I am not one to join the food parties because, first, they are costly considering I have a limited budget. Besides, with the amount saved, being in New York just seems simpler to just go to a celebrity chefs restaurant. Second, if you plan to rub shoulders with chefs at these parties, think again! Many have similar thoughts and you'd be lucky to even just have a look.
In events like these, I often look for those that educate rather than entertain. Tickets for the event are put out 5 months in advance for people to plan their trips. And I normally book the events that I fancy prior to being sold out. This year I signed up for 2 events, which were talks at the Times Center. One was “Iron Chef America: Behind the scenes” and the other was “Mixing it up: Alton Brown”.
Upon purchasing my tickets to the “Iron Chef”, my expectations were minimal in that I expected a producer, at least one chef and a moderator to talk about the makings of the show. However, to my great surprise, the event featured three chefs – Bobby Flay, Masaharu Morimoto and Jose Garces as the main speakers and twice nominated pulitzer prize journalist Kim Severson as the moderator.
It was indeed a fun one-hour show where the three chefs were jabbing away at each other and Morimoto clowning around like anything. Just so you know, the Iron Chef does filming only once a year and in the summer. It takes around 3 weeks to finish 23 episodes normally filming 2 episodes a day. So you can imagine the gruesome tensions these chefs have.
The chefs know beforehand who their competitors are since they are provided a list of schedules for the shoots. However, since it is a competition, none of the chefs have any clue what the magic ingredient is, and none of them know who the judges will be. As Bobby Flay would say, “we don't know who to send flowers before the show”. They are given 4 choices where one is a possible ingredient. With this, the chef discusses with his staff their strategies in what to prepare.
The producers of the show would ask each chef for any special ingredient they would like aside from what's provided in the pantry or if they prefer any special tool brought in. The Iron Chefs, though, have a home court advantage over the competitors, since they would have prior knowledge of where most ingredients are usually placed or where a certain utensil or tool is strategically situated over what appliance.
If there is anything that these celebrity iron chefs want is the need to WIN! Bobby Flay has an average of 68% wins, Morimoto has a similar batting average, but Jose Garces has the most number of wins. Probably because he is new and has had less appearances than the former two.
Oh and by the way, when asked who would first present the choices to the judges, they normally just flip a coin. After the one hour preparation and the 5 dishes are presented, they have at least 45 minutes to finish up and present all their dishes to the judges. And it takes about 2 hours for the judges to decide who the winner will be.
After the talk, there was a Q&A portion, and of course I had to ask and this was the gist of it:
“Since most of you have restaurants in key cities all across the U.S and have people come to them, is there a possibility of you making your own food truck and going to the rural areas so these people can also try your food?” the moderator said, “good question.” and faced the speakers. And the only one who initiated such an endeavor was Jose Garces, who informed us that he is in the finishing stages of decorating his food truck.
In between the first talk and the next was a 3 hour interval so I immediately walked out the building to grab a bite. A few blocks away was a hole in the wall kind of Korean take out which offered Bon bon chicken which I gulped down with a can of coke. After my meal, I rushed back to find my spot in the line of growing Alton Brown fans.
Being early always catches the better seat, and I did get front row center aisle as well. Right smack the speakers, Mr. Alton Brown and author/moderator Julia Moskin. Alton is who he is on stage as well as on t.v. All his food shows are composed of three points: Entertain, Inform and Teach. He was primarily a commercial director before he joined the food industry. He did go to culinary school but not to become a chef, but to have a knowledge of food and present it as information rather than experience. In totality, that is just what he has done. Alton Brown is who he is, entertainer comedienne par excellence, food historian, teacher and a great guy-- Should I need to say more?!
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