Last night’s finale of “The Next Iron Chef” on Food Network featured a battle in Kitchen Stadium akin to the real Iron Chef show…and that’s really how it should have been. It was also very close between chefs Garces and Mehta…and while each has a distinct cooking style, the judges had the difficult choice of crowning one of them the season’s champ, one to join the ranks of Flay, Batali, Cora, Morimoto, and Symon on the popular show.

The chairman began as he does every Iron Chef show..by disclosing the secret ingredient–ribs and racks…both pork and beef. Their task was to use that ingredient to create five dishes that represented America as a melting pot of cultures. It was also a daunting task because of the time usually required to break down rib meat, as they would have just 60 minutes.

The judges were the regulars–Anya Fernald, Jeffrey Steingarten and Donatella Arpaia, with input from Iron Chefs Bobby Flay, Michael Symon and Masaharu Morimoto…as well as host Alton Brown and the chairman.

Mehta’s goal was to fuse different cultures, and his dishes were: smothered dumplings, which Steingarten especially loved….a pork burger with chipotle mayo, which drew criticism from the judges for not being cooked quite enough…..an Indian spare rib with saffron rice, showing his roots….a buffalo steak with chocolate wine sauce, and while the judges applauded the multitude of flavors going on, some of them thought it was a bit too sweet….and finally, chef Mehta finished with a buffalo tartare topped with avocado sorbet, a dish one of the judges referred to as “outstanding,” while another said that chef Mehta “nailed it.”

Chef Garces themed everything after Chicago, where he was born, while showing off the general melting pot theme: he started with a buffalo tartare with Kobe beef sirloin, and the judges thought it was very flavorful and showed Garces’ control of the secret ingredient….a carnitas taco, which unfortunately had some large pieces of cartilage, and which some judges (ahem, Flay) thought it lacked heat…..a pork loin crusted with mustard and herbs, which one judge called “succulent”……a beef short rib pizza with bacon marmalade, which was said to be bold but “perplexing” with its blend of flavors…..and Garces finished with baby back ribs and spicy barbecue sauce, something the judges liked with its nice balance. However, Donatella claimed that she thought this dish to be safe, while Michael Symon disagreed with her.

The judges agreed that many of the dishes were similar, but that the approaches were quite different. Chef Mehta generally tries harder to present his dishes well, while Chef Garces goes more for technique and flavor. The judging points would be taste, originality and presentation.
Well, we figured Garces would win in taste and Mehta in presentation, and originality was probably ultimately a draw.

So as Donatella alluded to, the final choice was going to be who they thought would be the best Iron Chef to carry on the franchise in future Kitchen Stadium battles. That person, as the chairman announced at the end of the episode, was…..Jose Garces! I personally was having trouble seeing Mehta as an Iron Chef, and I think in the end the judges thought the same thing.

Chef Garces believed he would win, and probably believed that since Day 1. But this was a heck of a battle, and Chef Mehta has nothing to be ashamed of.

Okay, so chef Garces will now take his place alongside the other five Iron Chefs and begin battles that aren’t as critical to anything but his own reputation. And I think he does the franchise proud. We’ll have a chance to talk to Chef Garces on a conference call later today and will share those with you soon. Thanks for reading this season!

I admit to not loving “The Next Iron Chef” on Food Network, but yesterday’s show excited me more and I’m looking forward to the final round next Sunday. Last night, the final three were still in Japan, and were asked to show their integrity and tell a story with a Kaiseki, or multi-course meal. They would be judged on taste, creativity and presentation, and the judges would be the regulars Anya Fernald, Jeffrey Steingarten and Donatella Arpaia, as well as Dr. Hattori, the commentator of the original Iron Chef series in Japan.

After having an hour to shop at the fresh market for fish and produce, chefs Garces and Mullen were laughing at chef Mehta, who bought a crazy amount of flowers in which to use as garnishes. Say what? I hope he remembered that presentation was only a third of the points.

During service, chef Mullen was slowed by arthritis in his leg and visibly in pain. But he pressed on like an Iron Chef hopeful should. And though all of the chefs struggled with the two-hour time limit, they all managed to plate their dishes.

Chef Mullen went first and made a salmon mousse; sea urchin with strawberries prawn and potato confit with aioli; salmon and prawns, tomato and oyster soup; a miso soup with rice; and a strawberry ice cream with caviar. They all loved the ice cream, but since chef Mullen decided to make rice with his miso soup and didn’t cook it to Japanese standards, all four judges were tough on him for that. Plus, Steingarten referred to the mousse as being hard as a golf ball. Yikes.

