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CHAIRMAN: The time has come to once again answer
life's most savory question.
Guys, everybody's good?
CHAIRMAN: Whose cuisine reigns supreme?
Oh, here we go!
This is "Iron Chef America."
WOMAN: 3...
...2...
We need to start making this happen.
Whoo-whee!
Oh, what a girl would do.
BROWN: A delectable Japanese tradition
has taken root in American soil.
We have been graced with the establishment
of our very own Kitchen Stadium,
where our nimble Chairman has brought together
the pungent flavors of East and West.
It is here where the best of the best from around the world
meet and face the ultimate gourmet challenge.
I'm in the zone, man!
[ Laughs ]
Hey, food fans. Welcome to Kitchen Stadium.
You know, in case you're wondering
how far back the Kitchen Stadium tradition goes,
I'd like to read to you a draft
from around 600 BCE by the famed Lao Tzu,
author of the "Tao Ching" and other best sellers.
He wrote this.
"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day.
Teach him how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."
Everybody knows that.
The lesser-known stanza goes,
"Bring him to cook his fish in Kitchen Stadium,
"and watch the Iron Chefs take the fish away from him
and flog him with it."
It's what it says.
All right, let's get to battle.
In mere moments, one Iron Chef
will be pitted against our challenger,
who thirsts to discover our secret ingredient
and enter the heat of battle here at Kitchen Stadium.
The Chairman welcomes...
Chef Micah Wexler.
WEXLER: I'm Micah Wexler.
I'm the chef and owner of Mezze Restaurant in Los Angeles.
I started cooking when I was 15 years old professionally,
but from a young age,
just around my mom and my grandmothers.
Family time, being around the kitchen and everything,
I always liked the excitement of that,
and I think that's where a lot of it came from.
BROWN: After graduating from Cornell University's Hotel school,
he honed his craft in top restaurants
in Europe and New York
before returning to L.A. and opening Mezze.
WEXLER: Now we cook modern Middle Eastern and Mediterranean
and just infuse a lot of the spices and flavors and technique
and come up with something
that's kind of new and interesting.
BROWN: But now Chef Wexler must make the ultimate choice.
Which Iron Chef will he call forth to do battle?
WEXLER: I want to battle this Iron Chef
because he has the most experience
and is known as one of the best, so I want to challenge myself.
I want to battle...
...Iron Chef Bobby Flay.
Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
Chef Wexler, welcome.
You are a graduate of Cornell University.
Yes, I am.
Therefore you know two definitions for the word "pie."
I do.
So, will you leave Kitchen Stadium happy as pie...
or mumbling the formula for pi?
We're going for happy.
Very good.
Iron Chef Flay.
I trust your knives are sharp and your hands are steady?
Excellent.
But there is one more ingredient to this battle,
our secret ingredient, the theme on which
our chefs will offer their succulent variations.
Today's secret ingredient is...
...wild striped bass!
[ Cheers and applause ]
WEXLER: When I see the striped bass, I'm super happy.
Fish is one of my favorite things to cook,
so I was ready to go.
FLAY: Secret ingredient today -- wild striped bass.
I have to say it's probably my favorite fish.
They catch it off the coast of Montauk a lot,
so I love that fish.
Chefs, your initial dish featuring the wild striped bass
must be served to the judges
during the first 20 minutes of battle.
Then later in the battle,
I will unveil my culinary curveball.
But that is all I will say at this time.
So now, America,
with an open heart and empty stomach,
I say unto you in the words of my uncle...
...allez cuisine!
BROWN: The Battle of Morone Saxatilis is on
here in Kitchen Stadium.
Might be enough.
Take two.
We've got an altarful of beautiful striped bass,
also known, of course, as a striper or a rockfish.
Pretty easily identified by those dark horizontal stripes
across a very, very silvery body.
WEXLER: All right, guys, let's do a quick meeting over here, yeah?
Okay, so, striped bass, yeah?
So for our first dish, we got -- Let's do salade cuite, okay?
We'll braise it -- tomatoes, zucchini, that whole thing, okay.
Let's do a take on fish and chips for sure.
Okay, so, you'll be on that one.
We want to do the chraime
with the meatball, the Tunisian stew, all that.
Sounds good to you guys?
Let's do it, yeah?
WEXLER: My overall theme is to be able to work
a lot of the flavors of the Middle East
but really use spices as much as we can.
Yeah.
So, for the first dish, we need to make --
I'm gonna do, like, a shattered taco, okay?
Let's go.
One of the things that I usually do on "Iron Chef"
is I start building the flavors over a 60-minute period,
or in 55 minutes, and then I start to plate.
But in this case, I really need
to start building flavors immediately,
so I make a caramelized habanero hot sauce.
I make a citrus vinaigrette. But I had to do it quick.
The strategy for the first dish is really simple --
move as fast as I possibly can.
Yes.
Thank you.
How are you doing? You look calm, cool, and collected right now.
