Dacascos and his suggestive brows.
Photo: Food Network.
It took a transpacific flight, but finally last night, "The Next Iron Chef" deviated from its status as a "Top Chef" also-ran and finally started getting ... weird. Or maybe it was just the goofy opening montage of our four remaining cheftestants standing in the busy rain-slicked streets of Tokyo, crossing their arms in slo-mo and acting all alpha-dog dominant.
In any event, the show is finally getting down to its high-stakes, high-drama Japanese roots after an extended period of trumped-up, low-stakes challenges in Los Angeles. Our trio of alternately grumpy and spunky judges have come along for the ride, and eyebrow-cocking "Chairman" Marc Dacascos is no longer beamed in via satellite to bark oblique commands to the chefs -- now he can do so in person!
This week's mission was the pursuit of umami, the Japanese concept of a so-called fifth flavor -- something beyond savory -- that seems to be everywhere these days. The word was mentioned about a zillion times in the course of last night's episode, and -- surprise! -- it just happens to be the current marketing catchphrase of "TNIC" sponsor Kikkoman, whose umpteen varieties of soy sauce were littered around the challenge kitchen. The umami theme also allowed host Alton Brown a moment to do what he does best: Explain all the geeky details of how soy sauce is made.
That food chemistry lesson out of the way, it was up to our remaining pro chefs to get down to the flavor at hand, a challenge made all the more confusing in the Hattori Nutrition College kitchen, replete with weird can openers, stoves operating in celcius and ice cream makers that seemed to deep-freeze their wares to a glacier-like consistency. Asked to fill five spots of a bento box each with a different rice-based dish, the foursome didn't need to engage in the usual reality-show sabotage -- the people who arranged the kitchen seemed to do that for them.
Not enough tension in your cooking competition shows? Do you find your blood pressure leveling out to near-normal readings during "Top Chef"? Do you wish that "Chopped" had more creepy smoke-machine fog piped into the set? Would judges' decisions be more exacting if only they were accompanied by loud, metallic wooshing sounds?
You're in luck. Last week brought the return of "The Next Iron Chef," one of the Food Network's variations on the legendary Japanese cook-off show, and with it a heaping helping of adrenalin-fueled, hacksaw-edited mania. After just two episodes, it's clear the show isn't going to give us a moment's peace, whether to pour ourselves a nice glass of sherry or grab our anti-anxiety meds -- or both, should it ever come to that.
Hungry for a little bit of behind the behind the scenes dish from The Next Iron Chef before tonight's premiere? Host Alton Brown chatted with our friends at AOL Television about culinary pattern recognition, his chances of competing and yes -- his favorite multitasking tool.
Read Slashfood's interview with The Next Iron Chef contender Nate Appleman.
When you're snacking on edamame, part of the experience is freeing the beans from their green pods. If they're for a dish, however, there's a quicker way to shell a soybean.
The best and easiest way to take your turkey and amp it up from tasty to epically wonderful is a good brine. If you're new to the world or brining, follow Alton Brown's technique below. If you're not big on the flavors of ginger and allspice, try something like a Simon and Garfunkel flavor combination.
Alton's Good Eats Brine for a 14-16 pound turkey:
* 1 cup kosher salt * 1/2 cup light brown sugar * 1 gallon vegetable stock * 1 tablespoon black peppercorns * 1/2 tablespoon allspice berries * 1/2 tablespoon candied ginger * 1 gallon iced water
Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.
Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.
The above video, which I originally posted back in October, is a perfect top to your tasty brine. See Gordon Ramsay's whole recipe printed out at FoodTVBlog. Adding one truffle to the mix won't break the bank, and it will give you lots of foodie cred.
But for roasting, I still love Alton Brown's technique, with a few adjustments*:
A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees.
Take the brined, rinsed, dried, and truffled turkey and place it in the roasting pan, on a solid layer of whole small onions and quartered carrots. (This will give you insanely delicious roasted vegetables as a side.)
Loosely pack stuffing into the cavity, and create a mound in front (you must have stuffing crispies!).
Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil.
Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.
