Interesting things happened, if you nerd out over Next Iron Chef the way I do.
There seems to be a need to perpetually jazz things up. The tradition has been for the final competition to be a battle in Kitchen Stadium. You ultimately win your title Iron Chef style. But this year, they added twists. There were Chairman "gifts." At any tie during the challenge, the Chairman could call the chefs over and introduce another element that would need to be factored into their final offerings.
One was the gift of help. The finalists could choose one of the other contestants to help them for fifteen minutes each. They chose Chef Guarnaschelli. Chef Guarnaschelli is an interesting TV personality. She frequently has an expression on her face that suggests that she's highly disgruntled, and yet her actions and words often belie that impression. Each independently seem sincere to me, so how do you reconcile this puzzle in your head? I am not sure. I just noticed that of anyone they could have picked, these two chefs wanted Chef Guarnaschelli on their team, and although she seemed somewhat strange about it, she also worked hard, and her components were highly praised for both teams.
The others were more food challenges. Make ice cream, a standard punchline for Iron Chef America. Use cranberries. The chefs worked with graciousness. They often looked stressed and exhausted. It genuinely seemed that this was a prize that they dearly, dearly wanted.
The other question that came to mind during the proceedings: Where's Chef Garces? Perhaps having all the Iron Chefs on the panel makes it too ridiculously large, but Chef Forgione was part of the judging panel earlier in the competition. To have Chef Garces not there at all speaks volumes to me, and maybe it's just a fiction that I'm creating in my head. But Forgione and Garces are currently polling at 2% on the Food Network poll of favorite Iron Chefs. Mike says it's the nature of the beast. The Next Iron Chef now is so popular that whoever wins the competition does not get a chance to develop a following. There are too many Iron Chefs and too few episodes. Everyone's lucky if they're seen more than twice a year. I do think it's also temperament. Chef Garces does not have a larger than life pesonality. He seems kind of shy. He also beat Bobby Flay, and last season he obtained a perfect score in one of his Iron Chef battles. I don't know what's going on behind closed doors with him and Food Network, but i think that keeping him out of these opportunities is not helpful for someone who obviously has the culinary skills, and I think could become a popular chef, given more time and attention.
By the time we had gotten to this point, I was happy with either of these chefs winning. I could see that Chef Zakarian consistently produced food that amazed the judges. I saw how Chef Falkner kept surrpising everyone, how through her creativity, she demanded to be one of the final two. It seemed like it was a very difficult decision, but it felt like the right choice this time to choose Chef Zakarian as the Next Iron Chef. I think he will be great at it. I think he will be fun to watch.
And the network seems to have the perfect angle to continue this series. There have been ads for Iron Chef Redemption. They will bring back the chefs that the publc loved the most: I'm thinking Chef Falkner, Burrell, Guarnaschelli, Irvine, Tsai, and Besh will be in the mix, if they want it, and I think most, if not all of them, do. It has the potential to be great television again, one where I bet Michael Symon will not be a judge. I will again hope for a woman to win. I think we need a woman Iron Chef, but she needs to fully win it. The consensus tonight was that although Falkner brought skills to the table that the other Iron Chefs don't have, narmely her baking skills, and she is a rising star, Chef Zakarian is now at the top of his game, and isn't that what an Iron Chef is ultimately about?
I can't believe that after all of my complaining, I look forward to see who the next Iron Chef will be. How did it happen that the competition to be on the show has generated more excitement than the actual show? That is a bit of a pickle, and one that they need to figure out.
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