Wow. Season 8 of Throwdown is starting out well for Bobby Flay. Tonight, he won the chicken tikka masala Throwdown against Marianna from Venezuela (who married an Indian man who turned her on to Indian cooking). Bobby thought he was going to lose after he put too much cumin spice in his chicken, but apparently the judges had “asbestos” tongues, according to Bobby. Marianna was gracious in defeat, but added at the end that she knows her dish is better than Bobby’s! Bobby improves to 2-1 for the season.
Wow. Curtis Stone has the Hollywood looks. But it didn’t look pretty in the end in his Iron Chef battle against Bobby Flay. Curtis, the blonde haired Aussie, made his name from Take Home Chef, the show in which he “picked up” women from the grocery store to cook an amazing dinner for them and their significant others. Recently, Curtis was on Celebrity Apprentice, in which he made it almost to the finale. On the Iron Chef, though, Curtis was really no match for Bobby Flay.
The secret ingredient was skipjack tuna (a smaller tuna), and each plate had to have some form of grilled in it. In the end, Bobby totally demolished Curtis by a margin of 49 – 37. The judges gave Curtis stunningly low marks on taste. They raised their eyebrows on the first couple of dishes of Curtis’s because the dishes only seemed to have a throwaway grilled ingredient. And, except for the last dish, Curtis’s dishes were more standard and perhaps too conservative for this competition. We’ve watched a lot of Iron Chef. This one was the biggest defeat we’ve seen yet. It was pretty much a knockout. No contest.
Oh well.
Bobby Flay v. Curtis Stone
26 – 19 on Taste
12 – 10 on Plating
11 – 8 on Originality 49-37 Total
Resident Foodies say: The mango chutney hot dog–called the Hot Bollywood–was really yummy! We were not so enamored with the BBQ brisket dog (a bit bland), and the fries were just a tad soggy. Great, fun atmosphere inside.
Resident Foodies say: for Columbus, this Thai restaurant was decent. Pad Thai was probably the best we’ve tasted in Columbus. Bamboo Cafe has far more Thai offerings, though, so we wouldn’t call it a Vietnamese restaurant.
Loved the toasted focacia bread–nice and crispy. Not exactly authentic, but for a mainstream U.S. chain, this Cuban chicken sandwich is very respectable.
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