Yutaka Ishinabe was the first French

French cuisine

French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...

 Chef in the Japanese cooking show Iron Chef

Iron Chef

is a Japanese television cooking show produced by Fuji Television. The series, which premiered on October 10, 1992, is a stylized cook-off featuring guest chefs challenging one of the show's resident "Iron Chefs" in a timed cooking battle built around a specific theme ingredient. The series ended...

. He appeared from the first episode in 1993, sporting a green outfit while holding a bell pepper. Over the years he has earned himself 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 he only fought 8 battles: he won 7 and lost 1. He is the only Iron Chef never to tie.

Yutaka 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 judges, However, he remained involved with the series, competing in one battle as an Iron Chef during the convalescence of Iron Chef Japanese Rokusaburo Michiba

Rokusaburo Michiba

is a Japanese cuisine chef most notable as the first Japanese Iron Chef on the television series Iron Chef. He was on the show from its inception in 1993 until his retirement on his 65th birthday, January 3, 1996...

 and assisting Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai

Hiroyuki Sakai

is a well-known Japanese chef who specializes in French cuisine. Sakai is most famous for being the second, and last, Iron Chef French on the Japanese television show Iron Chef, first appearing at the beginning of 1994 and continued his appearance in shows over nine seasons...

 as part of the French team in the "2000th Dish" Special. He also acted as guest commentator and judge on several occasions, most notably when regular commentator Dr. Yukio Hattori

Yukio Hattori

is best known as an expert commentator on the Japanese television show Iron Chef. Hattori is also the fifth president of the Hattori Nutrition College; the Iron Chef end credits mention that the program is "produced in cooperation with" the College. Hattori received a Ph.D. in medicine from Showa...

 competed in a battle.

After being on Iron Chef, Ishinabe opened a chain of restaurants called "Queen Alice".
He is currently 62 years old and he lives in Paris,France.

Memorable Battle

• Jacques Borie, A French chef who works in L'osler in Tokyo, and is the only person to defeat Yutaka Ishinabe, doing so with only a single dish to Ishinabe's two. The theme ingredient was chicken. This was also notable as Chairman Kaga accidentally revealed the theme ingredient in his introductory speech, saying the word chicken instead of kitchen. He followed up on this error by declaring the theme ingredient to be kitchens before correcting himself. This was also the only of Ishinabe's battles that was shown in America when Food Network aired the original series.