Game Highlights

After discussing the big Iron Chef battle with some of my friends today, I realized my post last night was rather cursory. Perhaps it was the shock of my team's loss. Perhaps it was the vino.

Either way, I wanted to come back and share some of my favorite highlights from the event, most of which involve Mario Batali getting snarky with Bobby Flay. The other one involves sweet potatoes.

To be fair, I do like Bobby. I did drive three hours to spend an entire day waiting for an hour-long cooking demo and a signature in my cookbook. But Emeril trumps Bobby Flay any day. If Bobby was on Emeril's team, I would have been cheering for him.

Besides, I'm a sucker for sass.

Without further ado ...

Memorable moment No. 1: Mario Batali practically running into the White House garden proclaiming he was going to take all of the chiles and tomatillos, staples of the Bobby Flay menu.

MM No. 2: Emeril telling Mario Batali about two nice looking cauliflower in the White House garden, and asking whether they should take one of them. Mario's response: Grab them both. Bobby Flay later was caught yelling back "Did you guys take all of the cauliflower?"

MM No. 3: Mario proclaiming his plans to make tacos and burritos while heading back with his garden bounty.

MM No. 4: Sweet potatoes. Apparently an Obama favorite (we learned as Bobby tried to kiss up to the first lady before the battle). Both teams used the sweet potatoes to make what I think were the best looking dishes of the night - a ravioli from Emeril and Mario and a sweet potato tart with marshmallow topping from Bobby and Cristeta Comerford.

So there you have it. It sure does seem like Mario has a bit of a chip on his shoulder about the Food Network. This article from the New York times says a lot.

"They don't need me," Batali is quoted as saying. "They have decided they are a mass market and they are going after the Wal-Mart crowd. So they don't need someone who uses polysyllabic words from other languages."

Which raises an interesting question ... Were Emeril and Mario in on the fix? Did they realize the odds were against them? Why bother?

My guess is the publicity from the hugely marketed event was probably enough to entice the two chefs to return to the Food Network. After all, we are in a recession, and both could probably use some advertising for their franchises.

I did make me kind of want to eat at one of Mario Batali's restaurants...