What happened to Iron Chef Morimoto?

Seriously, where is my favorite Iron Chef? Dude is MIA now for what, like a year. I miss his dour presence, his samurai-like concentration, his thinly-masked contempt for the judges he considers unworthy of his creations. Does anyone know what happened to him? This last season seems like it has been nothing but Flay and Batali.

He was on either last week’s show or the week before – the challenger was Mike Symon, and I believe the secret ingredient was asparagus.

I’ve noticed that most challengers steer more toward the others than Morimoto. I wonder why :confused: