I agree these are fun shows. I only wish that I was the one tasting the dishes.

I also think that Sakai tends to get a little too creative.

I thought the Battali win was by a wider margin than I expected, too. But man his food tastes great. Wolfy & his team won as they should have IMO. Flay's win was interesting and I thought it was really close.

I think the food critic guy judge in the tag team battle was the poison pill. He clearly swayed the scoring (certainly his own, but also, by comments I think, the other judges). I think it was definitely closer.

I've always thought the Japanese shows favored the Iron Chef. I've seen Sakai get his butt kicked on a couple of occaisons only to (predictably) win on the scorecards. Clear bias there.

After re-watching the American shows, I'm convinced that Flay won (most people thought Sakai won). I agree Batali and Puck won their matches. I though the team comp was the closest though.

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I watch these for the knife work and think about how I would be cutting off my hand if I had the knives that they use. Fun shows.

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I know what you mean. Just this past Sunday one hour before my son's 3rd birthday party I was openinig my new Henckel Santoku Gronton Edge knife and cut my palm to the bone. 12 stitches later I am on the mend Using knives however I never have accidents.

Seek - oouuuucchh.

My worst kitchen accident to date was a boiling water mishap right before a big party we were hosting. The potatoes shifted as I was pouring out the water and it ended up burning me down one of my legs. Luckily I was standing next to the sink and was able to minimize the burns with a bowl of water. Blisters and all I we still had the party but I was somewhat groggy from the painkillers.

Seek...brother that's a nasty one. Hope your feeling better.

Were you doing your best impression of the classic Julia Child skit on SNL where she ooops cuts her hand?

"Save the liver"!

yeah i feel y our pain. I've cut 3/4 the way through my fingers 3x now. I don't have any feeling left in the tip of the thumb on my right hand, or my pinky. It's pretty awesome.

Wouldn't want to let you down Ormbee.

Btw, what I found telling is the following snippett from the Conte interview.

Interviewer "what percentage of athletes are using performance enhancing drugs?"

Conte "50%"

While Conte doesn't know everything about all sports he probably has more of an insight than most folks into what is going on, including those who run the sports (of course he may have an axe to grind). As several columnists at the SF Comical have pointed out you don't get 6' 7" 320 pound freshmen linemen in college without some outside help in most cases (there is the outlier that is real). If football honestly thinks it is clean they are deluding themselves (IMHO). The same goes for the NBA. However how does one tell the difference between the outliers (guys who have really grown that big naturally vs. artificially)?

I guess you could basically say I have next to no confidence in the drug testing procedures and policys at any level.

Enjoyed the 1st episode of Iron Chef America. I thought both guys were pretty close.

I've heard nothing but good stuff about Bayless' restaurants in Chicago--Frontera Grill and Topolobampo(?). I think he should have won it too. But I think it would affect the shows ratings if in the first episode, an Iron Chef loses!

I had a feeling Flay was going to win when you could see the plates being put together. Bobby Flay loves sauces, and he put a lot of sauces on his plates. I personally think his plates were messy and a bit pretentious for what they were (the deconstructed salad, for example). The Bison Loins he cooked to "medium rare" were about as blue as you could get. What Flay did get right was color. He had a LOT of color going on. People go crazy for color.

Rick Bayless cooked to his strong suits - mexican. The reason why he lost was because his plates were monotone in color. This is authentic to the style. However, when dealing in a competition you need to be innovative and eye catching.

Personally, neither Chefs plates were creative. They were actually common standbys that they substituted bison for in the focale points.

The judges were wack, imo. The chick was a fish out of water, and has no idea how to eat. Which I guess was the reason for her being a judge. Representing "the common diner". The 2 "professional" food critics were a waste of space. They brought very little info to the dishes. Not a good show for the fat guy who at times talked just for the sake of talking.

How do you lose when you make trout ice cream that tastes good? That's just amazing.

Drew - the answer is "you don't". Gross.

I thought Bayless' dishes were probably better than Flay's. He used some authentic Mexican ingredients that may have been strange for the judges. I thought it was strange that Flay won, especially when the judges kept commenting on the bison - too tough, too overcooked, too undercooked, still mooing (that was so incredibly rare...).

But as DJ notes Flay's dishes were colorful. The "cowboy breakfast" dish made me drool. Also I think Flay uses too many sweet ingredients in his cooking (molasses, chutneys, etc.). It's probably a crutch when cooking in a competition like this.

I agree with Flay that Bison dish was NOT undercooked. It was perfectly cooked.