Iron Chef America: Battle Octopus
This week on “Iron Chef America,” Gavin Kaysen wanted a little culinary revenge and decided to get it by taking on Iron Chef Michael Symon. The two had battled before on “The Next Iron Chef,” with Kaysen eventually being beat out by Symon. The secret ingredient was octopus.
The judges were Alec Lobrano from Gourmet Magazine, Jamie Little from ESPN, and Andrew Knowlton from Bon Appétit magazine.
Chef Kaysen served up five dishes: octopus ceviche, squid ink layered pasta with octopus and fennel (which Andrew called one of the more memorable dishes), rustic braised octopus (which Alec said was clean tasting), octopus pot pie (as much as I love pot pie, don’t think I could eat this one), and civet of octopus.
Iron Chef Symon also served up five dishes: octopus trio (which Andrew said showed the versatility of octopus), octopus soup, squid ink fettuccine with octopus (Jamie said it made the octopus the star, but Andrew disagreed), octopus sausage with papaya, and duo of smoked and braised octopus (which Andrew called IC Symon’s best dish yet).
Chef Kaysen got his revenge as he beat Iron Chef Symon 55 to 50, taking him on originality (14 to 12) and taste (28 to 25).
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September 12th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
The octopi were not raw. Raw octopus is incredibly disgustingly slimy and flaccid. These had tentacles that were curled, and were white upon first cut. They’d already been de-boned and gutted, and most likely quickly blanched.