I think it would be interesting to see Alton as a competing chef. He seems like he’ dbe able to come up with creative, tasty stuff just based on his knowledge of food. He could be “Iron Chef American Grandma Food”
Oh, and I too was surprised at FoodTV’s choice of Flay for one of the chefs. He’s so…ick. Can’t they hire any non-FoodTV chefs? Puck doesn’t have a show with them, does he?
Also, is every Flay episode going to feature him cooking “southwest”? IIRC, on the original show the Iron Chefs didn’t cook with their “theme” each time, di dthey?
Mario did indeed do Italian, and Puck has his own show (although it doesn’t seem to be shown as often as others).
I rather like the idea of using Food Network stars as the Iron Chefs. It creates a feeling of camaraderie and “home team” pride, kind of like an all-star team of big-name American athletes competing in the Olympics. Plus, it is a Food Network program, after all, and this can help them build a stronger brand or identity by pushing their home-grown stars, and bring in new viewers to the chefs’ individual shows. However, I wouldn’t mind seeing guest stars, like the aforementioned Rick Bayless.
Well, Alton Brown has already done “Scrap Iron Chef” so he’d appear to be a natural.
I have to say-how, how, how, how, how did Flay get a higher score on plating than Sakai?? Sakai is a Renaissance master compared to Flay’s housepainter. Arrrggh!
They definitely need more commentators. Iron Chef usually had Hattori, Fukui, and a couple of guests. Also Fukui, being a sports commentator originally, kept things flowing. And the American show really needs a floor reporter who knows what food items are what. While I’m thinking about it, why was Alton Brown so surprised at the ice cream? He said he didn’t think the original show had an ice cream churn and boy is that way off. Squid ink gelato anyone?
Sakai is far superior to Flay any day of the week. Period.
The floor guy is just awful.
“And now he’s mixing sun dried tomatoes and olive oil…”
“Actually that’s tomato paste…and the olive oil is pork fat…”
What a maroon. :rolleyes:
The thing that throws me about Iron Chef is that I think the judges should not know who cooked what until after they have given scores. It seems that by doing it this way the judging would be more fair.
Or worse: the dreaded “Fish spooge ice cream”*? Eeeww.
Fenris
*They kept calling it “male fish roe”…well, um…there ain’t no such thing-it’s like saying “rooster eggs”…so there’s only one thing it coulda been: fish sperm. I repeat. Eeew.
And he couldn’t identify what foie gras is? Alton had to carry all the commentary himself and while he’s obviously good on his own show he can’t carry this one. He needs at least another commentator with him to interact with and someone who at least knows the basics on the floor.
And to reiterate, Flay has to be the worst possible choice for a chef on the show. I can understand why he was included since he’s done it twice, but still he doesn’t add anything to the selection of Iron Chefs and he isn’t interesting to watch. They need to add someone else with a different style…
Actually, he does have a TV show that I enjoy quite a bit. Only he’s on PBS, not Food TV, and even then I’m not sure if he’s national or just regional. He’s on at 11:30am Saturday mornings here in Dallas, and either 10 or 10:30am Saturday mornings in Oklahoma City.
I can’t stand Bobby Flay either. He seems like a complete prick. He can, however, cook. More importantly, he cooks food that tastes good.
C’mon. The judges were contorting themselves to compliment Sakai’s dishes. They hated them. With the exception of the cucumber/tartare/caviar dish, the rest were boring (soup in an orange pot wrapped in cheesy gift paper?) or downright awful (trout ice cream).
Flay’s tapas were the equal of Sakai’s tartare in terms of presentation, but the fact is he won because of taste. I agree with the results so far (including Batali). I think Morimoto wipes the floor with Wolfgang Puck tonight.
At least Flay acted like an adult this time around. Maybe he can get fired and keep coming back as a grudge-match challenger like Kandagawa on the original IC and spice up the show as the guy you love to hate. (Talk about a tall drink of water! How many times did he or one of disciples show up as challengers? Was the Millenium Red Snapper battle with Sakai the only time he ever won?)
Flay may be a jerk and if you’re judging by plating, he’s going to lose every time to Sakai, but the food at Mesa Grill tastes great. He might have a limited bag of tricks that would be a handicap in the long run, but shouldn’t be a factor for the first time preparing for this set of judges. Frankly, I think Sakai blew his chances by ending with the raw trout ice cream.
Just remember, it could always be worse. Just imagine… Iron Chef Rocco DiSpirito!
He actually has a show - One Plate at a Time on PBS (or my affiliate shows it on Saturday afternoons, at least).
and TellMeI’mNotCrazy, you’re not. It amazed me when the judges kept ahh-ing over Flay’s looks…unless he just looks really, really, really, really bad on film (there are some people who just don’t take good pictures. He would have to be their king) - there’s nothing to see.