Iron Chef America

[Michael in FtW]

Forgive me saying what I know. I know good Tex Mex. People are so fussy! I swear. You have to be so damned exact. Maybe I will stop coming here again. ...

Hey - PLEASE don't stop joining in the discussions!!! We are caught in the cross-fire sometimes here in Texas .... sometimes you find a place that makes authentic Mexican food and sometimes you get Tex-Mex ... and Tex-Mex can be regional just like Italian (Ft Worth vs San Antonio vs Larado vs El Paso .... etc).

Lugaru - Rick Bayless' program is on PBS stations - not FoodTV ... but if you want to know more about him you can go to Google.com and search on "rick bayless" and you'll find several sites where you can learn more. Bobby Flaw uses chilies as a threat - Rick Bayless uses them as a seasoning.

 

[LEFSElover]

I watched it, it was just okay in my eyes.
Not a big fan of RB or his cooking/recipes so didn't throw myself totally into it. BF was his usual self. The buffalo main ingredient isn't something I ever want to taste and I thought that the judges were not completely convinced either. JC sort of picked through her food, or at least to me, it looked that way.

Who is RB and JC?

I missed the show! I was working as usual. I never get to see ANY good shows anymore. I really need a Tivo.

RJ

Rick Bayless is the one chef I spoke of. Julie Chan, from Big Brother host duty fame, is the lady I thought picked through her food.

 

[Michael in FtW]

For those who do not know what Buffalo (American Bison) tastes like ... just think very lean beef but with a "slightly" sweeter flavor. It does NOT have a gamey or strange taste ... no, it does not taste like chicken - it taste like very lean beef. While it is as lean, or leaner, than USDA Select grade beef - it is generally as tender as USDA Prime.

 

[norgeskog]

I could never get into that show, too much screaming and yelling. Too theatrical. Only watched part of one show,.

 

[Lugaru]

For those who do not know what Buffalo (American Bison) tastes like ... just think very lean beef but with a "slightly" sweeter flavor. It does NOT have a gamey or strange taste ... no, it does not taste like chicken - it taste like very lean beef. While it is as lean, or leaner, than USDA Select grade beef - it is generally as tender as USDA Prime.

Yeah, it's great stuff. Im surprised that I mostly find it ground though and no decent steaks of it. The one time I did cook a steak of it I found it to be lean like Michael say's but at the same time it was unexpetedly firm and had an almost smoky flavor in there which I didint add. Not gamey at all.. just... ritch.

Btw what ingredients would you like to see on iron chef?

Personally I am very curios about ostrich... I havent seen the japanese one where they use it but It's slowly becoming a more common meat in the americas.

A proper chocolate battle would rule too. You know... they uncover the "theme" and there's blocks of dark sweedish chocolate, cubes of white chocolate, ground cocoa bean, etc. Desserts... dinner... decorations... I would love to see what these crazy people would put together.

Oh yeah, about Flay's use of chillies I identify it with two things: New Mexico cooking (I have relatives in Las Cruzes and my impresion as a kid of of mexican restaurants in the us is that they liked unberably hot food) and Puebla. Puebla is a part of mexico where they put NUCLEAR chillies in every thing, including their chocolate milk. I loved visiting that place, and I hated visiting it.

 

[Rob Babcock]

I have mixed feelings about it. The new chairman is a dork ... but then he isn't a professional actor like his Uncle Kaga (sp?).

Mark Dacascos? Not a real actor! No offense, but that's absurd! He's a distinguished actor with many fine roles to his credit. What's the old "Chairman" ever done of note?

I unfortunately missed the Batali episode, but I caught the Flay one. I think AB is the high point of the whole thing, and I think it'll be much better than the Japanese show. I always got tired of seeing dishes made with octupus eyeballs or blowfish stomachs. ICA will hopefully use ingredients you could actually find on Earth.

 

[Rob Babcock]

Oh, yeah...his "uncle." That's rich! Just like pro wrestling! Hahaha. :P

 

[Lugaru]

I have to agree about Mark Darcascos... I mean he was in brotherhood of the wolf and crying freeman for petes sake! Those are two of the coolest french actioners in recent history. He's got a lot of prescence and usually when I do research on a movie he was in I end up finding a dozen "Mark Darcascos is hot" websites... a lot of girls really seem to like him.

