A Battle She’ll Never Forget — Chef Guarnaschelli’s First Iron Chef America Showdown by Simon Majumdar in Shows, December 31st, 2012
There are no easy tests in Kitchen Stadium. The first battle for any newly crowned Iron Chef, however, is perhaps the toughest of all. The glory of winning The Next Iron Chef competition is all but forgotten and the winner now has to prove themselves worthy in the world’s toughest culinary arena.
It also doesn’t make any difference that Iron Chef Guarnaschelli has become familiar with Kitchen Stadium over the last year, as Iron Chef Zakarian’s sous chef. This time around, she was master, not servant, and any defeat would be associated directly with her name.
It was ironic that her first opponent would be Judy Joo, who — along with Iron Chef Michael Symon and I — was responsible for eliminating her in Season 4 of The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs. She not only battled to win, but also had a very definite point to prove.
The Secret Ingredient was mortadella (something her fellow rival chef, Chef Nate Appleman, is now very familiar with) and both chefs managed to get their first dish in front of the judges within the 20-minute time frame. Neither was declared a great success, but Iron Chef Guarnaschelli came away with a slender lead of two points to take into the rest of the battle.
Both chefs wisely decided to treat the mortadella almost as if it were bacon. Highlights from Chef’s Joo’s offerings for the judges included Korean fried chicken and scallops prepared using the Chairman’s culinary curveball and a Danish aebleskiver pan. For Iron Chef Guarnaschelli, the standouts were her mortadella popovers and a silky pasta dish of tortellini that used the Secret Ingredient.
Those dishes were just enough for the judges to award Iron Chef Guarnaschelli a narrow five-point lead, and ensured that she left Kitchen Stadium with the first tick in the win box on her battle card.
I look forward to having the opportunity to judge her as an Iron Chef soon.
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Geez…Why does almost everyone here not like Iron Chef Guarnaschelli..I find that stupid and weird.
"By all means…..Leave Alex alone! She's a great chef and that's it! No messin with her! Yes Amanda did win more challenges and etc but you gotta give Alex some love! Food Network put her in this position for a reason ya know." This is approved by Grace A. Hahl of Lynbrook, NY and other Food Network fans.
Alex is the worst chef ever to be an iron chef. They stacked the deck for her to be one and to me I will never except. She should have never been one and because she is an insider (with Zakarian judging) it was BS. They weakened the whole ideal of Iron Chef because of her.
Rodd: Strongly agree with every word you wrote. And, I will add that she is one of the rudest and disrespectful person I have ever watched on a TV show…always appears angry and negative.
Many hotel rooms have mini fridges and microwave's in the room now. Typically, these rooms do not cost more than any other room. When booking the hotel, just ask if there is a microwave and fridge. The fridge can hold milk for breakfast cereal. Grits and oatmeal also make for an easy vacation food.
What is this for a show? I don't learn anything. No one recipe one could take, how can people like it?
From the series start I projected the winner to be a female to replace Cat Cora. I thought it would be Amanda Freitag or the baker from Cali who was the runner-up the previous season. Alex G. should not have won; she was out cooked on several episodes.
I strongly believe the only reason Alex won was she worked for her friend and Judge colleague on Chopped Zakarian as a sue-chef on the actual Iron Chef show. I found it weirdly amusing Chef Zakarian just happened to be a judge on this seasons competition of the Next Iron Chef This is why the show needs five judges in lieu of three. Bring on Nigella Lawson and her spunky British mantra
cooking is about staying true to your self and that's exactly why GZ won. I believe he is a great chef but we still both entitled to our opinion. I think Elizabeth got over confident as the show progressed and that caused her not to win.