A Recipe for Disaster

A Recipe for Disaster Kirby is set upon by Cobgoblin while being hampered by Gijira Extract overdose. Details First aired June 1, 2002 February 15, 2003 Episode # 34 Episode # (US) 34 Copy Ability (Abilities) featured Cook Monster(s) featured Cobgoblin Character(s) featured Kirby, Chef Kawasaki, Tiff, Tuff, King Dedede, Escargoon, Chef Shiitake

Episode order ← Junk Jam The Kirby Derby - Part I →

Episode order (US) ← The Kirby Derby - Part II Watermelon Felon →

A Recipe for Disaster is the 34th episode of the Kirby: Right Back at Ya! series. In this episode, Chef Shiitake comes to visit his former student Chef Kawasaki in Cappy Town to ascertain Kawasaki's cooking skills, but finds him wanting. To push Kawasaki to improve his cooking, Shiitake starts a cooking show at the behest of King Dedede broadcasted over Channel DDD, and later invites all of Cappy Town to Castle Dedede to sample the food. While there, Tiff, Tuff, and Chef Kawasaki discover a container of Gijira Extract among Shiitake's belongings and accuse him of using chemicals to fortify his food to make it taste better than it is. During the commotion, Kirby ends up swallowing the whole container and starts to hallucinate, seeing everyone around him as food. Fearful for his life, King Dedede calls in a monster named Cobgoblin to stop Kirby, but this monster is defeated when Kirby gains the Cook Copy Ability from Chef Kawasaki's frying pan. It is later revealed that Shiitake did not use any of the Gijira Extract in his cooking, and had brought it along to teach Chef Kawasaki a lesson.

Characters

The following characters appear in this episode:

Cast of "A Recipe for Disaster"
Character	Selected quote
Primary characters
Kirby	(whispering) "Poyo."
Chef Kawasaki	"Ah. Goodness me, I'm the only restaurant in town and still I get no customers!"
Tiff	"But Chef Shiitake, you just can't close Chef Kawasaki's restaurant!"
Tuff	"Yummy! Boy, with food like this, Shiitake could put Kawasaki out of business!"
King Dedede	"Hey! It's splen-doo-fulous!"
Escargoon	"That's it! Tomorrow, I'm goin' on a diet! Otherwise this snail's gonna end up a whale!"
Chef Shiitake	"He shouldn't be called a chef! This region is bursting with delicious natural ingredients! With such bounty, there's no excuse for bad food! You have not learned to cook, so now you will learn the hard way! Good day, sir!"
Secondary characters
Buttercup	(no dialogue)
Cappy villagers	"Come on, Dedede! We'll take anything! Even leftovers!"
Chief Bookem	(no dialogue)
Doron	(no dialogue)
Gus	(no dialogue)
Hana	"There's nothing else like it!"
Honey	(no dialogue)
Iro	(no dialogue)
Lady Like	"Oh darling, it's scrumptious!"
Mayor Len Blustergas	"This is simply heavenly!"
N.M.E. Sales Guy	"Chill, 3-D! I'll just charge extra for the express service!"
Sir Ebrum	"Delectable!"
Spikehead	(no dialogue)
Tokkori	"I think I know that duck!"
Waddle Dees	(no dialogue)

Locations

• Dream Land
  • Castle Dedede
  • Cappy Town
    • Kawasaki's

Plot synopsis

Chef Shiitake judges his former student Chef Kawasaki after having tried all his dishes.

The episode begins in the countryside outside Cappy Town, where Tiff, Tuff, and Kirby are returning from gathering vegetables. While Kirby is momentarily distracted, he runs into Chef Shiitake, who asks him directions to Kawasaki's. Kirby is momentarily frightened, as he remembers the events of The Big Taste Test, but regardless points Shiitake into town, and the chef departs. Tiff and Tuff regroup with Kirby and see Shiitake departing, mistaking him for Popon, but they do not stop him from reaching Chef Kawasaki's restaurant. Once Shiitake arrives, Kawasaki confuses him for the monster as well and tries to attack him as Kirby and the kids join in. After a brief struggle and a brief recap from Tiff of the events of The Big Taste Test, Shiitake confirms he is the real chef by pulling out his famous chef's knife. Once things calm down, Shiitake explains that he has come to evaluate his former student Kawasaki's progress as a chef by forcing Kawasaki to prepare every meal he has on offer for a taste test. As Shiitake is served each meal, he tries only a small sample and lets Kirby dispose of the rest. Having been served several dozen meals, (and leaving Kirby intensely satisfied) Shiitake judges his student to be "lousy", and closes his restaurant down until such a time that Kawasaki can earn it back.

