First Lady to Appear on Iron Chef America.

[Big Daddy's House]

First Lady Michelle Obama is scheduled to appear on Iron Chef America on Sunday, January 3 at 8pm, according to the December issue of Food Network Magazine.

She will reveal the Secret Ingredient that the chefs will use to prepare their dishes with. The special episode will run for two hours and is titled Super Chef Battle.

It will feature chefs Mario Batali teaming up with Emeril Lagasse against chefs Bobby Flay and White House chef Cristeta Comerford.

It will all go down on Sunday, January 3 at 8pm! :)

[Dough Boy]

Why?

[Big Daddy's House]

Don't know why.

Should she not?

[awesomeapril]

I would want to be on iron chef if I were her! :)

[Dough Boy]

Don't know why.

Should she not?I don't see the fit with the First Lady and Iron Chef. She must be promoting SOMETHING.

[Chowhound]

Maybe because the white house chef is a contestant, or competitor or whatever they are called? Although I have no idea how that happened, or why.
At any rate, that, I think, is the cool part. I wish the WH chef was competing on their own. It would be interesting to see how the chef for the prez, dignitaries, political high brow functions, competes against a celebrity chef.

[Dough Boy]

Maybe because the white house chef is a contestant, or competitor or whatever they are called? Although I have no idea how that happened, or why.
At any rate, that, I think, is the cool part. I wish the WH chef was competing on their own. It would be interesting to see how the chef for the prez, dignitaries, political high brow functions, competes against a celebrity chef.
Hello, I got a shiny nickle that says he/she wins. Any takers? Heck, I'll even put a fiver on it. It's a setup. Obama's chef is too big to lose, just like GM, Chrysler, Goldman, yada, yada. This is a waste of airtime with a fixed outcome, IMHO. How does the chef possibly go back to the White House if he/she loses? Is this person not supposed to be the best of the best? Who else serves the POTUS but the best? You don't see Flay or Batali or Quazimoto or whatever his name is, cooking for world leaders do you? These guys are just going to roll over and let the chef coast thru without embarrassment. I'm surprised that FN even allowed itself to get sucked into this no-win situation. They would have been better off doing a special on the White House kitchen than risking the chef's reputation on cable TV. Bad Move all around.

[Chowhound]

From USA Today Online (http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2009-12-31-chefs31_ST_N.htm)

What's wrong with this picture?

439

I guess Mario didn't get the memo they were doing a photo shoot at the White House that day :eek: No class.

[Big Daddy's House]

There probably won't be a clear-cut winner.

I bet that it might end up being a goddamn tie!

Just like that time when Rachael Ray teamed up with Mario Batali and Giada team up with Bobby Flay. There was no winner and it was a friggen tie!

[Chowhound]

I was thinking earlier that a tie might happen.
I didn't finish watching the episode you mentioned and didn't know that one ended in a tie.

Isn't that a stupid thing Mario did though? I don't care if you like the prez or not, showing up wearing orange crocs and matching socks is classless.
Well, unless he was trying to match the First Lady's outfit (lol). That's probably why his show doesn't appeal to me.

[Big Daddy's House]

Yeah, everyone looks properly attired except for HIM.

Also, note Alton's outfit as well. Looks like it could stand some pressing with an iron!

[Chowhound]

Maybe AB rode there on his bike ;^)

[Big Daddy's House]

Dag, well standing in front of the White House to take a picture wearing shorts, orange clogs with matching socks, or a wrinkled outfit that's begging for an ironing is very stupid and distasteful for trying to look decent or properly attired if they want to make a mad impression on the Prez or his wife.

[Whoopie Pie]

In all honesty, I doubt that they "showed Up" dressed like that. This was a photo shoot and I am sure that all outfits were chosen by whoever was in charge of the shoot. They are dressed to match their TV persona. Alton, nerdy, Mario in his trademark orange crocs, Bobby Flay in his Iron Chef attire, etc, Michelle Obama in her usual "I can wear almost anything and make it look good" attire.

In my opinion, I doubt that it will be set up for the White House chef to win, I doubt that it would be a big deal for him to lose. Just because you lose Iron Chef, doesn't mean that you are not an incredible chef!

