Iron Chef America: Battle Beans
This week on Iron Chef America, challenger Sabrina Tinsley took on Iron Chef Bobby Flay. Their secret ingredient was fresh beans. The judges were restaurateur Joe Bastianich, Jenna Wolfe of The Today Show, and Jeffrey Steingarten.
Chef Tinsley offered up five dishes: Crostini with fava bean puree, soft boiled egg croquette with haricots verts and truffle, faro and edamame polpette, strozzapretti with cranberry bean and clams, and carne salada: beef tenderloin with bean salad. I knew things weren’t going well with her from the get go. Joe, who seemed particularly hard to please, thought her egg dish was under seasoned, but said her beef tenderloin was too salty.
Iron Chef Flay also presented five dishes: tuna tartare with plantains and edamame sauce, crispy haricots verts, trio of Greek-style dips with bean salad, Portobello mushrooms with fava bean pesto, and smoked lobster and haricots verts salad. I thought maybe the judges would go easier on Iron Chef Flay, but they didn’t. Joe thought the aromatics of the Greek-style dips were too heavy, but he really went off on the Portobello mushrooms, saying they were so 1994. When Jeffrey questioned him, he said that there were not budget restraints in Kitchen Stadium and Iron Chef Flay “choose” to use Portobello. Yikes!
The ending was as I suspected. Iron Chef Flay won easily – by 9 points. He scored a 12 on plating while Chef Tinsley received a 9, he scored a 24 on taste while Chef Tinsley scored a 19, and he scored a 10 on originality while Chef Tinsley got a 9. I somehow feel her Kitchen Stadium experience was less than satisfying.
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January 12th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
I’m glad Steingarten questioned judge Bastianich’s 1994 comment. It was a useless critique. Besides, if portobellos are so awful, why were they the rage in 1994? Because the chefs and critics are tools? Or is the criticism of them now rather weak?
I don’t particularly like portobellos, but “that’s so 19xx” as a comment is so 1991,