Serious Eats
The Next Iron Chef: Simplicity and Innovation
Challenge 1: Simplicity
Alton and the Chairman (via video) tell the chefs to express their culinary style in a single bite. Everyone seems upbeat about this one, except perhaps the chefs who can't get their favorite ingredients at the Iron Chef salad bar. The 30-minute prep time is definitely tight and a lagging Aarón Sanchez doesn't get his plating done. Otherwise, most chefs delivered sophisticated looking plates. In fact, some of the dishes look like full-blown appetizers, not really a single bite.
The judges for this challenge turn out to be "a jury of your peers" -- a nice twist. At first, it looks like almost everyone will receive a vote, but eventually Michael Symon and his lamb tartare ends up with a handful of lovenotes from his fellow chefs. The black-clad Clevelander gets a pat on the back and a hearty handshake, as well as some minor advantages on the elimination challenge.
[Warning: Details of that elimination challenge and plenty of spoilage, after the jump.]
Challenge 2: Innovation
The chefs enter the kitchen to find a bunch of high-tech equipment waiting for them. Most, if not all of them, look like deer in the proverbial headlights. Not one of them rubs their hands together and says, "Oh goodie, an antigriddle!" And luckily for the nervous chefs, they have a lecture session and lab with chef Wyle Dufresne (of WD-50 fame) and a rep from PolyScience, the maker of most of the heavy gear (and whose client list is a fun read).
For fans of molecular gastronomy and other edgy trends, most of this stuff isn't news, but that said, most of us have never seen it in action. I wonder if Kitchen Stadium will be getting all these goodies along with the new Iron Chef.
Here were some of the real stars of this episode:
- the antigriddle -- liquid to solid in 90 seconds, and flat.
- the portable scale -- invaluable for measuring your powders down to the 1/100th of a gram.
- industrial vacuum sealers -- a nice step up from the SpaceBag.
- the smoking gun -- it lets you infuse smoky flavor without heat, and find out which chefs like to get baked and watch The Big Lebowski.
- thermal circulators -- perfect for sous vide cooking, which the chefs all took to like vacuum-sealed ducks to moderately hot water.
- methylcellulose -- It's non-digestablicious!
- liquid nitrogen -- Apparently the coolest substance on earth... to do wacky stuff with.
Each chef had 90 minutes to produce a dishes using at least three of the machines and two of the chemicals presented. Michael Symon got to choose his produce first, since he won the initial challenge. He went for tomatoes and seafood, opting to stay away from the meats that he's so famous for.
Gavin Kaysen offered various incarnations of beets, including a "fruit roll-up" style sheet of gelled beet puree. He also presented his dish on a scented pillow that released its aroma as the weight of the plate pressed down on it. I was surprised that none of the judges called him on this obvious, um, homage to Grant Achatz's similar presentation at Alinea. Seems like Symon got slapped for lesser trespass on last week's episode.
Chris Cosentino appeared to have significant difficulty with the math involved in determining the appropriate amount of chemical additives. That said, he made good use of the thickening agents, producing a razor clam dish with "shaving cream" sauce that obviously packed some great flavor, was presented in a wholly unique way, and even offered a Keller-esque pun (razor and shaving cream), which Alton was kind enough to point out to the viewing audience. For his troubles, Consentino was given the win. Now someone get him a "Math is hard!" t-shirt.
On the other side of the ledger, Jill Davie ended up trying too much and accomplishing too little. She went for a similarly witty presentation, giving the judges a potato-and-cod dish that was supposed to resemble a marrow bone, but unfortunately didn't resemble anything the judges wanted to eat.
Sadly, with the departure of Davie, both female competitors have been shown the door. So, barring a last-minute air-drop, the Next Iron Chef will be a dude. The next question is: From which coast -- East, West, Gulf, or Great Lake?
Bonus: For more high-tech kitchen pron, please enjoy this Popular Science slideshow.