Brainstorm some Iron Chef America matchups

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baking fool

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the original Iron Chef seemed to have really good challengers. There was the Ohta faction, which was a group of super-traditional Japanese chefs, who kept battling Morimoto (the contemporary-Japanese Iron Chef); a former personal chef of a mayor of Paris; someone who lost to Chen Kenichi in some other contest & wanted revenge, etc etc. It always seemed to be one illustrious challenger after another on the original show, & Iron Chef America doesn't seem to have many. Or maybe it's that they don't play up the challenger's "illustriousness" like the original show did? I wonder if we can think up some people who would be good to see on Iron Chef America? What about the White House chef (whoever it is) or the chef of some foodie governor, or maybe Bobby Flay vs Locke Dean (Flay's former teacher)... or Oprah Winfrey's personal chef, etc etc? Does anyone have any more ideas? What about someone who Flay beat in a throwdown?
 
Personal chefs will have a much more difficult time on ICA because of the pace, atmosphere, etc. It's a little different than from cooking on the line everyday. Besides, do you honestly think that someone who cooks for Oprah or the President is going to be cutting edge, ultra-innovative, etc.? Maybe but I highly doubt it. They don't have the clientele or the need to be competitive with other restaurants to force themselves to constantly expand their repertoires. What they need to do is to just keep continuing to bring on well known chefs. Also, as much as it pains me to say it, they need to replace Morimoto with another chef who does Asian cuisine. Although his food was cutting edge on the original Iron Chef, it is not so here. Honestly, I think Ming Tsai would be a great Iron Chef Asian. He beat Bobby Flay and he can cook different types of Asian cuisines beit Chinese, Thai, Korean, Japanese, etc.

But, some chefs that I would like to see compete, if only to see what they would put out:

Gary Danko
Thomas Keller
Hubert Keller
Grant Achatz
Charlie Trotter
Eric Ripert
Daniel Boulud
Norman Van Aken
Jean-Georges Vongerichten
Marcus Samuelsson
Michael Mina
Alessandro Stratta
Joel Robuchon
 
Another vote for Charlie Trotter and Daniel Boulud.

I remember when Daniel first started out. He used to publish a monthly newsletter and I was a charter subscriber. He didn't publish it very long because his career started to take off as did his family. I still treasure those issues and prepare recipes from them.
 
I would love to see Ming Tsai in there somewhere - he's extremely talented and I don't see him anymore!!! What happened to him?
 
kitchenelf said:
I would love to see Ming Tsai in there somewhere - he's extremely talented and I don't see him anymore!!! What happened to him?
Click to expand...


If you are lucky and you will find him on PBS.

How about

Mary Ann Esposito
Father Dominick
Everyday food people???
 
ironchef said:
But, some chefs that I would like to see compete, if only to see what they would put out:

Gary Danko
Thomas Keller
Hubert Keller
Grant Achatz
Charlie Trotter
Eric Ripert
Daniel Boulud
Norman Van Aken
Jean-Georges Vongerichten
Marcus Samuelsson
Michael Mina
Alessandro Stratta
Joel Robuchon
Click to expand...

:ohmy: i looked them all up on wikipedia & i think any of the iron chefs would get smoked. it would definitely be an awesome battle between an iron chef and anyone on that list!

re: ming tsai battled bobby flay on the 3rd episode & won. i've never seen that one though.
 
I'd love to see Robert Irvine go up against one of the ICs. Dinner Impossible vs. Iron Chef America... talk about an exciting battle. Gordon Ramsay would be fun, but you'd have to bleep every fourth word from his side of the stadium. :)
 
TATTRAT said:
I would LOVE to see what Fernan Adria and Hamoru Cantu could come up with.
Click to expand...

Cantu actually has already competed on ICA and beat Morimoto. I think the theme battle was beets, or maybe sweet potato. I'm pretty sure it was a root-type vegetable. But I do remember that Cantu made soups and served them in liquid droppers, he did his signature baked fish in his polymer box, he used liquid nitrogen to make ballons (ok I remember now, it WAS beets), and he used a laser to caramelize his popcorn.

One other chef that I would like to see compete is Ron Siegel. He was one of the few American chefs to appear on the original Iron Chef series and he beat Sakai in "Battle Lobster". He's probably one of the most underrated chefs there is. He's not as widely talked about as other chefs in San Francisco but he consistently puts out great food.
 
baking fool said:
:ohmy: i looked them all up on wikipedia & i think any of the iron chefs would get smoked. it would definitely be an awesome battle between an iron chef and anyone on that list!
Click to expand...

You would think so, but not necessarily. There's been quite a few chefs that I would've thought would beat the Iron Chefs, but didn't. Rick Tramonto, Wylie Dufresne, David Burke, Michael Symon, and Lynn Crawford come to mind. Tramonto was especially a surprise, because Tru was one of the top 5 places that I've ever eaten at. But then again, the judging is subjective and depending on the panel, should really be taken as a grain of salt.
 
ironchef said:
Cantu actually has already competed on ICA and beat Morimoto. I think the theme battle was beets, or maybe sweet potato. I'm pretty sure it was a root-type vegetable. But I do remember that Cantu made soups and served them in liquid droppers, he did his signature baked fish in his polymer box, he used liquid nitrogen to make ballons (ok I remember now, it WAS beets), and he used a laser to caramelize his popcorn.
Click to expand...

he also took a photograph of the judges & printed it on edible paper using beet ink in his printer.
 
baking fool said:
he also took a photograph of the judges & printed it on edible paper using beet ink in his printer.
Click to expand...

Only truly wacky chefs dare bring in edible paper and ink to the Iron Chef stadium.
 
I thought up two others. What about Michael Smith (from Chef at Home & Chef at Large)? They need more Canadians! & what about Heston Blumenthal? Michelin named his restaurant the best in the world in 2001(?) & he's got that cool In Search of Perfection show. & why not Alton Brown himself? The same sort of thing happened on the old Iron Chef; Kaga said if Dr Hattori beat one of the Iron Chefs he could become an Iron Chef himself, but he lost. (I've only read about that one)
 
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