Iron Chef America (Part 2)

[srhcb]

I know that it is cool for Americans to trash ourselves, but keep in mind that we didn't create crap entertainment.  Karaoke is, I think, a Japanese creation and Reality TV is a British import.

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Thank you....

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I think lowbrow entertainment is pretty much universal. (or at least global)

After all, around half the population has below average brows.

SB

[coquus]

Whatever happened to the guy who won? He supposedly took a job with Ramsey instead of getting the restaurant, but he's dropped off the face of the earth, unless he is still slamming polates in London...

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Michael Wray is planning to open LolaPop in Las Vegas, this fall apparently. He also makes and sells his own knives via his website, www.skullandcleavers.com (also on his hand if you forget where you read this). A new season starts June 12th, the prize is a head chef position and an undisclosed stake in a Las Vegas restaurant in the Red Rock Casino Resort Spa. The $2 million restaurant stake still lays unclaimed. This according to Restaurant Hospitality magazine, May 2006.

[Haivart]

I was just wondering if Iron Chef America is aired in Japan?

SB (dubbed into pidgin Japanese, of course!)

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I'd bet good money that the Japanese would not tolerate such programming junk. -Dick

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Yes, it airs in Japan.

[carpetbagger, esq.]

"Lee and some critics felt the judges were pro-Flay"

aren't they always? i don't watch the show religiously, but it seems to me that flay always does the same old same old and BARELY eeks out a win. how? i don't know. they seem to slam him much more than the challenger. ironically, they seem to complain about the meats being under/overcoked.

has flay ever lost?

[johnsmith45678]

"Lee and some critics felt the judges were pro-Flay"

aren't they always? i don't watch the show religiously, but it seems to me that flay always does the same old same old and BARELY eeks out a win. how? i don't know. they seem to slam him much more than the challenger. ironically, they seem to complain about the meats being under/overcoked.

has flay ever lost?

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Yep, he's 7-4-2. Not counting ties, he's tied at the top with Batali.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Chef_America_stats

[Elrushbo]

Does anyone know when the episodes with challengers Rick Tramonto and Homaru Cantu will air?

[jayt90]

Another repeat last night, but instructive. Mario Batali faced Chef Desfraines (I have have probably mangled the name), using live tilapia. Mario won, not by a large margin, but mostly on taste. The challenger used several high-tech techniques, such as a controlled-temperature water circulator, a hand-held extruder, sous vide, a chemical glue to attach two types of seafood, and xanthan gum, to thicken a watery green sauce.

Mario depended on good cooking and well flavoured finishing.

Makes me wonder if the the new techniques are really worthwhile, or a flash in the pan.

[Joisey]

I remember seeing that Batali/DuFresne episode when it first aired and expecting Mario to administer a big whupping on him. I'm not a fan of molecular cooking by any stretch and pretty much condsidered WD-50s menu BS. However, as the battle went on I thought some of the stuff Wylie was doing was kind of cool (especially the Tilapia Noodles). By the end when judging came around I said to my wife that I thought the judges weren't giving him as much of a chance as they should. I've put my skepticism of Wylie's style on hold for the most part since. What always strikes me about Mario is how well-rounded he is, cuisine-wise...he can do any style pretty much effortlessly, something I can't say about Bobby. To be honest, I haven't watched Iron Chef since the ridiculous "Battle Hamburger" with Flay and Kerry Simon...I mean, I know Food TV is dumbing it down but come on, IC is the last vestige of anything interesting on that network. I guess that's over with now.

[Chris Cognac]

Wow thats too bad, I loved battle hamburger, it was fun to see what they do with an "everyday" ingredient...I would have loved to have been a judge on that one!

[oneidaone]

I enjoyed the hamburger battle as well. We were able to eat a replica of the meal last October

at a guest dinner by Kerry Simon at (then) Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hotel. It was really good.

Besides, his opponent was NOT Flay, it was Cat Cora with only 1/10 of a point deciding the

winner. A hui hou

[Grub]

Anyone catch the Puff Pastry episode? The judging was hysterical...

Cora vs. Michael Psilakis. I liked the show just on account of my love of puff pastry, but man oh man -- Steingarten was in rare form! It was magnificent. Not only did he get into repeated squabbles with both of the other judges, he even started tangling with Chef Cora.

