If accidentally watched, induce vomiting.
Bender runs away after hearing the Planet Express crew talk about his Lethal Chef skills. He eventually ends up in a hobo junction with Helmut Spargle, an ex-chef whose cooking show was replaced by Elzar's. Spargle teaches Bender to cook so he can challenge Elzar for the title of Iron Cook. Meanwhile, Zoidberg breaks the Professor's ship-in-a-bottle and pins the blame on Fry.
Tropes
- Acting Unnatural: Leela, when emptying Bender's cooking into a potted plant and talking to Zoidberg, who is doing the same.Zoidberg: Hello, it's me, Zoidberg. Act naturally.Leela: How interesting, Zoidberg. Do go on.
- Artistic License – Chemistry: Spargle's secret flavour ingredient, which makes any food extremely delicious, turns out to be water laced with LSD. LSD actually tastes slightly bitter and, if anything, would make Bender's gross food taste even worse, since symptoms of LSD consumption include taste avoidance and loss of appetite.
- Artistic License – Physics: Which, since this is Futurama, gets by on Rule of Funny - "We're goin' near the speed of light, so, uh, roll when you land."
- Asian Speekee Engrish: The Iron Chef host, to an absurd degree. He introduces the show as "Iron Cookeruuuuuu!" and the secrete ingredient as "Soyrent Greeniruuuuu!'.
- As You Know: Played for Laughs. Bender competing in Iron Chef is capped off by him showing the episode of him winning to his friends on the television. Leela points out he didn't need to do that, because they were there and even in the episode.
- Bilingual Bonus: “Spargel” is German for “asparagus.”
- Bizarre Alien Senses:Bender: I have eight other senses, but I'd trade them all, even smision, to be able to taste.
- Blatant Lies: When he accidentally breaks Chairman Koji's sword in his failed suicide attempt, Zoidberg attempts to pin the blame on Fry again, despite everybody seeing him doing it.
- Broken Pedestal: Elzar becomes this to Bender once he sees him as the jerkass he really is.
- Bungled Suicide: Zoidberg attempts to commit seppuku using the Chairman's sword. He ends up bending it beyond repair due to his thick carapace.
- Comically Missing the Point: Downplayed since Bender finally understand that the Planet Express crew hates his dishes, overhearing them explicitly talking about it. However, before that, it is extremely obvious they are downright terrified about eating his food. Even when he blocks the emergency exit and forces them to go back to table, even hearing Leela crying of fear, Bender just doesn't understand and ask her to stop.
- Cooking Duel: Between Elzar and Bender to avenge Spargle.
- Crazy Homeless People: "I'm not drunk, I'm mentally ill."
- Crazy-Prepared: The Professor installed a wormhole in the kitchen table so that he doesn't have to eat Bender's cooking. However, it only leads to a space directly above the Professor's head.
- Currency Cuisine: Elzar garnishes his salad dish with $100 bills (although no one is actually shown eating the bills).
- Expy: Spargle is a clear parody of Yoda.
- Follow Your Nose: The hobos get one whiff of Spargle's pie and float towards it. Justified in that they are wearing jet packs. Bender lampshades it by commenting on the pie having "hobo-lifting powers".
- Given Name Reveal: Zoidberg's letterhead reads, "From the Desk of Dr. John Zoidberg, M.D."
- Glove Slap: Parodied when Bender slaps Elzar with his detached hand.
- Gonna Fly Now Montage: Bender's training under Helmut, complete with the theme from The Karate Kid.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: Bender declares to the drunk bums that he will defeat Elzar, which slightly offends Gus the hobo, because he's not drunk, he's mentally ill!
- Ignored Epiphany: Zoidberg's entire B-plot is about how he should take responsibility for breaking something and not blame his actions on other people. It ends when he makes a guilty confession and tries to repent through suicide—and in the process, he ruins a very expensive sword, and immediately blames it on Fry.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The secret ingredient for the Iron Cook challenge is Soylent Green. Martha Stewart's head and Bubblegum Tate both enjoy the resulting dishes.
- Implausible Deniability: Zoidberg makes a public apology for destroying a ship in a bottle and blaming it on Fry, causing him to pay the cost of repairs (ten dollars). In repentance, he attempts to kill himself on Chairman Koji's katana... only for it to break on his chest.Zoidberg: Fry did it!
- Impossibly Delicious Food: Bender's food, once he adds Spargle's "essence of pure flavour", is so good that he actually beats Elzar and even reduces one of the Iron Chef judges (Morbo) to tears. At the end, all of Planet Express is eager to try it.
- In-Universe Factoid Failure: At one point, Bender (apparently in all seriousness) claims that Rembrandt van Rijn was blind and had wooden hands. Obviously, neither was true.
