoyed. Aoki looked more nervous as she brought out Naomi's shumai dish. This was a hit with the all the judges, but Aoki openly admitted that all she really did was cook the dish. Naomi got a great deal of praise for her efforts. Tetsuya second dish was a combination of bamboo shoot rice with a salad and sakura buds. It had a mixed reaction from the judges, but overall they all liked it. There was some kidding that maybe there was some bias from the all-female team of judges, along with some jokes about Yingling and Satoshi getting together I believe (lost a bit in translation on that part).

Aoki's final dish was her bamboo shoot rice with shrimp, combined with a bamboo shoot soup served in the bamboo bowls. This also was a big hit with all the judges, and even Team Ishihara sampled it. Her use of champagne with the shrimp and grapefruit juice in the rice was really applauded. Everything now hung on Tetsuya's final dish, his seafood and bamboo shoot stew.

The stew was to be combined with some large prawns that Tetsuya had prepared but not cooked beforehand. As he placed the prawns into the stew, his team brought over the stones that had been baking on the furnace/grill for some time. He then plunged the stones into the stew, bringing it to a roiling boil and cooking the prawns. Everyone was delighted except for Aoki, who could only look on in stunned silence. Another home run for Tetsuya.

In the final judgement, it wasn't too surprising to see Tetsuya score a Perfect 100 while Aoki came up just five points short with 95. The tally was moot, as Aoki needed to beat Tetsuya by at least 28 points. Team Ishihara was declared the winner, but they gave part of their prize (dinner at a very expensive restaurant) to the Ai-Epu team. Tetsuya thanked Aoki for the great battle.

Overall, this was a great episode. While not as thrilling as the Ai-Epu vs TOKIO battle to start off this year, it hopefully will remain the format they use for upcoming three-hour specials. I really liked the audience participation aspect, as it added a lot of fun to the first battle. I do think that going forward they really need to consider the impact of having Yingling in the mix. Any team saddled with her is going to have to do quite a bit to overcome the odds. The Ai-Epu team would have won if it wasn't for her, and while she does add a lot of fun to the show, it does detract from the serious battles going on during the specials. But otherwise, another great special for the series.

Site Update

2006-03-25T08:14:00.000-08:00

Sorry that there have been no updates this week, I've hit a run of episodes that are in the WMV format and it took me a while to figure out how to get somewhat quality screencaps out of them. I also haven't had as much time with work to watch episodes, I've only got one other one left to review before I go back to watching.

I just posted Attack Of The Gravia Idols and with luck will have either one or two more up this weekend. I'm probably going to go back and get at least this year caught up, as those episodes are still fresh in my mind.

More shortly...

Update

2006-03-18T20:43:00.000-08:00

Just another quick update, two new episode recaps are up. Thanks to everyone who has visited the site and posted comments.

Nori's Tower Of Doom

More Than A Little Cheesy

I know that the recaps are jumping around, I'm trying to focus for the moment on episodes that I have not seen. Which means the majority of of the Inoue Waka and Ogura Yuuko episodes will be some time before they get posted. I'm also going to focus on rewatching the late night episodes before I even start recapping the prime time episodes. The main reason is that the episodes are longer and have more people in them. I'm still filling in gaps, but sometime this week I plan on posting a rough episode guide based on what I have. It will help me figure out where there may be gaps (though I know pre-2002 I have huge ones).

As always, any suggestions or comments are appreciated. I hope that everyone is finding the ranking info and recaps useful. I'm going to try and keep the pace up, and hopefully will get more of the Wikipedia article translated this week. If you have a particular contestant that you like and know a bit about, feel free to write up a short bio and send it to me. When I start doing the Apron Girl entries, I'll need all the help filling in the gaps. While I enjoy J-Pop and Drama, this is the only recent cooking variety show that I follow. Most of the people I'm familiar with have never appeared on the show (it took me 3 months before I made the Joushima->Tokio connection), so I can use all the help I can get when writing about the idols.

Until then, keep visiting.

Fujita Noriko Returns

2006-03-15T23:07:00.000-08:00

Air Date: 03/15/2006

Contestants: Sugita Kaoru (杉田かおる), Fujita Noriko (藤田憲子), Aoki Sayaka (青木さやか), Sakaguchi Ryouko (坂口良子), Nemoto Harumi (根本はるみ), Takigawa Hanako (多岐川華子)

Guest Judges: Kataoka Tsurutarou (片岡鶴太郎), Hosokawa Shigeki (細川茂樹), Tsuchida Teruyuki (土田晃之)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Potatoes / Croquettes and Cream Stew

Recap: I love the things I learn about Japan when I'm doing the research on these episodes, especially uncovering what all the furor was over Fujita Noriko appearing in this episode. Although this is likely old news to sumo fans, Fujita Noriko was the wife of one of the great sumo wrestlers, and mother to two of the top competitors today. There was a nasty divorce about four years ago, and last May her ex-husband passed away. When it came to the funeral arrangements, there was a heated arguments between the two brothers about who should be the chief mourner. The Japanese press being what it is, this turned into an overnight media orgy (complete with live updates, interviews, etc that took place over weeks). Hmm, not unlike the LiveDoor raid that aired 'live' on most networks in January and caused an episode of this show to be pulled because it featured the CEO as a celebrity judge.

Anyway, they made a big to-do over her return to the show. I expected it to be the main focus of this episode, but instead it turned into a battle between Sayaka and Harumi over who would be the Captain for the April 12th special. After a quick intro of the ingredients and the start of Cooking Time, the show cut to the third of Sayaka's cooking challenges. This time the star she was cooking for was Tsugawa Masahiko (津川雅彦) and the dish he chose was stewed fish head (a traditional festival dish I believe). She did a very good job and ended up getting the Top-Epu ranking but not the Special-Epu that she needed to clinch. From what I can gather, the producers decided to have mini-battle during this episode between Sayaka and Harumi. I could be wrong, but I think Sayaka needed to beat Harumi to Captain the team.

