A trend with all the contestants was the poor execution of the sweet dish. Generally speaking, chefs are pretty bad when it comes to desserts – there is a reason why they don’t do it. That’s what a pastry chef is for! However, chefs do need to have dessert skill sets on a basic level. As an Iron Chef, you are constantly battling with a single ingredient and sweet interpretations are unavoidable. An Iron Chef has to have the creativity and technique to do many variations on the same item.
I was sad to see another female chef get eliminated from the competition. Chef Cren is very talented, but she has struggled through the four challenges she competed in. At the end of the day, the technique on the churro was poor – there is just no excuse for serving raw dough.
As you also saw, there was a discussion about the dried pepper garnish on her soup. Inedible garnishes are always a debate and it’s my opinion that if a garnish is inedible it needs to serve another purpose (whether it be aroma or beauty) and this didn’t add anything.
To be an Iron Chef, you have to master all the fundamentals and technique has to be mastered. You need to know the rules in order to break the rules! Sometimes it is so close between the bottom two contestants, mere over-or under-seasoning can push one contestant out the door. It’s unfortunate it gets so close between two chefs – but the judges take the judging very seriously and sometimes the debate goes on for hours (and then edited down to mere seconds for TV time).
Jeffrey and I agreed on more this episode than in the previous ones – we certainly have different opinions when it comes to food!
