Iron Chef America: Battle Rice
This week, Chef Paul Bartolla took on Iron Chef Batali in a battle of heavyweight Italian cooking. The secret ingredient was rice and the judges were Ted Allen, Victoria Von Biel (executive editor of Bon Appetit), and Mario Rizzotti (culinary specialist at Academia Barilla).
Chef Bartolla served up five dishes: rice salad (which Ted said was the “best in Italian cooking”), tortino de riso, risotto al nero (which Mario called “superb”), squab liver risotto, and sweet rice apple fritters. Iron Chef Batali also served up five dishes: paella croqueta with wild rice horchata (Victoria was “blown away” by the horchata), a trio of rice-crusted scallops, osso bucco in a bone (which Ted said was “clever”), acorn squash risotto, and bibimbap.
It was very, very close and I thought maybe Chef Bartolla would pull off an upset, but in the end, Iron Chef Batali prevailed. The scoring was close in plating, originality, and taste, with Iron Chef Batali beating Chef Bartolla by only one point in each category.
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