Super-brief Cooking Time once again (there was footage in the previews that didn't even air here), then right into the Tasting Time.

Kaoru was the first up, and as they did a brief recap of her cooking, you knew that things weren't going to go well. She used Bleu Cheese in her Cream Stew. The tasting was fun as one judge exclaimed "Mai" (as in bad) and Kaoru asked hopefully "Umai?" (as in delicious). Apparently it smelled like a seal. Her croquettes were floating in oil and a bit on the raw side. She's just 7 episodes away from being hit with the 'Iron Rule'.

Ryouko had a strange combination for her Cream Stew as well. Sour Cream and Yogurt in combination is not good. I couldn't tell how her Croquettes were as they skipped the judging (if anyone can post a translation of why they were skipped, it would be appreciated.) It seems to be a common thing they are doing now and for the same reason each time. I think they do this when the dish isn't either really bad or really good.

Harumi was up next, and she pretty much hit it out of the park. Everyone loved both of her dishes. Then it was Sayaka's turn, and when she brought out a Brown-colored Stew instead of a Cream-Colored Stew, everyone was skeptical. But she also did a very good job with both dishes and got approval from everyone.

That battle over, left us with Haruko and Noriko. Haruko is on the path to replace Yingling as one of the worst cooks on the show. Not only did her Cream Stew feature huge chunks of potato (she basically cut them in half), but the sauce tasted like a hair conditioner. Better still, her Croquettes turned out more like dumplings because she tried to deep-fry them in a pan 2/3rds full of water and only 1/3rd full of oil. The oil floated on top of the water and the Croquettes sank to the bottom of the pan. instead of deep-frying them. They ended up chunky and raw.

After all this chaos, Noriko was pretty much an afterthought. She did good on the Cream Stew but had problems with the Croquettes.

The Ranking was a bit fun, as Kaoru's nameplate left the building and bumped Hanako from the Bottom-Epu ranking (but not by far, they share the same electrical post off the street). Harumi won a Special Epu Ranking while Sayaka is firmly positioned as a Top-Epu. Now this is where my lack of Japanese makes this analysis difficult.

It would appear that Sayaka will captain a team in the April 12 episode (the same one that she had for the New Year's Special. There will be 3 other teams competing (2 girls and 1 Men's team led by a woman), then the showdown between Sayaka and Joushima. It will be a 3-Hour Special and we won't get another episode until then. (which gives me time to catch up on the older shows).

Ranking (out of 104):
Nemoto Harumi: ?? -> 5 (Special Epu Ranking)
Aoki Sayaka: ?? -> 22
Sakaguchi Ryouko: 21 -> 63
Fujita Noriko: 79 -> 80
Takigawa Hanako: 103 (No Change)
Sugita Kaoru: 94 -> 104 (Bottom-Epu)

Episodes Added

2006-03-15T12:44:00.000-08:00

Added two new episodes... I'm going to try to do one a day, which means it will only take about half a year to get caught up O.o

Eel Battle, Megumi Arrives

Horror From The Deep

I'm probably going to work through the older ones first, as they are shorter and have less contestants and judges per episode. I'm also thinking of doing brief posts for some of the regular contestants, in order to make it easier to locate their episodes. I'll wait until I've done five episodes that feature a particular person, then work up an info page with links to not only the episodes they appear in, but what they do outside of the 'Apron of Love' studio.

Update: Added another new episode today and the latest episode should be recapped sometime tomorrow.

The Fine Line Between Niwatori And Namatori

Additions and such

2006-03-11T18:39:00.000-08:00

Added the most recent episode today and moving forward I will be putting in the preview info for the upcoming episode as well. I've added the info for the episode that will air on the 15th. I will also try to keep everyone updated as to Special Episodes or weeks that the show won't air.

I'm busy translating the wikipedia page, I've gotten about a third of the way through. I'm going to save the Judge and Contestant info for last, I've got probably 200 names to add to the page. I'm doing it all in one big post for the moment, but once completed I'll break it into sections and place it on the sidebar.

Over the next few weeks, older episodes will begin to appear. I've decided to stick with the current format of placing the episode recap and info on its actual airdate. It will be easier to help you locate episodes in the archives, and will keep things from stacking. I have over 100 episodes to recap as it stands right now, hopefully I can keep filling in the collect. Unfortunately the earliest I go back to is 2002, I wish I could get my hands on some of the earlier episodes.

I added a Frappr map, as I figured it would be fun to see where the fans of the show outside of Japan live. Check out the link at the bottom of the sidebar and feel free to stick your pin on the map.

As always, I'm open to any suggestions or questions or comments. One suggestion I've already implemented is adding the kanji for the names, to make searching easier. Once the info posts are completed, I'll be adding images of the personalities as well. If anyone has any good Emi-chan pictures, please forward them to me ^^;

Thanks for your support

Revenge Match - Enka vs. Ai Epu

2006-03-08T06:58:00.000-08:00

Air Date: 03/08/2006

Contestants: (Enka Team) Segawa Eiko (瀬川瑛子), Harada Yuri (原田悠里), Shimakura Chiyoko (島倉千代子), Jounouchi Sanai (城之内早苗). (Ai Epu Team) Horikoshi Nori (堀越のり) and Mitsuura Yasuko (光浦靖子)

Guest Judges: Yamamoto Jouji (山本譲二), Yakumaru Hirohide (薬丸裕英), Katsumata Kunikazu (勝俣州和)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Bok Choi (チゲンサイ) / Chinese Bowl and Won Ton Soup

Recap: This week it was a bit of a strange format. In addition to the normal ranking, they were apparently havng the Enka Team compete against the Ai Epu team, but although it might have been mentioned in the show, the actual competition was really downplayed. It would appear that the Enka Team won, but there wasn't any real fanfare.

