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Iron Chef America (Part 1)


bpearis

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Funny how a show with Flay on causes quite the stir here. But when two likeable chefs who both performed well are on, we don't seem to have as much to say. I guess that answers the burning questions regarding why Flay is on the ICA to begin with. :biggrin:

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Funny how a show with Flay on causes quite the stir here. But when two likeable chefs who both performed well are on, we don't seem to have as much to say. I guess that answers the burning questions regarding why Flay is on the ICA to begin with.  :biggrin:

Heh, I was thinking the exact same thing yesterday.

As I've said before, standing on that chopping board was a very smart (and shrewd) move indeed.

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As I've said before, standing on that chopping board was a very smart (and shrewd) move indeed.

I'm still not sure how being considered the Prince Ass-clown of ICA is a shrewd business move. Sure, it's great for the producers ... people talk about Flay, and as we know, negative press is still press. But as for Flay, I don't see how it helps further his career.

Personally I'd rather talk about the food and how it was used. After a couple battles, Flay's stuff just seems to lag behing Batali in the creativity department. Flay tends to fall back on certain preparation techniques. I'm looking forward to Morimoto next week. He just embodies the spirit of Iron Chef to me.

A.

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You can now bid on memorabilia from the show on eBay:

Iron Chef America Charity Auction

You can also bid on dinner for two in either Flay's or Batali's restaurant and get to meet the Iron Chef in person.

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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We're already discussing Iron Chef America In the Media Forum. This may be much more about Chefs on TV or how chefs are presented to America by the media than it is about cooking and as the "competition" between Michael and Mario wasn't restricted to pastry, Food Media and News is the appropriate place to discuss what transpired on TV. We've moved all post broadcast discussion of the show and in my opinion "show" is a more operative word that contest, to the Iron Chef America thread in Food Media and News. The discussion of the Batali/Laiskonis event begins with post #255. Please join that discussion to post on the show.

Robert Buxbaum

WorldTable

Recent WorldTable posts include: comments about reporting on Michelin stars in The NY Times, the NJ proposal to ban foie gras, Michael Ruhlman's comments in blogs about the NJ proposal and Bill Buford's New Yorker article on the Food Network.

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I'm still not sure how being considered the Prince Ass-clown of ICA is a shrewd business move.  Sure, it's great for the producers ... people talk about Flay, and as we know, negative press is still press.  But as for Flay, I don't see how it helps further his career.

Flay is on multiple times a day on national TV. I think he has furthered his career quite well.

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I'm still not sure how being considered the Prince Ass-clown of ICA is a shrewd business move.  Sure, it's great for the producers ... people talk about Flay, and as we know, negative press is still press.  But as for Flay, I don't see how it helps further his career.

Flay is on multiple times a day on national TV. I think he has furthered his career quite well.

True enough, but from what I've seen I'm no longer interested in eating in his restaurants.

"All humans are out of their f*cking minds -- every single one of them."

-- Albert Ellis

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I'm still not sure how being considered the Prince Ass-clown of ICA is a shrewd business move.  Sure, it's great for the producers ... people talk about Flay, and as we know, negative press is still press.  But as for Flay, I don't see how it helps further his career.

Flay is on multiple times a day on national TV. I think he has furthered his career quite well.

Exactly. At the end of his Food TV shows, it mentions the names of his restaurants. I'm sure many Food TV viewers make a point to visit them when they find themselves in NYC. I'm sure he's doing pretty well for himself.

Of course, this isn't just because of his original appearences on Iron Chef...but it can't have hurt (that's certainly when I first became aware of him) :wink:

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It was mentioned upthread that Batali's passion for cooking really comes through in the show, and I definitely agree. The more I see him, the more I like the way his personality is depicted. He is jocular, lightly arrogant (I recall a scene in his show where he decided to cut lemons paper-thin "because I can!" with a giggle), and obviously in love with all things food. As soon as the lid came off the ingredients table, he had a piece of chocolate in his mouth. That made me smile.

Andrea

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In general this was a really interesting match for me. This was definately the biggest 'nail biter' as far as editing went, it really seemed both were scrambling up to the last second. On the other hand, overall, this battle produced the least appetizing dishes overall to my tastes, then again, I'm not a big sweets fan.

Mario's dishes looked better to me overall, but the challenger's dessert's looked a bit more appealing. The thing that really dissapointed me was how little cocoa powder and coconut both used. Just watching as they added the ingredients I couldn't see how the judges would actually be able to taste the minute amounts added, especially in light of the other flavors going on. When the judges kept repeating that they couldn't taste one or more of the secret ingredients during the tasting, I wasn't suprised at all.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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too bad they didn't have the ICA challengers sign some stuff.  if cat cora beats alex lee(which will never happen in a million years), i think hell wud've frozen over.

