Iron Chef Exposed
6:31 pm February 20th, 2008 by Sal Cangeloso
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/…
The Village Voice has a great post calling out Iron Chef America. We all knew the show was stupid and staged (though the original one was very good), but this is too much… I can’t believe I’m writing this, but I have lost even more respect for the Food Network. I did not even think that was possible…
At one point, with only minutes in the real-time hour to go, one of Nicotra’s sous chefs—an attractive and poised brunette named Lara—was seen kneeling next to the ingredient table, stacking and restacking the spice jars so that the one she had used would fit perfectly back in the shelf. Urgency, indeed!
In most cases, the recipes were being executed a second time for the judges, mostly by the sous chefs, but with help from the Oompa-Loompas. I was shocked. If the actual dishes produced during the contest weren’t being tasted, the competitive validity of the whole show was further undermined: What was the point of the race if the dishes were casually recooked for judging an hour later?
The worst part is that the Food Network managed to drag Alton Brown, probably their best and only respectable host into this charade.