First off, he made some comment about how it might be a good idea to say a few words about whether the food actually tasted good or not, rather than vexing on about composition and presentation and balances and contrast etc... Ted Allen -- the Queer Eye food guy -- shot back with sarcasm: something about how good he thought the dish tasted, and that such a great word-smith as Steingarten would find his response adequate, or something to that effect. Steingarten's facial expressions were priceless. The editing was just perfect, too. Allen continued harping on the point, with every dish served after that point too. There was much eye-rolling... Really funny stuff.

Then, the third judge (I forget her name) asked about the sauce, and when the chef explained that it was just Béchamel, she ooh'ed and aah'ed about how great it was. Steingarten just cut her off at the knees... I guess she wasn't too knowledgeable, and perhaps shouldn't have been a judge, but man, Steingarten just burned her: "Praising the Béchamel sauce is like applauding the chef for using a knife and fork!" Allen tried coming to her rescue, and said they were there to judge the food and not judge the other judges, but Steingarten wouldn't have none of it. Of course he was there to judge the other judges; he was there to judge everything. He was like a drunk soccer hooligan: "Errr, ya foookers -- I'll take the lot of youse!"

The poor woman didn't dare say much for while after that one, except how nice things tasted. Then she made the mistake of complaining that while this dish was very nice, it was too rich... This was the second time she had made such a comment, and that was enough for Steingarten, who laid into her that if it was too rich, why didn't she just eat part of it, instead eating the whole thing? Yikes.

I think Cora must have observed this, and taken exception to it. When her dishes were presented, Steingarten said that the rather oddly shaped bowl she had used for one of her dishes made it difficult to get at the food, and she shot back with this really snarky comment about how hard could it have been, since he had somehow managed to eat the entire thing?

Then, when he didn't like her pistachio icecream, Cora just hissed, "WELL JUST PRETEND IT ISN'T THERE, JEFFREY!"

[Dryden]

I found it particularly interesting that Pichet Ong was working as one of the sous chefs for Cora... Anyone know why?

[MarketStEl]

Anyone catch the Puff Pastry episode? The judging was hysterical...

Cora vs. Michael Psilakis. I liked the show just on account of my love of puff pastry, but man oh man -- Steingarten was in rare form! It was magnificent. Not only did he get into repeated squabbles with both of the other judges, he even started tangling with Chef Cora.

First off, he made some comment about how it might be a good idea to say a few words about whether the food actually tasted good or not, rather than vexing on about composition and presentation and balances and contrast etc... Ted Allen -- the Queer Eye food guy -- shot back with sarcasm: something about how good he thought the dish tasted, and that such a great word-smith as Steingarten would find his response adequate, or something to that effect. Steingarten's facial expressions were priceless. The editing was just perfect, too. Allen continued harping on the point, with every dish served after that point too. There was much eye-rolling... Really funny stuff.

Then, the third judge (I forget her name) asked about the sauce, and when the chef explained that it was just Béchamel, she ooh'ed and aah'ed about how great it was. Steingarten just cut her off at the knees... I guess she wasn't too knowledgeable, and perhaps shouldn't have been a judge, but man, Steingarten just burned her: "Praising the Béchamel sauce is like applauding the chef for using a knife and fork!" Allen tried coming to her rescue, and said they were there to judge the food and not judge the other judges, but Steingarten wouldn't have none of it. Of course he was there to judge the other judges; he was there to judge everything. He was like a drunk soccer hooligan: "Errr, ya foookers -- I'll take the lot of youse!"

The poor woman didn't dare say much for while after that one, except how nice things tasted. Then she made the mistake of complaining that while this dish was very nice, it was too rich... This was the second time she had made such a comment, and that was enough for Steingarten, who laid into her that if it was too rich, why didn't she just eat part of it, instead eating the whole thing? Yikes.

I think Cora must have observed this, and taken exception to it. When her dishes were presented, Steingarten said that the rather oddly shaped bowl she had used for one of her dishes made it difficult to get at the food, and she shot back with this really snarky comment about how hard could it have been, since he had somehow managed to eat the entire thing?

Then, when he didn't like her pistachio icecream, Cora just hissed, "WELL JUST PRETEND IT ISN'T THERE, JEFFREY!"

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That was a hilarious episode, indeed--especially all the cattiness on the judges' part. (I forget the third judge's name, too, but she co-hosts the third hour of the Today Show on NBC--a job she will give up, I presume, when Meredith Viera comes on board in about a month.)

