Iron Chef America: Battle Coffee!
This week’s episode found Chef Ken Oringer calling out Iron Chef Cat Cora to battle. The secret ingredient was coffee, which made my husband drool just hearing the word. The judges were Ted Allen (who threw me off by changing his glasses), executive chef Alexandra Guarnasch, and Oprah’s personal chef, Art Smith.
Chef Oringer presented give dishes: cassolette of lobster and sea urchin (which Ted said was a sophisticated combination of flavors), slow cooked egg with parsley root, coffee puree, and coffee glazed mushrooms, black truffle and coffee fondue (which caused Art to say “You have a talent”), venison confit, and two desserts – milk chocolate and coffee geode and espresso cotton candy. While Ted compared the cotton candy to wool, Alexandra compared it to dryer lint. But Art exclaimed “I wish I could live in your head.” Chef Oringer definitely got great reviews for all his dishes.
Iron Chef Cora presented six dishes: coffee and breakfast (which Art said was “very good”), coffee smoked diver sea scallops, coffee and salt dough baked New York squab, coffee braised black mission figs with robiola cheese (Alexandra said she liked the fig/cheese combination), deconstructed tiramisu, and layer espresso and mocha panna cotta.
While Iron Chef Cora’s dishes were good, Chef Oringer won the competition by a total score of 56 to 52. For tasting, he outscored her 29 to 26. Plating was tied at 14 and Chef Oringer had a slight lead in originality, scoring a 13 to Iron Chef Cora’s 12.
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