Well, it was certainly an exciting and surprising week on The Next Iron Chef. It was such a difficult elimination this week because even us judges don’t see a clear trend amongst contestants. Being that this week’s challenge was an Indian feast, naturally we all thought that Chef Mehta had a good chance of winning this battle – and he almost did. His feast was absolutely amazing! Chef Mehta has proven to be a master of small bites. He includes so much complexity and nuance in every morsel.
But this was Chef Garces’ week! For the past challenges, he has been hovering in second or third place but wasn’t able to push through to the top. This week he proved to be the leader of the pack. He listened to the challenge and brought his own voice and vision through. Of course, it tasted delicious! As for the elimination, it was hard to see Chef Trevino go, as he has such presence and exudes pirit and exuberance, but his feast was clunky and did not have a clear direction.
As for Chef Appleman, it was also quite difficult to see him leave kitchen stadium. He is clearly a very talented chef like all the other contestants, but unfortunately we have to judge based on the dish in front of us. His banana dessert had such an off aftertaste and his sagana was heavy. In many eliminations, the judges’ votes are not unanimous, but this time we were all in agreement.
Stay tuned for Tokyo and many more surprises!
