Hosting a dinner party in Los Angeles often means having an actor present is hardly a rarity. They come in handy whenever home cooks attempt to re-create a TV show, especially over-the-top ones such as "Iron Chef" where dramatic interpretation is as vital as cooking skills.

A few years ago, a friend of mine and I went to battle -- once with foie gras, another time with oxtail --  and a few members of a theater troupe enhanced the setting with garish outfits, a smoke machine and lips moving out of sync with the dialogue. We were purists, staging the Japanese version of the show.

The missing ingredient was the music. Unlike others, we didn't think to call the composer.

"I started to get a lot of e-mails from people, the funniest ones coming from people who knew me and had discovered I was doing the show," says Craig Marks, who has composed "Iron Chef America" music for nine seasons. "They'd ask me to (burn CDs) because they were doing 'Iron Chef' competitions at home or at work for morale boosters. I got calls from fraternities and sororities, schools, religious groups. It was all very unexpected. There were enough of these requests that we got started on the project."

The "project" is the commercial release of music from "Iron Chef America" and "The Next Iron Chef" on CD and as a digital download. CMS Media released the music in December just as "Iron Chef" was registering its highest ratings in its history. "Iron Chef America: Super Chef Battle" was the Food Network's third highest-rated telecast of all time with a cumulative audience of 7.6 million viewers.

The release includes the opening themes to television shows, the scene setters that precede the battles and the meditative cues that accompany the tasting segments. The album also includes his composition for "White House Garden -- A National Challenge," an episode that featured first lady Michelle Obama.

Music to reflect global cuisines

There are two aspects of the show -- the gladiator-ness of being a challenger, which is mostly featured on the record -- and the visually pleasing presentations when you're watching and listening to the judges. "My goal is to always totally shift gears, to bring out the emotional essence when they're at the table savoring the food. I go for less specific melodies," Marks said.

When Marks got the call to join the American translation of the kitschy hit series from Japan, he was busy writing for animation and ESPN's "Sportscenter." Making the show American required a cinematic approach to the music -- he says the initial inspiration was the scores to "Backdraft" and "Glory" -- while incorporating styles from the represented cooking regions such as India, China and Italy.

"The recurring note," Marks says, "is always bigger, bigger, bigger… It has to be Julia Child meets 'Ultimate Fighting Championship.' "

Working in his studio in Chatsworth, Calif., Marks programs and performs all the orchestra parts while also playing the guitars, dulcimer and balalaika. Cellist Tina Guo and Dave Norwoods, on tabla and doumbek, join him. Classically educated and a hard rock fan, he is also involved with a Chicago classical music group, the Fifth House Ensemble, that aims to bridge contemporary rock music, the avant garde and classical music. They have performed his compositions and his arrangements of music by rock bands such as Korn and put that music on programs with works by Brahms, Schoenberg and Korngold.

Not much of that work comes in handy when he puts on his "Iron Chef" gear. "In the most ideal setting I turn off all of my classical training until I get stuck in a corner. Then I turn it all back on again."

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