I gotta agree though, Mario looks ridiculous. Even though this is becoming a more casual society, it is nice to see people put in at least a little effort when it comes to their appearance.

[Chowhound]

Mario dresses like that on his show? You said trademark orange crocs... I didn't know that. I'll let him slide maybe 20% then. lol
He looks like a tourist they plucked off the street and handed an apron. I didn't know that was his "look".

[Whoopie Pie]

Mario dresses like that on his show? You said trademark orange crocs... I didn't know that. I'll let him slide maybe 20% then. lol
He looks like a tourist they plucked off the street and handed an apron. I didn't know that was his "look".

Yup that is his trademark "look", I don't think that I have ever seen him in anything else. As comfortable as genuine crocs are, I don't usually wear them in public, just around the house, and mine aren't bright orange, LOL!

[Big Daddy's House]

Yup that is his trademark "look", I don't think that I have ever seen him in anything else. As comfortable as genuine crocs are, I don't usually wear them in public, just around the house, and mine aren't bright orange, LOL!



He's also hard to get along with at times.

IN an episode of Iron Chef America, he was feeling the pressure, wanted something done by his soux chefs, didn't get it within a resonable time, and started cussing and yelling.

[Whoopie Pie]

He's also hard to get along with at times.

IN an episode Iron Chef America, he was feeling the pressure, wanted something done by his soux chefs, didn't get it within a resonable time, and started cussing and yelling.

Some people have a hard time staying humble, and I have a feeling that he is one of those people. To me he comes across as pretentious.

[Big Daddy's House]

Some people have a hard time staying humble, and I have a feeling that he is one of those people. To me he comes across as pretentious.



Not only that.

The New York Post at one time had published a list of restaurants that had failed health code inspections - and guess who had one of more eateries in violation of sanitary health codes. HIS TRULY.

[Chowhound]

Whoa! Did you just see the scallops Mario burned?

[Chowhound]

And I forgot to ask, does that flower the first lady was wearing squirt water?
What the heck was that thing? lol

[Chowhound]

Did you just see AB in the Welch's commercial? That pic I took in the what did you cook thread, the one showing some vineyards, Welch's farms those. How about that, Alton in a Welch's commercial.

[homecook]

Yeah, sometimes I wonder who dresses her......

It was probably taken in California somewhere. LOLOL

[DidSomeoneSayChocolate]

Who cares? Not me. Her being on had nothing to do with me wanting to watch it. I think her being on the show was a ploy to make her seem more housewife-ish to the voting public, for me not so much.

[Big Daddy's House]

She never was never actually in the kitchen stadium, was she?

Things didn't seem to go too well THERE either!

[Dough Boy]

She never was never actually in the kitchen stadium, was she?

Things didn't seem to go too well THERE either!How can things go well when two of the most talented chefs in the country have to throw a competition? There was really no winner, because the judges were a panel of nobodys in the food world. I'd like someone to show me where those judges have credentials to judge any one of those chef's abilities, but that's impossible because they have no credentials.

Chef Comerford could not be sent back to the White House as a loser, which means the pros had to make on-air mistakes like amateurs. That would not have happened if it were not the White House chef. Those who thinks otherwise, well, they are really quite naive. As DidSomeoneSayChocolate said, this was about image for the White House, not about true competition, and politics has no place on food shows. Leave that to Oprah and Ellen and the talking heads. We watch food networks for food, not campaigning. Frankly, if I were the White House Chef, I would not have agreed to a competition where it could be so blatantly obvious that it was thrown. That does not speak well for her true skills, but I'll bet a shiny nickle that she was coerced into doing the show. Doesn't politics stink? I can even smell it over the Internet.

[Whoopie Pie]

I find it amusing how some read so much more into this competition than there likely was.

[Big Daddy's House]

Yeah, guess there was no way that Chef Comerford was going to go back to the White House with that hanging over her head. It would most likely be frowned upon.

So, did she really win, her & Flay? Or was it a tie?

[Whoopie Pie]

It was a game show for goodness sake. I don't think that her career was at stake because of a game, competition show!

