Food gets its close-up on ‘Iron Chef America’

Jon Bonné Lifestyle Editor • Profile

NEW YORK - Another battle is under way on “Iron Chef America,” due to begin its third season Feb. 26 (Food Network, Sundays at 9 p.m. ET), and challenger Homaro Cantu has already snapped to work with his sous chefs, chopping up the secret ingredient as the one-hour clock dwindles away.

Chefs often bring their favorite gadgets to Kitchen Stadium, which in reality is a windowless, surprisingly compact studio in the Food Network’s Manhattan studios, located in the hulking Chelsea Market building.

But Cantu, of Chicago’s Moto restaurant, has brought what resembles a high-school chemistry lab. Cantu has gained a certain notoriety for melding haute cuisine, high-tech wizardry and Dadaist design, and his best toys are on display — including a Class IV laser that sears edibles at a blistering 2,800 degrees F, and an ink-jet printer that prints photographs on soy-based edible paper. Both will get a workout before the day is done. Cantu fires up the laser to add a creme brulée accent ... to edible packing material.

“It's FDA approved and static-free, and you can flavor it to taste just like about anything,” he later explains.

From a nearby riser, host Alton Brown squints for a better look at Cantu’s kitchen lab.

“He’s got the largest tank of liquid nitrogen we’ve seen in a while,” Brown quips. “It’s going to be hard for me to see past the leftover props from ‘Real Genius’.”

Across the Stadium, Cantu's competitor, Masaharu Morimoto — the only Iron Chef to hold the title in both Japan and America — directs his helpers in a frenzy of chopping herbs and pureeing vegetables as he deftly cuts pieces of Wagyu beef.

Morimoto has some modern implements of his own, though, including a much smaller dose of liquid nitrogen, which will be used to insta-freeze whipped cream. But more curious is his tinkering with cloth and some bright-red juices, which he uses to tie-dye placemats for the judges’ table.

“This isn’t a culinary competition anymore, it’s a craft fair,” says Brown as he shakes his head at what he’ll later call “Iron Chef America's” most frenzied battle yet.

Standing in the center of it all, Brown is the Food Network's resident nutty professor and the show's mile-a-minute narrative voice. While the original Japanese “Iron Chef” utilized a panel of studious commentators, the American incarnation relies on Brown to riff nonstop with minimal help. Standing in front of a bank of monitors, he relies on dense piles of research, an outline of possible menus, a detailed inventory of the chefs' pantries and some blindingly fast Google skills.

Brown's stream-of-consciousness commentary is a bit like Home Ec on speed. For food geeks, even for casual cooks, it is intoxicating.

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