A short time later at Castle Dedede, Escargoon enters the throne room to tell King Dedede that the famous Chef Shiitake has visited Dream Land, which causes the king to rejoice over the opportunity to finally have good food for once. Meanwhile, back at Kawasaki's, Kawasaki dreads the idea that Shiitake may open up a rival restaurant to further add to his student's humiliation. That evening, while Chef Shiitake is looking for lodgings, King Dedede and Escargoon arrive in their Armored Vehicle and cordially invite Shiitake to the castle in exchange for a meal, which Shiitake agrees to. The next day, a special show on Channel DDD is broadcast which features Chef Shiitake and his cooking, as various dishes are tried by Mayor Len, Hana, Sir Ebrum, and Lady Like. Tiff and Tuff also have a sample, and become curious if Shiitake is using some kind of secret ingredient to make his dishes so much better than Kawasaki's. Meanwhile, Kawasaki himself becomes fed up with his master's gloating on T.V.

Chef Kawasaki and the kids discover the Gijira Extract.

After the initial broadcast, all of Cappy Town along with Kirby and Tokkori line up outside of Castle Dedede in hopes of sampling Chef Shiitake's food. and Escargoon lets them in for a banquet. As Shiitake prepares a stir fry, he issues a challenge to Chef Kawasaki over the broadcast to come up to the castle and prove his meddle as a chef by assisting him. Kawasaki initially refuses, but is drawn to accept in order to preserve his honor. While Shiitake continues to cook, Tiff, Tuff and Kirby follow in secret as the chef disappears into a back-room. They are soon greeted by Chef Kawasaki. Tiff tells Kawasaki about their suspicions but is interrupted when Shiitake emerges from the room and berates his student again before walking away. The group decides to infiltrate the room Shiitake was in and finds a container of "Gijira Extract". Suspecting it to be the secret ingredient Shiitake is using, the group tests it on an instant ramen package, noticing how drastically the flavor is improved. Once finished, Chef Shiitake orders Kawasaki to the studio via intercom.

Kirby makes a huge mound of popcorn out of Cobgoblin.

Once Kawasaki arrives, Chef Shiitake assigns him to make a meat and potato stew while continuing to humiliate him in front of the crowd. As Shiitake continues to address the crowd, Kawasaki secretly adds some of the Gijira Extract to the stew. King Dedede and the others are hesitant to try the stew at first, but soon realize it actually tastes quite good. Kawasaki then makes his move by revealing the secret ingredient to the crowd and accusing Shiitake of fortifying his food with the stuff, as Tiff and Tuff elaborate on the Gijira Extract's chemical nature. As the crowd turns on him, Shiitake brushes them off and proclaims that all great chefs use chemicals in their cooking. This "betrayal" causes Chef Kawasaki to reject his former master and Kawasaki tosses the extract at him, but it bounces off of Shiitake's hat and straight into Kirby's mouth, causing the group to rightfully fear what may happen as a result. Kirby enters a drugged state and picks up a fork and knife. He then sees everyone around him as food and starts chasing them down. King Dedede runs for his life throughout the castle and enters a "phone booth" in the halls. There, he contacts Night Mare Enterprises for an "emergency download".

Through the Monster Delivery System comes the corn monster Cobgoblin. It soon finds Kirby in the cooking studio and prevents Kirby from eating it by smacking him around repeatedly. It then grabs Kirby and shoots corn kernels into his mouth, which then painfully pop inside of him and snap him out of his stupor. Tuff grabs Chef Kawasaki's frying pan and tosses it to Kirby so he can swallow it and gain the Cook Copy Ability. Cook Kirby then proceeds to strip Cobgoblin of its corn kernels and cooks them up into popcorn, which rapidly expands and fills the entire studio, presumably defeating the monster. King Dedede laments his wasted money, but eats the popcorn anyway. Later on, as Chef Shiitake makes his departure, he reveals to Kawasaki that he never used the Gijira Extract in his cooking, instead having brought it specifically for Kawasaki. Shiitake then clarifies that he does not care about his reputation so long as his student Kawasaki has learned his lesson. The episode ends as Shiitake leaves one more hopeful message to Kawasaki, reminding him that at least one person will always enjoy his cooking.

Differences between versions

Japanese-exclusive scene where Chef Shiitake shows off his knife-flinging skills to prove himself as the real cook.

