silentryan

Clio is supposed to be great. I'm going tomorrow, so I'll let you know.

Have you heard rumors of this? Apparently there is a pastry guy who also posts on eGullet who is going to be a challenger on one of the battles, but this in and of itself sounds bizarre to me. While it would be interesting to see some baking going on during one of the battles (no one ever seems to bake their own breads or etc for any of their dishes, it could be pulled off if it was timed just right), I can't imagine the need for an Iron Chef Pastry. The current Iron Chefs are more than competent at desserts, and can incorporate them into a full meal. A complete dessert battle, or even a series of them, would simply be dull and tedious. ← I haven't watched the episode myself, but I'm pretty sure there was at least one episode of the orignal that was a dessert battle. It was a special Christmas episode or something, with strawberries as the secret ingredient. It was one of the rare IC episodes w/ a female competitor.

I think Steingarten realizes he's the only judge willing to say anything critical whatsoever, so he feels the need to be overly harsh just to counter-balance the bland, over-complimentary comments of the others. I do wish they would at least show the individual scorecards. Iron Chef is more a platform for the chefs to exhibit their skill and creativity than it is a "competition" proper, but I would still like to be able to see how the more credible judges scored things. It's unfortunate that they chose to tell the competitors the "secret" ingredient. That, along with the requirement that they plate five dishes, makes ICA somewhat less exciting than the original. Things just aren't as frenetic when you are going by such a strict script. It also prevents the chefs from preparing say three dishes, one of those being an incredibly intricate masterpiece. As far as the matchups go, I can't understand why Mario was matched up against a Nuevo Latino chef, when Bobby Flay is sitting right there. Similarly, why is Ming Tsai going up against Flay, when his cuisine is far more comparable to Morimoto's? As things are right now, you're creating an apples to oranges effect with the judging, and things come down to personal preference. Also, they need an Iron Chef French (Bouloud, Keller, etc.). The commentary gets really tiresome when they focus so much on the actual cooking, instead of the personalities behind it. The commentary for the original Iron Chef was great because they spent so much time talking about the backgrounds of the chefs. Only so much interesting stuff goes on in an hour of cooking, so you can't devote the entirety of the commentary to it. As you can see, when you try to do so, you just start repeating yourself ad nauseum (how many times did I have to hear about Flay's damned mango chutney being tossed out? It's not like it was that difficult of a thing to re-make). Lastly, Chairman Kaga isn't really replacable, but the new chairman is a real stooge. He is about the least interesting/charasmatic individual on the show.

I'm coming down to NYC in March, and I'm trying to decide what my first 4-star dining experience should be. Since I'm living on the somewhat meager budget of a graduate student, I think ADNY and Per Se fall outside of my price range, so it's between Le Bernardin, Jean Georges, and Daniel. I'm also an aspiring seafood chef, so part of me feels like I ought to try Le Bernardin, but from what I've read on the forums, there seems to be a general consensus that this would be the least fulifilling of the three in terms of overall experience. I would feel especially bad if I went to Le Bernardin and this was the case, since I'm bringing friends that want to try 4-star dining, but aren't necessarily so partial to seafood. Any suggestions for me?