For the viewer who was bummed by "Battle Hamburger" (which I will have to catch in reruns): Actually, one of the things I like about ICA is that they are using "secret ingredients" most of the viewers are familiar with and can possibly imagine themselves working with, though not necessarily at the level of the battling chefs. It's clear to me from the Food Network's promos for the show that they'd like to see their viewers aping the "Iron Chef" concept for fun*, and I don't think they'd get too many takers if the chefs were working with eel or fish heads or some of the exotic stuff the Japanese original showcased.

*Certainly Throwdown with Bobby Flay is more evidence that they are trying to turn Iron Chef into a cottage industry.

[moosnsqrl]

Damn, I fell asleep before the judging I'll have to catch a re-airing - there's nothing I like better than Steingarten when he's "on."

[tino27]

Steingarten was definitely in rare form last night -- he always seems to provide a bit of entertainment with dinner.

The one thing I truly miss is being educated as well as entertained. While I agree that having theme ingredients that are heavily Japanese based would probably not appeal to a wide American audience, I do think that ground beef as a secret ingredient made me feel like the show "jumped the shark" to borrow from the TV lingo. I think the thing that made the original IC interesting was that I was not only learning about foods I didn't know about, but also focusing on techniques and preparations that I as a non-Japanese person had never been exposed to. ICA seems to be edited in a much more American MTV-esque fashion and even when one of the chefs is doing something interesting, the camera never seems to stay with it long enough to see it to completion.

I do wish they would return to doing a dish preview right before the judging -- it really gave me a good sense of what each chef was offering.

[Bueno]

I found it particularly interesting that Pichet Ong was working as one of the sous chefs for Cora...  Anyone know why?

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They do this on occasion -- bring in a team member that isn't associated with their restaurant(s) to help them out in what they might deem weak spots in their battles (ie. Cora clearly sucks ass with dessert and in general). Flay had Wayne Harley Brachman on his team once or twice as well, even though they are no longer professionally involved.

[Dryden]

Were Cora and Ong ever professionally involved? Seemed like stacking the deck in Cora's favor, not like that's a new thing.

[dvs]

funny that cora had judged psilakas in the "best Chef of South Beach" contest shown earlier in FN and he came in second there too...

[Leonard Kim]

I found it particularly interesting that Pichet Ong was working as one of the sous chefs for Cora...  Anyone know why?

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'Cause he's already been on the show? (As a sous-chef for Michael Laiskonis.)

I think it's pretty clear that you can bring whomever the heck you want on the show as a "sous-chef." For the other side, I don't see any obvious connection between Psilakis and Gennaro Picone, although someone can correct me.

Two upcoming challengers, Elizabeth Falkner and Patricia Yeo, have already been on as sous-chefs.

Edited August 14, 2006 by Leonard Kim (log)

[Kris]

Anyone catch the Puff Pastry episode? The judging was hysterical...

Cora vs. Michael Psilakis. I liked the show just on account of my love of puff pastry, but man oh man -- Steingarten was in rare form! It was magnificent. Not only did he get into repeated squabbles with both of the other judges, he even started tangling with Chef Cora.

First off, he made some comment about how it might be a good idea to say a few words about whether the food actually tasted good or not, rather than vexing on about composition and presentation and balances and contrast etc... Ted Allen -- the Queer Eye food guy -- shot back with sarcasm: something about how good he thought the dish tasted, and that such a great word-smith as Steingarten would find his response adequate, or something to that effect. Steingarten's facial expressions were priceless. The editing was just perfect, too. Allen continued harping on the point, with every dish served after that point too. There was much eye-rolling... Really funny stuff.

Then, the third judge (I forget her name) asked about the sauce, and when the chef explained that it was just Béchamel, she ooh'ed and aah'ed about how great it was. Steingarten just cut her off at the knees... I guess she wasn't too knowledgeable, and perhaps shouldn't have been a judge, but man, Steingarten just burned her: "Praising the Béchamel sauce is like applauding the chef for using a knife and fork!" Allen tried coming to her rescue, and said they were there to judge the food and not judge the other judges, but Steingarten wouldn't have none of it. Of course he was there to judge the other judges; he was there to judge everything. He was like a drunk soccer hooligan: "Errr, ya foookers -- I'll take the lot of youse!"

The poor woman didn't dare say much for while after that one, except how nice things tasted. Then she made the mistake of complaining that while this dish was very nice, it was too rich... This was the second time she had made such a comment, and that was enough for Steingarten, who laid into her that if it was too rich, why didn't she just eat part of it, instead eating the whole thing? Yikes.

