OK, I’ve been sitting on this Iron Chef episode all week to give everyone a chance to watch it, so I hope no one minds me telling everyone the ending: WE WON. Or rather, Tom Douglas won. But I am pretty sure we all helped, by really appreciating all his food, and allowing him to express himself in FIVE different restaurants (and a bakery). Or something.

A few thoughts on the episode:

I haven’t spent much time watching Iron Chef America, being more of an old-style Iron Chef (Japan) fan. So I don’t know if all of the challenging chefs are quite as chatty as Chef Douglas. Some people might have interpreted it as grandstanding, but I found it delightful how he had time to be funny and entertaining, as well as A WINNER. He certainly blew any myths about the Seattle Freeze out of the water.

By assigning a secret ingredient such as salmon, it felt like a challenge not just to Chef Douglas but to all of us, didn’t it? And not just plain salmon, but “wild salmon” (as the Chairman put it), specifically Alaskan King Salmon, which you can tell by their black lips and mostly-black tongue (I did NOT know that). Right away I was thinking up everything I could personally do with salmon, which turned out to be three things. I could marinate it and grill it outside so it wouldn’t stink up my house. And then I could use the leftovers to make either fish cakes or fish salad. That was it. I was out of ideas. So I spent the rest of the hour watching to see what Chef Morimoto and Chef Douglas could do.

Right away, traitorously, I was more interested in Morimoto’s side of the stadium. He had that thing where he was deep-frying the side of fish by laying it on “the world’s thinnest cedar plank” (a plate-sized flake of cedar) and pouring hot oil over it with a ladle. Come on. Extra points for “WTFness”. Also, the thing where he took a giant needle and syringe to inject the side of fish with truffle oil for extra marination? SO COOL. I really want to try that, only not with truffle oil. But definitely something.

But don’t revoke my Washington citizenship quite yet. I was quite enamoured with Chef Douglas toasting up the rice flour before dunking his fish in it and frying it up. Points for loving your ingredients! And all the parts about baking the salmon skin? I was just throwing that bit away!

I find the reviewing portion of the show to be the most confusing part, and this episode is no exception to that. It seems that quite often, the reviewers will give a more negative review to one chef, and a more positive review to the other chef. Yet, when the scores come out, the chef with the negative review sometimes wins. So what gives? Is the show rigged?

For this particular pair of reviews, I don’t want you to think that the reviewers hated Chef Douglas. On the contrary, I felt that they were equally complimentary to both chefs. However, the most common complaint with Douglas’ dishes was that his salmon was overcooked. And Morimoto’s dishes were impeccably cooked. Yet, when the final scores came out, Douglas won by three points: in the taste category. Obviously, there were some edits in the review part of the show, and I’m trying to take that into consideration. Still, it makes it look like they let us win.

But hey, win or loss, we won anyway. I have eleven more things I can try to do with salmon now (although probably, a sugar-cured salmon with beet sorbet comes at the bottom of the list). So whose cuisine reigns supreme? Mine!

Related posts:

1. Kitchen Stadium: Gettin’ it ON!
2. Canned Salmon
3. Meet Your Farmer’s Market Vendors: Wilson Fish
4. Shipping salmon
5. My Ridiculously Expensive Dinner