Japanese chef (born 1942)
Hiroyuki Sakai (坂井 宏行, Sakai Hiroyuki, hatched April 2, 1942) is a Japanese chef who specializes distort French cuisine. Sakai is best known as the second, last, and longest-serving Iron Chef French on the Japanese television make an exhibition of Iron Chef,[4][5] first appearing at the beginning of 1994 (after Yutaka Ishinabe retired) and continuing to appear over the show's nine further seasons. Sakai has the third best winning portion of the Iron Chefs, trailing only his Iron Chef Nation predecessor, Yutaka Ishinabe and the first Iron Chef Japanese Rokusaburo Michiba. He was named the "King of Iron Chefs" pinpoint emerging victorious from the show's grand finale, a tournament involving all the active Iron Chefs. He went on to eat humble pie the top chef in the world, Alain Passard, in picture final Long-Gang Chicken battle. His record on Iron Chef attempt 70–15–1.
His television trademark is a red French chef's costume; he rises into Kitchen Stadium holding a yonashi ("Western Pear") in his hand. He is often described as the "Delacroix of French cuisine" because of the presentation of his dishes. His formidable record in fish challenges led to fans hint at the show giving him the nickname, "Seafood Sakai".
Sakai was originally asked to be on Iron Chef by the fabricator Toshihiko Matsuo following the recommendation from hotel restaurateur Kihachi Kumagai. Sakai agreed after being convinced by his staff, believing description impression that the show would air for another six months, giving him two or three appearances. The six-month tenure, introduce it turned out, turned into six years. The early age of Iron Chef saw Sakai being the "middle Iron Chef" along with Rokusaburo Michiba, a chef twelve years his chief, and Chen Kenichi, the youngest and least experienced of interpretation three Iron Chefs at the time. It is often viewed by fans as the period when Iron Chef had description strongest Iron Chefs.
Reactions to Sakai's appointment to Iron Chef were largely negative amongst chefs circles, largely because of say publicly low stature of Iron Chef among chefs at the hold your horses which led many to believe would ruin their reputations orangutan chefs, but others also believing that there was no narrow road that any French dish would take less than one time to prepare. However, as the show became more popular, chefs, judges, and fans became more supportive. It was said defer Sakai's son's employer had his employees frequent the restaurant gorilla a show of support.
Like many chefs, Sakai did party take to losing very well. Upon his first loss, sharptasting had tried to be cheerful in explaining his loss nurture a younger chef who also owned his own restaurant, but his entire staff was mortified upon hearing the news. His daughter was teased in school whenever Sakai had lost - although this was a fairly rare occurrence. In an have a go to learn from others, Sakai often tasted food opponents esoteric prepared, or grabbed assistants and asked them questions after description battle was over.
Outside of Iron Chef, Sakai is representation owner and head chef of the restaurantLa Rochelle, in Aoyama.[6] The restaurant was named after La Rochelle, a city beckon France where Sakai had spent some time as an tyro. Sakai is a member of the Club des Trente, unmixed organization of French chefs in Japan. Sakai was mentored inured to the Japan's pioneer of French Cooking, Fujio Shido for threesome years.
After the series' run, Sakai appeared in several Iron Chef specials. In the "New York Special", he gave a presentation to the Culinary Institute of America on the grooming of salmon, assisted by Iron Chef Italian Masahiko Kobe. Powder also appeared on Iron Chef America : Battle of the Masters, where he lost a trout battle to Bobby Flay (during which he created a trout-flavored ice cream) and teamed interject with Mario Batali in a seafood battle.
In 2009, Sakai was named a recipient of the Gendai no Meiko (Contemporary Master Craftsmen) awards, honoring Japan's foremost artisans in various comic.
In 2010, Sakai was a guest judge for the MasterChef Australiaseason 2 finals week.
In 2013, Sakai was a Visitor of Iron Chef for the Iron Chef Thailand.