Now, I heard you're gonna be doing some braising,
and that's not gonna be part of the first course?
It is gonna be part of the first course.
It is gonna be part of the first course.
All right, well, you look very in control here,
so I'm gonna let you get back to being in control.
Thank you very much.
For the first course, we chose to do a braise.
Normally when you think about braises,
they take a long time, hours,
but with fish, braises tend to go really quick,
because the fish cooks fast.
BROWN: Down on the challenger's side,
I can see his sous-chef Jonathan
starting to butcher that great beast,
taking great care, removing bones for a broth.
Is that right, Chef?
WHITENER: Just trying to get this thing broken down
so I can get some stock going.
BROWN: Sous-chef Morgan is compressing slices of squash
that she sliced wafer-thin just a moment ago.
That'll be going with the braised dish.
Hi.
I've never heard the term "shattering,"
and apparently you're gonna be shattering?
I know. It's the buzz word for today only.
I'm gonna shatter a taco. We're gonna make a fish taco.
Beautiful fish. This is actually one of my favorite fish, period.
Yeah.
Get it done in 20, 'cause the judges
want to eat your food, Iron Chef.
Okay, you got it. Thank you.
FLAY: The Chairman is like,
"Okay, I need this first dish in the first 20 minutes."
I did a taco,
but I did something called a shattered taco.
Don't ask me how I came up with that word.
Three minutes.
It was basically a fish-taco salad, you know,
but in a much more contemporary way.
BROWN: So, I would think
that's some sort of deconstructed taco.
At the front station, we can see his sous-chef Renee.
She's husking the silks off of that corn on the cob.
Interesting technique.
She's got a rubber band,
and that is removing all those silks.
You learned it right here, folks.
All right, at the back station, I can see sous-chef Leia
starting Iron Chef Flay's trademark chili oil.
Are those arbol chilies, Chef?
Yes. New Mexico and arbol.
Just as I suspected.
And I can see Kevin Brauch is already waiting
down in the middle of the kitchen
as the blenders begin to sing their song.
That's his signature red sauce. I did not even have to look.
I know the sound.
You just know the sound of chilies in oil.
What's going on over on Chef Wexler's side,
besides the fact that they're hacking up some bones,
obviously, for making a stock?
BRAUCH: I think we're gonna have a braising dish
from Chef Wexler in the first 20 minutes.
Right, well, keep in mind
these first 20 minutes really important
because that first dish that goes to the judges
can render up to 15 points -- 5 points per judge.
So, those are not points that they want to lose.
You got it, sir.
BROWN: Chef Wexler's roasting some pieces of the striped bass.
Those will be for his braised dish.
And finished in a vegetable broth that he's got going.
That has Aleppo pepper in it,
a very spicy Middle Eastern chili.
BRAUCH: I was looking at Iron Chef Bobby Flay.
He was just over at the deep-fryer,
doing the blue-corn tortillas that he's famous for doing.
Now he's got some pieces of the fish,
the secret ingredient, going into the deep-fryer.
What is the batter, Iron Chef?
BROWN: So it's kind of a tempura.
It's really not fair to call him a southwest chef anymore,
because he's so global in his perspective these days --
Asian, southeast Asian, European.
He's a citizen of the world.
How much time is left?
14 minutes are gone, Chef.
That's 6 minutes to get that first course up.
Renee, how far away are you?
Four minutes. How much time we have?
Six minutes?
Yeah. Come on. And I'm waiting on you.
FLAY: I'm not sure a shattered wild striped bass taco
was actually the best idea.
Right behind.
In my mind, I thought I could throw it together in 10 minutes.
Yep.
But, I mean, when you think
about all the different components on it,
it was really probably not a great choice.
One minute on the relish.
No.
I mean, if I trip, I'm done.
BROWN: The heat is on here in Kitchen Stadium.
The action will continue when "Iron Chef America" returns.
Hi, kids. Welcome back to Kitchen Stadium.
"Iron Chef America" Battle Striped Bass
raging on between Chef Wexler on this side...
You got the fish and the confit, right?
WHITENER: Yes, Chef.
...and Iron Chef Bobby Flay on this side.
Take it.
They've got some pretty fine culinary minds, to be sure,
but so do our judges.
And to introduce them, we've got to go to Kevin Brauch. Kevin?
Konban wa.
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening.
Alton Brown, here come the judges.
Leading off, if you watch TV or go to the movies,
you've seen this popular actor.
Today he'll play a starring role here in Kitchen Stadium.
He's hungry, he's funny, he's Anthony Anderson.
Next, her palate is so sharp,
it's insured by Lloyd's of London for $1 million.
And she put the V's in "vivacious."
She's Karine Bakhoum.
Finally, this author
and frequent visitor to Kitchen Stadium
has penned a host of food-centric books.
This is Michael Ruhlman.
BROWN: Thanks, Kevin.
