Alex Guarnaschelli Wins First Battle As An Iron Chef

Alex Guarnaschelli won her first battle as an Iron Chef against UK Iron Chef Judy Joo tonight on the Food Network.  The secret ingredient was Mortadella, and the format for the show was not the normal Iron Chef America format.

Both chefs had to present their first dish while they were still cooking, and this dish was also judged while they were cooking, with Alex receiving an 11 and Judy Joo receiving a 9.  There was also a 'culinary curveball' revealed during the competition, which was having to use an ebelskiver pan.

After the judges scored all of the dishes, Judy Joo received a total of 75 points (first dish, taste, culinary curveball, originality, plating), while Alex Guarnaschelli received 80 points.  I guess this means Alex Guarnaschelli can win battles without Geoffrey Zakarian as one of her judges.

Paliani's From Restaurant Impossible To Close

Photo - Food Network

This might not come as a surprise to many, but just 6 months after Restaurant Impossible visited Paliani's in Burton, MI, the restaurant will be closing at the end of the year. 

Paliani's was one of the more controversial episodes of Restaurant Impossible, and one of the most read posts on this site this year.  Most of the comments from the original post thought the owner Marina was the main problem and people were actually hoping the restaurant would fail because of her.  It seemed that she didn't change, and kept bringing her son to work with her, letting him run around the restaurant.

Alex Guarnaschelli Wins Next Iron Chef: Redemption

Alex Guarnaschelli was crowned the winner of The Next Iron Chef: Redemption tonight after beating Amanda Freitag in a head-to-head battle in kitchen stadium.  Alex Guarnaschelli will be going against UK Iron Chef Judy Joo next Sunday at 9pm on Iron Chef America.

The first challenge of the episode had the competitors cooking a meal for a last supper.  Nate Appleman got haddock (Simon's ingredient), Alex Guarnaschelli got sea urchin (Donatella's ingredient), and Amanda Freitag got chicken (Geoffrey's ingredient) as their ingredients.  Amanda Freitag was the clear winner of this challenge, and the judges decided to eliminate Nate Appleman from the competition due to the clams he added to his haddock dish.

Food Network January 2013 Programming Highlights

The Food Network has put out a press release detailing the programming in January on the channel and some of the highlights include:

• Series premiere of Bobby's Dinner Battle on Saturday, January 19th
• Season 2 of Chef Wanted with Anne Burrell begins Thursday January 31st.  Last season there were 6 episodes, and I am pretty sure 0 of the 6 chefs stuck around to work at the restaurant.  This season is 13 episodes, so hopefully it is more successful.
• Rachael vs. Guy Celebrity Cook-Off begins on Sunday, January 6th.

Guy Fieri Is Now A Doctor

Aaron Mayes / UNLV Photo Services

Yeah, you read that right.  Guy Fieri recently received an honorary doctorate from UNLV and gave a speech at the Fall commencement ceremony.  UNLV decided to give him the honorary doctorate "for his public service, for maintaining a strong connection with UNLV students, and for supporting hotel college fundraising efforts."

Guy said, “I’ve had some great things happen in my career, but this is at the top.”

My guess is it is much higher than the recent coverage and reviews of his Times Square restaurant.

UNLV News

Restaurant Impossible - Rising Sun Bistro Update

Tonight on Restaurant: Impossible, Robert Irvine is going to Rising Sun Bistro in Kalispell, Montana which recently moved locations from Whitefish, Montana.   The restaurant is facing many problems, such as: a chaotic kitchen, an uninspired decor, $500,000 worth of debt, and three owners that do not get along.  As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the internet to read stories, comments and reviews about Rising Sun Bistro to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is what I found (note - all reviews and comments are post Restaurant: Impossible):

Winner of Next Iron Chef Redemption - Poll

Photo - Food Network

With the 3 finalists for The Next Iron Chef Redemption set, who do you want to win the competition this Sunday?  The fan vote at Food Network, as of writing this, has 53% for Alex Guarnaschelli, 34% for Amanda Freitag, and 13% for Nate Appleman.  The vote for the Next Food Network Star on here was pretty accurate, but viewer votes actually counted for something in that competition.  As some people think the poll at the Food Network site is "rigged," we will do one here:


 Feel free to discuss who you are rooting for in the comments section.

UPDATE - Alex Guarnaschelli is your Next Iron Chef.