Chef Mehta used a ton of flowers to express his own happiness and love of life, but the judges all thought he overdid it. He made a clam salad; a lobster with zucchini blossom; green chile shrimp with pickled vegetables; seared scallop with ginger and chrysanthemum; and an ice cream with rose petals, crab tartate and mango. The judges also thought chef Mehta’s dishes were too sweet overall and Steingarten referred to his ice cream as tasting like soap. Also, chef Mehta may not have presented a traditional “kaiseke.”

Chef Garces wanted his presentation to be like a show with five acts. He started with a gazpacho with king crab; then a Peruvian ceviche; a grilled kampachi fish with vegetables; a hot pot with lobster and abalone; and a sea urchin custard with mango. The judges mostly loved chef Garces’ dishes and it was pretty clear he would be reaching the finals. The only real complaint was that the hot pot dish was a bit too salty.

So it would likely be between chefs Mullen and Mehta. Chef Mullen was commended for his pressing on through pain, but in the end the fact that he messed up the rice was serious enough to send him home.
Chef Mehta was told by host Alton Brown that his presentation was a high point as well as a low point, but he still delivered some excellent dishes and was ushered into the finals along with chef Garces.

These guys have been eyeing each other since Day 1, and now we know why….and after flying back to New York, they will face off in Kitchen Stadium to determine who will be the Next Iron Chef. I have to say Garces is the favorite, but Mehta is a fierce competitor and won’t go down without a fight. Who do you like? Let me know in the space below and see you next week for the finale results!

Last night on Food Network’s “The Next Iron Chef,” the final four chefs were whisked off to Japan, where they would compete in the birthplace of the Iron Chef series. For the initial challenge, Chefs Garces, Freitag, Mehta and Mullen had to first create small dishes with the UMAMI flavor profile (a savory soy-based flavor originated in Japan). Iron Chef Masumatu Morimoto would be the judge.

Each chef appeared to do a nice job with this challenge, but chef Mehta won it with his leeks with panko; soy clams; grilled beef; apples; and strawberries. Morimoto thought he did the best job of incorporating the UMAMI profile, and suddenly he is looking like a contender.

Then they brought in the commentator for the Iron Chef series in Japan, Dr. Hattori, who would announce the main challenge along with host Alton Brown. The challenge would be to create another set of small meals in a bento box with rice as the centerpiece, but using each of the five flavor profiles–salty, sweet, bitter, sour and UMAMI. They would have 90 minutes to create these dishes and chef Mehta would have the advantage of first choice of ingredients.

Chef Mehta made oyster sherbet (ewwww!!), shrimp UMAMI, salty pork and rice, bitter melon salad and a sweet berry dessert.

Chef Mullen went with bitter tempura, bibimbap (some sort of Japanese specialty) with Kobe beef, green olive/sardines with rice, sour sticky rice with octopus, and yuzu ice cream with rice crackers.

Chef Garces made bitter green salad, pickled sardines, octopus with rice cakes, UMAMI pork belly and a sweet rice pudding with raspberries.

Finally, Chef Freitag made a kuromutzu fish, an UMAMI Kobe beef teriyaki, salty rice balls with seaweed, bitter radicchio tempura, and a black sticky rice with fruit for the sweet dish.

The judges, which were Dr. Hattori along with the main judges for the season–Anya Fernald, Jeffrey Steingarten and Donatella Arpaia–liked something about each of the chefs’ creations. But the winner of the challenge and now current frontrunner was Chef Garces.

The next one sent to safety was Chef Mehta, so it was down to Mullen and Freitag. The judges liked Mullen’s ice cream a lot and also liked Freitag’s fish, but in the end they chose Chef Mullen to continue and sent Freitag home.

So now it’s down to Mullen, Mehta and Garces to compete for the title of the Next Iron Chef. All three appear like they can make noise in the next two weeks, so this thing is pretty much wide open. Who do you like? We’ll find out more next week…see you then!

The current season of “The Next Iron Chef” on Food Network is rolling right along, and last night they accelerated things again as two aspiring chefs were eliminated. Now we are in Final Four territory.

Last night’s episode began with the chairman introducing Indian chef Suvir Saran, who then asked the chefs to create their own impression of Indian food, in small bits and strictly vegetarian. Of course, this would appear to give chef Mehta an advantage because he was of Indian heritage. But he had also won the previous challenge, so he also had a tangible advantage….which wound up being having first choice of ingredients.

Mehta made an eggplant dish but used some sort of fabric to make a “plate,” and this confused Saran because he wasn’t sure if he could eat the plate or not, and he couldn’t. Each of the other chefs, for the most part, made some sort of bread and some sort of chutney to accent their dish. The favorite and winner of the challenge was chef Appleman, who made a cauliflower and potato curry dish.

