Jackson Free Press

At Ironchef-FujiTV.com, there's this headline: "Nothing is really real unless it happens on television." Hardly. Iron Chef Everyday is a reality, alive and thriving at The Everyday Gourmet on County Line Road, not relegated to the tube.

For the first match-up, on May 30, two chefs would share the counter top, the four burners and the flat-top cooking surface, the food processor and the sink. Their produce was arranged picturesquely on a table to the left of the counter top. Stacked neatly into wooden crates were fruits, peppers, herbs, mushrooms, sweet corn, asparagus and loads of other obvious ingredients.

The all-important secret ingredient rested atop a tall, rolling butcher-block table, hidden beneath a black cloth emblazoned "Viking" in gray letters. Next to the produce was a several-pans-high-and-wide stack of cooking utensils, glistening like the armor on knights before battle. A large Sony flat-screen TV hung from the ceiling, its camera focused on the cooking surface. Near it hung a long rectangular mirror, tilted just so and giving a view of all the chopping, stirring, cutting, peeling, splitting, mixing and plating.

The competing chefs, both proud Mississippians, walked back and forth, studying the produce, making a mental list so that as little as possible would be left to chance.

Then Everyday Gourmet Cooking School Director Emily Hines called out The Chairman—Joe Sherman, CEO of Viking. Sherman put on a few karate-style moves and kung-fu-movie-voice-overs, introduced Jay Schimmel-l-l-l and Cat Cora-a-a-a-a—chop, chop—and, with a flourish of the cloth, revealed the veal, provided by Paul Anthony.

"So now, Jacksonians, with open hearts and empty stomachs, ishimoto (or something that sounded like that anyway)," Chairman Sherman spoke the words that ring resoundingly in the hearts of "Iron Chef" fanatics.

Host Robert St. John introduced the judges: Nick Apostle, chef/owner of Nick's on Lakeland; Kathleen Bruno, director of curriculum at the Viking Culinary Arts Center; Kathleen's husband, Luis, chef at the Governor's Mansion; and Chan Patterson, director of the Viking Culinary Arts Center. The audience settled in to watch as the chefs prepared three dishes in one hour's time with appetizers from Schimmel's and wine served by the staff of the Everyday Gourmet.

What followed was a delightful conglomeration of commentary from St. John, nerd extraordinaire as introduced by Hines, audience questions, answers from the chefs, and requests for as-not-yet-found items like honey and the innards of the food processor from Chef Schimmel and an ice bath for her fava beans and a mandoline from Chef Cora.

At the 56-minute mark, St. John made sure we knew that Schimmel was chopping some red peppers and peaches, and that he himself—St. John—was loading up on caffeine, a la Red Bull. By the 53-minute mark, Schimmel had made the first trip to the veal, picking up sweet breads. Cat Cora was working with fava beans, Asian five spice, an apricot conserva and orange juice, and pureeing sweet corn, cream, onion and garlic. Five minutes later, Schimmel was looking for buttered ramekins—he planned to incorporate the veal into a soufflé. Chef Cora announced that one of her courses would be a crossover with sweet and savory flavors. At 15 minutes in, Schimmel had a veal base, Cora was working on asparagus and had an orange juice reduction for a glaze going in a pan—plus a three-fennel slaw of fennel seeds, fronds and bulb, in the works to go with the riblets.

All of a sudden, Chef Cora noticed Schimmel's helper—"She can't do that," Cora protested good-naturedly. "You have to do everything yourself."

By the 35-minute mark, Schimmel had sweet breads frying, penne pasta boiling, and he still didn't know exactly what he was going to do with the soufflé in the oven. Cora herself was using the finally located mandoline on the fennel bulb and had a soft shell crab in grease in a pan, sautéing morels in another.

Ten minutes of hectic effort elapsed, and Schimmel had baby greens to plate his first course. Cora's own plating began with the riblets and three-fennel slaw. By the 14-minute mark, Cora was plating the soft shell crab on top of a bit of sweet corn zabaglione accompanied by the veal chops topped with a morel reduction. Schimmel was putting foie gras in a pan with heavy cream and a little black truffle oil. Time passed. Cora put out a tiny bowl of Bing cherries on ice—a palate cleanser between the second and third courses. Schimmel put whole herbs in his sauce, so that he could remove them later, leaving only their essence. Cora was sautéing (in the pan where she cooked the veal medallions) raisins, butter and smoked almonds. First Schimmel, then Cora, told St. John, "I'm done."

The judges tasted every enticing morsel on their way to judging Chef Cat Cora the winner.

If you love to cook, if you wish you could cook, if you're curious about how they did that, but most of all if you love food, then this Iron Chef Everyday series is just what you need to indulge yourself.

On June 27 Grant Nooe of Pan Asia and Fresh Market Café and Patrick Kelly of Julep face off in the Everyday Stadium. Tickets are $75 and limited in number. The Iron Chef Everyday series benefits Chefs for Humanity. Chef Cora explained that celebrity chefs across the country banded together in January to raise funds for the ongoing tsunami rebuilding efforts and to be ready to help at other times, too.

What Is It?: Mandoline

According to CreativeCookware.com, we don't all have room in our kitchens for those big food processors. Nor do all cooks have the money to spend on stainless-steel mandolines. No, we're not jumping from cooking to music here. An Asian-style mandoline is plastic, and comes with several stainless steel blades for slicing and shredding those vegetables essential to preparing your favorite Asian meal. And the whole thing fits easily into a kitchen drawer. You can get yourself an Easy Slice Mandoline by Zyliss at the Everyday Gourmet for $49.99 plus tax. Even if you're not cooking Asian, you'll still find it useful to slice and julienne vegetables using its six interchangeable blades, so you can vary the cuts and their thickness. There's even a blade holder and safety guard that serves as a food pusher, too. 601-977-9258.

Previous Comments

ID

84345

Comment

IRON CHEF EVERY DAY is for everyone!!! couln't have been better!!

Author

director

Date

2005-06-10T22:46:12-06:00