What does Michael Phelps Have In Common With Iron Chef Bobby Flay And Chef Jose Garces?

Youll have to read until the end to find out, or maybe this is just a shameless way to incorporate the greatest Olympic champion of all time into this post. Iron Chef America Chef Bobby Flay battles Chef Jose Garces Whose cuisine will reign supreme? I was interested to see this Iron Chef episode, because I had dinner last week at Chef Garces Amada in Philadelphia. I wanted to see how his global Latin approach would play in kitchen stadium. Chef Garces, dressed in a black chefs coat with a fine crest on the upper left, choose Bobby Flay as his opponent. That makes sense, because Bobbys southwest bold and spicy POV does complement Garces own approach. He was born to Ecuadorian parents in Chicago and he incorporates different regions of Latin cooking in his restaurants. He cooked in Spain after culinary school in New York and then in Philadelphia at Alma de Cuba and El Vez with the Starr Restaurant group and now in his own Amado, Tinto and Distrito, all in Philly. We learn from the Chairman that the secret ingredient ismelon. There are Asian, Crenshaw and cantaloupe melons and little watermelons. Bobby says Thats cool. Jose says (somewhat less enthusiastically),It is, and so the battle begins. The Chairman continues that hes a great fan of brain freeze and so one component of each dish must be frozen. He wants brain freeze magic. Alton is right there talking away. In fact, hes inches from Bobbys nose. Its amazing that Bobby can resist the urge to take a swing. There is plenty of cutting, paring and blending happening at breakneck speed. Remember, though, that it takes HOURS to film these shows and that the chefs are given, IN ADVANCE, the names of THREE potential secret ingredients. Bobby throws out a pan of almonds. Stuff is going into a huge commercial ice cream machine. They are running around, but somehow they seem a little less urgent and crazed than usual. Is that because theres literally less heat in the kitchen because so much is being frozen? Theyre also using the blast chiller and a CO2 canister . The chill is on, Alton says. For some reason Im not really minding Altons know-it-all attitude here. BTW, while Im watching Bobby laboring for the Food Network, Wolfgang is on over at HSN , (125 items for sale with his name on them) where hes selling his 120 dollar Multi Position Tri-Grill with Storage and Removable Drip Tray . He had just sold 21,335 of them as I looked in. THERES the reason for his place on the money making list . Bobby is running around like a madman, sweating, straining and COOKING while Wolfgang is hosting a relaxing home-shopping segment as his fortune grows by the second. (Believe me, I think Wolfgang works incredibly hard too, it was just noteworthy that these 2 different TV moments happened at just the same time.) The judges are Ted Allen, eye candy Victoria Recao from The Insider (a garbagey gossip showwhich I never missnot reallyokay, maybe I watch a little, but I like Extra better) and Jeffrey Steingarten . About the secret ingredient, Ted says, Melons are a terrific opportunity for adult beverages. Victoria says shes a little surprised by the ingredient. Why? Jeffrey believes that melon is one of those gifts of nature that is almost never better when chefs fool around with it. In other words, theyre good as they are, dont mess with them. Bobby tastes some grilled melon, He chews, ponders, considers; he chews, ponders, considers. He chews, ponders, considers. BOBBY, you have 29 minutes left. He chews, ponders.. Okay, okay, thank goodness he likes it. We learn that adding sugar increases the freezing time and now theres less than 20 minutes left. We see tiny melon squares being blow torched , honeydew juice blended with avocado and Serrano ham is undergoing a deep-frying Oh, and lets not forget the vinaigrette that Bobby is freezing on the anti-griddle . Richard would have been in his element. This is kind of wild. Liquid nitrogen is all over the place and eg