Food TV

Last night was the season finale of Next Iron Chef. Now I know I didn’t update y’all on parts 4 and 5, I just couldn’t find it in me to re-cap it all. So in short… In part 4 the Chefs were asked to prepare a first class meal for a new airline in Munich. Chef’s Besh and Symon both fared pretty well, with chef Besh’s only criticism being that his Watermelon Consomme should have been crystal clear, rather than just clarified… Chef Symon was declared the winner of the challenge, leaving Chef’s Sanchez and Cosentino out in the cold. In the end Chef Sanchez was sent packing, and can I just say HOORAY!!!
Part 5 brought the top three Chef’s to Paris where they had to use the ingredients they could find in Paris, to create and All-American Feast. They were to feed 20 people at the American Embassy, including Host Alton Brown, all three judges, and the American Ambassador to France, along with several top Chefs and culinary type people. All three impressed, although in the end Chef Cosentino didn’t impress quite enough and he too, was sent on his way … looks like my early prediction was wrong indeed…

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A scant 90 minutes before the third episode of the Next Iron Chef, I am finally sitting down to review the second one. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the episode, as a matter of fact I thought that the challenges were very telling of the type of chef’s that we are dealing with.

In the first challenge the Chairman stated that a great meal always begins with a single bite. He then instructed the potentials to put every thing that they are about in a dish that was only one bite. Just as Alton Brown was about to let everyone go to the ingredients he got a phone call. The contestants were to make 6 plates of their one bite dishes. And then it began. There was a flurry of ingredients and tools everywhere. All to soon AB was counting down the seconds, and all of the chef’s had plated 6 beautiful, tiny dishes. All that is, except one. Chef Sanchez continued messing with his plates long after time up was called, and even then, only had one dish actually plated. His confusion? He thought they would be able to plate later as they seem to do on the other challenges. Now, I would allow this, except for a couple things… First of all every other chef understood perfectly well what they were supposed to do. The rules were in no way unclear. Second of all, this is not the first time. In only two episodes, and three challenges, we have seen Chef Sanchez continue on his dishes after time up is called twice. He doesn’t seem to understand the concept of a time limit, and that irritates me beyond belief. I am a strong believer in rules when it comes to competition, and I think he should be eliminated out an out if it happens again. He hasn’t been strongly cautioned by AB yet, but I think it’s coming. I hope so anyway!!!

Once we finish listening to his little temper tantrum about how he doesn’t think it’s fair that he can’t finish, we find out why they were making six dishes in the first place. In this challenge, titled Simplicity, they are judging each other. After they have tasted each others dishes, each is to votre for the one they thing expressed themselves wholly, in one single bite. Chef Sanchez, of course, cannot win this challenge. Having only completed one dish it’s mathematically impossible. However his bite was eaten by Chef Besh, who says it’s a good thing he didn’t finish all the plates… Chef Symon, however, is voted by his peers to be the winner.

We return from the commercial to fabulous Kitchen 5 which is just chock full of strange and wonderful kitchen implements. Things that even these world class chef’s had never seen. As well as jars and jars of chemicals. Things like xanthan gum, and methocellulose. You know, all those things on the back of so many ingredient lists that most of us are clueless about. Who knew that people actually cooked with that stuff? And liquid nitrogen for goodness’ sake!!! The tools were just ans interesting and innovative. As a matter of fact the challenge associated with them? Innovation. There is first 90 minutes of learning how to use the ingredients and tools like the vacuum sealer, smoker, and a clever device called an Anti-Griddle. Like a griddle, except instead of super hot, it runs at minus 30 degrees and freezes liquids into cute little patties very quickly. Then is the actual challenge. The chef’s are to create dishes using at least 2 chemicals, and at least 3 devices. Chef Symon gets his very own kitchen station fully stocked as well as the chance to raid the buffet before everyone else. Chef Davie seems to have fallen in love with the liquid nitrogen, and made a strange dish she called the freezo-frito, in which she nitrogen froze some slices of citrus fruit, and some other random stuff, and topped it with some ugly brown fried thing. It was certainly innovative, but she missed the point that it has to be both innovative AND edible… oooooohhh…edible too you say?

The masterpiece of the evening was Chef Cosentino’s Razor Clams with Saoir “shaving cream”. Innovative, witty, tasty, all around a winner. Which is why he won!!! I am going to make an early prediction here and say that our next Iron Chef America is going to be Chef Cosentino. He has an excellent attitude, and is quite comfortable using the strange array of ingredients that we often find to be the secret ingredient. The loser of the evening was of course Chef Jill Davie, who while very nice, just couldn’t quite get it… I look forward to seeing episode 3: Resourcefulness. And I promise the review of that will come BEFORE next Sunday…

If you are a fan of Road Tasted with Jamie and Bobby Deen and you caught the episode where they toured Atlanta then you might be familiar with what I am about to offer to one lucky winner. One of the establishments featured was a bakery, the Sweet Auburn Bread Company.

Chef Sonya, the owner of the business, makes a fabulous sweet potato cheesecake that is more like two desserts in one. Rather than putting crust down for this fabulous dessert, Chef Sonya kicks it up a notch and puts some of her homemade pound cake as the base for the cheesecake. The result appears to be something moist, creamy, and absolutely scrumptious. It’s said that it’s fit for a president because Bill Clinton tried it out and before he left, he had one boxed to take with him!

I am lucky enough to be reviewing one of these cheesecakes, so I will let you know how it is in a review as soon as one arrives. Until then, you have a chance to win one for yourself! Winning is simple and its well worth it, as it is a $50 value. If you want to win a sweet potato cheesecake all you need to do is comment here on this post about your favorite local bakery. (more…)