is a Japanese chef notable for being the first French chef in the Japanese cooking show ''

Iron Chef is a Japanese television cooking show produced by Fuji Television. The series, which premiered on October 10, 1993, is a stylized cook-off featuring guest chefs challenging one of the show's resident "Iron Chefs" in a timed cooking battle buil ...

''. He appeared from the first episode in 1993, sporting a green outfit while holding a bell pepper. Over the years, he has earned the nickname of "The Artist" for being creative with all his approaches to food. He has the highest winning percentage of any of the Iron Chefs due mainly to the fact that he fought only 8 battles: he won 7 and lost 1. He is the only Iron Chef never to tie. Ishinabe's single loss was to Jacques Borie, a French chef who worked in L'osler in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. This was also the only of Ishinabe's battles that was shown in America when

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery, who manages and operates it as a division of the Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Networks Group. The channel airs both televi ...

aired the original series. Ishinabe ended his Iron Chef career at the end of 1993 due to the stressful nature of the show, the one-hour time limit, and the judgement of his last battle, which he lost to Jacques Borie. He remained involved with the series, competing in one battle as an Iron Chef during the convalescence of Iron Chef Japanese Rokusaburo Michiba and assisting Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai as part of the French team in the "2000th Dish" Special. He also was a guest commentator and judge on several occasions, most notably when regular commentator Dr. Yukio Hattori competed in a battle. After appearing on ''Iron Chef'', Ishinabe opened a chain of restaurants called "Queen Alice". He lives in Paris, France.

References

1948 births Living people Japanese chefs People from Yokohama Chefs of French cuisine {{food-bio-stub