Grub Street helpfully reports that Next Iron Chef winner Michael Symon and New York City chef Michael Psilakis are not the same person....
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The show opens and, you know what? I'm really happy there are only two chefs left. That's fewer people to match dishes to. And, I think—I hope—that this finale will devote as much time to, you know, the cooking process as it will to the judging shenanigans and the plethora of commercials that breaks up those deliberations. Anyway—exciting: The finalists, Michael Symon and John Besh, will face off in Kitchen Stadium, giving one man a taste of his future and the other a taste of what might have been. At this point, and I'm typing here at the three-minute mark, I've got to admit to you that I'm pretty sure I know who wins. That is, if the Toronto Star...
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This Sunday's battle royale between John Besh and Michael Symon probably needs little fanfare to attract the dedicated viewers of the reality series. That said, anyone who is a fan of Iron Chef America and hasn't been tuning in to watch the major-league tryouts should make some time to enjoy what should be a great match. And here are some exhaustive links for those who want to study up on the whole Next Iron Chef phenomenon: The Next Iron Chef website, offering full-length video of last week's episode and a preview of the finalsMichael Symon's Cleveland restaurants, Lola and LolitaMichael Symon's blog, firmly in "watch this space" modeJohn Besh's New Orleans restaurant, AugustSerious Eats's Ed Levine talks to host Alton...
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The three remaining contestants are in Paris to determine who moves on to the finals. John Besh, Michael Symon, and Chris Cosentino all stand on the doorstep, but only two of them will step through the door. Alton greets the chefs under rainy skies, and presents each with an envelope containing €2,000 to buy supplies for a three-course meal for 20 people. All they know is they have to express American cuisine. They each grab a list of the Chairman's favorite Parisian purveyors and head off for three hours of shopping. It's fun to see the chefs browsing and tasting in a variety of nice markets with a relatively large budget. Besh goes his own way, speaking French and looking...
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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...
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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...
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