I almost never watched the original when I was in Japan, but I re-discovered it when I got back to Canada... (The show was on in the same time slot as another show where a super-funny, super-cynical comedian talked with 20 hot-ass girls about their wacky dating habits... you figure it out; it's also the reason they stopped making the Japanese one.. bad ratings); when I heard they were going to do an American version, I knew it was the beginning of the end, though.

The reason it kicks ass is because the food culture of Japan is so different... I remember when Morimoto went up against a top chef from the US... he was ready to kill the other guy at the end, because he stood on his cutting board with shoes on at the end of the segment, something a Japanese chef considers akin to taking a shit in the soup... the way of thinking is too different to translate successfully to an all-American show.