The Next Iron Chef - Are You Ready For The Finale?

11/07/2007

So, this weekend is the finale of Next Iron Chef - a battle between Chef John Besh and Chef Michael Symon!

What’s the secret ingredient?
I actually think I know the answer to this. It’s fish of some sort. There’s a quick shot of it in the preview, but I don’t know what kind of fish it is. It actually looks like a Marlin. I guess we’ll see.

What will we see?
I actually think this will be a good episode - it will be laid out like any normal Iron Chef battle, except that it will be against two competitors. The winner, of course, will be the next Iron Chef. So, does this mean they’re replacing an existing Iron Chef, or just adding another one? If they are getting rid of an Iron Chef, or one of them is retiring, then who is it?

My thought is that one of the other Iron Chef’s is leaving. I think it’s Morimoto. He hasn’t been in many recent episodes, and he’s definitely the longest running Iron Chef - he’s been an Iron Chef for at least 8 years. If it’s not Morimoto, then I don’t know who it is. Bobby Flay does so much stuff - he’s in everything and has fifteen TV shows (okay, I’m exagerrating) so I can see him dropping one of them to focus on other things. If it’s not Flay, then I think it’s Cora. I see Batali being an Iron Chef… forever ;-) That’s a good thing - I enjoy watching him, even though I don’t appreciate his Clogs quite the way I think other people do.

I’m choose Besh for the win. Historically, I’m probably dooming him to failure by saying that, but he has more - Iron Chef like qualities than Michael Symon does.



The Next Iron Chef - Premier!

10/07/2007

Okay, so I’m blogging about The Next Iron Chef, and I’m also sitting here in the middle of the episode. I needed a break from programming for a bit. I missed the first couple minutes of the show, so I didn’t see the setup, but they just finished showing off the knife skills of the chefs.

One thing I find interesting so far is the immense amount of chefs on the show that’ve already battled in kitchen stadium. Here are the chefs:

John Besh - I think he battled Mario Batali - A-ha! I’m right. He actually won again Batalie in Battle Andouille.

Chris Consentino - looks unfamiliar

Jill Davie - also looks familiar, but I can’t find a reference of her being on ICA.

Traci Des Jardins - I *know* she battled Batalie. The name sounds familiar. Sure enough, she too battled Batali. And She beat him with shrimp!

Gavin Kaysen - I don’t recognize him.

Morou Ouattara - I’ve seen him on ICA before. He battled Bobby Flay in Battle Pea, but he lost ;-)

Aaron Sanchez - looks new. Oh, crap, he battled Morimoto in battle Black Bass, which I’ve seen at least three times in the past week. How did I miss that?! :-o

Michael Simon - The name sounds familiar - I think he’s in something else. I think I got this one wrong, too. Boo.

Anyway, they’re working on desserts right now. We’ll see how this show works. It’s actually a little different format than I thought it was going to be, but it’s in a good way.