Symon Vs. Zakarian - Iron Chef America Tournament Of Champions

Photo - Food Network

The semi-final battle of Iron Chef America: Tournament of Champions had Iron Chef Michael Symon facing Iron Chef Geoffrey Zakarian, where the secret ingredient was wings.  Geoffrey Zakarian defeated Alex Guarnaschelli to get here, while Michael Symon had a bye.  Michael Symon has the best record of all Iron Chefs, and won season one of the Next Iron Chef, while Geoffrey Zakarian won season four.

With the new format of Iron Chef America, Chef Zakarian and Chef Symon were tied after both receiving a 12 for their first dish.  The culinary curveball was then announced, in which the chefs had to incorporate peanuts into at least one of their dishes.

Restaurant Impossible - Wagon Wheel Update

Tonight on Restaurant Impossible, Robert Irvine and crew are going to Smyrna, Delaware to help out the Wagon Wheel Restaurant.  The restaurant has 'frozen food, outdated decor, dysfunctional family and disrespectful staff and the only thing keeping the restaurant alive right now is muskrat.'  If you do not know what muskrat is, it is a large rodent that lives in wetlands (pictured to the right.)  I asked Robert Irvine if he tried the muskrat while there, and he said 'Yep, Yuk!"  As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about the Wagon Wheel to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is what I found:

Marcela Valladolid Is All Over the British Tabloids

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Food Network's Marcela Valladolid is a judge on the upcoming CBS series The American Baking Competition, which is set to premiere on May 29th.  The show is a spin-off of the UK hit show, The Great British Bake Off, in which celebrity baker Paul Hollywood is one of the judges.  Paul also came over the the US to judge The American Baking Competition, and is known as 'the George Clooney of baking.'

It was recently announced that Paul has decided to split from his wife of 15 years, and that the decision came shortly after filming the show in the US.  The British tabloids then decided to insinuate that it was because of fellow judge Marcela Valladolid.  Marcela is referred to in the articles as 'pretty young US chef' and 'sexy US host.'   Paul is 47 years old with an 11 year-old son, while Marcela is 34 years-old and also has a son.

Doesn't sound like there is much evidence of a romance between the two, besides a working relationship, but I guess we will have to wait and see.  Here is an article from the DailyMail UK, which has over 200 comments already, so I guess this is pretty big news over there.

Amanda Freitag Opening a Restaurant and Guy Fieri's Book Release

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It was reported earlier today that Chopped judge and Next Iron Chef competitor Amanda Freitag will be headed back to the kitchen and is opening a restaurant in New York City.  Amanda hasn't been in the kitchen since 2010 when she left the restaurant Harrison.  The new restaurant will be in the Chelsea neighborhood and is scheduled to open some time this summer.  (Grubstreet via NYTimes)

In other news, Guy Fieri released his book Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives: The Funky Finds in Flavortown: America's Classic Joints and Killer Comfort Food today if you are into that kind of thing.

Flavorwire has a list of the 20 most absurd quotes from his book, such as: “My favorite line: ‘Do you get any tater with that gator? James Spader likes gator.’ (Ha ha ha, I kill me.)” and "“[They] make a porchetta that you won’t forgetta.”

Ristorante Barolo From Restaurant Impossible Has Been Sold

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Ristorante Barolo, which was featured on season 3 of Restaurant Impossible has been sold.  The restaurant was located inside the Bayview Hotel in Aptos, California.  The owners owned both the hotel and the restaurant, and have decided to sell the restaurant only and keep the hotel.  The restaurant is currently closed, and will reopen under new ownership and management according to Facebook Posts from the Ristorante Barolo page, which are referenced below:

Soup To Nuts Diner From Restaurant Impossible Has Closed

Soup To Nuts Diner, which was featured on Season 5 of Restaurant Impossible has closed as of yesterday after the close of business.  People on Facebook and Twitter have been saying that they were closing after yesterday, and I also got a few emails notifying me that they were closing. Also, the owner Sharon posted on Facebook Saturday, "Come to Soup To Nuts Diner tonight for the car show...LAST car show!!!"


I called the restaurant yesterday to confirm that they were closing, and the person that picked the phone up did confirm they were closing, and were closing for good.  When I asked the reason, I was told, "I think she's had enough," referring to the owner Sharon.

Iron Chef America: Tournament of Champions - Garces Vs. Forgione

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The second battle of Iron Chef America: Tournament of Champions had Iron Chef Jose Garces facing Iron Chef Marc Forgione, where the secret ingredient was peanut butter and jelly.  Jose Garces won Season 2 of The Next Iron Chef, and Marc Forgione won Season 3 of The Next Iron Chef to become iron chefs.  Coming into this battle, Chef Forgione had 5 wins and 6 losses in kitchen stadium, while Chef Garces had 11 wins and 5 losses.  Both chefs actually have competed in kitchen stadium on the same team in a Thanksgiving special against Michael Symon and Bobby Flay, in which they lost 59-54.

With the new format of Iron Chef America, Chef Forgione was ahead by 1 after receiving an 8 for his first dish, while Chef Garces received a 7 for his first dish.  Both dishes were disappointing to the judges.  The culinary curveball was then announced, in which the chefs had to incorporate straws into at least one of their dishes.

Restaurant Impossible - Mom & Dad's Update

Tonight on Restaurant Impossible, Robert Irvine and crew are going to DeFuniak Springs, Florida to help out Mom & Dad's Italian Restaurant.  The owner Carolyn refuses to make any changes six years after her husband's death despite the  'ill-prepared food and mounting debt.'  As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about Mom and Dad's Italian Restaurant to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is what I found:

Food Network Star Season 9 Website is Now Live

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Just an FYI for everyone if you are interested in learning more about the contestants on Food
Network Star Season 9.  The Food Network website has been created for this season.  The link to the website is here, and there are bios, videos, and pictures of each of the contestants if you are interested.  The videos contain the contestant's casting interviews as well as a quick demo, however it isn't very user friendly because you have to watch a commercial before each one.


Also, here is a previous post on this site that has a preview of the season and where you have seen some of the contestants before.

Alton Brown Announces Live Tour

Alton Brown posted a video on Twitter announcing a Live Tour called the Inevitable Edible Tour or the Edible Inevitable Tour.  There will be cooking, live music, and potentially messy experiments, and will be fun for the whole family.  See the video below describing the tour:



The current cities and dates listed for his tour are below: