Iron Chef America (using spoiler boxes)

Cafe Society
1

Overall, pretty good. They captured the flavor (heh) of the original show and made a change that I prefer (In the original, the IC’s stuff is tasted last.)

Alton Brown brought just the right mix of humor and seriousness to the table, the new chairman isn’t bad. Overall pretty good.

My thoughts on the actual dishes follow . As an aside, I gotta admit I loathe Flay. He’s struck me as a mediocre chef and a smarmy, preening boorish “ugly-American” style dick.

So there might be a hint of a bias here. :wink:

Note, this was typed while the competition was going on which explains the terse nature of the comments. And I give away the winner here, so be warned.

[spoiler]
Flay:
Cheated-Put on a garnish after the final buzzer. Minor cheat, but still noteworthy. Also, I’ve

The Tapas looks good. Good presentation, but unimaginative. Nothing struck me as a flash of genius.

The soup looked interesting, but not really southwest which is fine as Flay’s faux southwest cuisine annoys me (in that it isn’t southwest, it’s New York fake Southwest).

The taco looked disgusting…especially with the guac/mango combo.

THe grits/trout/cast iron, I dunno. It just didn’t look good.

Whole fried trout with blue-cornmeal coating? Yum. Not original again, but every IC chef is allowed one “It’s obvious, but dammit, there’s a reason it’s obvious” dish per competition. The sweet potato is a nice addition. This looked great.

I’m not convinced that trout tamles are a good idea.

Also, I’m pretty sure that that wet rub he used completely obliterated the delicate flavor of the trout (although the rub woulda been great on lamb or beef)
Sakai:

Sakai is a God of plating. EVERYTHING he did looked great.

Trout custard/soup. Oh. My. God. I’d pay $50.00 to eat this dish.

Trout tartare–taste? I dunno. Cucumber & trout? Eh. BUt the plating? He’s a god.

Hot Spicy Trout Soup? Yum. Wonderful. Another “I’d pay $50.00 just to taste this one”.

That one dish that was so perfectly plated–I can’t get a feel for what it would taste like.

Trout ice cream. Hm. I’ve had green tea ice cream and sweet bean paste ice-cream. I can buy this.

The judge with the “hippie haircut” knows his stuff. So does the “tv personality”. Weirdly, the head of “Bon Appitite” was the least…articulate.

Judging went too fast. We didn’t get to linger over the dishes. Mistake, IMO. For future episodes, give us a few more minutes of judging.

I’d give the win to Sakai–much more inventive, presentation was better and he has two “My GOD that looks good” dishes. Flay was much more pedestrian and unimaginative and only had one. But it wasn’t the slaughter I’d expected. He didn’t embarrass himself like he did in his previous competitions.

However,

Follows - highlight this box to see the text.

BOOOOO!

We wuz robbed!

BOOOOOO!

Kidding aside, unlike the Morimoto/Flay rematch with Flay’s shill judges (one of whom voted for Morimoto, in fairness) this Flay victory wasn’t an outrage. Flay’s stuff, while pedestrian, looked decent enough. His stuff for the Morimoto/Flay rematch looked like a dog barfed on a plate.[/spoiler]
My one complaint about this new attempt at Iron Chef, though:

I’d have liked to see the tasting and judging slowed down and I really wanted to see the “after the judging” comments by the judges that explained their votes. I’d have preferred some of the cooking stuff be cut to allow for a somewhat more lesiurely judging.

But overall, it really did capture the flavor of the original while making some positive changes.

Fenris

PS: Did anyone see the dreaded Shatner version? Was it as…lame…cheesy…as I’ve heard?

2

I absolutely agree with everything said in the OP. Double for the outcome of the judging. Triple for the divinity status of Sakai.

I’d like to add a small complaint of my own, which I hope the Food Network will rectify in future broadcasts soon. There was no closed captioning available in this episode, and that made the commentary quite difficult for me to follow at times for this deaf guy.

Curiously, the hour-long “behind-the-scenes” special which preceded tonight’s show was captioned.

3

All I have to say is that Flay’s soup looked like someone vomited into a coconut shell. But then, I have a passionate hatred for seafood of any kind, so there you go.

I’m not enamored with Chairman Kaga Jr. (whatever his name is), but then, who really can follow such a class act as the original chairman? Alton Brown did a good job commentating though: his humor, mixed with his knowledge of food in general, made for an entertaining show. I miss the cries of “Fukoi-san” (or however you spell it), as well as the “fortune-teller” and the ever-changing yet ever-present “actress” judges, but you can’t have everything. :slight_smile:

Go Sakai and Morimoto!

4

[spoiler]Thinking about last night’s battle, I wonder how much of it had to do with politics–“We can’t have our first American Iron Chef lose his first battle right out of the gate.” type thing. Sakai has never lost a fish battle. 85 wins, 0 losses (IIRC). And he loses to Flay??

That said, the verdict wasn’t completely unreasonable. Flay’s stuff looked unimaginative and more of the same-ol’ faux Southwestern stuff* that he always does, but it did look mostly edible. His win was disappointing, but not the utter outrage that his last win (with the sham judges) was.[/spoiler]

Th’ other thing that’s weird, is that despite the attempt to salvage Flay’s reputation in the “making of” preview, with Iron Chef fans (a quick perusal of alt.fan.iron.chef shows that it failed as did the (intrusive, dammit) webvote which, last I saw was running something like 65-35 against Flay) you gotta wonder what FoodTV was thinking:

Flay keeps losing shows. He’s had like three of them cancelled out mid-season and one made it a full season (IIRC). Everyone hates him. Seriously. Regardless of what he’s like in real life, he comes across as a horribly smirky, condescending, spoiled dick (thanks to Homebrew for the link) on TV. Given that, why in the world did they A) make him an Iron Chef and B) put him the opening episode? It seems an attempt to alienate the core audience: Iron Chef fans (Iron Chef was one of FoodTV’s most popular shows for like 4 years. Flay had 2-3 shows cancelled out from under him in that same period. It’s not hard to figure out what audience you want to attract for a new show)

Also, I’m disappointed about something that I couldn’t put my finger on last night but occured to me this morning.:In the original IC, there were multinational Iron Chefs (Chen was born and raised in China, IIRC) who represented a wide variety of cusines. Here? We got Batali as “Iron Chef Authentic Italian” (fair enough), Puck as “Iron Chef Weird Fusion California Cusine” (ok) and “Iron Chef Boring Fusion Faux Southwest” (redundant–weird fusion California includes boring faux Southwest). Where’s an “Iron Chef Chinese-American” (waaaay different than authentic Chinese) for example? Or hell: just an Iron Chef French (I assume Sakai is just a challenger). Or Iron Chef Mexican? Frankly Flay and Puck together are redundant–but Puck is imaginative and sparkles on TV whereas Flay is pedestrian and is horrible on TV. If it were up to me, I’d say “Fire Flay” and bring in…whasshisname…the Asian guy…um…Ming Tsai. It gives a broader range of styles to your Iron Chefs, he doesn’t piss off your key audience, he comes across well on TV and he’s talented. And maybe for a fourth Iron Chef, get whatshisname–the really good Mexican cook who shows up on FoodTV from time to time…aargh. I can’t remember his name but he’s wonderful.

Fenris

*Hint, Bobby: you wanna do “authentic” Southwestern food, lose the frufru ingredients–“pinapple mango chutney” isn’t southwestern, even if you throw in a couple of jalapenos and call it (incorrectly) “pineapple-mango salsa”. Nothin’ wrong with “fusion Southwest”, which is what Flay does, but it ain’t by any stretch of the imagination “authentic” (which is what he’s claimed).

5

Thank you, Fenris, for that link. Perfect summary of why I hate Bobby Flay (and Jacqui Malouf) so vehemently.

6

Rick Bayless? American guy with a ton of Mexican cookbooks? Appeared in a (gasp!) Burger King commercial semi-recently? That guy is AWESOME.

7

YES! Thanks. ( *Damn, * that was bugging me!! )

He’s been on FoodTV a couple o’ times. I don’t think he could sustain a show (he’s a little too nuts-n-bolts for TV) but as an Iron Chef? He’d rock.

8

I was really nervous for Sakai when we pulled out the Shark fin. Because I’m not sure if he knows the anti-green/anti-PC aspect of shark fin in America. I hope it didn’t effect the outcome, but you never know.

The only Flay show worth a damn was the one a long time ago he shared with the good 'ol boy, and the best part was watching the redneck cause he knew how to grill and barbecue, vs flays fancy-schmancy wrecking of the meat with stupid complicated flavors. My only guess is that the network execs just can’t get over the assumption better looking guy = better show as the reason he keep getting more and more shows.

9

Crap I probably should have spoilered my first comment. If a mod happens by…

10

That would make sense if Bobby Flay was good looking which I really don’t think he is. I don’t mean just by my standards (which are admittedly non-traditional) but by the “standard” standards, whatever they are.

It’s always been my suspicion that he has an uncle somewhere at the top of the FoodTV chain. He just reeks of “You can’t do anything to me, my [insert relative here] could ruin your career” arrogance. I could be wrong. All I know is, the man drives me batty.

11

Well, I can’t really really tell when a guy is good looking or not, But on Bobby Flay shows(including Iron chef yesterday) they keep telling us how good looking he is. So I assumed he was.

Well the only thing I didn’t like about the new IC is the announcing. Not that I have anything against Alton, but the Play-by-play and colorman interaction of Fukui and Hattori was one of the most entertaining things of the original. Alton sounding mostly like he’s talking to himself was missing something. They should bring in a play-by-play man.(But not a commedian, Please god don’t let them wreck it all by bringing in a commedian like the play-by-play guy on the celebrity poker show)

12

?? What “anti-PC” aspect of shark fin?

