Foodie Obsessed

The Next Iron Chef Is…

by Tracey Thompson on November 13th, 2007

I hope that you all were able to see the finale of the Next Iron Chef.  It was great.  I enjoy watching the Iron Chef because I think it makes for great culinary competition, but this time the stakes were for more than just bragging rights.

Besh and Symon were both incredible.  They are after-all great chefs, but in the end Symon won and his face will be there underneath the spotlights and rotating pedestal.

After reading several blogs, including those of the judges, there does seem to be a little controversy even here in Kitchen Stadium.  At the last minute the judging came down to not only Ruhlman, Donatella and Andrew, but our three Iron Chefs as well (yes, I said three…we will get to that in a minute).  It appears that the Iron Chef’s voted for Symon while Donatella and Andrew voted for Besh.  According to Ruhlman the discussion was much longer then what ended-up on the episode.  Donatella and Andrew thought that he won the challenge and they took into consideration each and every challenge.  That said, Symon did win 4 of the previous challenges where as Besh won one.  The Iron Chefs only knew from that one challenge and in their minds Symon scored.  From the discussion and comments that were shown, the Iron Chefs didn’t feel that Besh made the secret ingredient (swordfish) the star of the plate.

According to Andrew Knowlton, Besh tended to be much more creative in his dish and his presentation, but Symon’s flavors were bolder, and of course food is all about the flavor.  As to Knowlton’s opinion:

I won’t bore you with what I thought of each and every dish, but I do have some general comments. To be honest, both of the chefs’ dishes fell a little flat in terms of creativity and taste. This was only the second time in the competition that the chefs could really cook how and what they wanted. I think they both played it a little safe, trying not to mess up and hoping the other one would. Besh was the more creative of the two in terms of both presentation and technique. His smoked swordfish with corn blini was not only clever, it was one of the best dishes of the battle. His swordfish brandade agnolotti swam circles around Symon’s ravioli. But Besh made one costly mistake—the crunchy roll of lobster and lemon-cured swordfish would have been ok on “Battle Lobster,” not on “Battle Swordfish.” Overall, his dishes were well seasoned and perfectly executed. And don’t forget he did a swordfish dessert, which had to count for something.

Symon, I thought, was less successful. All his plating looked similar and three of his dishes failed to impress. His first dish, the marinated swordfish with lamb’s tongue, radish, and wasabi tobiko would have been helped by a little restraint. The swordfish ravioli was dry and mealy and the flavors from the apples and truffle butter overwhelmed the mild flavor of the fish. Too much sweetness from pineapple and coconut marred the spicy roasted swordfish—a little more heat would have helped balance the dish. But two of his dishes were winners—olive oil-poached swordfish with olives, dill, and fennel (a kind of tuna Niçoise riff) and braised swordfish collar with chorizo, clams, and saffron. With any luck, more restaurants will start serving fish collar.

In the end, the votes were 4-2 in favor of Symon.  According to Ruhlman, Donatella was none too pleased, she accused him of being the swing vote and argued with him, Flay and Cora.  She has appeared to take this personally.

The Next Iron Chef was great TV.  What I loved about this show is that there was no drama, just fun competition and food.  No one cried, no one got in a fight.  These were all professionals enjoying the challenges and having fun ribbing each other.  Their careers were not on the line, just their egos and a TV Show.

Symon will start to earn his stripes as his first battle airs on Sunday, November 18th.  My opinion is that this finale will not be the last challenge we see between Symon and Besh.  I see another culinary smack-down in the works, “Symon and Besh:  The Re-Match”.

As to the absence of one of our Iron Chef’s, where was Mario Batali???  I think we know, even after press releases stating that he will still be a part of Kitchen Stadium, Mario and the Food Network have gone their separate ways.  If this was just a scheduling conflict they would have mentioned this…but they said nothing of Mario or his absence.  I ended up feeling that it was not the swordfish that was the secret ingredient but rather the elephant sitting in the room. 

Share This

Related Stories

• Iron Chef Game for the Wii
• Paula Deen Becomes an Iron Chef
• The Next Iron Chef
• Throw Down With Bobby Flay
• Iconoclast

POSTED IN: Iron Chef America, Mario Batali, The Food Network