- Jerkass: Elzar.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- When Elzar refuses to teach Bender, he tells him he can't cook for squat, a fact repeatedly borne out through the episode.
- And again, when Bender challenges Elzar on the grounds of avenging the death of Helmut Spargle, Elzar points out that based on what he's hearing, it's Bender who's responsible for Spargle's death.
- Lampshade Hanging: After Bender comes to Elzar's looking to avenge Helmut Spargle, Elzar points out from Bender's story that it sound a lot like Bender's the one who killed him.
- Large Ham: Chairman Koji, the host of Iron Cook.
- Lethal Chef: Bender's food finally actually kills someone by making their stomach explode. After one bite.
- Magic Feather: Helmut gives Bender a small bottle containing the "essence of pure flavor". Professor Farnsworth analyzes it and discovers that the "essence" is only water... laced with LSD.
- Manchild: Zoidberg is especially childish in this one, especially with the bottle. Even after being told not to touch it, he goes ahead and does so anyway.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": When Fry warns Planet Express that Bender is cooking them brunch, everyone is immediately horrified. Everyone then immediately agrees on Leela's plan to sneak onto the ship, fly to the north pole, and hide out under the ice sheets for a few weeks.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Everyone's in awe of the Professor's perfect scale replica of the universe's largest bottle. And he put a miniature spaceship in it to keep it from being boring.
- My God, What Have I Done?: This is Zoidberg's reaction when the guilt for framing Fry gets to him.
- Never My Fault:
- Bender refuses to admit his cooking killed Spargle. Justified in that he seemed more concerned with how Elzar wronged both of them.
- Zoidberg sets Fry up as a scapegoat for breaking the Professor's model, and despite feeling guilty blames Fry again when he accidentally breaks the Chairman's sword. The latter case is played for laughs.
- Not So Stoic: Morbo bursts into tears after eating Bender's disgusting food, since it shows that "even hideous things can be sweet on the inside."
- Only a Model: The Professor's ship in a bottle. Actually, it was a model of the universe's largest bottle, with a model spaceship inside to keep it from being boring.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Parodied. Leela is easily the bravest main character of the show. And yet, not only she is as terrified as any other Planet Express crew member by the thought of eating Bender's food, but she can be heard literally crying from fear.
- Ow, My Body Part!: The Professor, on hearing Bender's making brunch, exclaims "dear Lord, my tract!"
- Priceless Ming Vase: The Professor's bottle is set up to be this, but when he accuses Fry of breaking it, he asks him to pay the full amount - $10. Fry quickly pays him back with no complaints, but Zoidberg is wracked with guilt nonetheless (probably because, for him, $10 actually is a huge amount).
- Rule of Three: The hobos and Bender jumping off the train. The two hobos make it. Bender crashes.
- Seppuku: Zoidberg tries to kill himself with the Chairman's sword, but it breaks on his hard shell.
- The Secret of Long Pork Pies: Played for Laughs.
- Shout-Out:
- The title itself and the Cooking Duel reference the show Iron Chef.
- The space-train heads toward a switching prism, where the rails split into a rainbow, much like the cover of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.
- One of the train's cars is labelled "Wrath of Conrail".
- Spargle laments that a young Elzar was seduced by the Dark Side of Cooking.
- Bender's training under Spargle is a parody of that from The Karate Kid, complete with "You're The Best" playing. Also, during the montage, Bender slices up a hovering potato with a lightsaber, parodying Luke and the training droid in A New Hope.
- The secret ingredient for the Iron Cook challenge is Soylent Green.
- The host of Iron Cook says to Bender, "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.", a nod to the famous Styx song.
- Summation Gathering: Farnsworth gathers the crew in the parlor for a classic Agatha Christie j'accuse regarding his broken bottle.
- Take That!:Gus: Welcome to Bumbase Alpha, the biggest hobo jungle in the quadrant.Bender: I've seen bigger. Oh, wait, I'm thinking of Eugene, Oregon.
- That Poor Plant: Leela dumps her plate of Bender's cooking into a potted plant. As Bender notes, the plants only die when he cooks, but refuses to see a connection.
- The Triple: Why Elzar won't teach Bender - first, Bender's antenna is poking into his crotch; second, he hates him; and third, he can't cook for squat. He bumps up hating Bender to the number one spot a few moments later.
- Younger and Hipper: The Extreme Soda company's reason for firing Spargle.
- Your Mom: Apparently Elzar did this to one of the Iron Cook commentators. She takes it in stride.Aki: [in an upbeat tone] Well, Hiroki-san, when I asked him, he asked what business it was of mine, and conjectured that my mother was a prostitute.