I think Cora must have observed this, and taken exception to it. When her dishes were presented, Steingarten said that the rather oddly shaped bowl she had used for one of her dishes made it difficult to get at the food, and she shot back with this really snarky comment about how hard could it have been, since he had somehow managed to eat the entire thing?

Then, when he didn't like her pistachio icecream, Cora just hissed, "WELL JUST PRETEND IT ISN'T THERE, JEFFREY!"

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I watched it last night and to be perfectly honest, Steingarten came across as bitchy and meanspirited.

Enough said about that.

I also saw the hamburger episode a few months back and commented to my husband that I thought it was a rather "low brow" ingredient to be featured on the show. With the original Iron Chef, there were some very esoteric ingredients that most Americans would not be familiar with/interested in seeing (e.g. swallow's nest and sea urchin come to mind). But I always found them interesting, particularly because they WERE so exotic to my American palate. And those ingredients seemed more challenging and complex to work with. But hamburger? I just didn't see the challenge posed by ground round. Paricularly when Chef Simon made a dish called "the ultimate hamburger" (if I remember correctly).

[jsmeeker]

Iron Chef Japan was made for the Japanese TV audience. Those ingredients are not probably not very esoteric to them. So, it makes sense that the American version use ingredients common to the American audience.

Personally, I don't think ground beef ("hamburger") is that bad of a choice. It IS very common to americans. I won't rag on this choice much since I've met Chef Simon a few times. Really nice guy.

I'm sure some of the "werid" things on the original show are just as common to Japanese as ground beef is to us. Also, it should be pointed out that the Japenese used ingredients that were pretty common or "pedestrian" from an American perspective. Chicken. Milk. (yeah, thay had a MILK battle), etc.

To the credit of the new show, they DO use LIVE fish when fish is the mystery ingredient. That's always good fun.

[Kris]

Iron Chef Japan was made for the Japanese TV audience.  Those ingredients are not probably not very esoteric to them.  So, it makes sense that the American version use ingredients common to the American audience.

Personally, I don't think ground beef ("hamburger") is that bad of a choice. It IS very common to americans.  I won't rag on this choice much since I've met Chef Simon a few times.  Really nice guy. 

I'm sure some of the "werid" things on the original show are just as common to Japanese as ground beef is to us.  Also, it should be pointed out that the Japenese used ingredients that were pretty common or "pedestrian" from an American perspective.  Chicken.  Milk. (yeah, thay had a MILK battle), etc.

To the credit of the new show, they DO use LIVE fish when fish is the mystery ingredient. That's always good fun.

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Point well made.

But couldn't they have at least used steak?

[jsmeeker]

Iron Chef Japan was made for the Japanese TV audience.  Those ingredients are not probably not very esoteric to them.   So, it makes sense that the American version use ingredients common to the American audience.

Personally, I don't think ground beef ("hamburger") is that bad of a choice. It IS very common to americans.  I won't rag on this choice much since I've met Chef Simon a few times.  Really nice guy. 

I'm sure some of the "werid" things on the original show are just as common to Japanese as ground beef is to us.  Also, it should be pointed out that the Japenese used ingredients that were pretty common or "pedestrian" from an American perspective.  Chicken.  Milk. (yeah, thay had a MILK battle), etc.

To the credit of the new show, they DO use LIVE fish when fish is the mystery ingredient. That's always good fun.

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Point well made.

But couldn't they have at least used steak?

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The show aired a while ago, so I can't recall if there were various types of ground beef. Was it "hamburger" (i.e. usually a mixture of lots of different cuts) or did they have various types (ground chuck, ground sirloin, etc.)?

I know in past Iron Chef shows (Japan version), they would sometimes have various types of the theme ingredient.

Anyway, speaking of using steak and Kerry Simon. He makes a really nice steak tartare.

[Leonard Kim]

http://www.theweekly.com/news/2006/August/...od_Network.html

This is an article about an Iron Chef America challenger search in Atlanta that will take place this Monday, seemingly similar to the event that took place last year in Washington D.C. that produced challenger Morou.

The winner will tape in October.

Taste of Atlanta is hosting, and the winner will also be featured at said festival.

Contestants are: Gerry Klaskala of Aria, Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene, Annie Quatrano of Bacchanalia, and Kevin Rathbun of Rathbun's.

[frdagaa]

The Atlanta ICA cookoff had corn as its secret ingredient, and Chef Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene won. Taping is scheduled for October, with likely airing February 2007. Congrats, Linton!