Hardly any time was spent on the Cooking segment, moving right into the Tasting. It was interesting in that the Enka Team (who were much older than the two on the Ai Epu team), did not fare any better in the cooking. One of the most respected members of the team (Shimakura Chiyoko) had a very rough time with both of her dishes, and it was amusing to watch the judges try to make the best of it, stuffing their mouths even though it was really bad. The Ai-Epu team was a bit handicapped with Nori-chan, who has been struggling to get onto the Ranking Board. Her Wonton Soup turned out alright, but she ended up blowing it with the Chinese Bowl, forcing the judges to make a dash for the Bucket of Love.

In the end, the Enka Team had an ace in the hole with Eiko-san. She's been doing well recently and is just outside of the Special Apron ranking. I consider her to be the Japanese Sandy Duncan (as she looks much like her and has this habit of dancing all the time, including this episode). She had success with both of her dishes, while Yasuko-chan ended up with her usual hit or miss luck, this time being a miss. She hammed up the impact of the judge's comments by nearly bursting into tears.

There was another segment with Aoki Sayaka, and I think I understand what is going on. Because she came so close to beating Joushima in the New Year's Special, she is undergoing cooking training. The goal is for her to get a Special Apron ranking from one of the celebrities who she goes to visit. This week it was Ishizaka Kouji (石坂浩二) and his request was for Kakiage (sp?) Udon. She did a good job this time around and ended up moving up from the Lower Epu ranking to the Middle Epu Ranking. I believe that if she can get the Special Epu ranking, she will be the Captain for the April 12th special.

I mentioned this somewhat last week, but I should go into more details. The problem the show has had recently, is that there is very little time devoted to the actual cooking (which is one of the funniest segments). It's not that there isn't enough time, it's that they have too many contestants. The original format with three cooks, allowed for more than enough time to fit the show into a 30 minute timeslot. The hour-long format with the extra contestants and segments, leads to much of the cooking and tasting segments being cut from the show. I doubt there will be any changes forthcoming, which is a shame.

Ranking (out of 104):
Segawa Eiko: 9 (no change)
Harada Yuri: 86 (no change?)
Shimakura Chiyoko: 86 -> 81
Jounouchi Sanai: 83 -> 86
Horikoshi Nori: 99 -> 97
Mitsuura Yasuko: 68 (no change?)

Hinamatsuri Special

2006-03-01T14:40:00.000-08:00

Air Date: 03/01/2006

Contestants: Apron Boys Special
Mashima Shigeki , Shirosaki Jin, Angles Tanaka, Degawa Tetsuro, Hasegawa Hatsumori, Izumi Motoya

Guest Judges:
Utsumi Midori, Aoki Sayaka

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Onion / Onion Gratin Soup and Rice Omelette

Recap: This week was an Apron Boys special, a bit different from the usual fare as they have men compete instead of the usual Apron Girls. Unlike other Apron Boys specials that I have seen, this one does not feature Joushima Shigeru (the MC or 'Leader') competing. I guess he is still tired from the New Years special.

The cooking segment was very brief and didn't even feature much of the Rice Omelette cooking. I don't know if this is a trend, but I've noted that lately they've been cutting both the cooking, tasting and judging segments. This episode isn't any different as there was barely any sign of either Takeuchi Emi or Isono Kiriko. I have to wonder if Emi-chan is long for the show as they've even taken away her announcing of the Ranking Board. I certainly hope not.

As episodes go, this one was pretty dull. Only a couple of trips to the Bucket of Love and no ranking movement outside of the studio. I did note that they've added a new feature, when the judges leave the set to place the nameplates far away, there is a little mini-map that comes up showing where in the TV Studio they are moving.

The only other segment of note is a new one that they seem to have created for Sayaka. They are having her do an chef-on-the-street segment, which has her going and cooking for a well-known star. This week she goes to Sony Pictures and meets with Agewaru Masako (sp?). After introducing herself, she asks him what dish he would like her to prepare for him. He chooses Hamburger with demiglasse sauce. Sayaka then goes out and makes it. He then judges it... which was okay except for the sauce (which looked to be more of a curry). She's going to do this again on April 12th. (Update: I've just heard that another segment aired this week, so I'm not sure what is up with the April 12th date that was mentioned)

Ranking (out of 113):
Shirosaki Jin 12 (New Entry)
Hasegawa Hatsumori 37 (no change?)
Mashima Shigeki 65 (no change?)
Degawa Tetsuro 76 -> 93
Izumi Motoya 79 (New Entry)
Angles Tanaka 102 (New Entry)

Cooking Time!

2006-02-28T17:08:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to what at this moment, appears to be the only English-language blog covering the popular Japanese TV show, 'Ai no Epuron/Apron of Love'. I've been a fan of the show for over a year now and spent a lot of that time looking not only for episodes, but any English sites that were covering it. While there seems to be a healthy community of fans outside of Japan, there really isn't anyplace for them to get together and talk about the show. The goal of this blog is to not only cover the new episodes as they are released, but also go back into the past and provide screencaps and recaps of past episodes as well.

I should say right off the bat that Japanese is not my native language, nor is a secondary one to any extent. So please excuse any translation errors or other misinterpretations. At some stage I plan on trying to translate the Wikipedia page for the show that exists, as well as adding recipe information as well. But for right now, just getting the names right is pretty much taxing my limits.

Please let me know what you think and if you have any additional info or corrections for the episode recaps, please post them in the comments section for that episode.

Thanks

Idol Chef

Ai No Apron Info

2006-02-28T17:05:00.000-08:00

'Ai no Epuron' or the 'Apron of Love' is a variety/cooking TV series seen on Japan's Asahi National Broadcasting network and hosted by Shigeru Joushima (of the rock group Tokio). It is also referred to as Ai-Epu.

