Dinner: Impossible

Chef Robert Irvine is ready for any challenge. Robert must overcome culinary obstacles and deliver a delicious meal before his time runs out. For a time, Iron Chef Michael Symon took part in the challenges instead of Irvine.

This reality TV series ran for eight seasons on the Food Network, from January 24, 2007 to July 7, 2010. Michael Symon was the chef for season 5 only.


 * Berserk Button: "Oui, chef!"
 * Chef of Iron: Robert is a Royal Navy veteran. On top of it all, he's buffed and cut enough to look like he could kick your ass with ease.
 * Did Not Do the Bloody Research: See: Getting Crap Past the Radar below.
 * Food Porn: They always show beautifully plated glamour shots of the finished dishes at the end of each mission.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Robert is bleeped when he uses the curse words that are forbidden on US television, but not when using words like "bollocks", "tosser", "bugger", etc. One assumes that Food Network doesn't know what they mean, or (far more likely) They Just Didn't Care since those words don't get them in trouble.
 * Gondor Calls for Aid: Robert often recruits local help from whatever facility he's currently using for his mission.
 * Heroic Build / Estrogen Brigade Bait: Robert brings the gun show every week!
 * Impossible Task: The Kitchen Edition
 * Intercontinuity Crossover: With Lost. Robert's mission was to cook for the cast using only what he could find on the island. Though it was clear to everyone that Lost is only a television show, Nestor Carbonell did appear in character as Richard Alpert and Robert was given several Dharma food drops to work with, so it qualifies somewhat for this trope.
 * Mean Brit: Robert at times, though justified considering the nature of the show.
 * Mission Briefing: At the beginning of each episode, Robert meets the people for whom he'll be cooking and is given his mission.
 * Mundane Made Awesome: The opening sequence, which is quite deliberately cheesy.
 * Oh Crap: Happens frequently whenever Robert realizes that some new disaster has occurred (e.g., food he needs has been ruined/won't be ready on time/isn't even available).
 * Product Placement: Dinners have been done for Barbie and Pixar (Linguini was Robert's assistant!). In addition, brand name items are often clearly shown.
 * Sadist Show: The show could be fairly accurately summarized as "Food Network tries to kill Robert Irvine", or at least drive him insane. The fact that practically every episode saddles him with at least one non-chef assistant is enough to make most professional chefs batty all on its own.
 * Spiritual Successor: The current (2010- ) Restaurant: Impossible is not a sequel per se but it has a similar open and the same producers (Mark Summers' company).
 * Supreme Chef: Considering some of the challenges and/or helpers he's given, it's a wonder he's able to complete them as well as he does.
 * Temporary Substitute: Michael Symon.
 * Time Keeps on Ticking: Robert must beat the set deadline or he will fail the mission. And unfortunately, his clock begins while the mission is being explained to him!
 * Won't Work On Me: On the very few occasions that Robert's informed that he just missed his deadline, his usual response is to... not look up from what he's very busily working on and say "Yuh-huh, whatever, gotta get this food out to these people."