Before the main challenge, the chefs were told that this would be a double elimination and that four of them would be getting on a plane and heading off to a far-away location to continue competing. Their task was to create a 5-course Indian meal in just two hours using the ingredients currently in the kitchen. Chef Appleman had his choice of ingredients since he won the previous challenge and he went with snapper and lamb. Then it was a mad dash as each chef was tugging and pulling on the remaining proteins like kids tugging at candy. Here is a brief cross-section of what each chef made:

Trevino–chicken tikka and beef curry

Garces–spinach and cheese paneer, prawns and dal soup

Appleman–Aloo gobi, eggplant stuffed with lamb, sag paneer, and roasted banana

Freitag–Naan bread with chicken mughlai (she served it, disgustingly, with the chicken’s head on the plate…ewwwwww!)

Mullen–goat vindaloo, spiced prawns and red lentil dal

Mehta–rice, dal, spicy okra, fritters and semolina dessert.

The judges liked most of the dishes, but a few of the negative comments were that Mullen’s dal was an “unpleasant interpretation,” and that Appleman’s banana smelled and tasted funky. If fact, I’m pretty sure judge Donatella Arpaia wanted to say it tasted like stinky feet.

The first one to safety and who was handed a ticket to the next destination was chef Freitag, but then host Alton Brown told chef Trevino that he was the first chef to be heading home. Garces was the next to safety, and Brown informed him that he had won this particular challenge and would have an advantage next week.

Mehta was the next in the final four, leaving chefs Mullen and Appleman, both of whom have shown that they could be frontrunners recently. And both were cocky, saying they didn’t expect to be eliminated. So the next one in the finals was….chef Mullen! Appleman and his cocky attitude were sent packing, and I have to admit I was surprised, because despite his attitude, he seems to be an excellent chef. Brown told him as much, and that he had a bad night and it cost him. Wow.

So your final four is Freitag, Garces, Mehta and Mullen…..and it appears to be a wide open competition. As to where they are headed? Tokyo, Japan….where the Iron Chef concept began and where Food Network star and original Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto will be on hand to help judge.

See you all next week!

Last night on Food Network’s “The Next Iron Chef,” the contestants were asked by the chairman to create two dishes using a secret Mexican-themed ingredient, tamarind. I’m not sure what it tastes like, but I think it’s tangy along the lines of miso paste. Anyway, they were asked to create two dishes–a savory and a sweet, with 90 minutes to both shop and cook. Chef Mullen began with a 5 minute advantage because he won the previous challenge.

After shopping, the chefs went to work, with chef Mehta once again trying to make ice cream. Host Alton Brown wandered over to Mehta and started giving him a hard time, but the chef was adamant he was making the right choice. Meanwhile, chef Appleman was using a pressure cooker to make his soup, and he wound up burning it but still saving what was not burnt. Then with a few minutes remaining, the chairman threw another twist at them–they had to make a drink as well, also with tamarind incorporated. Yikes.

Chef Crenn went first with the judges and made a chicken tortilla soup, screwdriver with blood orange juice and a tamarind churro. The judges thought the churro was raw inside, a big no-no.

Chef Appleman made his soup, which was a chicken meatball concoction, crepes with goat cheese and a horchata (rice drink). The judges loved his meatballs and no one even noticed any burnt flavor.

Chef Freitag made a chipotle shrimp and jicama salad, a bitter margarita and an eclair with tamarind flavored cream. And she received some bad comments based on the quality or lack thereof of the shrimp.

Chef Mehta made an apple tamarind pork, the ice cream and a chocolate tamarind shot. Everything he made went over pretty well, even the ice cream.

Chef Garces made a mole with poblano chicken, a tamarind martini, and a coconut flan that both Jeffrey Steingarten and Alton Brown commented was slightly curdled. Uh-oh.

Chef Mullen made a shrimp taco, some marinated mango and and “icy icy” with tequila. They liked the taco and drink but not the mango.

Chef Trevino went with a Mexican ceviche made with snapper, but served it with stale tortilla chips; a sake mojito and a chocolate gordita that did not go over well at all.

So then Brown started the elimination process. Chef Mehta was declared the winner and was praised for his ice cream that finally came out right. Next to safety was Appleman, followed by Garces, Mullen and Trevino.

Then it came down to Crenn and Freitag. Brown told chef Freitag that while the shrimp dish did not go over well, her dessert was barely good enough, and chef Crenn was sent home because of the fact that her dessert was slightly raw inside.

So we’re down to six now, and they mentioned in the previews for next week that it’s going to be a double elimination. This season is rolling by, and it still appears to me that chef Appleman is the front runner. Still, a lot can happen, especially with all of the difficult challenges and twists and turns.

Thanks for reading and see you guys next week…