Iron Chef America
I've been a big fan of the original Iron Chef series ever since it went onto FoodTV. I stopped watching it though, as the chefs I was introduced to on the show (Sakai, Chen, Morimoto) were replaced by other Iron Chefs. However, Iron Chef America is fun because it keeps the best elements of the old show, but plays it straight. The attempted version that they had on UPN was way too campy with Shatner as the chairman.Now you've got Alton Brown as the commentator, some more intelligent food critics judging the food, two chefs I really respect, Batali and Morimoto, and one that I absolutely hate, Flay. It's odd, but my hatred of Flay actually increases the enjoyment of the show. When Batali and Morimoto are on, I root for them but every battle with Bobby Flay I am rooting for the challenger. I want to see Flay go down in flames.
In fact, it seems like the unifying feature of the restaurant business is one: We hate Bobby Flay.
Why should you hate this guy? He's met with success in the restaurant business at an early age and he's had a series of successful TV shows on FoodTV. There's a lot to learn there, and yes I will concede that point. But there are still reasons to dislike him. First, I'm not a fan of his food. He does this odd Tex-Mex world fusion that, in my opinion, doesn't produce coherent dishes. He seems to just put flavors together because he can, which doesn't impress me. If I want to look for authentic Mexican regional flavors I'll look to chefs like Rick Bayless that have a real respect for their food and where it comes from. Maybe if I catch Flay making an actual mole sauce, I'd respect him a little more.
Second, have you ever actually watched the guy on his TV shows? In the one which he was traveling across America, he would sometime display either utter boredom or contempt for the people he was visiting. And then there was his show where he has a co-host and live audience. Sometimes he would put-down an audience member or make a snide comment to his co-host. You could see that he wasn't comfortable in the show and didn't enjoy the people around him.
But the ultimate moment of disrespect was on an Iron Chef special with Morimoto. At the end of the cooking, Flay jumped up onto his cutting board and started celebrating. WTF! Not only was that unsanitary, it was just flat out arrogant and idiotic. Morimoto went off on Flay in an interview later in the show, saying he wasn't a real chef and how it was disrespectful to the entire craft of cooking to dishonor the cutting board, where you place your knives (the most sacred object to any chef). So not only did you have that moment of brazen disrespect, any true foodie who watched this battle thought it was rigged. Morimoto came out with much more original presentations and produced much better food. He won, but it seemed like someone was out to get him because the rematch, I believe, was rigged in Flay's favor. I think that sealed his fate. Morimoto is beloved in the industry.
One of these days, Flay's arrogance is going to come back and bite him in the ass, making him go down in flames.
I'll be there, ready to toast some marshmallows.
10 Comments:
Dark DutchmanChef I agree that Bobby Flay is an ass. He has a certain smugness about him that makes me wonder if he isn't actually a Frenchman in disguise.
Did you ever watch Chillin and Grillin his old series on the Food Network? To say that he was rude to his co-host Jack McDavid would be a dis-service to the word rude.
I didn't know if the antagonistic nature of Flay's character was part of the show since they obviously did the whole "wouldn't it be cool if we had a North V South thing going on?" well it turns out he is an ass normally.
I think he will give Jonathan Edwards fierce competition in this year's Biggest Douche in the Universe.
How could I have forgotten that show! Yeah, I always felt bad for his co-host ... it made me wonder why they were working together.
My vote for biggest douche is Flay, hands down!
http://flakmag.com/tv/flay.html
I do not call him Bobby Flay. I call him Asshat, because his head is so far up his own ass, he's wearing it as a hat. Though his new wife is really, really hot. You might recognize her - she used to be on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.
Slight correction - Bobby Flay *lost* his first Iron Chef appearance against Morimoto (in New York City), during which he stood on the cutting board; he won the rematch against Morimoto in Japan), during which he stood on the counter, but not the cutting board.
My wife hates Bobby Flay. I love to hate Bobby Flay.
I'm from Japan and I was disappointed when Bobby Flay came to the Japanese IC, jumped on his cutting board, and said after criticized of his idiotic action, "I didn't know the cutting board is supposed to be a sacred object to Japanese chefs. It's just a cultural difference."
Now I'm glad that Martin made a correction -- "It's a sacred object to any chef!"
Who wants to eat the dishes made by a chef who steps on his cutting board, you know!?
And I agree on another point Martin made. The Japanese Iron Chef was more serious. It somewhat annoys me when American Iron Chefs keeps talking to the commentator too friendly while cooking. Well, I guess that's American style, but I believe the more the chef gets focused on his dishes, the better they will be.
Anyways, I enjoy watching this show, and I heard this American IC is on the air at times in Japan as well.
Actually I said the knives are the most sacred thing ... cutting boards are sacred too, though ... you are constantly keeping them clean and sanitary ... dirtying them is unthinkable.
Regarding the banter, I enjoy it ... it shows that the chefs are cool, professional, and able to talk when they are getting their asses put into the weeds. It's admirable. Besides, they've got the menus planned out a long time before anyway (the secret ingredient ain't so secret, folks) so they're on autopilot ...
haha yea i know what you mean he does seem rather.....full of it..but whatever...i want to be a chef so badly and i see people here are chefs and what not and i have to ask..how is it is it really as hard as they say? do you have no social life.? ohh i just want to know cuz im interested in turning my career to a chef....
I'm semi-surprised at all the Bobby Flay jealousy. Apart from the original Iron Chef incident, Bobby has shown respect for all his worthy opponents.
As to the southwest cuisine not being legit, that's pure unadulterated bull waste.
Bobby could prob pull off several mole's on the fly, red, dark or poblano and we all know it.
It's not a jealousy thing ... for me I have a real loathing of people who are very smug and can't back it up. If you can, great, but if you can't, then you should keep your mouth shut.
And yes, his food that I've seen him do on TV is not authentic (see: Pomegranite-Molasses-In-Everything TM). If you honestly think he could do a mole on the fly, then you're kidding yourself. A real, authentic mole is generally something that needs to simmer on the stove for a long time and requires a lot of freshly ground spices and ingredients. Note that I don't say that he couldn't do authentic food, however, he seems to spend his time in happy fusion land.
I do think that he's gotten a little mellower (or at least tried to) but it makes watching a show like Throwdown all the more fun as he gets his butt handed to him week on a regular basis. He's going to win against someone whose prefected their recipie over years of work by coming up with something within two days? And don't get me started about how he performs on ICA ... if the judges were able to watch performances from episode to episode, he'd probably lose more because he'd lose a whole lot of points for creativity ... many times he does the same themes or dishes and just transposes an ingredient (I'm sick of him doing breakfast dishes with a similar, if not same, presentation).
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