BROWN: 3 1/2 minutes to get that first course up to the judges.
All right, now, looking over on the challenger's side,
looking at the fish as it continues
to be broken down by sous-chef Jonathan.
Right now he's chopping that up rather casually, I might say,
so I think it's gonna be going into the food processor.
I assume that'll become his fish meatballs.
He mentioned that earlier. We'll keep an eye on it.
One of the things about striped bass
is it can be applied in so many different ways.
Over on the Iron Chef side,
I see the beginnings of a curry in the works.
It looks like red curry with coconut milk.
That'll need some time to cook, so we'll check on it later.
Over on the challenger's side, we can now see
the pieces of striped bass -- secret ingredient.
They were seared on the flattop
and then braised in some of that stock.
WEXLER: One of the things that I wanted to do was be able
to get kind of a cold braised dish, if you will, up first,
and I utilized the blast chiller to be able to help me with that,
to braise the fish first and then chill it down really fast
and really incorporate some of the vegetables
and use those to infuse
some of those flavors into the striped bass.
BROWN: Now Chef Wexler plating his opener with the squash.
That's kind of a little, I don't know, squash salad.
Time?
Chef, you've got two minutes exactly
to get those plates to the judges.
And on those plates right now we've got some crema
that was seasoned with a little bit of lime,
as well as the corn that was grilled,
tossed with a little bit of cilantro,
and that dressing that he made earlier
with the mangoes, the honey, white wine,
with, of course, the habanero.
That was blended up, and now the pieces of fish
are going down, and I guess this is the shatter part.
He's really kind of tearing it up and putting it down.
It would be like if you took a crispy corn tortilla
filled with fish-taco ingredients, including the fish,
and you dropped it on the table, and it shattered --
that's what I wanted the plate to look like.
BROWN: 1 minute, 20 seconds.
Those dishes in front of the judges, or no 15 points for you!
And Chef Wexler is walking his first plate up to the judges.
Kevin Brauch standing by up there.
Let's go! Let's go!
Chef Wexler, can you tell us what you made for your first dish?
Yeah, so, we have a little bit of a spin
on what we call salade cuite.
Like a Moroccan cooked but also cold salad.
We have the squash compressed
and the fish braised in a vegetable broth.
ANDERSON: Wow.
Thank you, guys, very much. Enjoy.
BRAUCH: One down, four to go, Chef.
WEXLER: I feel my first dish is strong.
The flavors are right where I want them to be,
and I think it makes a good impression on the judges.
Is there red oil?
On your station in a squeeze bottle.
Where?
BROWN: Iron Chef Bobby Flay finishing up.
14 seconds, and those plates have got to be to the judges.
Oh [bleep]
10, 9, 8, 7...
6, 5, 4...
3, 2...
And I hate to see people have to run in Kitchen Stadium,
but, hey, it makes for great television, doesn't it?
All right, guys, this is a shattered blue-corn taco
with rice-flour-battered striped bass.
It has a charred-corn relish with pickled shallots,
a caramelized habanero hot sauce,
and a little bit of citrus vinaigrette.
Enjoy it.
RUHLMAN: Shattered. Now I understand.
Yeah.
Anthony, first thoughts
on our dish from the challenger, Wexler.
This isn't what I expected it to be at all.
It's very light. It's very fresh.
Karine, I want to make sure
I heard correctly from the challenger.
This is a cold presentation?
Well, actually, no.
The fish is hot, which is what's interesting.
And then the garnish that he has with it is cold.
So it's a hot and cold preparation,
making it very light.
But the fish is perfectly cooked.
It's pleasant.
Michael, what are your thoughts on Chef Wexler's dish?
I was impressed by the compressed zucchini.
It was lovely. It was tender and flavorful.
It's a light, lovely fish dish.
Almost salad-like.
Saved by the bell, for lack of a better term --
Iron Chef Bobby Flay getting it here right at the last minute.
Anthony Anderson, what do you think of the shattered bass?
Oh, my God.
I just tasted something that was unbelievable.
This pickled shallot
and this white cream sauce, this sour cream --
I don't know what it is -- just exploded in my mouth right now.
So it's an exploding spring flavor on Chef Flay's plate.
Wonderful.
She's doing a happy dance over here.
It's just cool and refreshing.
Karine, you were hoping for a fish taco.
Is this a deconstructed fish taco?
What is amazing here is it's all my favorite flavors.
You've got that charred corn.
You've got the avocado, the tortilla, the crunch.
It's just -- It hits the spot.
It makes you happy.
It's just too small. It's too small.
I want -- I need more!
I want to see if the excitement
continues down the judges' table to Michael Ruhlman.
Yeah, this habanero sauce -- did he say that was? --
really good.
The interplay of all the sauces
underneath the fish and the taco shell
is what really brings this dish to life.
BAKHOUM: Mmm!
Sounds like we have two very worthy dishes
competing here for 15 points.
