The Next Iron Chef

[DAnnino]

Who's watching this?

I caught the end of the premiere episode (and I'm rewatching it from the beginning now), but I won't spoil it by saying which of the ten chefs is eliminated first.

Just looking at the ten chefs, I don't see any of them as particularly "Iron Chef-y," if you know what I mean. However, I've noticed that the commercials show Chef Mullen and Chef Freitag a lot. Plus, Amanda Freitag has been a frequent judge on Chopped. I wonder if that means anything?

And I had another stray thought: If you remember, UPN tried to do Iron Chef as Iron Chef USA, with William Shatner as The Chairman. They had five Iron Chefs (I remember Todd English off the top of my head). Why not get one of them? Or bring in John Besh, who lost to Michael Symon in the first Next Iron Chef? Or just bring in someone like Robert Irvine, Tyler Florence, or even Giada DeLaurentis? Or just go with four Iron Chefs. It would seem to me to be hard to replace Mario Batali.

Comments?

[Ravenhull]

I've got to say, none of them seemed to have the Besh/Symon charisma that marked the last round. Me, I was hoping that Gavin would be back for a second try.

[Ms. K]

Well....so far, none of them really stand out.

I take that back. The one that won the "fearless" challenge strikes me as quite an asshat. I don't like him. I didn't like his commentary when they did the "memory" challenge, and I just think he's a jerk.

And yes, I know this is not a "how many friends can you make" competition, but damn, he sure did stroke the one guy who complimented him.

[Mateus]

Originally Posted by DAnnino

or even Giada DeLaurentis?

Unless cleavage is the secret ingredient, DeLaurentis would be at a disadvantage in a timed competition, methinks.

[Ravenhull]

I've heard quite afew TV chefs tossed about as possible Iron Chefs, but one thing many of them don't have is the ability to work under those conditions. Notice that all the Iron Chefs and nearly all the challengers have resturant experience. This gives them the experience to monitor multiple dishes at once, working with sous-chefs and tight time tables.

For example, the internet meme jokes that Alton isn't one because it would be unfair to the challengers. Well, the probable truth is that he probably couldn't perform well cooking like that. He is an excellent chef and teacher, but it is obvious that he works best under different circumstance. Giada, Rachel Ray, and a number of other FN personalities would probably fall in this same category.

As for one other, Robert Irvine seems to have the proper talents, but I just couldn't watch him. Something about his personality makes me want to change the channel.

[Gibbie]

I love this show (and Iron Chef America!) and all it's cheesy goodness.

Much less well known batch this time and not as easy to pick the winner. Last year it was really obvious that it would be either Aaron Sanchez or Michael Symon because they'd both been under contract to Food Network for years. Didn't stop me from being thrilled they picked Symon but still.

I like Chef Mehta. I've seen him as a challenger before. A couple of the others have been as well. Could not believe Greenspan couldn't deal with matzoh. Dude, I can make matzoh ball soup and matzoh brei and I'm not even Jewish!

Love the snark between Jeffrey Steingarten and Donnatella. I was fascinated by the other woman's hair for some reason.

Gibbie

[Spamamander]

I'm missing Jeffrey Steingarten snark?! Ok now that is just tragedy!

[DAnnino]

Originally Posted by Spamamander

I'm missing Jeffrey Steingarten snark?! Ok now that is just tragedy!

Oh, yeah. He's really snarking it up with Donatella and Anya. He even tried to drag Alton Brown into one of his arguements about flavor (AB skillfully evaded, though).

I agree, Mateus. I threw Giada's name out there because she does have the skills, but she's never worked a restaurant line. She was running her own catering company and acting as a personal chef before she hit the big time with Everyday Italian.

Ravenhull, I agree that Robert Irvine's personality can be grating (he's too much a perfectionist to deal with amateurs), but that could be an asset on ICA. Plus, he'd have his two sous chefs, who admittedly work well with him. But, if they just made him or anyone else an Iron Chef, then Food Network wouldn't have ten weeks of programming covered.

And Gibbie's right, Chef Greenspan's Jewish, and had trouble with matzah! By now, most everyone has seen the episode, or has figured it out...Chef Greenspan was the first chef to leave. No great loss, in my mind.