Summary

'Apron of Love' is a cooking show loosely based on 'Iron Chef'. Over the course of the series, female celebrities compete against each other to be the Top Apron. They are known as the 'Apron Girls' and their dishes are judged by male celebrities and the hosts, with the results appearing on the Ranking Board.

Each episode opens with the 'Apron Girls' being told what the theme ingredient will be for that episode, as well as which dishes they are expected to prepare. Relying only on the cooking utensils and vast array of unlabeled ingredients that they have been given, they must recreate these dishes to the best of their abilities. This often results in unexpected and hilarious results, both from the 'Apron Girls' and the celebrity judges and hosts.

From time to time there will be a role-reversal of sorts, where male celebrities do the cooking and are judged by female celebrities. They are referred to as 'Apron Boys'. Certain special episodes will occasionally air where the 'Apron Girls' and 'Apron Boys' compete against each other head to head.

Since the show is produced by the same company that did 'The Iron Chef', oftentimes you will see members of that show's announcing and judging team appear as judges. (ex: Yukio Hattori, Asako Kishi, and Toshirou Kandagawa)

Joushima ends every episode with the show's catchphrase. "Cooking is love, and if done with love, Love is O.K.!'

Episode Outline

Introduction Of The Theme Ingredient: One or more ingredients are introduced as the VIP or Theme Ingredient for the episode. It is sometimes related to special events that may be occurring or an ingredient that recently came into season. (Example: Christmas dishes during the holidays, Chocolate for Valentine's Day, etc). Along with the ingredients, the contestants are shown video of what the completed dish or dishes should look like.

Cooking Time: Usually 45 minutes, but sometimes it is extended to 50 minutes for certain dishes. They are not given any recipes and nothing in the kitchen is identified or has labels. This causes mass confusion as the 'Apron Girls' try to figure out what is salt versus sugar, or baking powder versus baking soda, etc. Occasionally, the theme ingredient may even be left out of the dish that is being prepared, or prepared incorrectly (ie: fish that aren't gutted properly or cooked whole).

Tasting Time: The celebrity judges (usually two), the chairman (Joushima, aka Leader), his assistant and the commentator, taste and comment on each of the dishes in that order. Joushima is known for trying to eat the largest portions, not matter how bad the dish. The commentator (usually a former 'Iron Chef' cast member), will give cooking advice. Joushima's assistant, Emi Takeuchi, is also known as 'Miss Wrinkle' amongst some circles. She became famous for the furrowing of her brow when tasting especially bad dishes, which the production staff began to highlight by displaying a 'Wrinkle Meter' which ranked the dish from 1 to 10 on that scale (10 being the worst).

When the show first aired, if a dish was especially bad, anyone could leave the stage to use the 'Ai no Bucket' or 'Bucket of Love' to spit the food out. When the show moved from its original late-night timeslot to prime-time, it was decided that the 'Bucket of Love' was not the best way to refer to this means of escape from whatever they were eating. Instead it is now considered 'Etiquette Time' and shows a brief video of how the dish should look if prepared correctly.

Judgement Time: The celebrity judges for the show do the final ranking on the Ranking Board. The board is divided into three sections. Top Apron, Middle Apron, and Lower Apron. There is one section at the very top for Special Apron rankings. The judges take a nameplate for each 'Apron Girl' and place it on the board, this stays there until their next appearance on the show where it is moved based on their performance on that show.

As the series progressed, the judges began to feel that the Lower Apron wasn't low enough. This resulted in them placing nameplates below the Lower Apron section of the Ranking Board. Overtime, judges began to try and outdo themselves in ranking the worst dishes. This led to nameplates being places further and further away from the Ranking Board. Nameplates have been placed in trash bins, restrooms, parking lots, and sewer drains. In the current series (the third), there have been occasions where the nameplates have completely left studio grounds, having been given to people passing by on the street outside the studio. Inoue Waka, Yingling of Joy Toy, and Aoki Sayaka have all had their nameplates disposed of in this way. In the history of the show, Yingling's has travelled the furthest from the Ranking Board.

Currently, there are five 'Apron Girls' who reside in the 'Special Apron' section of the Ranking Board.

The 'Iron Rule': During the episode that aired on 11/2/2005, the 'Iron Rule' was introduced. If anyone has participated in over 50 Cooking Battles (throughout the entire course of the series) and has failed to even once place in the 'Special Apron' Ranking, they can no longer compete as an 'Apron Girl'. Currently, there are two contestants who have passed the halfway mark without scoring a 'Special Apron' ranking. Yingling of Joytoy currently has appeared in 28 episodes, while Sugita Kaoru (音無美紀子) has appeared in 43 episodes. Note: Specials are not included in the count, as they are scored differently and do not have an impact on the 'Ranking Board' rankings.

At this time, only one contestant has triggered the 'Iron Rule'. Isono Kiriko (磯野貴理子) retired on 11/2/2005 to great fanfare on the show, only to reappear the following week as a regular member of the Judging team. Currently she is an added judge, and has not taken over any of the current judges positions.

Trophy and Dish Washing: Beginning with the episode that aired on April 19th, 2006, a new tradition was started. This tradition features both a reward and a punishment. In each episode, the competitor who scores highest on the Ranking Board, will receive a special Ai no Apron Trophy. However, any competitors who fail to make the Ranking Board (not scoring as a Special, Top, Middle, or Bottom Epu) will have to clean all the dishes used during the filming of the show. The first Ai-Epu awarded with this trophy was Asaji Youko (浅茅陽子). The first two who ended up washing dishes were Yingling (インリン) and Yoshiyuki Kazuko (吉行和子).