I'm gonna pass out our first-dish score cards,
if you will please mark them.
Each of you have up to 5 points
to give to our challenger and our Iron Chef.
15 points goes a long way at this point in the battle.
Once you have your marks down there,
I'll run them down and tally them,
and Alton Brown will produce the score.
How many minutes?
BROWN: 33 minutes remaining. 33 minutes.
And we're gonna find out what the judges thought of those first courses
and the reveal of the Chairman's culinary curveball
when "Iron Chef America" returns.
Hi, kids. Welcome back to Kitchen Stadium.
"Iron Chef America" Battle Striped Bass is a-raging
between the challenger, Chef Wexler, on this side...
Are we having fun yet?
Yeah.
...and Iron Chef Bobby Flay on this side.
You watching your stocks over here?
As your recall, at the 20-minute mark,
the Chairman required the first course
to be served to the judges.
And I've got the totals right here.
The Iron Chef's first course has earned him 14 points.
And what was the other guy?
The challenger's first course, 11 points,
giving the Iron Chef just a little bit of a lead.
But it is by no means a done deal here in Kitchen Stadium.
WEXLER: I hear the results from the judges,
and I'm a few points behind right there.
But I just had to keep going on, keep working,
so just cook harder and try and make up some lost ground.
FLAY: I had a lot of catching up to do
because I spent the first third of the battle...
...getting the first dish done.
So I just go into what I call Iron Chef mode
and get al the burners working, the grill working,
the ovens working -- just everything was at full blast.
BROWN: Oh, hey, hey, hey.
The Chairman has come forth with his cart of culinary chaos!
Chefs, the time has come to unveil my culinary curveball!
BROWN: All right, so, the Chairman calling both of the chefs
to come up and join him,
although Iron Chef Bobby Flay's like, "Dude, I'm cooking."
Let me be."
All right, he's got to turn down the heat.
They both advance to the altar.
Let's see what the Chairman's got.
Chefs, I would like you to utilize this smoking gun
as you continue to prepare your four remaining dishes.
Leia!
BROWN: Ah, the smoking gun,
a device used to infuse smoke flavor quickly into foods.
Cherry. Cherrywood.
Good deal.
Cook the fish for the cioppino.
Okay.
Don't forget the anchovy butter.
I got cherrywood chips right here.
Right away, I have no idea what I'm gonna do with it,
but I grab the cherrywood chips, 'cause they're the most mild.
It's not easy to incorporate that into a dish
in the last 20 minutes.
BROWN: Kevin, why don't you go get the scoop from our chefs
as to what they're gonna be smoking today?
Yeah. Very good.
We had cedar. We had hickory. We had cherrywood.
You went for the cherrywood first and foremost.
How are you gonna incorporate that, and why did you choose that?
We're making a cioppino with the striped bass,
and we're gonna put a little smoke
on the striped bass at the very end.
And also we have some anchovy butter,
and, actually, butter really picks up
a lot of smoke very easy,
so we're just gonna put a little smoke into that dish.
Iron Chef Bobby Flay, all right. About 20 minutes left, Chef.
Thanks.
The cool thing about a smoking gun
is you infuse smoke very quickly,
so I just said to Leia, "As you're making the cioppino,
"smoke the anchovy butter a little bit
and just give a little smoke onto the cooked fish."
And I think it's actually gonna create a nice element
in the cioppino broth.
The one thing you don't want to do is oversmoke something.
You don't want it to taste like an ashtray.
BROWN: All right, well, cioppino, of course,
very famous fish stew, originally from San Francisco.
Typically there's clams, usually some crab,
and then whatever fish the fishermen have that day.
How are you gonna incorporate the smoking gun?
Were you planning on smoking a fish,
or do you now just have to smoke a fish?
Pretty much have to smoke a fish now.
So, we are gonna use it for our fish and chips today.
We're gonna smoke the fish a little bit.
Well, you know, fish and chips is one of the smartest things
you have to do when you get a great piece of bass like this.
Congratulations. Keep going, Chef.
Thank you.
I have a quick talk with my sous-chefs,
we come up with a strategy.
We decide to smoke the fish for the fish and chips.
So we had to be careful that we didn't oversmoke it.
BROWN: All right, we heard Chef Wexler's
making a fish and chips, and going with that,
his sous-chef Jonathan has some feta cheese,
a little crema, some Aleppo chilies,
and now some heavy cream.
Interesting.
Typically you don't see feta go into a mixer like that.
One of the things when you do a fried fish,
you want to have some salty elements.
You want to have some pickled elements and acid elements.
And I tried to bring those all in, in interesting ways.
BROWN: So, what do we have going on now?
Over on the Iron Chef's side,
looks like crab, some chopped-up fish.
Is he making kind of a fish salad?
Almost kind of, like, cut it into a hash style.
The second course is a hash
made with striped bass, a little bit of blue crab.
Both the bass and the crab have similar textures to it.
They're very rich.
