Category — iron chef

Everyone appears to be killing Iron Chef Australia today except Channel 7. The Daily Telegraph reports the show which was a spin off of the cult Japanese show will not be renewed for a second season.

But can someone tell Channel 7 that as they are still saying ”no decision has yet been made” on the future of the show.

I thought the show had potential but with good iron chefs, and a great judging panel. However I did find Grant Denyer and the American Chairman superfluous.

If Seven do flick this, maybe they could think of doing an Australian version of Top Chef. Where professional chefs battle it out for the title of Top Chef.

Curtis Stone is currently the host of Top Chef Masters in the US.

The real star of the night was the truffles, oh and Jose who was  Guillame Brahimi’s sous chef tonight. Get him on Ready, Steady, Cook NOW! He managed to take camera time from the not so shabby Guillami and that is quite a skill.

I like the challenger Dan Hong as well, and he created tension with the dashi custard saga. Would it or wouldn’t it set.

Both of the competitors paid homage to the original iron chef and used plenty of truffles, it was pureed on top of soup, shoved under chicken skin, and sliced over eggs.

The judging:

Dan Hong’s food looked great and the judges mainly agreed.

He cooked:

Sashimi of Tuna with Buddha’s Delight – “raw fish, raw mushroom… this is fantastic” said Simon Thomsen.

Dashi custard with Tempura mushroom – “that was worth the wait, there is custard and there’s custard, and this is custard.” said Simon. “This is perfection,” said Larissa Dubecki.

Fragant mushroom broth “Surf and Turf” – “Another absolute cracker” said Leo Schofield.

Roast mushroom sandwich with lashings of truffle. “Breakie fry up a bankok playboy might have after a big night.” said Larissa. Actually it looked pretty ordinary.

Gulliame Brahmi cooked:

Marron with truffles;

Chicken with tombe of mushroom – oh and truffles in the chicken – I need a defibrilator said Larissa It is beautiful but so rich.

Tortellini of peas with morels sauce – “Ethereal said Simon “Tortellini melts in your mouth.”

Poached Marron – “Pickling of the mushrooms is delicious” said Leo.

Guillame Brahimi won by three points, and it was probably was the egg dish that cost Dan the win.

It will be a surprise if Channel 7 renew the show as the ratings barely reached the million mark. Here is my blog post from last week which outlines what I would do to fix the show. However I suspect that post is now irrelevant.

UPDATE: Iron Chef won’t be renewed as it only rated 768,000 last night. (Source: Mumbrella)

So Grant Denyer wasn’t allowed to help challenger Sascha Meier shake a fry pan when he had badly cut his finger, but he can bump out the first aid nurse out to try and put a bandaid on him. Personally I would have found Grant plating up squid dishes much more amusing. I am surprised he knew what it was considering it was not round or crumbed.

Last week Iron Chef dived in the ratings to below one million, and the silence has been deafening on whether Channel Seven will be renewing it. It is a pity as it could/should have been a winner.

Five things I would do to fix it:

• Get rid of Grant Denyer, expand the Chairman’s and Richard Cornish’s role to cover whatever the host is meant to do;
• Get better challenges, again tonight Sascha Meier was completely out of his league;
• Get rid of the audience they are superfluous;
• Allow there to be more banter between the judges or show it;
• Mix up a person to sit with chat with Richard Cornish each week either a food expert or just someone interesting.

The positives about the show is that they do show a lot of the cooking, and the cast is fairly strong. Also the Iron Chefs are fantastic cooks.

Tonight Neil Perry showed just how good he can cook. His ingredient combinations were mouthwatering. Whereas his competitor from Ba Ba Lu in Victoria seemed to stick to his tried and true recipes.

Neil Perry served up:

• Raw Squid, iberco ham, and parsnip salad and black bean custard – “Very few Australian chefs would have the chutzpah to serve this dish” said Leo Schofield. “Incredibly clever” said Simon Thomsen. Larissa said it looks like a children’s fairy tale, I am not sure which ones she has been reading.
• Salad of confit squid with asian chicken “Liked textures” said Larissa, Simon implied it had too much chilli.
• Squid Ink Noodles – “Very sexy dish” said Simon.
• Braised squid stuffed with octopus – ” Wonderful flavour” said Leo

Sasha cooked:

• Octopus and squid  paella with black squid ink “beautiful paella”  said Leo. Loved the crust but lacking the fully developed flavour.
• Peruvian style ceviche – “So pretty” said Larissa. “Lightness that is a wonderful contrast to the other dishes.
• Pork and squid meatballs –  ”reminded me of nappy time” said Simon. “Larissa thought the squid flavour faded to the back ground
• Char Grilled Octopus – “sex on a plate” said Larissa and she did look like she was getting a buzz.

Neil easily won scoring 49 out of 60 and Meier 40 out of 60 his dishes were not that  original nor looked as beautiful on the plate.

Next Iron Chef French gets his second go in the kitchen stadium. It is the final episode, and I doubt we will see anymore.

Iron Chef Guy Grossi was beaten tonight by challenger Herb Faust. Was I surprised? No, as Channel Seven had decided to tell us the result of the show in the preview after last weeks episode.  Why was that?

