Lynn Crawford was robbed

[suzspot]

I can not believe that yet another Canadian chef lost on Iron Chef! How could the judges overlook her fantastic entries...and pick Flay's peanut butter and jelly sandwhich and ribs??? Oh ya the contest was in a place that discribes a "papadom is like a tortilla, just different" Oh brother, why bother????

[pinstripeprincess]

if i'm remembering correctly... one of the judges formed the culinary portion for the queer eye for the straight guy bunch and from what i've seen, his credentials include wheatgrass smoothies and basic crudites. the other guy looked somewhat familiar but he obviously had to fill the actor/comic role that they have all those flighty women for in the japanese version. either way, i noticed that steingarten as of late has taken to eye rolling and jabbing them with comments. i was wondering how long it would take for him to get fed-up.

the american iron chef makes me feel a bit bad for morimoto, there's a bit of this misunderstanding of what it is that he's creating... something just a little too unfamiliar that doesn't help him at all with judges. i recently saw a battle between himself and a cantonese chef, ingredient of course being tofu and thought that they finally were picking more serious judges. now that's all for shame and i wish that bobby flay participated in the tofu battle so we could watch him yet again bbq and sauce it to death.

[PommeDeGuerre]

In my opinion and only mine, not yours, yours, or even yours, watching a cooking contest on TV and trying to decide who the winner should have been is a bit like judging a "Battle Of The Bands" contest while reading half of the sheet music and wearing earplugs. It may give you an idea, but you would have a tough time making a definitive case.

[starlady]

I agreed with her tasting her soup before it went out and I actually thought that her complimenting him wasn't a bad thing. She said it to the world, and it sounded like she meant it.
I too thought that her plating was awesome! and I thought she should have gotten more on Originality, but there again who knows how they tasted...
I do love her on other shows (Restaurent Makeover, and she was once on Mike Smith's show). She'll be back and she'll rock. And I LOVED that she was soo calm. You go Girl!

[pescatarian]

I agree. I think being a control freak, is a good thing for a chef. Also thought it was refreshing that she was so calm.

[LJS]

I think they will bring Lynn Crawford back for a re-match as her dishes were imaginative and sounded like they would have tasted terrific. (yea, I agree-I thought she was going to win judging by the panel's comments). She was calm, funny and pleasant throughout, whereas a media type in my town who was present at the taping reported in her blog that Flay was none of the above.

[FlavoursGal]

"She was calm, funny and pleasant throughout."

Personally, I found Lynn Crawford to be loud and obnoxious, and it appeared to me that her sous-chefs were annoyed with her, as well.

She did seem pretty calm, though. However, I prefer a chef who appears more harried and sweats a bit. Give me Mario any day.

[embee]

"You know I'm a control freak"

Unscripted and even a bit apologetic. I couldn't have said it better than she did herself. I wonder what Rob had expressed to her that we didn't see or hear?

[FlavoursGal]

Did she not blurt that out when she insisted on tasting the parsnip soup? I can't say I blame her for wanting to taste "her" product before it went to the three stooges (sorry, Jeffrey - I do hate to lump you together with THEM).

Her subsequent shouting "It's the best you've ever made!" was, I'm sure, very embarassing for her sous.

[mojoeater]

I agree that Crawford's looked excellent, but we didn't taste it. And my SO was watching, and all he could say was how Flay's dishes made him drool.

My understanding is that the judges give a numerical grade on each dish at the time they taste it. Then the totals are tallied and the winner decided. If the judges, goofy as they are, prefer the taste of Flay, what can we do about it? I prefer when they have at least one judge that isn't a professional foodie, just to get a less biased opinion.

[mummy2Luna]

Bobby Flay is a wanker and shouldn't have won, but I found both his and Lynn Crawford's menus were uninspired. Peanuts are a great and incredibly versatile ingredient and frankly, I expected more from chefs of their calibre.

[embee]

I don't much like Iron Chef, but I did watch last night and I, also, thought she deserved to win. Of course, I didn't taste the food, which was judged short on flavour. Things that look great but taste blah happen much too often in the world of fancy food, and this certainly COULD have happened here.

