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Iron Chef Showdown: Iron Chef Meets Beat Bobby Flay

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9 hours ago, Rammchick said:

So so far, Iron Chefs are 3-0.  The competitors have the odds stacked against them but if this trend continues, it will be very boring to watch.

That said the choice was clear last night. She made Chorizo Milkshakes work and made her own goat sausage.

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mlp
mlp

A long time ago on ICA there was an episode called Battle: Fruitcake.  Alton claimed that he had made the fruitcakes or the recipe came from him - can't remember which.  In any event, he talked about

Rammchick
Rammchick

Another thing -- FN shows previews all week of this show, including which Iron Chef the winner of the showdown will battle, and it's also included in the on-screen description of the episode.  Some su

Tyrone Biggums
Tyrone Biggums

The contender seemed to make food that they loved this week (one of the judges even called it "a journey"), and Alex made a bunch of boring, homey stuff that even seemed to have them nodding off from

Fukui San

Fukui San

The Chairman is still there, but his screentime is diminished with Alton's running the prelim round all by himself and eating the food at the table.

Here's the thing though. Mark Dacascos was hired because he can do the outlandish introductions and play the part. He dutifully ate whatever was put in front of him. But I don't know if he has a single opinion about food. He never voiced any during all his time at the table. The Japanese Chairman did so on occasion. The only thing I remember is once one of the judges noticed that Mark wasn't eating a certain dish. He just smiled and laughed it off.  It may be that he just isn't a foodie at all.

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dleighg

dleighg

Leah Cohen was of the infamous "Hosea and Leah" love affair on Top Chef, right? She looks quite different now, and I was surprised at this focus on her Filipino heritage; I don't recall that *ever* being mentioned during her run on TC.

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Snarklepuss

Snarklepuss

12 hours ago, dleighg said:

Leah Cohen was of the infamous "Hosea and Leah" love affair on Top Chef, right? She looks quite different now, and I was surprised at this focus on her Filipino heritage; I don't recall that *ever* being mentioned during her run on TC.

I thought the same thing.  I didn't even know she had Filipino heritage.  She seems to have done a LOT of growing up and maturing in the time since her Top Chef season.  Unfortunately she is also minus a personality now as well.

I thought Stephanie deserved the win but I didn't think they would let her lose her first challenge.  They will have to let challengers win once in a while or it will get boring.

I also figured she would make goat because all her restaurants have "goat" in the title.

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Tyrone Biggums

Tyrone Biggums

The contender seemed to make food that they loved this week (one of the judges even called it "a journey"), and Alex made a bunch of boring, homey stuff that even seemed to have them nodding off from time to time.  Alex wins by many points, and the contender is all like, "but at least I got to compete with an Iron Chef!".

Screw you, show.  I'm out.  Too much Alton, the opening competition is moronic, two judges waters down the show, and it's like season 9 of Scrubs.  It's skating by on having the "Iron Chef" name.

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mlp

mlp

A long time ago on ICA there was an episode called Battle: Fruitcake.  Alton claimed that he had made the fruitcakes or the recipe came from him - can't remember which.  In any event, he talked about "MY fruitcake" all through the show.  It was so annoying that I wanted to reach into the TV and slap him.  The new version of the show strikes me the same way.  The first part should be called Alton's Ego Trip.  That gets a bit diluted by the cooking in part two but Alton is still obnoxious.  The two judges seem almost incidental.  

I don't mind the new girl but I miss Kevin.  I'm glad they brought the Chairman back but I don't like that Alton usurped his place at the judging table.  I also don't like that Alton keeps referring to him as "my boss" when we all know that the Chairman is an actor and Alton is posturing.  

Grrrrrrrr.  ICA was a great show.  They should have left well enough alone.  I'll be interested to see the ratings.  I doubt they'll be good.

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meowmommy

meowmommy

My favorite line of the Alex episode, from Alton:  "In the words of Walter White, let's cook!"  That made me laugh.

On 12/8/2017 at 0:07 AM, mlp said:

ICA was a great show.  They should have left well enough alone.

ICA worked reasonably well until they diluted the talent pool with too many ICs (and I guess now everyone's relieved Michael Symon beat John Besh) and then started adding gimmicks.  And now it's the Alton Show and more gimmicky than ever.  Someone upthread said two judges is not enough and they are right.

On 12/8/2017 at 0:07 AM, mlp said:

I don't mind the new girl but I miss Kevin.  I'm glad they brought the Chairman back but I don't like that Alton usurped his place at the judging table.  I also don't like that Alton keeps referring to him as "my boss" when we all know that the Chairman is an actor and Alton is posturing.  

I don't think she actually knows what to ask.  I suspect producers are feeding her the questions.  As far as the "my boss," it's just part of the little game, which is ok as long as they continue to play the entire game and have Mark at the table as Chairman with Alton sticking to commentary.

