The countdown to the premiere of Next Iron Chef has officially begun (Sunday, October 30) and who better to kick it off than season three winner Marc Forgione? Nobody knows the stresses of the competition better than he does and with 10 new super-chefs lined up for season four, we asked Marc to share his lessons learned with the new contestants.
1. Do not underestimate any of your competitors.
2. Taste your food. Sometimes, in the heat of battle, you get caught up in the craziness and forget the basics like tasting your food.
Continue reading Marc’s top 5 tips »
Alton Brown will speak at Iowa’s Cedar Rapids Public Library on Friday, September 9, as a part of their Inside Out series, a new event designed to introduce the community to remarkable authors. Tickets will go on sale August 9 through the Theatre Cedar Rapids box office and a limited number of tickets will be sold to a pre-show cocktail reception with Alton.
Find out what Marc Forgione, Bobby Flay and Michael Symon are up to »
Bobby Flay has been cast to play a fictional version of himself in the final season of the HBO series Entourage. The character Ari Gold will discover his wife is dating the chef. In real life, Bobby is married to actress Stephanie March, but the TV show will portray him as a bachelor. Fans who prefer the nonfiction version of chef Flay can find him offering barbecue and grilling tips at Guild Hall in East Hampton, N.Y., on July 31 at 11am. The event is part of the hall’s series Stirring the Pot: Conversations With Culinary Celebrities.
Iron Chef Marc Forgione, with the help of other chefs, will host his first fundraising dinner this November for Feeding America, a Chicago-based nonprofit with a network of 200 food banks. “Charity is an extension of what we do,” said Forgione, as he took a break from taping Iron Chef episodes. “I don’t even have to think twice about it.”
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- Meet Nadia G., Cooking Channel host and South Beach reporter extraordinaire
At this year’s South Beach Food & Wine Festival, Cooking Channel’s Nadia G. — the hilariously irreverent host of Bitchin’ Kitchen — was on the ground chatting it up with everyone from Duff Goldman to our newest Iron Chef, Marc Forgione. Check out some footage from this Canadian rising star’s whirlwind weekend down South.
At the Best Thing I Ever Ate at the Beach party, Nadia posed a question that’s bound to get any chef fired up: What’s the worst thing you ever ate?
During the day, Nadia chatted with Guy Fieri about cooking with kids, a subject near and dear to both of these personality-packed chefs, who also share a penchant for tattoos.
Then Nadia hung out backstage during Guy’s standing-room-only cooking demo, which truly looked like a rock concert. Check out her guest appearance on stage — it was a surprise to everyone, including Nadia!
Want to see more Nadia G.? Check out more videos from South Beach on our sister blog Devour and catch Bitchin’ Kitchen on Wednesdays at 10:30pm/9:30c on Cooking Channel.
A few words from the winner …
On why he signed on for Season 3 of The Next Iron Chef:
“The only show that I would have done on TV was The Next Iron Chef. There are a lot of other chef shows, competitions that are on TV that I won’t name by name, but The Next Iron Chef is the only one that truly says, we want to see you as a chef, and we want to see who can actually be an Iron Chef. Not to see who can entertain us with the after-work antics and all this kind of stuff. It’s about the food.”
On how his life has changed:
“Just last night, I walked back into the kitchen through the dining room and every table was looking around and pointing me out. That used to happen every once in a while, but now, every table, they’re like, “Oh! That’s him!” I got stopped on the street coming into work yesterday and again this morning…It’s wild. I’m really kind of a humble, chill person. I’m having a great time, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a big change.”
On the Next Iron Chef experience:
“I’ll be 100 percent honest: I didn’t think it was going to be as hard as it was. Not to say I went in thinking it was going to be easy, but I kind of went in there thinking, you know, you do what you do, you see what happens. Which is the philosophy that I had the whole time: Just cook your food and relax…”
Read our full exclusive interview with Iron Chef Forgione.
When we visited Chef Marc Forgione at his restaurant (in secret!) shortly before his winning moment aired on The Next Iron Chef, we wanted to see him in his element: Back in the kitchen, cooking. But Restaurant Marc Forgione is closed for lunch, so the laid-back, mohawked chef asked what he should prepare from the menu. We got back to him with this proposition: “Just make yourself some lunch. Doesn’t have to be anything fancy—whatever you’d normally whip up.”
The resulting pork belly and pickled apple sandwich is so addictively delicious, we had to share Chef Forgione’s recipe with you. Iron Chef Forgione’s recipe, that is.
- Chef Forgione's late-night lunch: The B.A.D. Sandwich
Check out the making of this sandwich and get a tour of Marc Forgione (the restaurant). Plus, read our exclusive Q&A with the newest toque in Kitchen Stadium.
- The newly crowned Iron Chef Marc Forgione: Simon Majumdar’s "clear winner"
Next Iron Chef judge Simon Majumdar joins us on the FN Dish each week to share his insider’s take on what went down Sunday night.
With dozens of cameras catching every glimpse and grimace, a gallery of excited onlookers and smoke billowing across the set, I could begin to see what all the fuss had been about.
It was my first visit to Kitchen Stadium and I was nervous enough. I could only begin to imagine how Chef Canora and Chef Forgione must be feeling as they walked into the arena. They had not only to impress the three judges one more time, but also to persuade Iron Chefs Morimoto and Flay that they were ready to join the pantheon of the greats.
When given their final task, to prepare for us the finest Thanksgiving feast imaginable, the way they approached it summed up their performances in every challenge to date. Chef Forgione was cool, calm and collected as he followed his story of recreating the first turkey-free Thanksgiving. Chef Canora, on the other hand, was all drama and nervous energy as he dipped into his family cookbook to bring us a traditional Thanksgiving meal. It was not long before he was literally leaving his blood, sweat and tears on the floor.
Read more »
- Read our eliminated rivals' journals for a behind-the-scenes look at what it's like to compete on The Next Iron Chef
We started with 10 rivals in Los Angeles. Five went on to Las Vegas. Now it’s down to the last two standing. Marco Canora and Marc Forgione will battle it out in Kitchen Stadium for the title of The Next Iron Chef this Sunday at 9pm/8c.
To put this exciting and exhausting journey in perspective, take a look through the eight eliminated rivals’ journals from the competition. What was the thought process behind the dishes that won challenges—and those that sent rivals packing? Who drew lifelike sketches of their plates and who took meticulous notes? Flip through the pages of the chefs’ red Next Iron Chef journals to see.
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