• In the Japanese version, Chef Shiitake proves he is not a monster by swinging his chef's knife with expert agility. This knife swinging is cut from the international versions.
• The Japanese characters on Chef Shiitake's restaurant in Kawasaki's imagination is scrubbed in the international versions.
  • Additionally, the English word "TELEPHONE" is scrubbed from the express monster delivery phone booth in the international versions, despite being perfectly legible.
• In the Japanese version, Chief Bookem and Buttercup have an extended dinner conversation before the broadcast of Chef Shiitake's show on Channel DDD.
  • Additionally, during the broadcast, a title prompt appears on the show reading in English "COOK OHSAKA'S ALL ABOUT HOW TO COOKING".
• In the Japanese version, an arrangement of "Orange Ocean" from Kirby's Adventure plays during Chef Shiitake's cooking show.
  • Additionally, the opening cutscene theme for Gourmet Race plays when the Cappies are let in to try Shiitake's food.
• When Chef Kawasaki, Tiff, Tuff, and Kirby first try the Gijira Extract on ramen noodles, Kirby eats his noodles out of a cup that says "Cup L" on it. This text is removed from the international versions.

Dialogue differences

• In the Japanese version, Kirby attempts to say Chef Shiitake's name when pointing at him at the start of the episode.
• In the Japanese version, Kawasaki imagines being offered a job as a dishwasher in Chef Shiitake's restaurant. In the English version, Shiitake tells him to learn how to cook or go away.
• In the Japanese version, Shiitake repeatedly mentions using alcoholic fluids in his cooking. All explicit mentions of alcohol are removed from the English version.
• In the English version, Shiitake initially brushes off Kawasaki for bothering to show up at the castle, which appears to be inconsistent with his earlier and later insistence that Kawasaki participate. There is no such inconsistency in the Japanese version.
• In the Japanese version, Tiff explains that the Gijira Extract is derived from magic mushrooms. She says that it can cause hallucinations, which explains what later happens to Kirby when he eats it. This whole explanation was cut from the English version, likely due to magic mushrooms being illegal throughout North America.
• In the Japanese version, Chef Shiitake's lesson to Chef Kawasaki is somewhat more relevant to the episode proceedings. He says (translated): "Taste is something that can change and improve by doing tiny things".

Trivia

• It is unclear why Chef Shiitake is initially confused for Popon, as Popon was cooked to death at the end of The Big Taste Test.
• When Chef Shiitake kicks down Chef Kawasaki's restaurant banner, the Japanese symbols that are normally scrubbed from the English version appear for a very brief moment.
• The setup of the cooking show is quite similar in many ways to Iron Chef — while not strictly framed as a contest, the cooking show in the episode features a set that looks similar to Kitchen Stadium, and essentially places Dedede and the four Cappies on set in the role of the Chairman and the four judges. The Japanese title of the episode, "Ultimate Iron Man, Cook Osaka", also evokes the Japanese title of Iron Chef, 料理の鉄人 ("Iron Man of Cookery").
• The chemical diagram Tiff displays when revealing the secret of the Gijira Extract is likely meant to resemble that of psilocybin, but is not quite correct. Oddly, the formula has a component of "HU" which would imply that uranium is part of the formula, but real psilocybin has no uranium in its makeup.

Gallery

• 

  Kirby runs into Chef Shiitake on the road.

• 

  Shiitake is attacked by Tiff, Tuff, and Chef Kawasaki, as they believe him to be Popon in disguise.

• 

  Chef Kawasaki embraces his master after the misunderstanding.

• 

  Shiitake walks away with Chef Kawasaki's restaurant banner and his dignity.

• 

  Kawasaki imagines his miserable fate should Shiitake open a restaurant in Cappy Town.

• 

  King Dedede and Escargoon invite Shiitake to the castle.

• 

  Escargoon introduces Chef Shiitake's new cooking show on Channel DDD.

• 

  A wide view of the set for Chef Shiitake's cooking show

• 

  A massive line of Cappies forms outside of the castle to get at Shiitake's cooking.

• 

  Chef Kawasaki is addressed directly by his master via the television.

• 

  Kawasaki meets up with Shiitake at the castle and is told to wait.

• 

  Kawasaki appears on set with Shiitake.

• 

  Kawasaki secretly administers the Gijira Extract into his dish.

• 

  Tiff and Tuff explain what the Gijira Extract is.

• 

  Kirby swallows the entire container of Gijira Extract.

• 

  Kirby chases after King Dedede and Escargoon, seeing them as giant food items.

• 

  King Dedede contacts N.M.E. for an express monster delivery.

• 

  Kirby gets attacked by Cobgoblin, who forces explosive popcorn kernels into his mouth.

• 

  Cobgoblin is sheared by Cook Kirby's frying pan.

• 

  Chef Kawasaki and the kids say goodbye to Chef Shiitake.

• 

  The final shot of the episode

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	究極鉄人、コックオオサカ Kyūkyoku Tetsujin, Kokku Ōsaka	Ultimate Iron Man, Cook Osaka
German	Das Geheimrezept	The Secret recipe