But the comments seemed to belie the judging result. Weren't some of her dishes described in the most glowing possible terms? I thought I heard things like "the best I've ever tasted". I thought I heard Steingarten actually diss a couple of Flay's dishes. Didn't he declare the brule to be badly conceived if not overtly bad? What about the milk chocolate? My aging memory may have already confused who did what, but I don't recall any negative comments about Crawford's food.

Flay didn't make anything that I couldn't put on the table myself. That's not a bad thing. His cookbook recipes work in a home kitchen and usually taste good. But that doesn't make him an "iron chef". Yet he rarely seems to lose. My own stuffed French toast and nut crusted (beef) ribs would damn well have tasted better than the dishes he prepared. These dishes didn't look very appetizing either. And I made a nut crusted salmon fillet last week that looked as good as his halibut looked and tasted great as well. And I'm certainly no "iron chef".

But did Crawford really "lose"? If the Iron Chef's don't do most of the winning, how could they be credibly presented as the Iron Chefs? I ASSUME that the producers decide when a challenger will be allowed to win. It's only entertainment, after all, and a challenger who does well still wins from a career perspective. If they put on feckless challengers who couldn't possibly win, they would quickly kill their show. So the challengers should probably win about as often as the iron chefs. They don't. Hmmm.... (I do believe that other Canadian chefs HAVE won.)

Steingarten can be a pompous ass, but I respect his palate and believe his judging to be serious. Did those two imbeciles actually judge the food? Or did they deliver the verdict they were instructed to give? Scripting this would hardly be a crime.

I expect we'll see Crawford again. If the show lasts and Four Seasons allows it, she could end up an Iron Chef herself. That she will be on the show again is almost certain. But she will be appearing as New York chef then, so we probably won't care.

BTW, it seemed to me that Rob did the real work -- not Lynn.

[suzspot]

true about her coming back as a New York chef...but it is nice to know she is keeping her home in Toronto, as it said in the Toronto Star today

[BLM]

In fact, Iron Chef Morimoto has lost more times, than he has won so far on Iron Chef America(5 wins, 6 losses & 1 tie) and Iron Chef Cat Cora has just barely won more than she lost(6 wins, 4 losses). While both Iron Chefs Flay & Batali have won the vast majority of their battles. If you ASSUME, that the producers decide when a challenger will be allowed to win, then DON'T WATCH. Or watch it, & just ignore the results. If Crawford assumed, the results were already predetermined for her to lose, while go through all this effort to lose. I see little or no chance of Crawford ever being an Iron Chef. Sorry for sounding so harsh. It just how I feel. Personally I felt Crawford & his support chefs did very well in the battle. It's very hard to judge who should win, without tasting the food.

[embee]

Tis true - I've no idea what anything tasted like. And I seldom watch the program.

[theweight]

Susur Lee tied Bobby Flay (battle bacon...I believe) and Rob Feenie won against Morimoto. As far as I can tell, Crawford is the first Canadian Chef lose.

[littlegreenpea]

Interesting. Thanks theweight.

[littlegreenpea]

When you say "another Canadian chef" lost, does that mean that Susur Lee also lost? Missed that episode (season 1), but I believe he went up against Flay as well? Anyone know how that went?

[dagrassroots]

How can you know who should have won based off of watching it on TV. I did not watch so I can not comment on the visual and flavor profiles of the dishes but isn't the best part of food eating it.

[Withnail42]

Flay has slid by and won numerous times. And each time he more or less makes the same thing. It does make me wonder if it is like other ‘reality” shows where the producers ‘consult’ on the outcome.

[ctl98]

I totally agree that Lynn Crawford should have won. Bobby Flay's dishes lacked sophistication. You could see that her dishes were more thoroughly thought out than his.

[FlavoursGal]

I don't watch Iron Chef America all that often, but I made a point of watching tonight. I thought Lynn Crawford's dishes were much more complex and visually appealing (aside from the green celery foam) than Bobby Flay's.

I have always admired Jeffrey Steingarten's intelligence, wit, and food sense, not to mention his writing style; but who were the two buffoons who served as the other judges? Both were incapable of intelligent culinary discourse; Mr. Steingarten was visibly cringing at their comments and childish antics.

Given that two of the three judges were total nincompoops, was it really a fairly judged competition?