Foodie News
The Next Iron Chef? Ballerina linebacker Bryan Caswell can't reel in a fishvictory
Caswell came out on top in the fishing boat but not at the judging table.
But Caswell is still impressive enough to be a prime contender to win it all.
"I'm a fish guy. I do this every day. If I can't win a fishing challenge, maybe I deserve to go home."
So says Reef's Bryan Caswell on the third episode of The Next Iron Chef.
Obviously Caswell has never heard of the reality TV gods, who enact harsh vengeance on any competitor who dare lay down such a boast.
But while the fishing expedition loomed large from the previews, the episode opens with a more land-friendly challenge of pickles. Jars and jars of pickles, as far as the eye can see, or at least enough to cover the display table.
Caswell puts forward a "Barcelona Red Hot," which looked like a spicy pickled tomato stuffed with an andouille and pork belly rillette.
Caswell's dish earns three nods from his fellow competitors for best dish, but he's beaten by New York chef Marc Forgione's duck liver crostini in a rematch of last week's chairman's challenge top two. And it's refreshing to see both men vote for each other and not their own dish. Classy guys.
Soon it is onto the boat, where the chefs have to catch their own two-course dinner ingredients — the episode's theme is "resourcefulness." Apparently the ocean is full of scorpion fish (who knew!), because they made up 90 percent of the catches. Caswell showed off his skills, pulling in five scorpion fish and two sand dabs to have the most fish.
Cooking is enlivened by a mixing bowl fire courtesy of chef Celina Tio and Marco Canora's missing artichokes. Though they are eventually found in the trash, his immediate jump to "sabotage!" smacks of feeling just a bit too important.
Caswell serves a warm seafood salad with scorpion fish and chile shrimp as his first course, and a sand dab carpaccio with grapefruit, using the sand dab roe he found in a sac inside the fish.
His dishes render judge Michael Symon nearly speechless as he praises it as "slick," while Simon Majumdar makes the fantastic observation that Caswell "looks like a linebacker and cooks like a ballerina."
But when it comes to selecting a top two, Caswell misses the cut, with honors going to winner Canora, who turns his three pitiful scorpion fish into his old world/new world versions of cacciucco (an Italian fish stew) and to chef Duskie Estes, who comes out near the top with her bacon-wrapped sardine and seared scorpion fish despite losing the intro challenge almost unanimously.
The two obvious low scorers are Maneet Chauhan and Mary Dumont, who has yet to serve a dish that impressed and says goodbye. With so many chefs now firing on all cylinders, it's obvious that any mistake can send you home.
We have to wonder if Caswell's fish splendor took away from his resourcefulness score, since the chef who caught the least fish earned the brass ring. Is using less fish to make good food more resourceful than, I don't know, catching more fish?
It's arguable, but since the judges liked what Caswell put in front of them (and the reality TV gods gave him a reprieve) than we'll take it and be happy.
Next week is all about ... condiments? Interesting.
Until then Houston foodies can vote for Caswell (or whoever else they want) in the online fan vote.