And so I needed something to kind of cut through it.
I made a sauce together
with some harissa and piquillo peppers,
almost like a blended vinaigrette
to sort of run through the bass and the crab.
BROWN: Harissa is a Middle Eastern chili sauce,
so it looks like the Iron Chef is crossing the line
into Chef Wexler's flavor territory.
You can also see on the challenger's side,
the wood being ignited in the smoking gun.
You can see the motor is blowing that smoke
into a gratin that has been covered with plastic wrap,
so they're trapping that smoke.
Sous-chef Morgan continues to harvest fava beans.
That's a relatively intense job.
And over with sous-chef Jonathan,
we've got some pink peppercorns
and now herbs being added to that lebne.
The fish salad is actually one of my favorite dishes.
The fish was confited in olive oil,
which just gives it this really incredible texture.
And lebne, which is basically
like a strained Middle Eastern yogurt cheese.
It has a really nice, creamy, sour finish to it.
And the sugar snap peas round it out with their sweetness.
How much time is left?
BROWN: We're under the 20-minute mark now in Kitchen Stadium.
19 minutes left in this battle.
And there's still a tremendous amount of cooking to be done.
Not yet.
BROWN: Neither chef has pulled out a plate
to plate up those final four.
Both of them are working
to integrate the culinary curveball.
GACCIONE: Not yet.
I'm gonna do it to order.
Do it to order? Order is now.
All right.
Yep.
"Do it to order"?
The cooking continues when "Iron Chef America" returns.
Hi, kids. Welcome back to Kitchen Stadium.
"Iron Chef America" Battle Wild Striped Bass rages on
between Iron Chef Bobby Flay...
We need to start making this happen.
...and Chef Wexler, our challenger.
BORDENAVE: Yeah.
All right, let's get back to the action.
Iron Chef peeling some russet potato.
He was peeling some horseradish, also.
I still see that over nearby his board.
So horseradish, potatoes.
They do go together quite naturally.
And the third dish
was a potato and horseradish crusted wild striped bass
sitting in a broth of carrots and mangoes and some habaneros.
I think that's gonna work really nicely.
I think, you know, the natural sweetness of the carrots
and the mangoes will play very nicely off the chili peppers.
And potatoes and horseradish go really well,
especially with a nice fish like that.
How much time is left?
BROWN: We're coming up on 9 minutes. 9 minutes remaining.
And plating is happening on both sides of Kitchen Stadium.
And you know what? It needs to.
All right, spinach is in there.
All right, we've got spinach leaves frying,
a microplane being used to grate coconut
in the hands of the Iron Chef --
a finishing element for the striped bass
that is currently in the red curry.
Now, remember, that was made earlier
with coconut cream and red curry.
FLAY: The red-curry dish --
I poached the fish actually in the broth itself,
and then I garnished it with
a peanut and green-onion relish and some crispy spinach.
BROWN: I'm imagining that will be a final dish,
because I don't think
that the Iron Chef would serve that first.
And then over on Chef Wexler's side of the world,
we can see the mixture that just came out of the freezer
being scraped up now.
Eggs.
Those are Yukon Gold potatoes
he cooked earlier in the fish stock.
Now that's going into a little --
kind of what looks like a caviar can.
So it's almost like he's building a little parfait there.
WEXLER: The parfait was a lot of different elements
that are layered on top of each other,
and they all have to be executed in a really precise fashion.
BROWN: All right, you can see that Chef has taken
some of the hard-boiled eggs
that were grated through that China cap.
Those are topping his steamed wild striped bass.
And his potato and crème fraîche mixture.
And going on top of it all
is some paddlefish roe, or fish eggs.
And that would make sense,
'cause he's plating in the paddlefish-roe can.
He's built basically a rip on a caviar service.
It's a parfait. It's fun.
And there are the fish meatballs Chef Wexler mentioned
at the very beginning of the battle.
Sous-chef Jonathan is forming the mixture
of ground fish, onion, egg whites.
That's into a quenelle, of course.
That's a technique of using two spoons to create, you know,
kind of like an egg-like meatball there.
Wow. Those actually look really good.
All right, so from the -- Oh, okay.
From the fryer, those are heading into the Tunisian stew.
That's interesting.
This dish is based
on a traditional Tunisian Moroccan stew called chraime.
It's basically a fish meatball.
It's really interesting to do it with the striped bass
because it's really meaty, and it's also braised,
so it has a really nice depth of flavor,
a lot of soul to it, and it's a really hearty dish.
WOMAN: 5 minutes to go.
BROWN: The Iron Chef is now plating
his sweet-potato, crab, and striped-bass hash.
Green sauce.
And that's got a little quail egg with it.
I think that's going to be his second course.
And it's a good-looking one, too.
All right, now, over on the challenger's side,
sous-chef Jonathan just took some of that smoked fish,
the smoked striped bass, and he dipped it
into the beer batter that they made a little earlier.