When I was in high school, I had a love-hate relationship with science classes. Geology was fine, biology was okay, and chemistry...well, chemistry was hell. Mrs. Olech, the troll who taught the class, regularly flunked half her students and had a teaching manner that made Alan Greenspan seem bouncy and exciting.
Ironically, while I flunked chem, I aced my cooking classes. Even at the time, I thought that this was a little weird; after all, what is cooking if not a chemical process? The subtle adjustment of flavors, the cultivation of certain bacteria, the measured combination of leavening chemicals are all, basically, a mix of applied chemistry and biology. However, cooking class captured my imagination and attention in a way that chemistry didn't.
Reading a recent profile of Alton Brown, I realize that the problem lay with Mrs. Olech and her ilk. The simple fact is that science can be a lot of fun, if it is applied in a way that is relevant and exciting. I was surprised to learn that, like me, Brown found his science classes "boring beyond words." Even now, as he has built his own store of scientific knowledge, he admits to having discarded academic journals and scholarly papers because of their inability to engage his interest.
Alton Brown, one of my absolute favorite culinary personalities, is helping GE to help make your life easier. He's worked with the company to develop a line of Trivection ovens, which combine microwave, convection, and thermal heating methods.
According to Cnet's Kitchen and Appliances blog, Alton worked with the engineers who designed the line of ovens to help them figure out how to create a better oven. He even taught them how to cook so they'd understand better what was needed.
He must have done a good job, because the trivection oven line looks great with cool features, like a glass cook top on the ranges and several different cooking modes (including "proof" and "Sabbath" modes). I guess most of the features are pretty standard on high end ovens at this point. Check out Alton's demo video for more, and pretty entertaining, information.
My boyfriend doesn't like blueberries, particularly baked goods with blueberries in them. He had an unfortunate encounter with a blueberry pancake when he was a kid that has left him permanently scarred and so he now avoids them entirely. This means that if I bake items with blueberries, I am responsible for the entirety of the batch and so I've all but completely given up making blueberry muffins and cakes (I will make up batches of things with blueberries if I know I'll have a crowd who will help me eat them up).
It's official folks, Nintendo is releasing Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine for the Wii and DS systems. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of details available. Added to that, the promotion video doesn't have any game playing. We're left with very little information.
Some people are speculating that you'll be able to play as the Iron Chefs, but I don't know. I would think you'd be playing against the Iron Chefs and try to take their titles. As long as Alton Brown does the play by play I would be happy.
It is my opinion that Alton Brown is one of the best things about the Food Network these days. Rachael Ray jumped the shark when she teamed up with Oprah and I can not deal with the train wreck that is Sandra Lee. But Alton continually provides great programming that expertly pairs education and entertainment.
He'll continue to produce his fun and informative content for another three years, as today he signed a new contract that will keep him emceeing Iron Chef America and manning the stove at Good Eats. Additionally, he'll be taking his "Feasting on Asphalt" concept to the water with a program called "Feasting on Waves" that will air this summer. In this show, he'll explore the waterways of the Caribbean, eating, joking and exploring in his trademark way. I can't wait!
I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but last summer I was totally glued to Alton Brown's summer road trip show, Feasting on Asphalt. So you'll understand just how thrilled I was to learn that he's done it again this summer, this time hitting the road in the Mississippi Gulf states. The Food Network is rerunning last summer's series all week, in order to get us fans all juiced up and ready for the new season. The first fresh episode premieres Saturday night at 9 pm and I believe that it will deliver all the grit, fried food and gorgeous views that I've come to expect from AB's forays into reality food television. I can't wait.
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.
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When I was in high school, I had a love-hate relationship with science classes. Geology was fine, biology was okay, and chemistry...well, chemistry was hell. Mrs. Olech, the troll who taught the class, regularly flunked half her students and had a teaching manner that made Alan Greenspan seem bouncy and exciting. 
Alton Brown, one of my absolute favorite culinary personalities, is helping GE to help make your life easier. He's worked with the company to develop a line of Trivection ovens, which combine microwave, convection, and thermal heating methods.
Way back last October I had the distinct privilege of attending a taping of Iron Chef America with my fellow blogger, 
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