Test your Design IQ

MANILA, Philippines - Who is the Japanese-born Iron Chef who is known as Iron Chef Italian and Prince of Pasta?

He was born in 1969 in the Yamanashi Prefecture in Japan.  His family grew peaches and grapes, and he began his culinary career in college when he worked part-time in a Japanese restaurant to earn money for his travels.

After graduating, he worked at Ristorante al Porto and then Ginza Enoteca Pinchiorri, finally journeying to Italy himself at the age of 25.  After studying at many restaurants including Claudio’s (a one-star Michelin restaurant), he joined one of the world’s top italian restaurant Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence, Italy.

Thanks to his precious experience, he became the restaurant’s No. 2 chef at the age of 25.  By the time he turned 27, he had mastered all aspects of Enoteca Pinchiorri’s kitchen and was named head chef.

Although he is of Japanese descent, he has been known as the Prince of Pasta due to the imaginative pasta techniques he acquired by working at famous restaurants.  With youth and creativity as his weapons, he has caused winds of change to blow through Japan’s world of Italian cooking.

He became the fourth Iron Chef in 1997, becoming the only Iron Chef Italian wearing the Italian flag as his outfit and holding a tomato (and in some episodes an apple).

Unlike his three fellow chefs, he typically rises alone in the Kitchen Stadium, many times accompanied by a group of violins. His tenure as Iron Chef saw him fighting 23 battles with a 15-7-1 record.

After Iron Chef, he opened his own restaurant Ristorante Massa in the Ebisu suburb of Tokyo.  In the post series New York Battle special in 2000, he assisted Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai in delivering a lecture on how to prepare salmon to students at the Culinary Institute of America.

* * *

Last week’s question: What’s the name of Malaysia’s landmark towers, the world’s tallest until 2004?

Answer: Petronas Twin Towers

Winner: Leah Yap of Quezon City

Text your answer to 0905-3142614 with your name and address. One winner will be chosen through a raffle of texts with the correct answer. The winner will receive P2,000 worth of SM gift certificates for use at Our Home, SM Department Store, or SM Supermarket. They can claim their prize at Our Home in SM Megamall. Call the store manager at 634-1950, 634-1943. Bring photocopies of two valid IDs and a clipping of the Design Quiz issue in which you appear as winner.