About mr Kaga well he was Jesus in a japanese production of Jesus christ superstar. Btw isint that a bizzare image? He also did a lot of Tv and acting work, but it's not something we would hear aobut much due to how little japanese film makes it shoreside. [/url]

 

[kleenex]

Rick Bayless has a PBS show.

It is called

Mexico: One Plate at a Time

He also has a book or two out.

The iron chef Japanese show had on one chef that cooked mexican food.

I like this show so much better than the UPN show Iron chef USA.

I would have loved to have seen a co-host for Alton brown though. This is one reason why the Jaspanese show worked. No major sporting event that is broadcasted on TV now days has one anouncer. Even the scripps howard national spelling bee and the National Scrabble championships have at least two anouncers.

 

[PieSusan]

Alton Brown was just wonderful!
Pie Susan

 

[ironchef]

Anyone catch the latest episode of Bobby Flay getting his butt handed to him on a platter in "Battle: Goat Cheese"? I mean it wasn't even close. Flay almost lost by double digits, 52-43. I was very impressed with the challenger. He put together some good stuff. Here's one of his restaurants in NYC:

http://www.bltfish.com/

 

[Andy M.]

I saw the end of the show. The challenger had some amazing dishes. I would not have thought to do those things with goat cheese!

 

[bethzaring]

any one care to elaborate on what he did with goat cheese?

 

[ironchef]

any one care to elaborate on what he did with goat cheese?

I can't remember all of it. I know he did a soup, a souffle, a panzanella, and a risotto.

Here's the current records of the chefs in Iron Chef America. Keep in mind that Flay's record is somewhat padded through inferior competition and ingredient familiarity. Except for Rick Bayless, I believe that Flay has lost to every "name" competitor.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Chef_America_stats

 

[grumblebee]

I've never understood why Bobby Flay was chosen as an Iron Chef. I do think he creates some interesting south western style dishes, but overall I think he lacks the superior creativity that is needed to be a true "Iron Chef." He doesn't step out of his comfort zone enough, IMO.

I think Rob Feenie should be an Iron Chef! He beat out Marimoto in the crab battle and he is an absolutely amazing chef. They need a Canadian on there too! (then maybe change the name to "Iron Chef North-America" )

By the way, if anyone is ever in the Vancouver area, you MUST try Feenies. (Rob Feenie's restaurant) http://feenies.com/ The food is so good!

 

[Chef_Jimmy]

one thing i like about Flay is that he actually cooks and is hands on in his restaurants unlike most of the other FTV chefs. You gotta have respect for that......... I do anyways

 

[Silver]

I've never understood why Bobby Flay was chosen as an Iron Chef. I do think he creates some interesting south western style dishes, but overall I think he lacks the superior creativity that is needed to be a true "Iron Chef." He doesn't step out of his comfort zone enough, IMO.

I think Rob Feenie should be an Iron Chef! He beat out Marimoto in the crab battle and he is an absolutely amazing chef. They need a Canadian on there too! (then maybe change the name to "Iron Chef North-America" )

By the way, if anyone is ever in the Vancouver area, you MUST try Feenies. (Rob Feenie's restaurant) http://feenies.com/ The food is so good!

I just watched that episode this week! Had a Feenies burger last year - was very impressed. Definitely good eats.

 

[ironchef]

Yeah, Rob Feenie is a great one. I ate at Lumiere two years ago and had one of his degustation menus. Unbelievably good.

http://www.lumiere.ca/

 

[Silver]

Yeah, Rob Feenie is a great one. I ate at Lumiere two years ago and had one of his degustation menus. Unbelievably good.

http://www.lumiere.ca/

When we were at Feenie's, it was for a bachelor party'esque kinda thing and the waiter had to go to Lumiere to steal some of their fancy creme fraiche to make a special drink for us.

They were mad

 

[katluvscake]

I love bobby but he really let me down on that goat cheese challange. His dishes weren't all that great I could just tell when he was cooking that it wasn't going to work out well for him. As for the challanger he was great!