Chefs on Sticks

Cocktails at the Oxo Tower and japanese skewers at Bincho Yakitori celebrated the end of Iron Chef UK in initially sophisticated, and eventually drunken, style. Much like Iron Chef itself. It was a blast. Bon appetit.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

The Final Result

So we come to the end of the road for Iron Chef UK 2007. Time to announce those final results.
In joint 7th with scores of 13.1 its Michael, the winner of round 4, and Paul, who gave us the most amusing lateral thinking theme - mungo jerry/mango jelly.
In the close run middle rankings we have 6th place with a score of 14.3 its Dez, the man who dred to combine aubergine with chocolate.
In 5th place its the consistently consistent Ed with 14.5.
In 4th place with 14.6 its Claire, whose sticky brown fingers scored more on theme than anything else in the competition.

In 3rd place, the Bronze Chef if you will, was he of the horse's head tirimasu, Shaun, with 14.9.

In 2nd place, the consistently high scoring Xavier is our Silver Chef, with 15.3.

And the winner....

of the whole competition....

whose starter and main were officially the most delicious, best presented of the year...

with 15.9 points...

the Iron Chef is...

GRANT!

Congratulations Grant, and thanks for the food.

Round 8: Double Entendre

With the secret ingredient of PEAR, Shaun found himself coming over all John Inman, he announced the theme of DOUBLE ENTENDRE. The night of filth kicked off with Xavier 'got any French in you?' Guillen's starter of crab balls with a tomato and herb essence to swallow.

Shaun 'the Lincolnshire sausage' Macartney followed with a main of duck in pear sauce, potato dauphinoise, pear and walnut salad, with carrot and pear bread as his bit on the side.

Claire 'nice lamingtons' Murphy finished us off with grilled bananas in a rum and butterscotch sauce, otherwise known as Sticky Brown Fingers. The scores were totted up and the winner of the night was announce: Shaun!

Full scores:
Xavier - 14.9
Shaun - 15.4
Claire - 14.9

Round 7: Picnic!

The theme for Round 7 was PICNIC. We didn't eat outside on the floor or use paper plates and plastic cutlery. Nor were harassed by feral park children. Paul started us off with a twist on some classic picnic nibbles: devilled eggs, cheese and onion sausage rolls and parsnip crisps.
Dez used his secret ingredient of LIME in a spicy and fragrant thai green prawn curry.
Ed finished with some classic picnic dessert fare: chocolate brownies, strawberries and melon - on a skewer with raspberry and Grand Marnier syrup.
While Michael totted up the scores, the nerds immersed themselves in Sapphire and Steel.
And the winner was...PAUL!

Full scores:
Paul - 14.85
Dez - 14.00
Ed - 14.72

Round 6: Layers

Welcome to the layer cake, son. That's a line from the film 'Layer Cake'. Actually its a line from the trailer, which I sat through about 20 times. I never saw the film. It looked rubbish. Unlike the 'Layers' theme night of Iron Chef, which was marvellous.

Grant kicked proceedings off with crab salad with coconut and curry leaves, topped with a layer of mango and passionfruit chutney, topped again by a deep fried spicy prawn.

Xavier put the hours in preparing his secret ingredient to give us the dish Madhur Jaffrey calls 'Aubergines the best ever’ - fried aubergines with two tomatoes and chickpeas sauce, yoghurt sauce and tamarind chutney.

Dez sneaked the secret ingredient into the most daring dessert we've had at Iron Chef - Amalfitana Aubergine and Chocolate Pudding’. Yes, aubergine, chocolate cake, with a white chocolate sauce.

Scores were high across the board. But a winner had to be chosen. And the winner is... GRANT!


Full Scores:
Grant - 16.0
Xavier - 15.3
Dez - 14.7

Secret Ingredient 6

AUBERGINE

Round 5: Sunday Afternoon (on Saturday night)

Round 5 of Iron Chef, the Sunday afternoon theme, took place on Saturday night. Those guests and judges who didn't have to cook assembled in Walthamstow for the cook-off with their imaginary Sunday hangovers, craving comfort food.

Ed kicked things off with a minature roast dinner - a yorkshire pudding topped with layers of roast chicken, coriander carrot, and garlic mashed potato. All the stodge you need in four handy mouthfuls.


The oven was given a fine workout with Claire's main. She used the secret ingredient of cashew nuts as the base of her wholesome nut roast, with roast potatoes and broccoli.


Paul's dessert took us a journey of lateral thinking - from Sunday afternoon to the song 'sunday afternoon' by Mungo Jerry (king of the 70's summertime records no less) and from Mungo Jerry to Mango Jelly. The jelly was served with greek yoghurt and honey, tasty sunday afternoon fare.


And the winner was... Ed!


While Ed won on theme and presentation, Paul and Claire were both happy to have beaten him on taste. Plus they were still laughing at 'mungo jerry mango jelly'. Never gets old.

Full scores:
Ed - 14.0
Claire - 13.5
Paul - 11.7

Theme 4

SUNDAY AFTERNOON!

Secret Ingredient 4

CASHEW NUTS