Cast

Chairman: Joushima Shigeru (城島茂)
Assistant: Takeuchi Emi (武内絵美)
Honorary Judge: Isono Kiriko (磯野貴理子)
Commentators: Hattori Yukio (服部幸應)
Kishi Asako (岸朝子)
Kandagawa Toshirou (神田川俊郎)
Chin Kenichi (陳建一)
Kobayashi Katsuyo (小林カツ代)
Kentarou (ケンタロウ)
Sakai Hiroyuki (坂井宏行)
Kataoka Mamoru (片岡護)
Narrator: Shinji

Attack Of The Gravia Idols

2004-02-29T08:01:00.000-08:00

Air Date: 02/29/2004

Contestants: Kumada Youko (熊田曜子), Inoue Waka (井上和香), Morishita Chisato (森下千里)

Guest Judges: Mutou Keiji (武藤敬司)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Onions (from Hokkaido) / Hayashi Rice and Onion Gratin Soup

Recap: This episode featured three Gravia Idols cooking for a professional wrestler/actor. It promised to be a very interesting episode, because all three of the idols had a very hit or miss record on the show. During the intro segment, more than a little attention was focused on some of the specifics of being a Gravia idol (ie: measurements) and there was some concern over their ability to cook these dishes.

Hayashi rice is like a curry rice, though not as spicy. Everything appeared to be going okay in the cooking stages of this dish, although there was a question about the amount of certain ingredients the idols were using. The soup was a different story for at least Youko, as she didn't use any consomme but straight cream instead.

Chisato was up first and appeared to do good on her soup, as Keiji liked it. But in what was to become the theme this episode, the other judges had more questions and concerns about it. Though they all agreed that her rice dish was a bit different, as it was way too spicy for everyones taste.

Next up was Youko, and everyone was wondering where the soup was in her dish (since she used cream instead). The result is as you would expect for someone who had baked cream in an oven. Hot Onion Ice Cream was the taste that they got from it. The curry wasn't much better, as it came out of the dish like molasses. It tasted even worse and she was almost chased off the set by Keiji, as he almost threw his chair at her. Apparently there was way too much wine in her curry. Even Emi-chan got some assistance getting to the Bucket of Love

Last up was Waka-chan, who has slowly been improving her cooking skills, after a very rocky start on the series (I would rate her with Nori-chan or Yuuko-chan in terms of dishes - even though her father is a well-known chef). With both dishes it looked as if there was a problem at first. However, the regulars overrode Keiji on the soup and a second tasting of the curry determined that it was really good. She ended up doing extremely well on both dishes, much to both her and the judges delight.

Ranking was smooth except for Ryouko. She ended up having her nameplate slammed around the studio, finally being put on a mover's cart and rolled far out into the studio behind the set. She ended up just above the Bottom Epu ranking. Waka continued her climb to the Special Epu.

Ranking ( out of 121 ):
Inoue Waka: 27 -> 19
Morishita Chisato: 44 (Reset)
Kumada Youko: 39 -> 120

More Than A Little Cheesy

2003-11-15T19:22:00.000-08:00

Air Date: 11/15/2003

Contestants: Megumi, Horikoshi Nori (堀越のり), Ono Mayumi (小野真弓)

Guest Judges: King Kong

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Clams (from Chiba) / Clam Chowder and Vongole Blanco

Recap: Much like the other episodes that she's been in, this one is going to be all about Nori-chan. The other two contestants pretty much end up taking a back seat to her antics. Though there was a fair bit of confusion at the start, some weren't sure what Vongole (pasta) was, while Mayumi I think had problems with the thought of cooking clams (not entirely clear on that). Nori topped them all by first calling it 'Cream Chowder' and then getting Blanco mixed up with Tomato. I think her mind is still on Kima Curry.

Megumi was up first when it came to tasting, and to give some relief to Nori, she flubbed a bit. She used sour cream in her Clam Chowder and she didn't leave enough time to cook her pasta. Mayumi was next and really impressed the judges with both dishes, even though her chowder was a bit on the watery side. They also had fun pointing out how the could use a fork to actually wind the pasta up rather than eating it like Pocky.

The fun soon ended as Nori presented her dishes. First up was the chowder, which was just short of being inedible. It felt terrible going down and left a really bad aftertaste. Turns out that she used parmesan cheese in both her Vongole and Chowder. She used so much cheese in her Vongole, that it looked like Tenkasu (chunks of tempura batter). I've mentioned before that Nori-chan does her best to keep the judges from running to her bucket. She hit on a new strategy this week, pinning them against the table. She even had Joushima crying out for his mother.

The Ranking board only took on one new person this week, as Mayumi almost scored a Top-Epu in her first outing. Meanwhile, Megumi found herself behind the set paired with Yingling, while Nori's reset didn't help her at all. She ended up as the Bottom-Epu!

Ranking ( out of 112 ):
Megumi: 52 -> 108
Horikoshi Nori: 112 (Ranking Reset)
Ono Mayumi: 26 (New Entry)

Chocolate Croquette - Best Episode Ever

2003-09-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

Air Date: 09/14/2003

Contestants: Ogura Yuuko (小倉優子), Abiru Yuu (あびる優), Sawajiri Erika (沢尻エリカ)

Guest Judges: Yamasaki Hosei (山崎邦正)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Potatoes (Hokkaido) / Croquettes and Fish Fry

Recap: This has to be one of the more classic episodes of the show, notwithstanding Yuuko as one of the contestants. There was a nice little bit at the beginning where all the contestants responded quite cutely when asked their age, and then Joushima turned an asked Emi-chan and she responded in kind. (At this time, she was 26, just for you Emi fans out there). While potatoes were the theme ingredient, the Aji/Fish fry required live fish, which is where teh hilarity began.

All the girls had problems with the live fish, but managed to get them out of the their tanks and onto the cutting board. Yuuko then faced a major problem, she couldn't cut the head off the live fish. While talking to Erika about her mother's restaurant, Yuuko found a solution to the problem. She put the fish in a metal bowl and microwaved it. You could see the fish flopping around in the bowl as Yuuko nearly had a breakdown, and then the fish ended up cooked in the shape of the bowl.

