The Next Iron Chef (Season 2, Episode 3) “Innovation”

It’s all about “Innovation” for this set of challenges. The chefs first challenge is to break down a specialty dish of a restaurant and then recreate that dish in 10 minutes. The chefs will be sent to 4 different restaurants; Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Thai. They will travel in pairs chosen by Mullen since he won the last challenge. He gets to not only pick the teams but he picks their destinations too. His choices are: Trevino @ Farmerie to China, Garces and Crenn to Vietnam, Mehta and Freitag to Thailand, and Mullen and Appleman to Korea.

First stop is Jitlada restaurant (Thai) with chefs Mehta and Freitag. They taste the Jitlada dish which is green curry with fish balls. Second stop is Din Tai Fung dumpling house (Chinese) where chefs Trevino and Farmerie try pork dumplings and vegetarian dumplings. Third stop is Pho Huynh (Vietnamese) where chefs Garza and Crenn try Beef pho. Last stop is with chefs Mullen and Appleman at Nak Won (Korean) where they try Dolsot Bibimbap which translates to the “stone pot”.

At Jitlada, chef Freitag takes the win. Chef Crenn takes the win at Pho Huynh. Appleman takes the Dolsot Bibimbap win, and Trevino takes the dumpling win.

After the challenge Alton explains how the chairman likes fusion type food; and they try out some Korean tacos from a roadside food truck. The challenge is to make their own innovative dish from the experiences they had in their first challenge and put that dish in an American package.

The winners from the first challenge get 60 minutes to prepare their dishes, while the rest of the chefs only get 55 minutes. 5 minutes doesn’t seem like much, but watching what the 4 winners get done it’s a big advantage.
First up to the judges is chef Mullen with a Korean spiced Rueben with potato chips and Korean pickles. Next up is Appleman with short rib pot roast with carrots and crispy rice. Trevino is next with meatloaf dumpling with hoisin vegetables. Farmerie is next with Pittsburgh Peking pierogi with sesame soy gravy. Chef Crenn brings up her dish which is Vietnamese-style American breakfast with spicy sausage and Vietnamese coleslaw. Chef Garces brings up his Vietnamese French dip with pho dipping broth. Chef Mehta brings up his strange looking bunch of containers which is surprisingly what he was going for with his green curry take-out and ginger-lime shake dish. The final dish is brought up by chef Freitag and it’s a Halibut cake with green curry sauce.

Judging time and chef Mullen is on top along with chef Freitag holding a very close second. Appleman is third, Mehta is fourth, Garces comes in fifth, Trevino is sixth, Crenn is seventh and Farmerie is sent home.