The Next Iron Chef

[Keep reading only if you're at least a little familiar with Iron Chef America (ICA)]

In order to satiate my craving for Food Network programming, I added The Next Iron Chef to the list. I got curious because I was wondering how did the winner get to be an Iron Chef.

The Next Iron Chef is a 6 episode long series (a "mini" series) in ICA's search for the next Iron Chef (DUH), who will be replacing an (allegedly) departing Iron Chef (I still have no idea who it is). It's only 6 hours (or less, if you've downloaded the ad-free torrents), so it wasn't a complete waste of time for this TV addict.

Hosted by Alton Brown and the "Chairman", the competition starts off with 8 people - 6 male, 2 female - most of whom I recognised as having been on ICA at some point or another as challengers.

The theme of the show is that the Chairman has devised 8 tests which tests the traits that he thinks an Iron Chef must possess - Speed, Artistry, Simplicity, Innovation, Resourcefulness, Creative Under Pressure, Lead and Inspire and Attain Greatness. Pretty reasonable traits, as I think you would really need all that in Kitchen Stadium.

The first five "tests" were on the grounds of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), and the 2 after that were held overseas (Munich and Paris). The final test (Attain Greatness) is a Kitchen Stadium showdown between chefs John Besh and Michael Symon, with the works (like a typical episode of ICA). I thought it was so sad that the women were kicked off so soon (I don't mind another female Iron Chef), but shit happens.

I must've gotten a little too used to Alton's Bill Nye-esque persona in Good Eats because he gets awfully snarky in the progress of the show. The judges for this one has also been on ICA before.

I watch this show already knowing who won (I hate not knowing), so I mainly watch to see how Chef Symon won lah.