Marcel Vigneron Eliminated From The Next Iron Chef: Redemption

Marcel Vigneron was the latest chef eliminated from The Next Iron Chef: Redemption after failing to beat Alex Guarnaschelli in the Elimination Challenge.  That means Nate Appleman, Amanda Freitag, and Alex Guarnaschelli will be in the finals next week.  In the finale, one chef will be eliminated in the first challange, and the final two chefs will battle it out in Kitchen Stadium to determine the winner of The Next Iron Chef: Redemption.

Giada In Paradise: Thailand Just Filmed

 Giada De Laurentiis was in Thailand this past week filming Giada In Paradise: Thailand.  Earlier this year, she shot and episode of Giada In Paradise: Monaco, where Aunt Raffy was with her.  In the episode just filmed in Thailand, she is traveling with her sister Eloisa De Laurentiis.

It looks like Giada will be in a swimsuit once again, and her adventures include boat rides, riding elephants, yoga, massages, and a Thai Feast.
 

More pictures of her Thailand trip after the jump: 

Justin Warner Plans To Use Twitter On His New Show?



Photo - Justin's Twitter

Back in October, I let you know that Justin Warner's show would not be airing until next year, and that it would be some sort of traveling show.  Based on the comments in that post, it seemed more would want him in the kitchen in an instructional type of show. 

Earlier this week on Twitter, Justin revealed in a series of tweets(below) that he will begin filming his show in January and gave some hints as to what the show may be about.  We know from the my last post that the working title is Justin's Excellent Adventure, and instead of being an instructional show, it would feature Justin traveling across the country on an adventure.  Based on that information and the below tweets, it looks like he will be using fans from Twitter to help out with his "Adventure."

Get Ready For More Bobby Flay

Image Source - FoodNetwork.com

Bobby Flay is going to be starring in a digital series on FoodNetwork.com/fit, that will be called Bobby Flay Fit, and starts Monday, January 14th.  It will be a 7 episode digital series based on Bobby's philosophy that you need to eat in moderation and exercise.  Michael Symon and Katie Lee will be guests on the series.  As the Food Network tries to get more people to its website and increase its digital footprint, I have a feeling we will be seeing more of this type of show.

Other things you will be seeing Bobby Flay on coming up:

Jehangir Mehta Eliminated From The Next Iron Chef Redemption

Jehangir Mehta was the latest chef eliminated from The Next Iron Chef: Redemption after failing to beat Nate Appleman in the Elimination Challenge.

The Chairman's Challenge had the chefs fusing together ingredients that did not go together such as peanut butter and blue cheese, bone marrow and skittles, clams and strawberries, and calamari and marshmallows.  Marcel Vigneron got to pick his ingredient pair from winning last weeks challenge, and assign the other ingredient pairings to the remaining chefs. 

Restaurant Impossible - Bronk's Bar and Grill Update

Tonight on Restaurant: Impossible, Robert Irvine is going to Bronk's Bar and Grill in Lake City, Minnesota to help a restaurant in danger of closing after 11 years in business.  Some of the problems the owner's Erik and Tracy have are untrained staff, frozen food in the kitchen, and a generic design in the dining room.  Fans of the show who were hoping Taniya Nayak from HGTV would be back doing Restaurant: Impossible makeovers will be happy to see that she is back for this episode.  As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the internet to read stories, comments and reviews about Bronk's to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is what I found (note - all reviews and comments are post Restaurant: Impossible):

Sandra Lee's 'Horrifying' White Christmas Tree

Sandra Lee posted a picture Monday on Twitter of her bird with her Christmas tree in the background, which is shown to the right.  After looking at that picture, there was not much reaction to her Christmas tree.  However, Sandra Lee posted a picture last night of her tree lit up, which had people calling it 'horrifying' and 'the worst Christmas tree ever.'

The photo of the lit up tree is after the jump.  What do you think of it?

Chef Elizabeth Falkner's Elimination From Next Iron Chef Angers Fans

Last night on the latest episode of The Next Iron Chef: Redemption, Elizabeth Falkner was the chef eliminated after losing to Nate Appleman in the Secret Ingredient Showdown.  Chef Falkner, by winning a challenge the previous week, earned the right to judge all of the contestants, and got to pick who to send to the Secret Ingredient Challenge for this week.  Obviously, she chose Nate Appleman and the judges sent her into the elimination challenge against him after she served them inedible fish scales.  The secret ingredient in the elimination challenge was anchovies, and Chef Falkner was eliminated due to the fact that her dish had too much saffron in it.