Iron Chef America: Morimoto vs. Love

Way back last October I had the distinct privilege of attending a taping of Iron Chef America with my fellow blogger, Jonathan. The challenger that day in Kitchen Stadium was cowboy chef, Tim Love. This was well before Chef Love was ridden out of Manhattan on a rail out after a wave of negative reviews of his restaurant, Lonesome Dove. Frank Bruni slammed the New York City outpost of Chef Love's much acclaimed restaurant in Fort Worth. The Brunster didn't even dole out any stars. He was reduced to a kindergarten sort of rating system, citing the Dove as "satisfactory."

In the interest of fairness, I must admit that I never ate any of the dishes such as "bony, dry antelope ribs," which caused my man Frank such dismay. I did, however, get to sample the Prairie Butter, which caused the Village Voice's Sietsema to wax rhapsodic. After what seemed like an eternity watching the taping, this signature appetizer proved quite the pick-me-up when Jonathan and I chowed down on it afterwards at Lonesome Dove. The jalapeño margarita and ice-cold shot of Tuaca, and Italian liqueur flavored with vanilla and citrus, also helped shake off the fatigue and the remnants of a raging hangover. I'm not quite sure what Tuaca has to do with cowboy cuisine, but Love seems to like it quite a bit. And just what is Prairie Butter? Well let's just say that any cowboy who gets city folk to belly up to the bar and chow down on split buffalo femurs and the gloriously greasy marrow therein can't be all bad.

But enough of the trials and tribulations of the New York City restaurant scene, as they say in Kitchen Stadium, "Allez cuisine!" By now you're probably wondering why this is being written so far after the actual battle took place. Two reasons: It just aired last week, and more important, due to ICA's strict privacy restrictions no one can reveal the secret ingredient or winner of the battle until after the episode airs. So if you haven't seen Morimoto vs. Love, I advise you not to read the jump. One of the most notable things about Kitchen Stadium in Manhattan's Chelsea Market is its size. It's not much of a stadium at all. In fact, you could call it downright tiny. The audience area is actually dwarfed by the cooking area. I guess I fell for all of the smoke and mirrors after watching the TV show so many times. There was plenty of smoke there that day. To be more precise it was fog, which lent the aura of an epic battle to the whole proceedings. The other thing that surprised me about the taping was its length. I never gave much thought to how the show was produced. Sure the air time is only an hour, but that's because the chefs prepare only one set of dishes in that hour. The remainder of the taping was spent cooking dishes for all of the judges. Lastly, it's more fun to watch at home, if only because you can see closeups of the chefs cooking the dishes.

The judges for Morimoto vs. Love were Japanese food writer Akiko Katayama, actress Cady Huffman and Jeffrey Steingarten, aka The Man Who Ate Everything. As usual Steingarten was in rare form and there was much good-natured ribbing between him and Huffman.

Well, I guess I've kept you in suspense long enough. The secret ingredient for the Morimoto vs. Love battle was a fiery one indeed, chile peppers. Among the varieties spread out on the ingredient table were relatively mild Japanese shishito peppers and such medium-hot varieties as jalapeños, serranos and lemon drops. There were also some peppers that Alton Brown placed in the "I need first aid for my mouth" category: habañeros and Scotch Bonnets. Interestingly Brown kept referring to that day's battle as "Battle Capsicum." The folks at the Food Network apparently thought the American public was too stupid to get that and officially dubbed it "Battle Chiles," instead.

One thing's for sure, there have never been so many cowboy hats on an episode of ICA. And there certainly have never been so many shots of Tuaca, or anything else, knocked back. Less than 5 minutes in when Love tells his two sous chefs, "Let's hit it boys," it's not to discuss strategy, but rather to down the first of three shots. As my meat-and-fire loving alter ego Joey Deckle can attest, a shot or two of Jack Daniels during an Iron Chef type battle is not necessarily a bad thing.

Love certainly played the part of the cowboy to a T. When asked whether he brought "enough ammo for your shootout in Kitchen Stadium," he told the chairman "Yessir, I'm comin' in with guns ablazing." And that Stetson proved a challenge for the cameraman. More than once Love was told to pull his hat back so as not to obscure his face.