The Yuuko fun didn't stop there, as she only half-cooked her potatoes for the croquettes. Sawajiri and Abiru were also having problems, but nothing could compare to what happened next. We all know that Yuuko loves her chocolate and has put it in some pretty strange things. Joushima knew what was coming, but Yamasaki was a bit unprepared as Yuuko drops and entire bar of dark chocolate into her beef and potato mixture.

The deep-frying came next, and it was amazing that Yuuko's concoction managed to not disintegrate in the oil. Abiru didn't have a problem because she ended up just dipping the entire potato in panko and deep-frying it. Sawajiri ended up getting burned by the old, but managed to complete her dishes.

Abiru was up first, and her Fish Fry was well received. Though Joushima found a few bones in his, and then Yamasaki realized that a bone was stuck in his throat as well. He was having some problems getting it out, but they proceeded on with the tasting. Abiru explained that her croquettes should be eaten by putting the ground beef on top of the potato, and every liked it as well (even though it really wasn't a croquette). The amusing thing was the potato knocked the fish bone out of Yamasaki's throat.

Sawajiri was up next, with her mega-croquette and fish fry. She didn't have luck with either dish, but being a first-time entry it wasn't that surprising. They didn't like her fish fry, and the croquette was really bad. She wasn't off to a very good start.

But the main attraction was Yuuko and her chocolate-croquette. She garnished her dish with ketchup just to make the combination complete. Something went wrong with her fish fry, probably the result of microwaving the fish whole. The focus then turned to the chocolate croquette, which Yuuko thought looked delicious. Everyone else went nuts as Yamasaki tried to choke it down, but ending up making the bucket run instead. Even Emi, who liked her Chocolate Gratin before, ended up hitting an 8 on the wrinkle meter. They then had Yuuko try it, and while as she put it "It's not delicious, but it isn't terrible either". Everyone was amazed again.

Then it was Judgement Time. Abiru leapt up to 10th spot, landing in the Top Epu ranking. She was very happy. Sawajiri found herself getting dumped in a pot of used oil, ranked 109th. While Yuuko dropped further down the charts, ending up in a stairwell near the building exit.

Ranking ( out of 133 ):
Abiru Yuu: 41 -> 10
Sawajiri Erika: 109 (New Entry)
Ogura Yuuko: 111 -> 126

Nori's Tower Of Doom

2003-08-03T17:57:00.000-07:00

Air Date: 08/03/2003

Contestants: Kokubu Sachiko (国分佐智子), Horikoshi Nori (堀越のり), Moriguchi Hiroko (森口博子)

Guest Judges: Cream Stew

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Tomatoes (from Gifu) / Kima Curry (Hamburger Curry)

Recap: You just knew that there was trouble on the horizon in this episode, as Horikoshi Nori began to get grilled by the judges before things even got underway. While Sachiko impressed everyone with her cooking skills (including one point where she cooked her tomatoes over an open flame just as the real chef was doing the same thing), Hiroko got a lesson from the judges on how to prepare onions for tear-free chopping. Before the time limit was up, Nori-chan took a page from Ogura Yuuko's cookbook and decided to add chocolate to her dish.

Hiroko was the first up for review and didn't do too bad, although there was some question as to if she should have used apples in her recipe along with the tomatoes. But it was a relatively uneventful tasting. It was a nice appetizer before the main course... Nori-chan.

Nori tried to be a bit more classy by creating a rice tower instead of just laying it flat on the plate, but even that couldn't help her. Terrified by the way the curry dripped off the top of the tower, both judges had a hard time choking it down. As one said, "I don't know what it is, but it isn't curry". Nobody could really take much of this evil dish.

Sachiko closed out with a strong finish, with everyone fawning over how good the food was. This caused Hiroko and Nori to comment that the judges were being influenced by the 'cute' factor, but to be fair you could tell from the start that she was going to be hard to beat. Though it wasn't that great, it wasn't that bad either.

The Ranking was interesting, as Nori had high hopes of making it out of the bathroom (her nameplate was posted over the urinal). She actually dropped and ended up stationed on the lid of the toilet instead.

Ranking ( out of 128 ):
Kokubu Sachiko: 28 (new entry)
Horikoshi Nori: 121 -> 123
Moriguchi Hiroko: 59 -> 80

The Fine Line Between Niwatori And Namatori

2003-04-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

Air Date: 04/26/2003

Contestants: Manabe Kaori (真鍋かをり), Yoshino Sayaka (吉野さやか), Hamaguchi Junko (浜口順子)

Guest Judges: Ishida Junichi (石田純一)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Chicken (Fukushima region)/ Curry Chicken Udon

Recap: This was a relatively light episode, as there was only one dish to prepare and it's a pretty common one in Japan (there are many variations of curry udon and rice throughout the series). That being said, it still didn't prevent one contestant from running into an issue.

Junko ended up faring pretty well, considering that she didn't have any idea of how to carve up the chicken. She also added some different sauces to her curry which gave her finished dish a very odd look, but it ended up tasting pretty good overall.

Sayaka went at this dish like a pro, having no issue cutting up the bird or making a very tasty curry. She was very excited by her success and because of this leapt up the ranking board.

Kaori ran into major issues, beginning first with the carving, then essentially running out of time and not being able to cook the chicken thoroughly. Her dish was essentially half-cooked, which resulted in a few trips to the bucket and a 5 on the wrinkle-meter.