He put it in the fryer. Can see that as he flips those.
Of course, as one side cooks,
it rises to the surface because the batter expands.
So you got to be careful on how you flip that over.
So, the oil-poached fish went down on top of the lebne.
And got some of those sugar snap peas on top.
So that's a lovely dish.
That dish now finally being garnished
with a little bit of the crouton action
that we saw them make up earlier in the battle.
So it's almost like a play on lox and cream cheese.
GACCIONE: Yeah.
BROWN: And looking at that smoking gun in action
over on the Iron Chef's side, and just in time, too,
because you've only got two minutes, Chef!
It looks like they've made just kind of a mini smoker,
so that'll be, you know, heavily infused.
It's a method basically that we saw
on the other side of the kitchen.
I got it.
BROWN: The dandelions, "dent de lion,"
being dressed for a --
"Dent de lion."
The teeth of the lion.
BROWN: And flowers coming out.
I think it may be fava-bean blooms
topping his wild striped bass meatball.
Leia, delicious.
GACCIONE: Good.
Iron Chef Bobby Flay's done. He has his curry dish.
They got the garnish of shaved coconut.
He's got his hash down. He has the cioppino.
That's where he used
the Chairman's culinary curveball, the smoking gun.
That has the striped bass, cockles, and mussels.
And he has his potato and horseradish crusted striped bass
with a carrot, mango, and habanero sauce.
And with just over a minute remaining in the battle.
Well, if you got that much time, you can make a cocktail.
[ Sighs ] All right.
BRAUCH: Bobby Flay having no reservations with that request.
BROWN: And he goes for the bourbon.
One minute to go.
He's got 60 seconds.
If he just puts that in a glass and brings it to me,
he gets all of my points.
Bourbon is his favorite, as is mine.
Now on Chef Wexler's side, he's almost done, as well.
He has his striped bass meatball stew down.
He has the oil-poached striped bass salad
with the lebne and sugar snap peas.
He has his fish and chips with the smoked bass,
and the chip portion must be those peewee potatoes.
All right, those were smashed then fried.
And he has the steamed
striped-bass caviar parfait in a can.
This is the new style of service.
BROWN: And I love it, Iron Chef Bobby Flay.
Iced bourbon in custard cups.
Here you go.
So, with 20 seconds to go,
Iron Chef Bobby Flay and crew enjoying a nice bourbon.
You and I, Kevin Brauch, enjoying --
BRAUCH: Well, we can dream. One can dream.
One can dream.
10 seconds to go.
9, 8, 7, 6...
5 seconds.
...4, 3, 2, 1.
We're done. Walk away.
Battle Striped Bass is history here in Kitchen Stadium.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Ah, man.
Good job, Chef.
Good job.
BROWN: Well, the cooking may be over here in Kitchen Stadium,
but the mouthwatering task of judgment
is just getting ready to start.
And to explain how that scoring is gonna work,
we go to Kevin Brauch.
We can do that, Alton Brown.
Okay, everyone, here's how it goes down.
Each judge can award a chef up to 30 points.
There are 10 points possible for taste,
5 points for plating design,
5 points for their originality
in the use of our secret theme ingredient,
another 5 points for the use
of the Chairman's culinary curveball.
And, as always, may the better chef prevail.
BROWN: And, of course, Kevin,
there are the additional 5 points per judge
that were awarded for the fist dish.
And, if you recall, the Iron Chef is leading by 3 points.
So the challenger is right on the Iron Chef's tail.
Now let us go up to the Chairman and get the judgment under way.
Chef Wexler.
Chairman.
Please tell us about your strategy
for today's secret ingredient.
My strategy today -- You know, we really wanted to be able
to incorporate Middle Eastern spices in the food that we did.
So, the starting place behind this dish was gefilte fish,
which is a lot of people's
least-favorite thing in the world,
but I actually like it.
So, on the bottom here, we have some Yukon Gold potatoes.
And the next layer we have the striped bass.
On top of that, we have hard-boiled eggs
and then caviar,
and on the side we have pumpernickel bread.
WEXLER: No, it's not.
It's kind of like it got dressed up for a party, you know?
This is very refined.
Thank you.
With all that's going on, it would be easy
for the fish to get lost, and it's not.
I think it was used well.
Very refined. It's really comforting.
It's delicious. Nice presentation, as well.
Chef, next course, please.
Thank you, Chairman.
Chef.
WEXLER: So, this is kind of a salad.
On the very bottom, we have lebne,
which is basically like
a strained Middle Eastern yogurt cheese.
It's been blended up with some olive oil,
some pink peppercorn, and dill.
On top of that, we have the striped bass,
then we just have a little salad
of sugar snap peas, mint, pickled onions, some croutons,
and borage flowers,
which have a really nice cucumber sort of taste to them.
Please enjoy.
Beautiful dish.
Thank you.
I think the red peppercorns are fantastic.
Nice texture.