Was it rigged? Probably, Food Network "Chefs" are really now just paid actors, even the real bona fide chefs are just performers now, it is all so very carefully crafted for entertainment purposes.

I really doubt that she would go back to the White House with her head hung low, I am sure that she realized that it was just a publicity stunt. I don't think that there was anything sinister about it.

[Big Daddy's House]

But something just doesn't add up when you say that it was probably rigged or fixed.
Deep down, I think so, too.

I DID say back in '08 that something just didn't look right when Aaron McCargo Jr. was competing to become the Next Foodnetwork Star. That when he supposedly didn't know what chipotle was. I had wondered whether he really didn't know, or was he TOLD to say that when Bobby Flay had asked him.

Ok, it WAS the season premeire of the show, so to make it more interesting and the stakes high, their whole goal was to try to pump up the hype and draw a huge audience of TV viewers.

So they put Emeril, who has probably never been on the show before, in to team up with Mario and paired Flay with Comerford and had extended it an extra hour, hoping that more viewers would want to see it, myself as well.

They can also be refered to as glorified chefs. But the must be making more money than God to stand in front of the camera to cook almost everyday.

[Dough Boy]

If they wanted to showcase Comerford's talents, that could have been better done as a special where they go into the White House kitchen and see what she deals with on a daily basis to satisfy the POTUS , Michell and the kids. Not to mention dinners for foreign heads of state. it would be very interesting to see if dignitaries travel with their personal chefs, and how they interact with Comerford and her team. There was much more that could have been done to make it really interesting, rather than a competition where there must be a winner and a loser. I'm really coming to dislike the food network because of the non-stop competitions.

Enough said.

[Big Daddy's House]

If they wanted to showcase Comerford's talents, that could have been better done as a special where they go into the White House kitchen and see what she deals with on a daily basis to satisfy the POTUS , Michell and the kids. Not to mention dinners for foreign heads of state. it would be very interesting to see if dignitaries travel with their personal chefs, and how they interact with Comerford and her team. There was much more that could have been done to make it really interesting, rather than a competition where there must be a winner and a loser. I'm really coming to dislike the food network because of the non-stop competitions.

Enough said.



Likewise!

I mean, it's so sad and bad enough that they got all these goddamn challenge shows on at night, now they've added one more!!

Boy! Don't get me started on this! Because it's totally NUTS the way that they are going so gung ho and gaga over all those friggen challenge programs like a non-stop parade!

That is why if I watch that channel at all, it's during the morning and afternoon, especially on Saturdays and Sundays. In the evening, I watch other channels.

[Whoopie Pie]

If they wanted to showcase Comerford's talents, that could have been better done as a special where they go into the White House kitchen and see what she deals with on a daily basis to satisfy the POTUS , Michell and the kids. Not to mention dinners for foreign heads of state. it would be very interesting to see if dignitaries travel with their personal chefs, and how they interact with Comerford and her team. There was much more that could have been done to make it really interesting, rather than a competition where there must be a winner and a loser. I'm really coming to dislike the food network because of the non-stop competitions.

Enough said.

I think that your idea would make for a better show. I too am missing the old food network, the competitions are getting ridiculous.

[Big Daddy's House]

I think that your idea would make for a better show. I too am missing the old food network, the competitions are getting ridiculous.



Yeah, it is so sad that they've gone on to this ridiculous route, but at least we know that we can also watch many other programs on other channels in the prime-time line-up.

And I'm now doing just that!! I've happily gone back to my many educational old stand-bys like the Discovery Channel, History Channel, TLC, Animal Planet and PBS. :)

About the only shows that I watch in the evening on the Food Network are Throwdown, Ace of Cakes and Diners, Drive-ins & Dives.

I don't even watch Alton's show any more. He's BORING! Besides, I've watched and listened to more than enough of him on Iron Chef America!!

[Chowhound]

Aside from last Sunday, FN is hardly ever on my TV anymore. If I need a cooking show fix, I see if anything is cooking on Fit TV. It doesn't have near the production and appeals to me more, even though I don't try to eat healthy. Sam the Cooking Guy and Blaine's Low Carb are the two shows I try to catch... if football isn't on ;^)