While Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters is hardly a carbon copy of the original IC, it translates most of the idea faithfully and sure is a heck of a lot of fun to watch.

You know about Iron Chef, right? Kitchen Stadium? Chairman Kaga? The Ohta faction? The cult of Morimoto? ALLEZ CUISINE? If you don't, you really need to watch more Food Network. It's a baffling mix of haute cuisine and competitive sports hosted by a long-haired dandy who gets off on raw bell peppers. Good TV, my friends. Damn good TV.

Admittedly, it's a little weird to try and reinvent this quintessentially Japanese program as an American thang. There's already been a pathetic attempt by UPN (pronounced OO-pin) starring William Shatner as "The Chairman." (And he was the best part! That's how bad it was!)

It's obvious that the show designers at Food Network have a lot more love and understanding of the original than the makers of UPN's Iron Chef USA. You don't have to force the camp elements. The concept itself is so strange that you don't have to try and be wacky. Iron Chef makes its own gravy. Let it be.

The flamboyant Chairman Kaga has been replaced with his "nephew," a martial arts expert who demands yummy snackables. The new "Iron Chefs" are all-American, and already famous to anyone who already watches Food Network: Bobby "Boy Meets Grill" Flay, "Molto" Mario Battali, and Wolfgang "I invented California cuisine so suck on THAT" Puck. To further legitimize the new show, the Masters being battled are two of the original (and most popular) Iron Chefs.

There's something very cool about "Iron Chef French" Hiroyuki Sakai. He always has a wry smile ... except when he's rising up out of the floor with a pear in his hand in the opening ceremony. I bet he's a kick to hang out with ... if you speak Japanese.

But I've always got my eye on "Iron Chef Japanese" Masaharu Morimoto. This guy's a maverick ... killer inventive. He's not afraid to take his work to the edge ... even if he occasionally falls off (best not to dwell on the dish he called "Kids Plate USA" in the Bamboo Shoot Battle). Morimoto used to work for Robert DeNiro at Nobu in NYC, but now he apparently has his own restaurant in Philly. If any of you wants to pick up the bill for a meal at Morimoto The Restaurant, I'll find a way to get there. I promise.