IRON CHEF ITALIAN – MASAHIKO KOBE

Masahiko Kobe (神戸 勝彦 Kōbe Masahiko), born October, 15 1969 in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan) is a chef specializing in Italian cuisine, most notable as the “Iron Chef Italian” on the television series Iron Chef, where he appeared wearing a chef’s uniform decorated like the Italian Flag (Red, White, & Green) and holding a tomato. (In some episodes, an apple.)
According to the Iron Chef storylines, Kobe was slated to be an Iron Chef in 1993, but was considered too young and immature. To fix this issue, he moved to Italy for about 4 years to train, becoming the fourth Iron Chef upon his arrival home. In reality, Kobe had little to do with the show before he moved to Italy (although he was aware of the show’s existence), and was asked to be on Iron Chef near the end of the four years.