Allez cuisine
It's weird when Iron Chef morphs away from the campiness of the Japanese version to the competent American version. Alton Brown actually does sound like a combination of the guys who do the voices of Fukui and Hattori, and he does incorporate some of his Good Eats stuff into the show. On the other hand, I already picked up some looping of his commentary, although it's not as bad as some of Donald Trump's fixes on The Apprentice that sound a lot like "Mr. Black" on the Kamp Krusty episode.

It's also interesting that I'd actually heard of the first challenger, although partly because he's the brother of the guy's that not Woody Paige.

Plus, it was one of the few times I was actually hungry watching the show. It probably helps that the secret ingredient was something exotic but not too rare (i.e. I've had it a few times), not to mention they made seemingly accessible dishes.

They did keep some of the traditions of the original Iron Chef -- an over-the-top Chairman (allegedly Kaga's nephew, but in reality, just this guy) and Julie Chen, reprising the role of the guest giggling female judge.