Good color. It's very tasty.
Yeah, it's a nicely composed dish.
It's beautiful. It's balanced.
It's got crunch and softness
and creaminess and tartness and sweetness,
and it shows really good technique.
Thank you.
I just can't get over these sugar snap peas.
I mean, they're one of my favorite vegetables.
And it's just adding a pop
and a really fresh, crisp,
clean flavor to all of this here.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chef. Next course, please.
Thank you.
Chef.
Okay, judges, so for our next course here,
we have our take on fish and chips.
So, we got the culinary curveball of the smoking gun,
and we took the raw fillets of the striped bass,
and we smoked them for about 8 to 10 minutes.
We made a beer batter so it stays really nice and crispy.
And also the fish itself is dusted
right after being fried with za'atar,
which is an Israeli, Palestinian spice blend.
It has wild thyme, sumac, and sesame seeds.
And, then, the chip portion is the peewee potatoes,
which have been smashed and then fried.
On the bottom, we have a whipped feta.
Well, as much as I love feta, I think the sourness
is taking away from the delicateness of the fish,
which is kind of getting lost
in the smoke, in the za'atar, in the feta.
There's just, for me, a lot of conflicting flavors.
I couldn't disagree more.
I think all the flavors work great.
The fish is cooked perfectly.
And I think it works beautifully.
You know, for me, I didn't really taste
the smokiness of the fish.
I don't know if it was because of the za'atar.
I got the smoke immediately,
and I thought a good use of it,
given that it was a curveball.
It would have been better, maybe, without smoking it.
Well, maybe he smoked something before he smoked the fish.
CHAIRMAN: Thank you, judges.
Thank you very much.
Chef.
Thank you, Chairman.
So, judges, for this course, we have what is called chraime,
which is a really classic Tunisian or Moroccan-style stew.
What we did here is kind of made a fish meatball, if you will.
It's then poached in the Tunisian broth.
Mmm!
And what we used to kind of balance that
is the fresh fava beans,
some sous-vide and roasted leeks and some dandelion greens.
Looking at this, I forgot that it was fish.
Yeah.
I'm thinking I'm gonna stick
my fork and knife into a piece of meat.
I love the spices that you used.
I just feel like the fish is lost.
It could be ground veal.
I lose the fish.
I like the hearty seasonings.
I like the -- Supposed to be big flavors.
You know, it's fundamentally a peasant stew, basically.
And you want power.
Yes, but you're using a good fish.
This is like if you were using a fish that was not as delicate,
if you were trying to mask maybe a fishy flavor.
Judges, please give us your overall assessment
of the entire meal.
Very delicate opener that we got 20 minutes in.
And it progressed nicely in building flavors,
and I thought it was a really nice meal.
I like the originality and approach of the spices,
and I liked most of them.
Great progression,
from the very airy and lightness
from the first dish
to the hearty, bold flavors of this last dish here.
I don't think the fish was lost in this.
If I blindfolded you and made you taste this
without knowing what it was, would you guess that it was fish?
I would say, "Striped bass."
Yeah, sure.
[ Laughter ]
Chef Wexler, thank you for a wonderful meal.
Thank you very much, Chairman.
[ Applause ]
WEXLER: Karine's reaction to the fish and chips
and the things that she said was that she really enjoyed
each element on its own,
but that it didn't come together for her.
And that was definitely one of the more risky dishes,
but I'm still confident in the food we put out today.
BROWN: Coming up, Iron Chef Flay will present his dishes
to our judges to see if he can reel them in.
Hi. Welcome back, food fans.
This is "Iron Chef America" Battle Wild Striped Bass.
Our challenger, Chef Wexler,
has tempted the palates of our judges.
There's just, for me, a lot of conflicting flavors.
I couldn't disagree more.
And I think it works beautifully.
But now let's see if Iron Chef Flay
can lure the judges into his net.
Iron Chef Flay.
Please tell us about your strategy
for today's secret ingredient.
Well, first of all, Mr. Chairman,
I love this ingredient.
It's one of my favorite fish.
Because you can catch it off the east coast of Montauk,
I'm able to get a lot of it, so it's really terrific.
Excellent.
For this dish, it is a wild-striped-bass
and blue-crab sweet-potato hash
with a quail egg and a green-onion sauce.
I always love your flavors, man,
and this dish doesn't disappoint at all.
When you said you put blue crab in it, I thought,
"Ooh, we're only gonna taste the blue crab,"
but it's not the case.
And I love the texture of the striped bass.
Damn, this dish is versatile.
Anything that comes to me with an egg on top,
I'm already liking.
I thought it was a elegantly executed dish and fun to eat.
Thank you, Iron Chef. Next course, please.
Thank you.
Iron Chef.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The next course is a wild striped bass
in a cioppino sauce.
For your culinary curveball, the smoking gun,
we chose cherrywood.