And because I watched Alton's road trip show, I know he wants his name said as Al-ton and not Awl-ton, so every time a challenger mispronounces his name I notice.

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meowmommy

meowmommy

(edited)
On 12/16/2017 at 4:03 PM, meowmommy said:

And because I watched Alton's road trip show, I know he wants his name said as Al-ton and not Awl-ton, so every time a challenger mispronounces his name I notice.

Not to quote myself, but just got around to watching the most recent ep and he actually corrects one of the challengers on how to say his name.  First time I've ever seen him do that.

Susan Feniger and Jonathan Waxman can judge every competition, AFAIC.

Edited by meowmommy
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Plaidmoon

Plaidmoon

I just saw Iron Chef Showdown tonight for the first time. It was OK, though with the showdown at the beginning, the rest of the show felt rushed to me. I'm assuming Mark Dascados is away filming a movie or something. I hope Alton's increased role is temporary. It got to be Alton overload by the judging time.  I didn't know Stephanie Izard was an Iron Chef. She was good, if a bit cocky. She certainly won't be the weakest Iron Chef.

I agree with meowmommy. I liked Susan Feniger and Jonathan Waxman as judges, though a good drinking game would be to have a drink every time Susan says "The dish needs more acidity." I think she said that for every dish except the ice cream.

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beverlyoc

beverlyoc

I watched last night's (with Garces as the IC) and two things that I have questions about:

1.  WT actual F was Jaime (?) wearing?  A track suit pair of pants paired with a pretty red top?  Did she only expect to be filmed from the waist up?

2.  After watching millions of seasons of NFNS, even I could judge better than those two judges.  Everything was "nice", "delicious", "seasoned well", and/or "cooked well".  Well, that was informative as heck.

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Fukui San

Fukui San

At least we finally got a challenger win. First of the season, right?

The charcoal coating was quite odd.  Savory ice cream is now an Iron Chef cliche.

I didn't mind the judges. Actually, I think the judging dialogue all season has been good. Well reasoned, not obnoxious or snarky, game for anything. No assholery like Jeffery Steingarten saying "I like this dish. I would even consider paying for it" or turning a nose up at this or that like some celebrity judges have done. They've been sincerely trying to express what makes dishes work or not rather than trying to get in one liners.

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mlp

mlp

I thought all the women on last night's show were terrible (and I am female).  The challenger who lost was wearing a white blouse, a Rosie-the-Riveter head scarf and a nose ring.  She looked more like somebody's cleaning lady than a chef.  And she had an attitude.  Jaymee or whatever her name is was useless.  And I thought the judges were terrible.  They were both doing what FNS contestants are told not to do - use "delicious" and so on rather than making specific observations.  

Alton continues to annoy.

I really liked the chef who won.  He seemed like a nice guy and I thought he beat Jose Garces fair and square.

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meowmommy

meowmommy

On 12/21/2017 at 2:32 PM, Fukui San said:

No assholery like Jeffery Steingarten saying "I like this dish. I would even consider paying for it" or turning a nose up at this or that like some celebrity judges have done.

Oh, geez, I can't believe I forgot about him.  I think I even bought his book once, The Man Who Ate Everything.  He was assholish but never boring.

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spiderpig

spiderpig

Question for you IC mavens:

I just binged on ICS On Demand (xfinity), and they listed episodes as 1-2-3-4-5-7-8.  Was there an episode 6?  5 had Alex and 7 had Stephanie's second appearance.

Tweaking the show titles drives me nuts when the DVR doesn't pick up.

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Wings

Wings

7 hours ago, spiderpig said:

Question for you IC mavens:

I just binged on ICS On Demand (xfinity), and they listed episodes as 1-2-3-4-5-7-8.  Was there an episode 6?  5 had Alex and 7 had Stephanie's second appearance.

Tweaking the show titles drives me nuts when the DVR doesn't pick up.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nola.eater.com/platform/amp/2017/11/2/16598234/iron-chef-showdown-john-besh-appearance

He will be on or was on.  I had this on my DVR but I guess it didn't pick up all the episodes because don't remember him.  

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spiderpig

spiderpig

I'd forgotten about this site, but here's an explanation in FoodNetworkGossip.com

Iron Chef Episode Where Bobby Flay Supposedly Quit Didn't Air As Scheduled

On this past Wednesday night (December 13th), Food Network was supposed to air an episode of Iron Chef Showdown that featured Bobby Flay, but it did not air.  The episode was going to be the episode where Bobby Flay supposedly quit Iron Chef by revealing a t-shirt that said it was his last battle.  Bobby supposedly chose a t-shirt as he knew it would be hard to edit out of the show.  This episode was on the schedule all week and was being advertised, but when it got to Wednesday night at 9pm an Iron Chef Showdown episode with Stephanie Izard was on Food Network.