Ranking ( out of 116 ):
Manabe Kaori: 80 -> 83
Yoshino Sayaka: 79 -> 20
Hamaguchi Junko: 63 (new entry)

Horror From The Deep

2003-02-01T17:14:00.000-08:00

Air Date: 02/01/2003

Contestants: Katou Takako (加藤貴子), Horikoshi Nori (堀越のり), Kitagawa Eri (北川えり)

Guest Judges: Yamazaki Tooru (山咲トオル)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Anglerfish (Ibaraki region) / Fried Anglerfish and Stew

Recap: This is one of those episodes which demonstrates why the show was such a hit, and how the lack of labels in the kitchen can contribute to some very odd results. Tooru, the judge in this episode, is a very effeminate horror manga-ka (I believe some were published in the States by Dark Horse). Not only was he up against a one very ugly fish, but Nori-chan as well. Nori, who is still appearing in episodes today, has had some bad luck on the show. This episode is one of the worst. Fans of the live action 'Hana Yori Dango' series will recognize Takako-chan, she played the Dango shop owner who loved to talk about her past loves.

With a tough fish to cook, Takako and Eri did very well. Nori on the other hand, took a very different approach. Not only did she cook the fish carcass in her stew, but she added the guts as well. When the color didn't appear to be quite right, she decided to spice it up with... lots of spice. As the panel looked on in horror, things only appeared to go from bad to worse.

That isn't to say that the other two glided to their positions on the ranking board. Takako made the mistake of using baking powder instead of flour when she made her fried fish. Although it tasted odd, they still thought the fish itself was good. When it came to the stew, both Takako and Eri did extremely well. Which leaves us with Nori-chan...

The panel first attempted to eat the fried anglerfish, which proved difficult because she didn't fry the meat of the fish. She decided to fry up the fins, tail, and other inedible parts of the fish. Which resulted in something that looked and tasted a lot like used tires. Should I mention that it was raw as well. While Joushima made a valient attempt to get to the 'Bucket of Love', Nori has a habit of dragging people back to the table. As bad as the fried fish was... it barely prepared them for the stew.

Faced with the finished product, the panel did their best not to collapse in laughter. Lots of great jokes were flying, including cracks about how Tooru should be used to horrifying things. He responded that it might be the subject of his next manga. Even with all the laughs, it wasn't enough to stop him running for the bucket. It took a while for Joushima to even get to the stage he would try it, and the best was when he bit into what I believe was the stomach, and it squirted all over the table. Somehow in the midst of running to the bucket (and I'm not clear because I haven't seen all the prior episodes), he pulled the nameplate of Rinka (梨花) off of his right shoe. My guess is that he's been walking around with it there for several episodes.

Which brings us to the Ranking...

Takako and Eri were ranked very well, but then Tooru decided to have a bit of fun with Nori. Going behind the studio to where her nameplate was lying on the floor, he happily brought it back into the main set. Nori was thrilled at the thought she would be moving onto the Ranking Board, until Tooru asked Joushima to show everyone where Rinka's nameplate was located (back on his shoe). He then asked to see his other foot, where he promptly placed Nori's nameplate. Giving her the lowest ranking of the series to this point.

Ranking ( out of 102 ):
Katou Takako: 23 (new entry)
Horikoshi Nori: 90 -> 102
Kitagawa Eri: 17 (new entry)

Eel Battle - Megumi Arrives

2002-07-13T13:21:00.000-07:00

Air Date: 07/13/2002

Contestants: Asaoka Megumi (麻丘めぐみ), Fujisaki Nanako (藤崎奈々子), Sakai Ayana (酒井彩名)

Guest Judges: Kyoumoto Masaki (京本政樹)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Eel (from Okayama) / Eel Rice and Soup (Unagi donburi and kimosui)

Recap: One of the more straightforward episodes, as all the competitors did a pretty decent job with their dishes. The focus was on Megumi who was the newcomer to the show. Most of the comedy in this episode was built around the handling of the live eels. Ayana had the most difficulty, with Joushima teasing her at the beginning when they intro'ed the ingredients. Megumi ended up impressing everyone with her take on the Ochazuke (tea over rice) version of the Eel rice, and most of the issues with the dishes were related to slightly bitter soup or dishes without a lot of taste. Everyone ended up on the Ranking Board in the end.

Ranking (out of 91):

Asaoka Megumi: 23 (New Entry)
Fujisaki Nanako: 10 -> 38
Sakai Ayana: 20 -> 21

You Got Grapefruit In My Chocolate

2002-05-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

Air Date: 05/26/2002

Contestants: Ogura Yuuko (小倉優子), Hirayama Aya (平山綾), Muroi Yudzuki (室井佑月)

Guest Judges: Ishida Junichi (石田純一)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Grapefruit / Fruit Jello

Recap: I'm missing chunks of this episode, pretty much the entire start. So I'm somewhat guessing when it comes to the theme ingredient and what the actual dish is. Fruit Jelly doesn't quite describe it, so I'm presuming it's a type of jello salad made with gelatin. This was also the first episode that I was introduced to the 'hint' feature of the earlier shows.

In earlier renditions, there would be a professional chef who would cook the same dish as the competitors, which would be used for comparison at the end of Tasting Time. The view of his cooking station was blocked by frosted glass, and the Apron Girls could ask for a 'hint', at which point they would move the barrier.

Yuuko was having a hard time figuring out where or what to do to make gelatin, so she was given the 'hint'. Not that it helped much, as she still wasn't sure what she needed to make the gelatin (even after being reassured that it was somewhere in her station). She managed to find the sheets of gelatin (in the States, we are more used to it in the powdered form), and proceeded to put them into her sauce. Which was already chilling on ice. In fact, the cooking time was pretty much taken up with her screams of despair, which Ishida found quite adorable.

Emi then pointed out all the various types of chocolate that Yuuko had put into her dish. She loves her chocolate.

Hirayama was up first for tasting, and everyone was impressed with the way her dish looked. It also had a great texture and taste. Joushima was a bit confused, because the talent company that represents her (HoriPro), has only sent them really bad cooks. Including, with a shout-out to her from Hirayama, Horikoshi Nori. But everyone really liked it, it had a perfect taste and balance. The even had Yuuko and Muroi taste it.

