The original Iron Chef commentary was supplied by three knowledgeable, likeable commentators. The host, Kenji Fukui, chatted with scholarly food expert Yukio Hattori and received breaking news from the floor thanks to Shinichiro Ota. Before Ota would break in with a bit of trivia or a list of ingredients in a given pressure cooker, he called out "Fukui-san!" (or, as it usually sounded, "Squeeze on!").

Well, in place of Fukui and Hattori, the new IC has Alton "Good Eats" Brown. This just makes the show for me. Alton is one of my favorite Food Network personalities. (The only guy I like better is Jamie "The Naked Chef" Oliver, and if he were the host, no one would be able to understand a word.) He's fast, he's funny, and he knows food! This is such an improvement over the yellow-jacketed sports commentators UPN tried to use.

The mix of judges is faithful to the original as well. There are professional "foodies" and chefs as well as airheaded actors and actresses. The episode I watched featured a bimbette from "The O.C." who commented on at least four dishes in a row with "I've never had (food item) that tasted like THIS before!" The only thing that's missing is a Congressman judge. And maybe a psychic.

There's no way to duplicate the freakish magic of Iron Chef in America... that's a given. But what I've seen so far of Battle of the Masters is absolutely compelling. It manages an intensity that surprises me. I hope this becomes a full-fledged series.

This post originally appeared at soundacious.com