For our long awaited final showdown, Chefs Tai and Ellen laid the most fantastic spread yet. Judges came in their finest duds to enjoy (and critique) ten courses of perfectly prepared eggs. Soups, salads, stews, sushi, sweets, and of course cocktails, featured chicken eggs, quail eggs, and fish eggs...mmmm.
Congrats to Chef Tai on winning the Iron Chef Championship!
Tai the Brussel Sprouts King & Alison the Rice Winner faced off in an amazing fight to the death that left us all so full and happy that we'll have to postpone the finals until the fall! In addition to the amazing dishes, Aaron supplied a fig cocktail and guest photographer Miguel provided us with some less grainy pics!
Genie the Mushroom Champion and Ellen the Beet Queen schooled us all in how to serve up bacon Iron Chef style. After eight courses of bacon, the judges began to question the wisdom of the ingredient choice, but either way, the food was incredible!
Thanks ladies for the amazing food!
Jen and Alison created amazing menus celebrating rice and created everything from rice cracker encrusted tuna to a strata dish of differently seasoned rice and horchata. The obligatory sake was a welcome contribution as well!
Can't wait for the semifinals!!
In the legendary "these are not your mother's brussels sprouts" competition, Chefs Kim and Tai each made four courses, including a dessert. Now you might not think that brussels sprouts belong with candied bacon in your ice cream or served caramelized in a strudel, but these chefs can you show you how it's done! Of course I'm not sure if either one ever wants to see another sprout on their plate again...details.
Chef's Genie and Suzy entertained the judges with dishes highlighting all numerous kinds of mushrooms and created delightful concoctions including a savory mushroom cupcake, a mushroom apple pastry, and some mushroom rubbed steak that was so good that we begged for the recipe. Now it's not we don't trust Genie's foraging abilities, but this judge is certainly glad that it wasn't mushroom picking season!
Our most daring contestants, Aaron and Ellen, bravely competed in the first Iron Chef Dinner Club event and took on the ingredient of beets. They were so well matched that Ellen only won by one single point! They certainly set the bar high for future competitions! Our only regret is that we were so busy enjoying the food that we barely remembered to photograph it!