Muroi was next up and her dish didn't look as good. The jelly really hadn't firmed up, so it kind of spread out across the plate. However, it was also really good and they had the others try it as well too. Which left Yuuko as the main event.

She couldn't plate her dish properly, because it was still in a liquid form. The sheets of gelatin had never dissolved, so they floated like pieces of paper. She knew that it looked really bad, she kept trying to hide it from the judge and discouraged him from eating the gelatin. The results were interesting and Ishida had to be reminded what show he was on. The taste wasn't bad... just odd. It also was strange to eat, because you had the gummy gelatin, the soupy grapefruit mix, and the crunchy chocolate chips. Ishida asked about the chocolate thing, and was told about the Macaroni Gratin incident. Joushima told her to stop using chocolate, which I believe was the same thing her manager told her. That being resolved, Emi thought she was going to escape the tasting, but Joushima remembered to not only have her taste it, but thoughtfully moved her bangs so the camera could get a better shot of her brow.

Judgement time was quick, because all contestants remained on the Ranking Board. Yuuko dropped a bit and was told not to forget her promise not to use chocolate. The other two were new entries, and Hirayama was given kudos for being the highest-ranked member of HoriPro.

Ranking ( out of 89 ):
Hirayama Aya: 6 (new entry)
Muroi Yudzuki: 8 (new entry)
Ogura Yuuko: 40 -> 50

Ogura Yuuko - Queen of Choco!

2002-03-02T17:32:00.000-08:00

Air Date: 03/02/2002

Contestants: Ogura Yuuko (小倉優子), Kanbe Miyuki (神戸みゆき), Horikoshi Nori (堀越のり)

Guest Judges: Kurosawa Toshio (黒沢年雄)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Pasta (Italy) / Macaroni Gratin

Recap: This episode featured the first appearance of Ogura Yuuko, who although would not become a regular like Nori-chan, still managed to make her mark each time she was invited. She is infamous for usually trying to work a certain ingredient into every dish, and her first time was no exception.

After the introduction where all the girls seemed a bit thrown off by the theme ingredient, Cooking Time began and Yuuko wasted no time in whipping out her secret weapon. Watching her prepare the sauce for the macaroni gratin, Emi had a hard time figuring out what she was melting in the pot. Hattori thought it was cheese, but no... it was white chocolate. Meanwhile, Kanbe was carving up a squash for her dish and Nori was in general confused. Yuuko then discovered one of the key problems the contestants faced. None of the ingredients were labeled (and before you jump to that conclusion, she definitely knew it was chocolate and not cheese). So she asked Kurosawa which one of four containers of white powder to pick, and he suggested tasting them. She had good luck with Container Number 4, but then bad luck with Container Number 2 and had to wash out her mouth.

Kanbe made it known that she was shooting for the Special Epu ranking, while Nori was busy squeezing lemons into her gratin sauce. The judges encouraged Yuuko to try her sauce, and were shocked when she gave it the 'Delicious' OK sign. She then proceeded to pour that over the pasta and even added some chunks of banana to it. Kanbe went in a different direction entirely, using milk, sour cream, heavy cream, cheese, squash, onions and asparagus. Not to be outdone, Nori also used similar ingredients, but added lemons, mushrooms, and tomatoes. Kanbe topped off her dish with raw egg, then proceeded to make a desert dish with white chocolate and bananas mixed with pasta (I think she was peeking at Yuuko). Nori decided to make a drink to go with her dish, combining things like brandy, milk, bananas, pineapple, and other things to create it. You had to feel a bit sorry for Nori-chan, as she was being 'out-cuted' by the other two. She got very chirpy in the final stages of cooking, pointing out every little thing she was doing, down to her smile having dimples.

Kanbe was up first, hoping very hard to make the Special Epu ranking. She was so excited, she almost took out a cameraman. However, her gratin wasn't that great. She also kept insisting that people try the squash which was the worst part. The pasta was delicious, but the rest was only passable. Her dessert wasn't much better, and Nori-chan definitely thought she was going to have an edge over Kanbe with her dish.

Kurosawa enjoyed looking at her dish, it looked impressive. But then he had to taste it, and it was really sour. Probably because of all that lemon juice which curdled the milk and sour cream. Nori encouraged him to try her drink, but they instead decided to have her taste it first. Of course, she was the only one who found it delicious. A Kurosawa put it, it was sour, salty, bitter, and crunchy. Everyone else had a hard time eating her gratin. When it was Emi's turn, the wrinkle meter kicked in (back then, they would relate it to things in the natural world. This time her face looked like a fox). Joushima decided she needed some of Nori's drink to wash the sour taste out of her mouth, which brought on another face that looked like a mandrill.

Finally, it was time to Yuuko. Everyone knew what was coming, because there was no secret that she had used chocolate in her dish. It tasted like pancakes and it wasn't really a question if it tasted good or not, it just tasted odd. But the pasta wasn't fully cooked and I believe they were equating it to chewing gum. The amusing part that everyone had a hard time eating it, even Joushima had to go for the bucket (which had to be explained to Yuuko by Nori and Kanbe). But I think that he was acting it up, because Hattori said that as a dessert it wasn't terrible. Then they had Emi taste it and she really liked it, which confused everyone. Yuuko tried it herself and agreed, so I think women just has a taste for sweet things.

Judgement Time was not kind to Kanbe, as she dropped from 7th in the ranking all the way down to 52nd. Nori-chan was already just outside the studio under a garbage can, this time she got tossed in but didn't lose any places. Yuuko found herself just off the ranking board in 57th, not bad for her first time on the show.

Ranking ( out of 81 ):
Kanbe Miyuki: 7 -> 52
Ogura Yuuko: 57 (New Entry)
Horikoshi Nori: 77 (no change)