Michelle Obama will make a cameo appearance on an episode of "Iron Chef America" filmed at the White House, the Food Network announced Wednesday.

The first lady introduces the secret ingredient for the challenge, which pits White House Chef Cristeta Comerford and Iron Chef Bobby Flay against Iron Chef Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse.

The White House approached the Food Network about filming "Iron Chef America" at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as a way to reach those people who haven't heard yet about the first lady's efforts to curb childhood obesity through healthy eating and exercise, the New York Times reports.

• Trevor Corson, the author of "The Story of Sushi," says to step away from the chopsticks -- the proper way to eat sushi is with your fingers.
• Joaquin Baca of the Brooklyn Star only serves up food he likes to eat -- including the Americana classic green bean casserole, updated with homemade mushroom soup and onion rings.
• White House chef Sam Kass stirs pots and policy. When he's not preparing meals for the first family, he gathers with senior policy advisers to figure out how to improve the health of the country's children.
• First Lady Michelle Obama makes a cameo on the Jan. 3 episode of "Iron Chef America" to raise awareness for the Healthy Kids Initiative -- and revealing that the secret ingredient is anything from the White House garden.
• From Momofuku to Marco Canora, the roundup of this season's best new cookbooks is sure to take readers on an "edible adventure."
• Sam Sifton's latest reviews Le Relais de Venise L'Entrecôte, the Parisian import to Midtown that relies on "the simplicity of salad, steak and fries, heavy on the salt and butter, rich as a cardiologist," and waitresses in what resemble French maid outfits.
• The Minimalist, Mark Bittman, takes meatball madness to the Middle East with lamb, cumin, mint and bulgur.
• Nostalgic for wine from their Vienna upbringing, Carlo Huber and Paul Darcy made it their mission to bring Viennese wines and wine culture to the United States.
• Saltie, a tiny sandwich shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, serves up sandwiches "the Earl would approve."

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.

Remember that YouTube clip of the upcoming Iron Chef America game for the Wii that Shayna shared back in March? Well, now we've got more solid details about what faces have made it from the transition between show and game, courtesy of Eater.

Mario Batali and Masaharu Morimoto are definitely in. (Check out their Mii versions through the Eater link.) Batali says: "I'm delighted to be involved with Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine. My video game counterpart is as passionate and competitive in the virtual Kitchen Stadium as I am in real life, and I think the participation of Chef Morimoto and I adds a great level of authenticity to the game."

But what about the other guys? Alton Brown, Cat Cora, Bobby Flay, and new Iron Chef Michael Symon? They are curiosly missing from the press release, but if you check out that cover to the right, it certainly looks like at least Cora and Brown are involved. Since Flay ISN'T on the cover, I assume that means he's not a part of this.

We'll know for sure soon enough -- the game hits shelves this fall.

[via Serious Eats]

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.

[via Serious Eats]

I'm going to admit it right off the bat: I am a big fan of Iron Chef America. I don't want to see it in a bad light. I think that everything in the article exposing Iron Chef America should be taken with a grain of salt. We all know that reality shows aren't all reality.

That said, check out this reply from Ed Levine over at Serious Eats. I think you'll see the article in a different light once you read this.

There comes a point in the course of every reality TV show when someone ruins all the fun and exposes the show as fake. Sadly, that time has come for my beloved Iron Chef America. Despite the fact such a discoveries are inevitable, I'm always still so shocked! (Well, maybe not about MTV's The Hills, but in most other cases...)

Iron Chef America's exposure comes via the Village Voice, which published an article by someone who watched a taping of the show, and says that it is "more bogus than I ever imagined." The article lists a bunch of falsehoods about the show, but the most disappointing was that the chefs apparently know the secret ingredients before they begin!

If you feel re-living the day you found out Santa Claus doesn't exist, check out the full article here.

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.

Long before Iron Chef morphed into Iron Chef America, I enjoyed the grandaddy of televised culinary throwdowns in its original format. No, that doesn't mean Food Network's dubbed Japanese version. I watched Iron Chef sans dubbing on UHF. Back then I was hardly a gourmand and my knowledge of Japanese was gleaned from watching Godzilla. Nevertheless, I was fascinated by the show's fierce competitive spirit and exotic ingredients. Those episodes and the film Tampopo convinced me that Japanese people are crazy about food.

I hadn't given too much thought to the role of food in Japanese popular culture, until yesterday. Not that I hadn't seen such snacks such as Calbee Pea Crisps with its happy cartoon legume, dancing across the package before. What shocked me out of my cocoon of hipster-foodie complacency was a friend telling me of a manga hero whose feats revolve around baking bread. That's right, bread. I'm no student of manga, but the last time I checked these Japanese comics featured darker plots often involving sex and gore.