I love the stuff, and frankly, knowing that I’m pissing off some annoying hypersensitive-Green type because I’m eating it would add a little extra savor to the broth! :smiley: :wink:

(Plus, let’s be honest, the Green-types already loathe Iron Chef. IIRC, PETA’s had a number of unkind things to say about the fact that the chefs often have to kill the animals themselves. :rolleyes: )

"Grillin’ and Chillin’ ". And yeah…it was pretty funny to watch Flay get a piece of fruit about 10 inches from the grill for 20 seconds and plunk it on a steamed fish and call it “barbeque” while Jack McWhatshisname would be making real Meat+Spices+Fire barbeque. Jack McWhatsit always kinda reminded me of Alton Brown…if Brown had grown about 40 pounds of muscle and become a good ol’ boy. They have a similar outlook (which, I suppose, is why Flay didn’t get his nose punched when he was sneering at Jack’s food).

See, I always thought Flay had incriminating photos of one of the FoodTV execs. :wink:

On preview: As long as we’re limited to the FoodTV family (and we seem to be), I’d kill to see David Rosengarten as “straight man” for Alton Brown…move Alton to the Fukui-San role and put Rosengarten in as Hattori. Rosengarten knows much more about food (he wouldn’t have trouble pronoucing the weird/obscure ingredients) but Alton’s much better on the air and thinking fast on his feet. They’d make a killer team.

Fenris

13

One other thing I forgot to mention.

Watching Alton’s show, he seems nearly obsessive about germs and stuff (cross-contamintion, no stuffing in Turkey.) I wonder how much it must hurt him to watch these chefs’s running around with 85 pans within 10 feet, raw trout, and questionably cooked meat to get done in time. I half expected him to jump up and start spraying bleach on their cutting boards.

As far as the shark’s fin what I have generally heard(Don’t have official confirmation, but at one point it was getting as much press as the dolphins in the tuna net) is that sharks are caught, definned, and thrown back to die since the fin is worth so much more by weight. It’s a no-no like true veal.

14

First of all, is the nephew of Chairman Kaga on Iron Chef America the same guy they used in Japan for the last Iron Chef special there?

Secondly, I should point out that the American Iron Chefs have exactly the same advantage that the Japanese Iron Chefs had on their show: they know better how to cook towards the judges. Remember when the Japanese Iron Chefs went to France to challenge top French chefs on their home turf, and they had a panel of two French and two Japanese judges? The French chefs wiped the floor with the Iron Chefs, mostly because the votes were split along national lines, BUT the French judges gave a wider margin between the two than the Japanese ones. Even with Japanese chefs vs. Iron Chefs, the latter still had that leg up, having cooked for those same people multiple times.

It’s simple home field advantage, and I think it’ll come into play a lot with the foreign opponents.

15

Heh, I wondered if Sakai’s habit of stirring something, sticking the spoon in his mouth, and then returning it to the pan would make Alton crazy.

16

BTW, Sakai had lost a fish battle before - he lost the Iron Chef Millenium battle to Kandagawa (or a name very similar) which had a fish theme. I was kind of annoyed no one announcing seemed to know this.

17

I am so happy to know that I am not alone in my irrational (but not in my own mind) hatred of Flay. I wanted Sakai to wipe the floor with him. I agree that Sakai’s dishes seemed more tailored to Asian tastes and he lost points with me for trout ice cream (cooked trout ice cream maybe, but raw trout ice cream???)

I, too, thought Alton Brown was great but the show suffered from having only one commentator.

I leave you with this thought, though-thank the powers tht be that they didn’t go with Iron Chef Pseudo-New Orleans, kick it up a notch, Bam! Then I would be forced to boycott the entire show.

18

Who watched it tonight? It was an awesome show with Mario Batali (who I like more than Flay) v. Morimoto.

It was a spiny lobster battle, and Mario won!

That said, I love the kind of Southwestern food that Flay prepares, but I don’t watch any of his shows just because I can’t get into him as a person. Same with Emeril–he has some good recipes, but his huckster-like delivery and his brainwashed Dr. Phil-esque audience just kill the experience of his show for me. I’ll take Anthony Bourdain or Rachael Ray or Mario Batali or Alton Brown any day!

19

I can’t stand Bobby Flay either. Everything he cooks seems to be wrapped in a corn husk. I would love to slap that self-satisfied, *you-know-what * eating smirk off his face.

20

The new Chairman is DE DEBBIL!

Evidence for him being Satan, as described by the Rolling Stones:
[ul]
[li]During the intro, they said something about “two souls on the line”[/li][li]He doesn’t seem to have an actual name, other than “Chairman”[/li][li]In the little segment about him in the middle of the show, they call him “a man of wealth and taste”[/li][li]The nature of his game puzzles me[/li][li]In the intro, he chose, with a knowing smirk at the camera, to bite into a red apple rather than his “uncle”'s trademark yellow bell pepper. The symbolism of his fruit choice is obvious. Of course, it could just mean he’s a wuss.[/ul][/li]
Speaking of apples, Sakai should’ve gotten extra points for style. That man can peel an apple.