Jehangir Mehta. Photo: Food Network.
Picking from among the nice ones is hard -- Garces and Freitag are constantly offering up help to the others and downplaying their talent -- but the heart of banal evil of "TNIC" is a little easier to pin down. Sure, former A16 and soon-to-be Pulino's chef Appleman is your average aggressive, tatted-up, overly confident young chef. And yes, his quote during last night's Indian-themed "pressure" challenge was enough to make us hurl: "I'm a white boy who never cooked Indian before and I just cooked 5 dishes -- I think I've pretty much won this."
But if it's the devious grin, the glint of sabotage, the air of smug condescension you're looking for, there can only be one choice: Mehta. We're sure Graffiti's wunderkind is, as its Web site puts it, "truly a nice guy." But if you've been watching the way "TNIC" editors slice-and-dice Mehta's reaction shots -- not to mention his own proclivity for undermining his co-contestants by hoarding ingredients and gadgets whether he needs them or not -- he's the leading candidate to be the show's mustache-twirling bad guy. And judging by the voting, he'll continue to be.
Sunday's episode took a little luster off of Mehta's own sense of self-importance. Despite highlighting the cuisine of his homeland, these challenges proved tougher nuts to crack for him than most. After weeks of bizarre experiments with ice cream makers and vacuum cooking, the chef employed a minimalist approach -- which in other hands might have seemed like back-to-basics cooking, but with Mehta seemed more like a diabolical mind game.
Grabbing little more than an eggplant for this one-bite Indian face-off, Mehta couldn't resist using a tiny square of jute for his "plate," a decision which just confused more than delighted guest judge Suvir Saran. In fact, for the entire hour, Mehta couldn't catch a break -- or was he being unfairly handicapped because he was seen as having an innate advantage?
If so, at least the judges were equal-opportunity critics of cultural experience. Appleman, the winner of the one-bite challenge, earned no points during the main challenge for his admitted ignorance of Indian cooking. Did he really think it would put him in grumpmiser Jeffrey Steingarten's good graces? Worse, his attempts at innovating on saag paneer looked misbegotten: Instead of the usual cubes of cheese, he replaced them with impenetrable, gnocchi-inspired cheese "dumplings" that the judges described as "hard."
Mehta offered up an attractive, traditional platter of sweets and spices, including a goat palau and a honey and fig halva, but was ultimately faulted for not bringing enough of himself to the dishes -- ironic for a chef whose previous challenges have shown almost too much personality, if that's possible. Freitag was a hard act to follow with her crispy potato-bottomed dish of saffron rice and her tender chicken mughlai -- adorned with a creepy roasted chicken head -- even if she didn't ultimately win the evening.
In the end, the "nice guys finish last" rule was both proven and disproven: Garces, despite some ambiguously presented judges' comments, squeaked by as winner for some "creamy" coconut prawns. Trevino was sent home for an aubergine with mushrooms that looked like vomit and was politely described as a "trail mix hybrid."
But the big surprise was the elimination of bad-boy Appleman -- in large part for a roasted banana that had an off, chemical taste to it. Experience isn't everything -- just ask Mehta -- but at least with these judges, it counts for something.
11-02-2009 @4:56PM koji attwood said... My enjoyment of this season has definitely been blunted so far by the annoying snarkiness of the judges.
Great blog!
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11-02-2009 @7:54PM dirtgirl said... I don't want a "nice" iron chef, I want a guy that's going to be entertaining to watch cook on TV and makes interesting food that inspires me to cook and eat more adventurously. I'd love to see Mehta win it all.
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11-02-2009 @10:28PM Bernie B said... There's only room for one asshat as an Iron Chef, claimed by Bobby Flay early on. I'm pulling for Chef Garces as Mexican food is underrepresented on the Food Network. Chef Freitag's food looks amazing.
I was pulling for Mehta in the beginning, but when I think of a chef you would want to aspire to become, he's no Rick Bayless, Keller, Besh, etc.
A real "Iron Chef" doesn't need to sabotage the competition in order to win.
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11-03-2009 @12:12AM CrystalEyez said... My favorite episodes of Iron Chef have been the ones where you see the competing kitchens do even the slightest things to help each other out. Not the unnecessary and unsportsmanlike conduct and sabotage that Mehta does every week. Being in it to win, does not mean screwing everyone else over. That's just shady and turns me off from watching. I'm getting to a point that I don't even want to watch anymore. If Mehta either doesn't clean up his act soon or wins the whole thing. Then I doubt I will ever be watching any Iron Chef episodes that he is in.
Chef Mullen seems like Iron Chef quality to me the most. I'm rooting for him.
