Title:
Iron Wok Jan , Book OnePublisher’s rating:
Age 13+Genre:
Publisher's Website:
DRMasterAnime:
Sound bite:
A manga take on Iron Chef: Two young cooks go wok to wok in the busy kitchen of a Chinese restaurant. Lots of action, plus cooking tips.My rating:
Fine for all ages; no sex or nudity, cartoon violence, a few swears. A certain type of kid will really enjoy the use of gross foods like veal intestines and sheep's brains.Kid Reviews:
More details:
Plot Summary:
The story opens in the kitchen of the Gobancho Restaurant in the Ginza, the best Chinese restaurant in all Japan. Mutsujo Gobancho, the owner, has dropped by, and he wants only one thing: fried rice. His granddaughter Kiriko, a 16-year-old trainee in the restaurant kitchen, is the only one who can make this deceptively simple dish, which has only three main ingredients: rice, egg, and scallions.
Later that night, a stranger walks in after closing time and demands fried rice. The staff, anxious to please, turn the stove back on and cook the meal, but the stranger stalks back to the kitchen, complaining, "This fried rice is overdone and there were 3 grains that were stuck together." Whipping off his leather jacket to reveal a set of chef's whites, he whirls into action, concocting a perfect dish before the staff's astonished eyes. Then he reveals who he is: Jan Akiyama, grandson of a master Chinese chef.
Jan and Kiriko quickly become competitive, with Kiriko claiming that good cooking comes from the heart and Jan countering that it's all about competition. Until Jan came along, Kiriko was the rising star of the kitchen; now he challenges her status, and they start competing with each other to show off their culinary skills. But when Jan is assigned to cook beef and peppers for 50 people, he stumbles badly. Humiliated, he retires to the alley behind the restaurant and weeps. Another trainee, whose incompetence has made him the butt of everyone's jokes up till then, consoles Jan with bad Japanese puns. Jan returns to the kitchen and figures out his error, turning out a truly stupendous dish of beef and peppers. Late in the book, Mutsujo Gobancho returns to show that can still knock together a pretty good dish as well, using his "heat sphere" trick.
Jan was raised by his grandfather, a fierce teacher who taught him to cook and beat him when he made mistakes. One day, the grandfather showed Jan a particularly difficult techinque, but when the dish is finished, Jan says it is too salty. Realizing that his sense of taste is fading, the grandfather sends Jan on an errand and sets fire to the house and himself. Before lighting the match, he calls Mutsujo Gobancho and tells him to hire Jan, and he leaves a note for Jan telling hm where to go.
Bonus points: The book includes explanations, Iron Chef-style, of what Jan and Kiriko are doing as they cook.
Character and morality:
This is a book about contests of skill, so there isn't much room for character development. Jan is all ego, and it's a relief to see him get his comeuppance with the beef and peppers incident, and to see him make a friend. Aside from that, he's rude to everyone, and it's clear that the motif of the book will be the comparison of his cold skill and Kiriko's "from the heart" approach.
Some children may be troubled by Jan's grandfather's cruelty, and his suicide.
Violence:
This manga manages to make cooking seem violent, but it's all cartoon violence, with bits of food swirling through the air. Jan's grandfather hits him and slams him into a hot stove, and he ends his life by setting himself on fire. This is probably the only scary scene in the book, for most kids: We see the grandfather engulfed in flames, his skull-like face gloating as he threatens his old rival Mutsuju Gobancho one last time.
Sexuality/body functions:
No sex, no nudity.
Language:
A few swears: "damn" and "hell," "pissed off," "sucks." Bad food is referred to in one scene as "shit-soup."
Substances:
None.