And I cooked the fish and then smothered it
in a little smoke for about 10 seconds
and just let it out just to kind of give it
a little bit of hint of cherrywood.
I used some mussels, clams, and lobster in the broth
to pick up the flavor,
and the crunchiness is the sourdough croutons.
And if you taste a little bit
of some natural saltiness besides the shellfish,
I finished it with a little bit of anchovy butter.
It's interesting that I can taste the smoke on your fish
and you only smoked it for 10 seconds after you cooked it.
BAKHOUM: Totally. It is perfect here.
You basically have taken a peasant dish
and elevated it to this preparation,
which I think is very successful.
Thank you.
My only problem with the dish was when it arrived,
it looked just like one orange blob.
Really?
I mean, yeah, it was orange --
It was so monochromatic.
I guess you could say that.
But then there were also pops of the clam, of --
Orange clam, orange lobster.
No, mine weren't orange.
My lobster was white and bright sitting on top.
I'm glad you said that, because, you know, mine wasn't.
Thank you, Iron Chef. Next course, please.
Thank you.
Iron Chef.
Okay, the next course
is a potato and horseradish crusted
wild striped bass,
and the sauce is actually made
with carrots and some mangoes and some habaneros,
and then a mango and habanero relish on top.
Mmm!
This is sort of my ode to kind of fish and chips,
you know, having the potatoes on top of the fish.
This is a pretty dish.
BAKHOUM: Beautiful.
Yeah, you thought the last dish was ugly.
I did not say "ugly."
No, he said "blob."
No, he said "monochromatic."
ANDERSON: That sauce is delicious, Bob.
Thank you.
Has a nice kick from that habanero.
Love that sweet heat that you do so well.
And I think we found a title for our show.
"Sweet Heat."
[ Chuckles ] Okay, baby.
Food Network after dark.
I really like this dish
because with the boldness of all the flavors,
the fish still retains its delicacy.
That's what's really hard to do.
Thank you, Iron Chef. Next course, please.
Thank you.
Iron Chef.
Okay, for the final course,
I left the biggest flavor for last.
This is a red-curry coconut broth with wild striped bass.
It has a peanut and green-onion relish on top
with some freshly grated coconut and crispy spinach.
I can't believe that it doesn't overpower the fish.
It doesn't. It's really delicious.
Very satisfying.
The fish to me unto itself seemed a little bland.
But the red-curry sauce, coconut, the peanut,
and all of that together --
I understand where the flavors were coming from.
Yeah.
It's a really mild fish, though, to begin with, so...
It's delicious with these sort of Thai flavors,
the coconut, the curry, the peanuts.
Very tasty dish.
Judges, please give us your overall assessment
of Iron Chef Flay's meal.
Your flavors I'm always impressed by.
My only issues, I think, are on presentation.
The last dish was beautiful,
but there tends to be a sameness to your plates.
I loved the fact that each dish
had such different flavors and different influences,
from the cioppino to this Thai influence
to the fish and chips.
You really gave a testament to the wild striped bass.
I think a great progression of flavors.
Some of us at this table may not think
they were plated
and aesthetically pleasing to the eye
when they were delivered to the table, but I disagree.
Thank you, judges.
Iron Chef Flay, thank you for an excellent meal.
Thank you very much.
[ Cheers and applause ]
FLAY: I'm very happy with the dishes.
I think that we're going to put forth a strong challenge today.
BROWN: And that concludes today's tasting.
The judges have awarded Chef Wexler 25 points
and the Iron Chef 27 points
in the category of taste and flavor.
The Iron Chef is still in the lead,
but I fear he might not score well in the plating category.
A final tally of these scores for plating, originality,
and, of course, the innovative use of the Chairman's curveball
when "Iron Chef America" returns.
Welcome back to "Iron Chef America."
We are just getting ready to serve up the final results.
This has been Battle Wild Striped Bass,
so let's swim up to the Chairman
to find out whose cuisine reigned supreme.
Today, two champions met
in Battle Wild Striped Bass here in Kitchen Stadium.
Chef Wexler.
Iron Chef Flay.
The judges have spoken.
And the winner is...
...Iron Chef Flay.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Thank you.
Great job.
BROWN: Iron Chef Bobby Flay took the lead from dish one.
Although he was beaten in plating
by challenger Chef Wexler,
his high marks for taste
and the use of the culinary curveball
allowed him to eke out another win.
Once again, justice is served in Kitchen Stadium.
Oh, in closing, I want to send a big Kitchen Stadium shout-out
to Mr. Bob Mahoney of Jehoshaphat, Missouri.
Thanks for sending us the picture.
That's quite a cast you've got on there.
I do need to point out, though,
that the "Iron Chef America" home edition instructions
clearly state the altar cover should be removed
prior to the "allez cuisine" air chop.
So, hey, feel better soon, and be more careful next time.
On behalf of Kevin Brauch, the Chairman,
and everyone here in Kitchen Stadium,
I bid you good eating.
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.