There will be a new man in Kitchen Stadium later this year.

Alton Brown, host of "Good Eats" on the Food Network, will serve as a commentator for a series of "Iron Chef America" specials on the cable channel beginning in April, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Brown, a food historian and scientist as well as a chef, will fill the expert commentator role played by Dr. Yukio Hatori on the Japanese original, a dubbed version of which is a cult favorite on the Food Network.

"Iron Chef America" is scheduled to debut April 23 and will feature Iron Chefs Hiroyuki Sakai and Masaharu Morimoto facing off against Food Network chefs like Wolfgang Puck and Mario Batali. The specials are taping this week in Los Angeles.

UPN tried to import the "Iron Chef" format a couple years ago with a set of specials featuring William Shatner as host. They fared poorly, although the Food Network occasionally airs repeats of the two shows.