successor. The show continued with just Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai and Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi for two months. But, finally, it was announced that Michiba had completed his mission with the naming of Koumei Nakamura. "All my instincts told me he was the one," said Michiba. Initially, Nakamura refused but was convinced to accept. Nakamura's first battle on March 1, 1996 against French chef Kiyoshi Suzuki. During the introduction of the theme ingredient of the day, Chairman Kaga stated that he could not resist choosing foie gras because he wanted to relive some of the magic of Michiba's first victory using the same ingredient. Michiba was also extremely supportive of Nakamura's successor, Masaharu Morimoto. Inarguably, Morimoto took Michiba's "no borders to ingredients" philosophy to a different level. The show often referred to the relationship between Michiba and Morimoto as that between master and student, especially after an episode where Michiba flew to New York to visit Morimoto's restaurant, Nobu. So supportive of Morimoto was Michiba that, before his infamous New York battle with chef Bobby Flay, Michiba gave Morimoto a large box of katsuobushi flakes with a hand-calligraphed message: "respect the old, but seek out the new." Subsequent appearances Michiba made appearances throughout the 2012 revival of Iron Chef through interviews with former assistant Kenichi Miyanaga, a seat on the tasting panel, and as a competitor against new Iron Chef Jun Kurogi in the revival's 2012 "Ryouri no Tetsujin Dream Match! World Iron Chef Live Battle Special." Manga The manga series Kandō Ō Retsuden featured a story about Michiba in volume 2, called Michiba Rokusaburō Monogatari. The data collecting and organizing was made by Yasuo Negishi and it was illustrated by Yoshihiro Takahashi. External links official site Ginza Rokusantei References 1931 births Living people People from Ishikawa Prefecture Japanese chefs