Iron Wok Jan!

Episode 7

Episode 7 of Iron Wok Jan! is content to let Akiyama's skill simmer at a steady pace until fully prepared.

This is a very careful episode. I won't say that it was slow, or that the pacing was really an issue at all. It starts with a bang - the elder Akiyama beating harsh lessons into Jan's psyche and his flesh. It's hard to watch, and despite being so short, its intensity lingers over the rest of the episode. Most of the runtime is subdued compared to that opener. Yet the cloud it summons hangs over the cautious proceedings for the remainder of the runtime.

Which is good because it adds drama to an otherwise simple premise. Akiyama is up against Kawahara, who is more of a scientific, modern chef. Kawahara has advanced techniques and knowledge that allow him to approach cooking from a more clinical perspective. This results in him understanding things at a high level, perhaps beyond what his experience might imply. Why, he even goes so far as to finish early and seemingly put Akiyama on the back foot!

But of course that's not quite how things really are. I like how the grand finale reveals that, yes, Akiyama is quite skilled and that Kawahara's confidence was misplaced. The simple fact is that Kawahara intellectually understands things without having the right experiential learning to know the ins and outs of cooking. Akiyama has cooked every dish he's using in this competition countless times. Jan knows the dishes inside and out, even if Kawahara might peer inside with an analytical lens.

The big finale lands perfectly. Kawahara is blindsided by how poorly he has judged the dish, and Akiyama gets a big cackling laugh at his expense. As someone who has done a fair amount of cooking, especially in recent years, there's a lot of truth to this scenario. When you've cooked a dish dozens of times, you begin to get a feel for where you are in the preparation, when you need to adjust spices or flavor, and when it's time to pivot because something is amiss. Kawahara has technical knowledge, to be sure, but there's an ignorance that comes from only knowing something intellectually. In much the same sense that a business idea might make sense on a spreadsheet but fall completely flat in the real world, there simply is no replacement for experience and comfort with a particular dish. Kawahara piled high the flavors and high-quality prep/ingredients without ever considering if they all tasted well together, or even made sense. For all the silliness in this show, there are real kernels of truth beating at its heart, and that's what makes it so compelling.

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Iron Wok Jan! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.