"ironchef" news and stories

What was that on the Food Network Sunday night, you ask? Thudding sound effects, suspenseful music, extreme shaky-cam cinematography -- it had to be one of the "Bourne" movies, right? The opening of a scene from "Saving Private Ryan"? A straight-to-video "Mission: Impossible" sequel?

No, that trumped-up spectacle you witnessed was not the next John Woo movie -- it was, of course, the semi-celebrity chef competition "The Next Iron Chef." It's unlikely that anything can challenge Bravo's "Top Chef" as the premiere American cheftestant show, but as an old ad once put it, being No. 2 means you just try harder.

And trying really, really hard is what "The Next Iron Chef" is all about. In fact, all the music, fancy editing and bright lights are beginning to take their toll: Even the eight remaining chefs can't muster up quite that much energy. When your losing chef can utterly shrug off his failure -- something along the lines of "even great chefs have bad days; at least I have two great restaurants and my lovely family to go home to," yadda yadda yadda -- you know you've got a low-stakes kind of show. It's not as if these folks are going to go back to toiling in obscurity, with the added insult of "reality show failure" being tattooed on their foreheads.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. "The Next Iron Chef" has its pleasures, even if they're in a watered-down, "Top Chef" kind of way. Any episode that sings the praises of Los Angeles' myriad strip-mall Asian restaurants can't be all bad, especially when the four chosen for the show are all authentically, unequivocally tasty. Even the blatant product placement of the overexposed-but-still-delectable Kogi Korean-taco truck didn't bother us -- in fact, the mere thought of their short rib tacos gave us the Pavlovian impulse to check their Twitter posts to see if they were nearby.

StarChefs, the "magazine for culinary insiders," celebrated New York's "Rising Stars" on Tuesday with a gala tasting in New York City.

Slashfood popped in to check out the fare and gaze at culinary stars like honoree and "Top Chef" Season One winner Harold Dieterle and Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto (whose New York restaurant Chef Jamison Blankenship was honored and whipped up a bouillabaisse) as well as Babyface (who knew the hitmaker was a foodie?).

Del Posto's pastry chef, Brooks Headley, paired pea shoots with strawberry gelato, while mixologist Maxwell Britten made Gingerbutter Collins with scotch whiskey. Best overheard conversation of the night: "She puts bacon in everything now, even chocolate chip cookies." We'll have to try that.

Food porn after the jump.

Venerable food mag Gourmet has been keeping it (un)real lately, from editor Ruth Reichl's bizarro star turn as Amy Winehouse and Kiss' Gene Simmons to today's "Iron Chef"-style smackdown between two test kitchen toques.

Today the steely, dry-humored Maggie Ruggiero (the woman behind an astounding fried cubano) faces off against bald-pated Ian Knauer, who pulls the cross-armed, stern smackdown stance off rather better. The ingredient du jour? Avocado, sweet and savory. The savory dishes both have a certain Asian flair and the sweet (shown above) basically blew our minds and made us want to go use a blowtorch on everything in our kitchen cabinets. Avocado marshmallow on a stick?! Maggie, let's be friends. Ian, not to be outdone, turns out a gorgeous avocado creme brulée.

The two share a window through which they taunt one another, like a modern day Statler and Waldorf. Maggie on Ian: "Razzle dazzle; flash in the pan ... [I'm] someone who enjoys eating food and not just playing with it." Ian on Maggie: "We were born on the same day. She's a little older than I am. She's got experience on her side. I have youth." Oh, snap! Check the video, vote and let us know who you think owned it.

Next week, we'll get to see the best of the best try to best each other. Iron Chef Japan, one of our favorites, is having a civil war on Fine Living Network! It's Grand Battle Week!

Five Iron Chef Japan chefs, including Morimoto, will battle it out against each other every night at 11pm Eastern for Grand Battle Week, December 8-12.

Fine Living Network is doing an excellent job of feeding our Iron Chef Japan addiction. Our favorite so far was Attack of the Vegetables week when they aired "Cooking Japanese Like Morimoto," an ingenious cover of "Turning Japanese" by The Vapors.

Here's how the Google translator says Grand Battle Week in Japanese.

????????

And here are some other things it says:

Slash Food: ???????

I Haven't Changed My Facebook Status in Hours: ???????Facebook???????????????

Pass the Imitation Crab: ????????

This is really only fun for a little while. Whatever. Watch Iron Chef Japan.

Source

Cooking Japanese I think I'm cooking Japanese like Morimoto!

Sing it with me.

Cooking Japanese I think I'm cooking Japanese like Morimoto!

Fine Living Network is featuring Iron Chef Japan nightly at 11pm and grouping episodes into themed weeks. This week is Attack of the Vegetables Week! Definitely a must-see. Japan has some crazy-cool vegetables to begin with, and watching them get cooked up on Iron Chef is guaranteed to please.

Attack of the Vegetables Week starts Monday, October 20th, and my guess is that this song will still be in your head.

Is that cod roe?

Source