▶ Think judge Jeffrey Steingarten is rough on “Iron Chef”? He’s even worse to the wannabes, but Garces takes it in stride. “It can definitely be a tough pill to swallow, but I understand that their job for the show is to break each dish down and analyze every aspect of what we’ve served them,” he reasons.
No doubt Kitchen Stadium is a cool place to call your office, but we’ve got to hand it to the contestants on Season 2 of “The Next Iron Chef” — they’re working hard for the privilege.
On the premiere, which airs Sunday, they’re asked to make dishes from ingredients that are puzzling to even well-seasoned chefs, including sea cucumbers, unlaid chicken eggs and jellyfish.
“I’m a lover of all kinds of foods and styles of cuisine, so I take every ingredient as a welcome challenge,” says Philadelphia-based chef and restaurateur Jose Garces, who is back after defeating Bobby Flay on “Iron Chef” last summer. “The challenge is to make everything taste good, not just the things that you like or the things that everyone has tried before.”
Did we mention the stinky tofu? There’s stinky tofu involved here, and it’s not pretty.