Iron Chef America: Battle Corn
Chef Marcus Samuelsson of Aquavit took on Iron Chef Bobby Flay in the battle of corn. The judges were Oprah’s personal chef Art Smith, actress Cady Huffman, and Jeffrey Steingarten.
I thought the judges were feisty and combative tonight, almost borderline rude to Chef Samuelsson. Then, they acted the same way with Iron Chef Flay! Chef Samuelsson presented five dishes: corn gazpacho with peppercorn panna cotta and crab (both Art and Cady felt the corn was too subtle), berbere smoked salmon with toasted corn flake potato salad (Cady kept pointed out there was not corn on the salmon), sea urchin flan with corn ice cream and corn-tuna tiradito, steamed black bass with kobe beef ravioli and corn-tea broth, and roasted jerk chicken with huitlacoche polenta and long beans (with Art said was “home” – Jeffery called the polenta “mush”). Iron Chef Flay too presented five dishes: corn and curried coconut chowder (which Cady said was sweet then spicy), corn and sea urchin custard (Jeffrey said the custard was rich and stopped eating it), corn stuffed chile relleno (Cady complained it was hot), fresh corn tamale with lobster, and corn waffle with bourbon-caramel sauce (which Art called “good fine eating”).
Even with the off-hand comments to both chefs, it was still obvious that Iron Chef Flay would win and he did. The scores were close in plating and originality, but it was taste (27 to 15) that made the difference.
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