I would highly recommend catching this season's
The Next Iron Chef on The Food Network (airs Sundays at 9 EST also can be found on
Hulu with a few days delay). I have watched this show for the past two seasons and find it captivating because of its interesting challenges, the intensity in each episode and of course the amazing food they are able to come up with on the fly and with a time limit. I recommend watching this season in particular because it's going to be
extremely interesting as it's a "Super Chef" season with well established chefs with amazing resumes (basically like Bravo's
Top Chef Masters). Some have their own show or shows, some have not only one restaurant, but multiple restaurants, some with James Beard awards, some who are considered worthy enough to be judges on other cooking shows, and even some who have Iron Chef like experiences of having to cook on the fly under intense pressure. Here is a list of the contestants each with a short bio*.
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Anne Burrell has some great Iron Chef experience as she is a sous chef for Mario Batali on Iron Chef America. She also has her own show Secrets of a Restaurant Chef and is a co-host of Worst Cooks in America, both on Food Network. Her culinary background is Italian cooking and her style is intense flavored rustic food made with pure and simple ingredients.
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Michael Chiarell is the chef and owner of the critically acclaimed Bottega restaurant in the Napa Valley. He has been a national television host of his own shows for over a decade on PBS, Food Network and Cooking Channel and has won an Emmy for his show Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello on Cooking Channel. He has also been a competitor on Top Chef Masters. His specialty is Italian influenced California cuisine.
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Elizabeth Falkner is chef and partner of two Michelin recommended restaurants in San Francisco, Citizen Cake and Orson. She has also been a competitor on Top Chef Masters and a judge on Top Chef: Just Desserts. She also battled it out against Cat Cora on Iron Chef America but did not prevail. Once known as a master of all things dessert, her expertise is now widely acknowledged to span both savory and pastry.
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Alex Guarnaschelli is the executive chef at Butter and the NYC modern dining and cabaret concept Darby. She has her own show Alex's Day Off on Food Network and is a judge on the Food Network show Chopped. She also competed against Cat Cora on Iron Chef America and also lost. Her cooking style is French influenced as she worked as a successful chef in France for seven years before coming back to the states.
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Chuck Hughes is the chef and owner of Garde Manger in Montreal and is the host of his own show Chuck's Day Off on Cooking Channel. He has been a challenger on Iron Chef America and was able to best Iron Chef Bobby Flay. His cooking is French Canadian influenced.
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Robert Irvine is best known for his show on Food Network Dinner: Impossible in which he is basically a culinary Macgyver having to come up with a menu on the fly sometimes with limited ingredients, or limited cooking space, or other restrictions which makes him a excellent competitor for The Next Iron Chef. He also is the host of Restaurant: Impossible and co-host of Worst Cook in America. His food has British influences.
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Beau McMillan is an executive chef at Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain and a personal Chef for Wayne Gretzky. Beau competed again Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America and won. He was also co-host of season one of Worst Cooks in America. His cooking is American influenced and his belief is that food should be appreciated for its simplicity and natural perfection.
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Spike Mendelsohn is owner and chef of Good Stuff Eatery and We the Pizza here in Washington DC. He challenged Michael Symon on Iron Chef America but lost. He was also a competitor on Top Chef and was in the top five chefs. Much of his cuisine has Vietnamese influences.
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Marcus Samuelsson, a winner of three James Beard awards, is the chef and owner of Red Rooster Harlem and serves as a judge on Food Network's Chopped and Bravo's Top Chef. He also has his own show on Discovery Network, The Inner Chef. Chef Samuelsson was recently honored as a Guest Chef of the White House under the Obama Administration planning and executing the administration's first state dinner. He has also battled Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America, but lost. His cuisine style is American with many global influences.
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Geoffrey Zakaria is the most experienced chef having been in the business over 25 years. He has received three stars from the New York Times and a Michelin Star for some of the restaurants he has opened. Chef Zakaria is currently the executive chef of The National and The Lambs Club. He is also a judge on Chopped and was a challenger on Iron Chef America but failed to best Masaharu Morimoto. He has a background of classic French techniques.
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These chefs are all excellent and professionals so any error however small means they do not survive to cook another day. It's crazy to see any of these chefs go home, but in the end only one can remain. The caliber of the contestants makes the decision for the judges very difficult. The judges they deemed able to decide who will remain supreme are: Michael Symon, the first
Next Iron Chef winner, Judy Joo, one of four Iron Chefs on
Iron Chef UK, and Simon Majumdar, famous food writer and co-author of
Dos Hermanos, one of the most popular food websites in the UK. They also upped the ante this season by having the lowest two competitors of each episode participate in an intense 30 minute secret ingredient showdown. It's been two great episodes so far, I can't wait to see who ends up on top and gets to be the Next Iron Chef.
*All images were taken from
Food Network. All bio information was taken from
Food Network, Food Network link-throughs, and Wikipedia.
