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The Next Iron Chef: Pressure

Posted by Harold Check, October 29, 2007 at 9:00 AM

Four competitors remain: Aaron Sanchez, Chris Cosentino, Michael Symon, and John Besh. Two went out on last week's show -- Kaysen and Morou. Now the competition takes the show on the road, landing in a new city for each new challenge. Hey, didn't the end of last season's Top Chef wrap up on a similar road trip?

Ah well, when the quartet of chefs get to the airport, they discover that they'll be going to Munich on a big shiny Lufthansa widebody. When they land, they don't head to the Hofbrauhaus, they head to the airline hangar. Hmmmn, deja vu.

And guess what the challenge is: Cooking gourmet airline food with all the constraints of airline galleys. Holy smokes. It's the exact same challenge as Top Chef. Wow. I guess great minds think alike...

[Spoilers after the jump]

Regardless of the reality-show duplication, you can't deny that Next Iron Chef has a stellar airline and a sexier city. Sorry, Continental. Sorry, Newark. It's generally acknowledged that there's really great food on long-haul Lufthansa flights and so the bar, in this challenge, is set appropriately high. The pressure is, indeed, on.

After Alton gives a "Good Eats" style intro to the process of making meals for Lufthansa's various customer classes, the chefs are given a pep talk by Bernd Schmitt, the head honcho for the airline's culinary program. They're told that taste buds are dulled at 40,000 feet and so dishes need to be heavily seasoned. That's the major takeaway.

Once the lecture is over, Alton returns and lets the chefs know they have 90 minutes to create a 3-course meal for first-class passengers, including the requisite plating, packaging, sealing, and refrigerating. The clock is set and the chefs are off and running. Hard.

The prep session is pretty breakneck, with Alton circulating and getting previews from each chef. In their talking-head clips, we learn two key facts: Besh is making four dishes to set himself apart from the others, and Cosentino wants to deck the cameraman for crowding him.

The 90-minute timeframe is clearly adding to the Pressure theme. There's no question that each and every chef is in the weeds -- Symon and Cosentino especially. That said, all manage to complete their intended dishes on time.

At the tasting table, Bernd Schmitt joins regulars Michael Ruhlman, Donatella Arpaia, and Andrew Knowlton, with Alton doing his usual color commentary. Here are the plates, as they roll out of the Airbus galley:

Consentino gives the judges a trio of "playful" dishes, including Vitello Tonnato, White Asparagus and Lobster Gribiche, and Roasted Loin of Venison on Romanesco and Cauliflower.

After some serious smack talk about how all the other chefs "cook alike", Besh trots out Watermelon Consomme with Poached Lobster, White Asparagus Salad, Baby Lamp Chops with Spaetzle and Blackberry Sauce, and finishes up with Fresh Fruit with Madeira Sabayon.

Aaron Sanchez offers a Scallop and Coconut Ceviche, Pan-Seared Red Snapper with Summer Squash and Roasted Tomato Salsa, Seared Sirloin with Celery Root Puree. Unfortunately, as soon as Sanchez sees the judges reaction to his snapper, he regrets leaving the skin on the filet. Second guessing abounded in this episode.

Symon comes out last, bringing flavors from three different countries -- a smart narrative that makes perfect sense for the travel theme of the challenge. He not only knows how to walk the walk, he knows how to talk the talk. I think the judges really respond to that aspect of his personality. Symon's dishes are Tuna Crudo, Slow Roasted Salmon over Creamed Leeks, Curry Crusted Venison with Parship Puree with Marinated Carrots and Cilantro.

In the deliberations, Cosentino gets dinged for lack of flavor in the Vitello Tonnato and his venison over cauliflower is deemed a dismal failure.

Besh gets nitpicked by Ruhlman for calling his watermelon soup "consomme," but generally all the judges approved of his meal.

Sanchez, like Cosentino, manages to whiff completely on one of his dishes -- no-one liked the snapper, which Ruhlman called "the ugliest dish" and Knowlton said he "would send back." The ceviche was appreciated and the sirloin was quietly applauded.

Schmitt loved Symon's salmon and it looked like the Cleveland chef was almost certain to extend his front-runner status. After oohing and ahhing over Symon's dishes, the contestants were summoned and the results were revealed:

Symon, no surprise, is the winner, again. Besh survives, but is irked and he announces that next week he'll "stop trying to over-achieve. just drizzle [his food] with olive oil and garlic." Reoww. Those are fightin' words, marine.

On the chopping block, it's Cosentino and Sanchez, and the good folks at Food Network give us about five minutes of "twisting in the wind" shots and portentous music cues, not to mention a commercial break. When you're finally ready to scream at your television, "Just tell us already!" and click over to, um, some other show, like, say, the World Series or something, they give us the final verdict: Aaron Sanchez is out.

The three remaining chefs -- Chris Cosentino, John Besh, and odds-on-favorite Michael Symon -- will reconvene in Paris next week for the penultimate challenge.

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Tags: Next Iron Chef, TV