Buffalo Rising Online

Nov 12th 2007, 1:32pm By Christa Glennie Seychew

Well Symon rocked it out, or should I say “punched” it out. Though I think that both Symon and Besh played it safe during their final test, a showdown in kitchen stadium, I'm happy to say that Michael won 4:2. The judges took the contestants' past performances into account, which explains why Symon won even though the some of the comments the judges gave on half of his dishes were pretty derogatory. Symon's backlog of wins from the previous episodes certainly weighed in his favor.

I argue that Besh is a man on point, no doubt, with superb execution and a very accomplished palate. Unfortunately, that does not keep him from being dull. Unfair? Perhaps. I would say based on some of his quips that he is probably very amusing and entertaining in person, he seems to have a dry wit. That, however, didn't play on camera at all. On camera he is as stiff as can be, and a little old school. I think that Bobby Flay is all the “stiff” that one program needs.

So, when the judges determined that their skills were at a similar level did they not only take previous wins into consideration, but also personality? Who can say? That's perhaps unfair to the judges, but if you want someone that's going to take risks and make the show watchable, would you choose the guy dressed in classic whites with hands of a surgeon, hair of a Vidal Sassoon model and a quiet smile or the tatted-up bald dude in black industrial duds with a humble attitude and a laugh that can break up a room of snobby French foodies? Hmmm, not a tough decision, in my mind.

It would have been a much more interesting battle with an ingredient less boring than swordfish- using a protein always seems like a less interesting battle to me. Neither chef really stepped outside of their boundaries in this round, but Symon has a personality that at least feels like he's up for it. I also noted that in all of the previews and interviews, as Symon advanced he kept talking about how much he loved the heat of competition and the idea of working with other chefs where Besh was almost always shown talking about his possible appointment as though it was an accomplishment, a career move.

But the judges don't see those cuts, and the versions we see are certainly twisted to suit the network's needs. Did you feel like you were being steered toward liking (or disliking) a particular chef based on editing? Do you think the network set certain chefs up to look like winners and others like bad boys? Did Davie really look lost all of the time or did they take all of those shots out of context? We know now that Cosentino was shown to look hot headed in the previews, but was really a pretty well-held together guy. What do you think?

As a regular viewer of Iron Chef, I'm just happy that we'll have some new blood. And by the way, do you think Morimoto is chosen less often because he's not available or because he has less cache when it come to American television? Such a shame, the man is brilliant. Perhaps since it is rumored that Batali has resigned, we'll see Chef M more often.

My only overall concern is entirely selfish, how hard is it going to be for me to get reservations at Symon's Cleveland restaurants now?



Photo courtesy of ruhlman.com