Early Iron Chef episodes, always so boring?

I love Iron Chef, but I watched one of the real early episodes tonight,
a Christmas Chicken battle between the 1st Iron Chef France (Ishinabe) and a French M.O.F winner.

It was so slow, from the chefs walking up to get the ingredient to how they cooked. The fact that the each chef only made 2 dishes each, with one of the challenger dishes not even counting for judging, did not help much.

The cooking was done in a half hour (tv time) and they are taking forever tasting and judging.

Are all early episodes this off?

"I reject your reality and substitute my own"-Adam Savage