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

Photo - Food Network

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.


After the judges scored all of the dishes, Jose Garces received a total of 79 points (first dish, taste, culinary curveball, originality, plating), while Marc Forgione received 66 points.  Pretty dominating win for Jose Garces.  Iron Chef Forgione could not get his record back to .500 and is still the only Iron Chef with a losing record. 

Jose Garces will now compete against Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto in two weeks.  We are down to the final four  with Geoffrey Zakarian Vs. Michael Symon next week.  The winners of each battle will face off against each other in the finale in three weeks to determine the champion.