Fans of cooking challenges on reality TV should now rejoice as a new Iron Chef has been named. Alex Guarnaschelli bested Chopped judge Amanda Freitag in the Season 5 of The Next Iron Chef. She is the second female Iron Chef in the show.
Winner Alex Guarnaschelli said she and Amanda Freitag were surprised about the final decision. She admitted not expecting so much as to who will be the next winner. She also liked the fact that the competition was not gender-based just like the comment of judge Simon Majumdar when he said “These are two chefs who cooked all the way to the finale and they happen to be women.”
The judges during the finals were highly acclaimed chefs. They are Iron Chefs Michael Symon, Bobby Flay, Masaharu Morimoto including the latest Iron Chef winner Geoffrey Zakarian, food and travel writer Simon, restaurateur Donatella Arpaia. According to Symon, it was a close fight as the last remaining contenders did make delicious and inventive food.
The last three went through an elimination process before the final face-off which required them to prepare a last supper using chicken, haddock and sea urchin. They were given one hour to create three dishes. The final challenge took place at the Kitchen Stadium in Las Vegas.
Alex Guarnaschelli will have her first battle on December 30 against Iron Chef UK Judy Joo on the Food Network. Her first cookbook is scheduled to be released in April 2013.
Photo via starchefs.com
Originally posted on December 25, 2012 @ 9:04 pm