White House Vegetables was Show Business as Usual

It turns out that the fruits and vegetables used in that "Iron Chef America" at the White House did not, in fact, come from the White House garden.
The vegetables used in the Jan. 3 episode of the Iron Chef, which were supposed to have been harvested from the White House vegetable garden had been donated from somewhere else.
It seems the time lag between the White House harvest scene filmed in October and the cooking competition filmed a week later in New York was too much for the vegetables to have remained fresh.

We wouldn't care if the celebrity chefs had not misled us during the show talking about the vegetables from the White House vegetable garden.

Even though this episode was the most watched show ever on the Food Network, the falseness of the White House garden vegetables seemed to suggest that all politics, and Iron Chef America is show business as usual.

Jose Garces is the "Next Iron Chef"

Chef Jose Garces owns four restaurants in Philadelphia, and now he is the Food Network's "Next Iron Chef."
The theme was The American Melting Pot, and the secret ingredient was ribs and racks. 
Garces says, "I tried to let the cuts of meat, I tried to let the ingredients shine as best I could."
Garces final meal included baby back ribs in barbecue sauce and a honey-herb mustard encrusted pork loin.
 

'Iron Chef America' at the White House

The Food Network has announced that an episode of "Iron Chef America" will be taped at the White House with Mario Batali, Bobby Flay and Emeril Lagasse.

Emeril Lagasse? Did we miss something?

When did he become part of the Iron Chefs alumni?

We don't remember Emeril being part of any cooking competition, anywhere, ever?

We like Emeril, but next thing you know, they'll be resurrecting that Dinner Impossible guy, Robert Irvine.

But, be that as it may, the White house vegetable garden will be the showcase of the program.
The three chefs will be joined by White House chef Cristeta Comerford,  and allowed to use anything found in the garden to help create their meals.
The competition will finish up at the network's Kitchen Stadium in New York, where Flay and Comerford will face-off against Batali and Lagasse to produce five dishes with the ingredients they chose.

The judges will include chef Nigella Lawson. along with Olympic gold medalist Natalie Coughlin, and actress Jane Seymour.Honestly, except for the occasional, knowledgeable, food judge, 'Iron Chef America'  judges are a cross between laughable and shameful.
Anthony Bourdain has some great thoughts on this:
"But the judges, man. Have they had Richard Grieco on yet as a judge? I think they had Criss Angel on, for chrissakes. Who are these douchebags they put on there? Jeffrey Steingarten at least knows what he's talking about. The show gets really good chefs to go on there, and to have them judged by the likes of Mo Rocca makes me want to vomit in my mouth."

The episode airs Jan. 3.

The Next Iron Chef

The New Season of "The Next Iron Chef" Premieres Sunday, October 4th at 9pm ET/PT
Kitchen Stadium once again opens its doors in search of a new Iron Chef in the series The Next Iron Chef. Hosted by Alton Brown (Good Eats, Iron Chef America), the reality competition will challenge ten top chefs from around the country in a series of demanding situations, testing their culinary skills and toughness.

The ten contestants include:

Nate Appleman (Chef/Butcher, New York, NY)

Dominique Crenn (Chef de Cuisine, Luce at InterContinental San Francisco San Francisco, CA)

Brad Farmerie (Executive Chef, Double Crown, Madam Geneva, PUBLIC and The Monday

Room, New York, NY)

Amanda Freitag (Executive Chef, The Harrison, New York, NY)

Jose Garces (Executive Chef & Owner

Amada, Tinto, Distrito, Chifa, Philadelphia, PA)

Eric Greenspan (Executive Chef & Owner, The Foundry on Melrose, Los Angeles, CA)

Jehangir Mehta (Executive Chef & Owner, Graffiti, New York, NY)

Seamus Mullen (Executive Chef & Partner, Boqueria Flatiron and Boqueria Soho, New York, NY)

Holly Smith (Chef & Owner, Cafe Juanita and Poco Carretto Gelato, Kirkland, WA)

Roberto Trevio (Executive Chef & Owner, Budatai, San Juan, PR).

This season, the series will take the contestants from Los Angeles to Japan to New York to compete in the food fight of their professional lives.

They will be asked to create world culture dishes that represent a variety of cuisines. It could be working with exotic ingredients like jelly fish or creating their own international fast food the chefs must demonstrate their speed, artistry, innovation and leadership in each dish.

The contestants will be narrowed down until two remain to battle it out in Kitchen Stadium and earn the right to be called Iron Chef. The winner will join the ranks of Mario Batali, Cat Cora, Bobby Flay, Masaharu Morimoto and Michael Symon and be launched into instant fame as a member of the Chairmans team on Iron Chef America.