It seems that Adam Perry Lang isn't the only one who uses tools better suited to the workshop on ICA. At one point Love breaks out a hacksaw and goes to work on a tuna carcass. At first Brown was baffled, but then it became clear that the cowboy chef was fabricating what can best be called tuna baby backs.

As I mentioned earlier, it was hard to see exactly what the cooks were preparing, though there was plenty of explication of the goings-on from floor reporter Kevin Brauch. There was no mistaking Morimoto's
sampling of the peppers, though. Since he doesn't use very many peppers in his cooking he had to taste most all of them to gauge their heat level. The tasting of most of the peppers got cut out of the show. There is a great scene, complete with replay, of him biting into a jalapeño accompanied by much panting and spitting it out machine gun style. He winds up using habañero in his dessert, though I don't seem to remember him sampling it at the taping. A little past the 30-minute mark he makes a point of asking each judge, "Do you like spicy food?"

One of the most interesting things about this competition, apart from Morimoto's taste-testing of the peppers and Love's use of tuna ribs was that Morimoto chose a Western beverage, cappuccino, to accompany his dessert, while Love chose tea to accompany his dessert. Those weren't the only beverages on the menu that day. Love led off with a Roasted Jalapeño Margarita with Chile Crusted Femur Bone, aka Prairie Butter. This particular dish sparked much praise from Steingarten. When asked what he'd most like to eat out of what was being prepared he said the marrow.

The buffalo femur also prompted an interesting exchange between Love and Steingarten. When told by Love that marrow is 100% degenerated protein the éminence grease of the food world replied, "I wish I had known that I wouldn't have to feel guilty." A cursory Google search reveals that Love may not be 100% correct.

Here's the menu that Love and his cowboy chefs whipped up:

• Roasted Jalapeño Margarita with Chile Crusted Femur Bone
• Roasted Jalapeño and Lobster Ravioli with Truffle Sauce and Ricotta Stuffed Lemon Drop Pepper
• Braised Monkfish Osso Buco with Spicy Posole Stew
• Surf n Turf: Stuffed Kobe Beef Tenderloin and BBQ'd Tuna Ribs with Sweet Garlic Fries
• Ancho chili Chocolate Cake and Sweet Red Pepper Cream with Progression of Hot Teas

Love's strategy was to "take chile peppers and exploit their flavor and not just their heat." Before I forget the monkfish dish prompted a classic quip from Steingarten, "Did you actually use the monkfish femur?" To which Love replied, "I went for the femur but I couldn't find it!"

Morimoto, for his part, produced an admirable lineup of dishes, considering that he didn't even know the names of some of the peppers. I thought the most interesting of his dishes was the Wagyu shabu shabu with tom yum soup. All the judges found the shrimp-laden soup quite spicy, which goes to show that Morimoto figured out what to with the red chiles. Steingarten, true to form, kvelled over the Wagyu declaring it "incomparable." The other interesting dish was the shaved ice with condensed milk, maple syrup and habañero. I must admit, I have a wee pet peeve with the Morimoto segment. I find it demeaning that there needs to be a an English translator for Morimoto-san's Japanese inflected English. During the taping, I had no problem understanding his accent.

Here's Morimoto-san's menu:

• Chile Flan, Chiles pureed with Stock and Cream. Topped with Consomme Jelly and finished with Fresh Wasabi
• Toro Sushi and Fluke Sashimi with Spicy Chile-Yuzu Paste Sauce
• Fish and Vegetable Tempura with Soy Dashi Broth
• Seafood Green Curry with Ebi (shrimp) and Lobster and Japanese Chiles
• Wagyu Shabu Shabu
• Shaved Ice with Spicy Syrup served with Cappucino with Spicy Syrup

And whose cuisine reigned supreme that fateful day? You ready? Sitting down? It was Chef Love. The breakdown was quite close, with Love winning by only one point. It was his originality score of 13 to Morimoto's 8 that put him over the top. The other scores were taste: Morimoto, 26, Love, 25 and plating: Morimoto, 13, Love, 10.

What I'd like to know, is how would Love have done if it had been Battle: Uni? All this writing has left me with a hankering for buffalo femur. Spose I'll have to hop me a plane to Fort Worth.