Dont be so sure...anything can happen in Iron Chef

I'm waiting for Alton to pull the move Hatori (sp?) did on ICJ and challenge the Iron Chefs for a place on the podium.. After all, Alton is already the Scrap Iron Chef.

"Instead of orange juice, I'm going to use the juice from the inside of the orange."- The Brilliant Sandra Lee

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too bad they didn't have the ICA challengers sign some stuff.  if cat cora beats alex lee(which will never happen in a million years), i think hell wud've frozen over.

Smoke, mirrors and computer animation, hell freezing over is kid's play on TV.

Robert Buxbaum

WorldTable

Recent WorldTable posts include: comments about reporting on Michelin stars in The NY Times, the NJ proposal to ban foie gras, Michael Ruhlman's comments in blogs about the NJ proposal and Bill Buford's New Yorker article on the Food Network.

My mailbox is full. You may contact me via worldtable.com.

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I thought the Mario/Michael show was interesting, but frustrating. Of all the foods prepared so far on ICA, these dishes were the ones I though I had to taste. That is I couldn't quite imagine how they tasted and thus it was too difficult to have much of an opinion on taste, the most important element. I was surprised that Mario got the nod on creativity and by that margin. Once again the comments seem too edited to offer much insight into the voting.

Robert Buxbaum

WorldTable

Recent WorldTable posts include: comments about reporting on Michelin stars in The NY Times, the NJ proposal to ban foie gras, Michael Ruhlman's comments in blogs about the NJ proposal and Bill Buford's New Yorker article on the Food Network.

My mailbox is full. You may contact me via worldtable.com.

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Wow, the battle tonight was very impressive. I loved the fact that we finally get a live ingredient in kitchen stadium, watching the chefs have to kill the dinner first was always my favorite part of the original IC series.

I have to say that it is becoming blatantly and disturbingly obvious from the comments made from Alton and his sidekick that they are showing these episodes completely out of order. The references to ingredients used in past episodes (which haven't aired yet) and the comment that this was not the first live ingredient (which it was) just seem odd in that context.

I am really torn between the food in this battle and in the buffalo battle over which dishes have looked best in the series thus far. I would have loved to have tasted any of Flay's dishes from that original battle, and a couple of Bayless' were getting my mouth watering as well. On the other hand, Feeney's veal with crab is one of the best things I have seen on any IC, this series or the original. Morimoto's crab naan with fondue also looked very interesting, and was a nifty cultural blend. I am sort of surprised Morimoto scored so low in the creativity department, especially considering his melon dish and his really nifty wooden spoon technique.

On a side note - did anyone else notice Morimoto's caucasian assistant chef making some really bizarre comments and generally acting doofy throughout the battle?

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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and the big night has come and gone.....

Daddy-A invited me over to view the show....

And here I sit, working, working...need to finish my new project!

ROB WON! Great for Vancouver....

KFC just called, they do not deliver to my neighbourhood, slides and all.

The highs, the lows.

Chef/Owner/Teacher

Website: Chef Fowke dot com

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Thanks Deborah. I wish I could have gone, but since I've barely been able to pry myself off the couch to get more fluids, I figured it wasn't a good idea to inflict myself on all of you guys. Feel free to give away spoilers, I'm not going to get to see until the weekend (or until I have enough energy to pull my 24 year old VCR from the bottom of my storage room :raz: Spoil away!

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**Spoilers**

He made this beautiful crab-stuffed ravioli with two sauces (was that where the black trufffles were? yes, I think so!), roasted veal with crab and hollandaise (Oscar, I believe?) plated beautifully and just casually covered with shaved white truffles LOL, he made a panna cotta with crab in and a pineapple jelly thing with that, he made a miso broth with beautiful sablefish and crab and some of those cute tiny mushrooms and various other veggies, and I am blanking on the other dish...oh! makis, one with smoked salmon and one with I think it was tuna on the outside? and seaweed, and then filled with two kinds of crab and a bit of cucumber and a bit of mango, and the one was to eat with a mustard soy sherry sauce, and the other with...I'm sorry, I can't remember, a different sauce.

They were all lovely, although all of his plates were white, so they were kinda pale presentation, but...we were all drooling over the ravioli and the veal, and the rolls were beautiful!

It was really funny, at one point the commentator was acting all worried about whether his hollandaise would hold together or not...I mean...!

Morimoto did some weird stuff, but the tasters weren't too impressed! Feenie won 45-39, and we cheered!

Hope you feel better soon!

Agenda-free since 1966.

Foodblog: Power, Convection and Lies

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