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11-03-2009 @1:13PM llcwine said... Mehta has to go...I don't think he will have fan appeal. Freitag won't make it...do you really think that they would have 2 female Iron Chefs? I do believe it will come down to Mullen vs Garces, and may the better chef prevail.
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11-03-2009 @1:26PM andyfoodie said... I am completely amused by your comment about Chef Mehta being a leading candidate to be the show’s mustache-twirling bad guy. For a second there, I even tried to imagine it! Jokes apart, I think you are basing all the opinions on the editor’s slices and dices (as mentioned by you) of Chef Mehta’s reaction. In a competition where the chefs share the kitchen space, the apparatus and the ingredients, each chef has to look out for themselves. In the recent episode Chef Mullen needed the rolling pin to finish his Indian bread but Chef Trevino was “hoarding” it. Chef Mullen waited for a few minutes and then used a long round object to substitute the rolling pin and got his job done. In the same episode Chef Mullen wrenched the lamb leg out of Chef Mehta’s hands and left him with a few chunks of meat for his dish. Now judging by your description of a villainous behavior Chef Mullen and Chef Trevino are the new entries to your list. Bottom line, if a chef is too slow to reach the desired ingredients or apparatus then the only way he can survive is by being innovative. If a chef is neither innovative nor fast then I guess he needs to bow out of the competition. Creativity, innovation and focus help you get through a competition. It is survival of the fittest!
Now let’s talk about your “equal – opportunity critics of cultural experience”. Neither of them had any exposure to Indian cuisine. Anya Fernald told Chef Freitag that the yogurt served in her plate was not a good idea. Every person who has even a little knowledge about this cuisine knows that yogurt as a side dish goes with anything and everything in India. The next was Judge Steingarten, who claims he knows everything about food, argued that lentils should never be undercooked. It’s a common practice for some dishes to have undercooked lentils in dishes like Moong Daal Khilma! Or take Judge Donatella’s negative reaction to Chef Trevino’s dish with beef. She is unaware that some of the most famous dishes from South India have beef in them. So I am not sure if the contestants had less exposure to the cuisine or was it the judges? No wonder they announced Chef Garces as the winner for being innovative when it was actually Chef Appleman who innovated the most in this challenge! He cooked all his dishes with an American flavor! So going by the judges’ inexperience in Indian cuisine it is not fair to conclude that Chef Mehta had difficulty cracking this round.
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11-05-2009 @4:07PM Lori said... Freitag should have been sent home when she prepared the eclair. I saw her once on "Chopped" as a judge - isn't this a conflict of interest?
Crenn should have stayed, but would have been knocked off eventually.
I like Mehta, but think Trevino is a sure shot at this moment.
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11-16-2009 @5:58AM Michael Britton said... Well, as of 11/15, Chef Mehta lives on, and Seamus Mullen is history. I still subscribe to conspiracy theories and believe that the Food Network intende Mehta to win all along. Even tonight, when comments were that he didn't prepare the dinner as intended (too over the top with his flowery presentation), the reaction was "well, that's just how he is", so he skates by. I felt the same way when John Besh lost to Michael Symon; it was just too obvious that Symon was the "chosen son". Even last week, it seemed (probably because of the eithger deliverate or louse editing of the show) that Chef Freitag beat Mehta, even from the comments made by Dr. Hittori (who is not a judge, but ertainly heaped glowing praise on Amanda). Yet, Mehta "lived to cook another day". Mehta's comment tonight, "I don't care what other people think of me" makes me believe he does NOT have Iron Chef qualities; his arrogance is apparent, annoying and unwelcome. I hope Jose Garces takes it all.
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11-16-2009 @2:48PM Lori said... Michael, I agree with much of what you have said.
When I watched the battle and it came down to the wire of Besh vs. Symon and they annouonced that Symon won, I was totally shocked. Besh seemed so much more professional, Symon was the bad boy and amongst the current Iron Chefs, he's one of a kind.
Mehta right now is so involved in himself. Amongst the present Iron Chef crew, I do not see a good match.
I like Garces and see him fitting in nicely as the next Iron Chef, but nowadays nothing would surprise me.
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11-16-2009 @4:23PM Debi said... I would like to see Mehta kicked off Iron Chef. He is a back stabber and will do anything to try to win. He sabatoages his competition. He even lies right to their faces. I think that he would totally destroy the reputation of Iron Chef America. Those current chefs show integrity!
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11-21-2009 @8:24AM Danny said... Chef Mehta should have been kicked off the show for ethical violations. His sabotage is neither strategic nor entertaining, it's merely offensive.
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11-30-2009 @2:13PM Lori said... Chef Garces - B R A V O!!
and congratulations!
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