This was Chef Zakarian's first battle as an Iron Chef. What first surprised and delighted me was that Chef Guarnaschelli was one of his sous chefs. To those who didn't watch Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs, Chef Guarnaschelli was one of Chef Zakarian's competitors on that show. She and Zakarian are both judges on Chopped. In Zakarian's final battle to be Iron Chef, he chose Guaranaschelli to be his sous chef.
I thought she brought a whole new dimension to the role of sous chef on this show. In this battle, Battle Trout, she was in charge of making the soup. Generally the sous chefs on this program go about their business, completing the tasks that the Iron Chef has assigned them. Chef Guaraneschelli gave input. She advised the Iron Chef. In this first battle, there seemed to be time issues or at the very least anxiety over time. Zakarian kept asking Guaranaschelli if he could help with the soup, but his ideas of helping prompted words like, "I beg of you, don't blend it yet" and the mantra, "Let it cook." It was a great dynamic, and I hope that they will remain team members for future battles.
The judging was also interesting. I would beg of Food Network that they cease and desist on the celebrity judges that have little culinary knowledge. On this occasiion, Jill Zarin, one of the Real Housewives, was a judge. She promptly proclaimed that she had never eaten sushi and didn't care for mussels. i felt it tainted the judging. Iron Chef Zakarian won with a perfect score, but it left me wondering, because I didn't feel that one member on the panel really had the knowledge to evaluate this food. It's a battle that's often inherent in Iron Chef America: how much of it is about technical expertise and how much is show biz? To me the show is the most entertaining when it's really about what they are doing.
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