No advanced warning was given by Food Network that this episode would be moved/postponed, but Alton Brown responded to some fans on Twitter (pictured) saying it was his fault because he "didn't finish voice over patches in time."

Tory Miller, one of the chefs competing on the episode, actually had a watch party the night of the episode and everyone there watching was disappointed when the episode wasn't the one he competed on.  He even received no advanced warning of the postponement. Tory Miller also had a sold out $125 six-course meal planned Sunday for 100 people which was celebrating his appearance on the show.  He had planned to still have that dinner, but it looks like he has rescheduled.

This makes you wonder what kind of plans Food Network has for this episode of Iron Chef Showdown.  Are they doing heavy editing to edit out the original audio or the t-shirt?  Will they move this to the season finale and allow Bobby to quit for drama?  Or will it just be a normal episode?  We will have to wait and see, but when this episode has an air date, I will update this post.

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meowmommy

meowmommy

(edited)

Did Bobby Flay Torpedo His Own Iron Chef Career? [Updated]

Quote

“This past summer when I was in production on Iron Chef Showdown, I wore a T-shirt to have a little fun during my last battle this season. In hindsight, it was probably not the best decision because it’s just creating confusion. Food Network has been part of my family for over 20 years and will absolutely continue to be, and though there is a talented bench of Iron Chefs to tap, if I were asked, I’d be excited to return to Kitchen Stadium, whenever my schedule allows.”

Sounds like damage control to me.

There were too many ICs at the end of ICA but this version feels like not enough.  Where are Forgione and Zakarian?  And boy, do I miss Morimoto.  He was everything IC should be.

Edited by meowmommy
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Rammchick

Rammchick

(edited)

This past week's showdown seemed like shenanigans to me.  Alex made a very safe first course and was awarded 4 points.  The challenger got 7.  Clearly the judges weren't impressed with her dish.  The judges then went on to rave about the exotic flavors of the challenger's dishes...and he managed to lose by 5 points?  Particularly since Alex made nothing all that challenging -- frito misto and surf and turf, really? -- I have my doubts here.

Edited by Rammchick
I couldn't remember how many points Alex got.
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7-Zark-7

7-Zark-7

2 hours ago, Rammchick said:

The judges then went on to rave about the exotic flavors of the challenger's dishes...and he managed to lose by 5 points

Ludo complained about the heavy spices in almost every dish the challenger made.  He stuck with Asian/West Indian flavors and Ludo wasn’t into it. Although a 9 out of 20 possible points for taste is harsh. It’s like Ludo gave him 2 points, tops.

49 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

She had 4 after the first course.

The look on Alex’s face when she got that score was withering! If I were a judge, I’d throw a few extra points her way out of fear.

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nitrofishblue

nitrofishblue

Alex is my most least favorite Iron Chef.  I think she won just because she is an IC. Her dishes didn't have much eye appeal for TV. I know we can't taste but they really didn't look very appetizing. I feel this is true for other IC's. At least Garces lost. He and Alex are on my bottom feeder list. I do like M. Simon. He does awesome food. What would the results be if the judges did not watch the food prep and they had a blind tasting for the dishes?

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halopub

halopub

On 12/24/2017 at 9:50 AM, Wings said:

Good god, Flay is good, clearly, but I don't see him as all that!  Mystery solved on the title of this thread/show. 

Thank you Spidy. 

I assume the title of the thread derives from how Showdown copies the initial chef vs. chef concept from the show Beat Bobby Flay.

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Westiepeach

Westiepeach

1 hour ago, nitrofishblue said:

Alex is my most least favorite Iron Chef.  I think she won just because she is an IC. Her dishes didn't have much eye appeal for TV. I know we can't taste but they really didn't look very appetizing. I feel this is true for other IC's. At least Garces lost. He and Alex are on my bottom feeder list. I do like M. Simon. He does awesome food. What would the results be if the judges did not watch the food prep and they had a blind tasting for the dishes?

I would love for the judging to be blind. I’d bet a lot more challengers would win!

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jcbrown

jcbrown

I had this show on for background noise this morning. My husband looked up at one point and commented, "Alton is looking more and more like a Bond villain."  I agree, though I see it as more of a Dr. Evil look. Someone get him a Sphinx cat!

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jcbrown

jcbrown

Can someone please tell me who won the duck battle between Alton and Gregory? FN has changed its programming to run like 30 seconds to a minute long and my TiVo keeps missing the ends of shows.

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chessiegal

chessiegal

Watching Iron Chef America reruns this afternoon left me nostalgic for the original version. Such a great show. Iron Chef Showdown isn't doing that great in the ratings, so don't know if it will be renewed. Iron Chef America must have been very expensive to produce.