Herb Faust is the chef at Scotch College at Perth, which I suspect because of his win will increase the waiting list for the boarding school, conversely it could also open the debate about the Government funding formula for non-government schools, if the quality of the ingredients he was cooking with was anything to go by.

Another irritation was the gasping about Herb making a lamb tartare and how unusual it was, however raw lamb is pretty standard in Lebanese cuisine. I call it kebbe but @simonthomsen kindly corrected me by telling me it is kibbeh nayah. That is why he is a world renowned food critic, and I am plankton on the blogging food chain.

Anyway kibbeh nayah is delicious if you ever get to try it and it is pretty standard at Lebanese restaurants in Sydney.

Maybe Guy Grossi lost because the judges kept on seeing all the blood going into his food as he kept cutting himself. Either he was drinking too much wine during the show or it has been a good decade since he has had to do the prep of his food.

The other thing is it de rigeur if you are a foodie to gush over offal? Personally I cannot stomach it, I once threw up part of pigs ear in a two hat restaurant after I realised what I was eating. For the record I did make it to the toilets.

Guy Grossi cooked:

• Smoked Lamb Carpaccio – with the smoke coming with the lamb – Simon Thomsen said he “thinks of carpaccio as thinly sliced”.
• Lambs Brains with Bresola Salad – Leo Schofield  said “possibly the best brains I have ever had”.
• Spiced Lamb Ragu – Larissa Dubecki got a iron Chef hair in hers (yes that was a negative thing), and Simon thought the meat was too tough.
• Costolette D’Agnello – lamb cutlet wrapped in pork caul fat- “you have captured spring” said Simon.

Herb Faust cooked:

• Lamb Tartare With Sheeps Milk Bavoir – the presentation was sensational, and Leo thought it was “delightful”.
• Rosemary Skewered lamb sandwich – “You have taken a great kebab and made it fantastic” said Larissa
• Sticky braised lamb roll which was an upmarket chiko roll. Something all of this years Masterchef contestants would have wished they had don on the chiko roll challenge. “Beautiful” said Larissa.
• Vine leaf Roast –  ”seen a sense of fun, sense of whimsy, and exhuberance.” said Simon Thomsen.

Anyway Herb Faust flogged Guy Grossi 44/60 and 50/60 picking up the point in taste, and in originality. Well done Herb, and Guy’s sous chef are probably going to get sacked for being beaten by a chef from a boarding school.

Grant Denyer was happy to have Chris Badenoch as a challenger as he could look him in the eye.

Even though Chris would have been happy about all the publicity the show was giving his new cookbook The Entire Beast, he was always going to lose.

It was a no brainer on who was going to win, Iron Chef French, Guillame Brahimi a trained chef had two trained sous chefs to assist. Whilst Chris had, his partner Julia Jenkins both untrained, and his sous chef Hugh, who I presume is trained even though Julia was telling him how to cook raspberries with sugar. With only having an hour to prep and cook it meant Chris and Julia were not going to be able to fit as much in the allotted time.

As usual Julia is the bridesmaid never the bride. When she was Masterchef Australia when she beat the chef and was fast forwarded to final’s week and taken from our screens. Her profile never rose to he heights of the other contestants. And now she is again playing second fiddle.

If Channel 7 renew the show they need to put in some serious challengers. There is no tension as you know who is going to win each week.

On the plus side if they do an Australian production of Top Chef they could do worse with having Larissa Dubecki and Simon Thomsen on the judging panel.

Tonight the main ingredient was chocolate.

Both did two savoury and two sweet dishes. I thought it a tad unfair that the iron chef pre-prepped Gingerbread for his emulsion, whereas Chris made his chocolate cake for his dessert from scratch.

Iron Chef French made:

• Carpaccio of venison which Leo Schofield thought was close to perfection.
• Whole veal sweetbread with gingerbread and chocolate sauce. I thought Larissa was looking uncomfortable whilst chewing the  sweetbreads, but ended up being very positive about the dish.
• White chocolate mousse with raspberries and a granita was a pre-dessert. Larissa said it was too sweet for a pre-dessert.
• Chocolate tart with vanilla bean icecream. It looked sensational, however I agree with Simon Thomsen who said “It is good, but does not push the boundaries of chocolate as I would like to see it.”.

Chris cooked:

• White Chocolate egg encased duck liver parfait – “I really like the orange in the dish” said Simon. Did anyone else think it was similar to Heston Blummenthal’s dormouse dish on one of his medievil episodes?
• Leo was critcal about presentation but was positive about the taste.
• Venison and Chocolate cigars – Simon called it a chocolate sausage roll, and Larissa liked the nut sauce. I think we can say this dish was not a success.
• Chocolate Porter Pannacotta with framboise jelly. “This pannacotta is harder then the plastic on a Hollywood starlet” said Simon. And he meant that as a negative thing.
• Chocolate Cake with sour cherry beer sauce which the judges really liked, will we see it on his new restaurant menu?

The iron chef won, and it was telling that he beat Chris by five points on taste. However Chris can take heart that he beat him in originality of his dishes.

Mildly entertaining episode, but next week Channel Seven gave a spoiler in their preview by saying “And you thought an Iron Chef could not be beaten.” If this is the case did I really need to know before the show?