Recap: Our favorite Chef Dominique Crenn was eliminated last night in the tamarind challenge, after being in the bottom two for the past several weeks. That leaves Chef Amanda Freitag as the only woman chef remaining. 5 men remain! The gender disparity gets worse! In 4 weeks, 2 of the 3 women have been eliminated on the Next Iron Chef. And, as you may know, Cat Cora is the only female Iron Chef (with 4 males).
Our new favorite is Chef Amanda Freitag. She will be the Next Iron Chef. We hope.
This week’s challenge involved the chefs visiting an Asian restaurant and studying one of its signature dishes. Afterwards, each chef was asked to prepare a dish with some of the same Asian influence but then transforming it into an American dish.
Chef Brad Farmerie got the boot this week. Our pick Chef Dominique Crenn was again in the bottom 2, but managed to survive (thank heavens)! Chef Seamus Mullen won the challenge. We were a little bit surprised that Chef Jehangir Mehta–who prepared an outlandish shake with “take out” containers–was not in the bottom 3. The dishes did not look like dishes, but a collection of containers. Then again, we don’t get to taste the samples on TV. So maybe it tasted better than it looked.
Chef Holly Smith was booted in Episode 2, bringing the total women on the show down to 2. 6 male chefs remain. Wow, talk about gender disparity!
Resident Foodies met up today with Iron Chef Chairman Mark Dacascos. The Chairman is as energetic in person as he is on the show! He told us that he learned how to do the flips on Iron Chef from his martial arts training from his parents. Here, he is in the Food Network station along with Next Iron Chef Contestant Amanda Freitag.