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rab01

rab01

(edited)

Yup, just rewound the show and in the background of one of the wideshots there is a man seated next to Giada. I can't tell who though ...  Seems to be clean shaven with straightish brown hair

Edited by rab01
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Fukui San

Fukui San

43 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

Watching Iron Chef America reruns this afternoon left me nostalgic for the original version. Such a great show. Iron Chef Showdown isn't doing that great in the ratings, so don't know if it will be renewed. Iron Chef America must have been very expensive to produce.

Is it, I wonder? I wonder how it's budget compares to Chopped or Beat Bobby Flay. Each requires a studio/kitchen of varying levels of impressiveness, regulars (hosts/judges/Iron Chefs), challengers, behind the scenes personnel, and food/kitchen costs.  Chopped also films intros for each chef at their home restaurant, and I believe Iron Chef America used to do that. The Iron Chef kitchen looks more spacious than the Chopped kitchen, and perhaps it costs more to have a Bobby Flay or Michael Symon cook than to have three celebrity chefs judge in an episode. If I had to guess, I'd say that the salaries of the regulars is the determining factor as to how expensive these shows are to produce.

In any case, I believe that Iron Chef Showdown is more expensive to make than Iron Chef non-showdown version, as they've added an extra contestant and cooking day for the showdown segment and only subtracted one judge to produce the same one hour show. It would seem to indicate more filming time was needed per episode.

Further, wouldn't all of these studio competition shows be much cheaper than a full on reality show as The Next Iron Chef, where you had to house a large field of contestants, stage segments outside the studio, and have elaborate and unique cook offs in different locations? That would seem to be an expense per ep that would dwarf ICA, unless the Iron Chefs were pulling down huge salaries and the cheftestants weren't.

The last few years of the last iteration of ICA felt like the franchise was only being kept around to provide a prize for the ongoing seasons of The Next Iron Chef. I don't know if I'm right, but that's how it felt. If my feeling was correct, I'd say that ratings were good enough for The Next Iron Chef so that they'd keep ICA going, even if ICA's ratings weren't great. If that's true, then maybe ICA isn't that expensive to produce in comparison.

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Gbb

Gbb

I adore Alton Brown. (Not blindly; I hated  Cutthroat Kitchen). I don’t find him a know-it-all. I find him a very intelligent smart-ass who knows a hell of a lot about food and who loves to talk about it. His intelligence and humor are right down my alley, and his snark is just the cherry on top. I’ve never found it pretentious or assholey- just fun. 

Thanks for clearing up why Giada was the only their judge tonight. I was wondering if the IC budget had taken a hit. 

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mlp

mlp

I  didn't think about tonight's being the John Besh episode so I kept wondering why Giada was the only judge.  It looked and felt very awkward.  Now I see why.  The editors did a good job of making him disappear.  I didn't notice any instances of the chefs seeming to look at someone who wasn't there while they were presenting.  I must say that Giada was on her best behavior.  She even ate stuff.

The chef who won totally deserved his victory.  He beat Bobby Flay fair and square.

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Irlandesa

Irlandesa

I have to reiterate how much I hate the showdown portion of the show.  And it me tonight why--besides all the reasons listed, Alton is always so negative. One thing I loved about Iron Chef is that a chef could serve up a perfect dish--a series of them--that the judges just loved the experience of eating.  Because Alton has to "choose" who goes up against the Iron Chef, he has to find faults with each dish.  He seems to find a lot of faults, too. 

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Rammchick

Rammchick

(edited)

It seemed to me that Giada's demeanor was different with Bobby Flay than it was with the Challenger, and it was especially noticeable for the Bolognese course.  Some personal enmity there, perhaps?  Or was it that she found him arrogant for cooking her Italian food?  She didn't act like that with the challenger's gnocchi dish, although he did acknowledge her expertise in that area whereas Bobby didn't.

ETA...Or as closer2fine suggested below, there's something else going on between the two of them...

Edited by Rammchick
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dleighg

dleighg

It went by very quickly but what was that thing the (losing) challenger chef did with the little apple balls and apple cider vinegar? It looked like he put it in a little plastic container and put it in the cryovac (uncovered?). Alton said it was a good way to concentrate the flavor of the vinegar into the apples. But wouldn't it just boil under vacuum? I don't see how this works *at all*. I mean I get the usual process of compressing a food item with a marinade in a cryovac, but that's inside a sealed bag.

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dleighg

dleighg

13 hours ago, mlp said:

The editors did a good job of making him disappear.

They did. The only thing that gave it away was when Giada was talking about a dish it was clear there were two people there; one next to her and Jamie, across from her. Her eyes were going both places as you normally do when you're talking to two people. I guess they are pretending that Giada gets a double dose of points to give out. 

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