Happy Holidays From Kitchen Stadium!!!

Well, to make up for the quick post I made about Heroes, I ended up delaying the next posts until now. In a couple of days, I’ll put up a post about the episode about Episode 10 of Heroes, which should be very exciting.

But enough about that, time to focus on the semi-real world of Iron Chef America. ^_^

First was newbie Iron Chef Symon’s battle in the big KS, and his opponent was as bald as he was, a black guy called Richard Moore. The “secret ingredient” was a similar theme to the one with the farmer’s market produce, only this time, it was all the ingredients for a traditional Thanksgiving meal – Turkey, cranberries, and sweet potatoes.

After seeing Symon win his first battle(losing in your first battle as an Iron Chef would make you look stupid), I have made peace with the decision of the three guest judges. Michael Symon doesn’t have the looks, but he’s got the skillz, and that’s all that matters in KS. Not only that, his Thanksgiving innovations are quite nice.

What surprised me in this week’s KS battle wasn’t the fact that Paula Deen was competing alongside my favorite Iron Chef forever(Hear that? It’s the sound of all nine layers of the Netherworld freezing over and Satan giving sleigh rides – call out to my good friend Brian Corvello for that quote) or that it was a dessert battle(even when a pastry chef competed, he was ordered to make savory dishes with chocolate and coconut – but then again, the original Iron Chef had a dessert battle, I think), but the fact that TYLER FLORENCE WAS IN KITCHEN STADIUM!

You see, I had seen Tyler a few times in my early days with FN, watching his show Food 911, which was a nice show. But I gave it up after new shows got the spotlight and I had stopped watching Tyler Florence, even though he was popular. The fact that a TV chef which I watched as much as Guy Fieri or Ina Garten(almost never) set foot in Kitchen Stadium was shocking.

Of course, I should be shocked that another chef I never watched, the infamous Robert Irvine, was there, but it made sense – if anyone could survive Kitchen Stadium’s timed battle, it was him. After all, he was a master of time management and crazy situations. I had seen a few of his Dinner: Impossible episodes. However, Rob was freaking out and Paula was playfully egging him on with trash talk. She also stole kisses from Tyler, but being the way she is(a 70-year old playful flirt with the boys and men), I was not surprised.

Cat and Paula won(the day Paula Deen gets beaten in a cook-off is the day homestyle cooking dies ^_^) and it was nice to see how processed Velveeta managed to make its way into fudge and still get the judges’ approval. I would have laughed at seeing that female judge(forgot the name, it was something-Faye) mock a faint after the last tasting.

EDIT: Sorry, I remembered what I really was shocked at…Mario was still on the show! It’s official, everyone, don’t let anyone say otherwise: Iron Chef America has FIVE Iron Chefs now!

The calm after the storm

This is a bit soon after my last blog, but the latest episode of Heroes has aired and I’m going to be busy today cooking food for an early Thanksgiving feast for me and my parents(who are going to have a traditional feast tomorrow, Happy Turkey Day to everyone reading this blog!). I was going to just watch the G4 airing of the episode on Saturday, but recently I started tuning in to the normal airing on NBC(KOAI where I live), and this last episode confirmed my fears about HRG’s fate. More on that later.

If I could put a theme on this week’s episode, it would be “Fathers.” The two major plots running through this episode, and the sub-plot with Matt the telepathic cop(oh, sorry, he’s now a detective, my bad), clearly focus on “daddy issues.”

Hiro tried to rescue his dad from his death, only to be told off by said father. After revisiting his mother’s funeral and meeting his younger self(which clearly means that the “you-can’t-visit-your-younger-self-or-the-universe-will-blow-up” clause from Dr. Who is completely false, at least in this world), Hiro realizes that Kaito knew he was destined to die and saving him now would be pointless. At the end, his voice is the background narration to a montage of scenes.

Matt learns he can do the Jedi mind trick and uses it to not only get another interrogation with Nathan and Peter’s mom, but also forces her to tell everything about Adam and learn what Peter did and what Hiro discovers to his shock – the guy who took the name “Takezo Kensei” is trying to take out the company. More on that later too.

Finally, the major plotline…the events leading up to HRG’s fulfillment of the final painting of the octet. Him lying in a blood of his own blood coming out of his the lens of his glasses which was punctured by a bullet from Mohinder, with Claire screaming hysterically as West holds her back. I had a feeling West was the man holding her back in the painting, because West had worn the same costume to scare Debbie ****less.

HRG is dead…or is he?

The final scene of the episode really shocked me. I knew that Claire’s blood, which Bob stole from her, probably had the healing properties that Adam’s blood had. After all, both people had the same superpower. However, when I saw who was being healed, I had the same reaction HRG had when he woke up.

Holy ****, indeed.

But now that that’s over with, we have to wonder what the final two episodes of Volume 2 hold. Here’s my theory, which is probably completely going to be disproven next Monday.

First off, from the screenshot I saw on the 10th Wonders forum, it’s likely that whoever saved HRG(Mohinder or Bob) will send a fake jar of ashes to Claire for her to “bury”, similar to how Mohinder put his father’s ashes to rest in Episode 7 of the first season, but the Company will keep HRG locked up like they did Peter(probably in the same cell) to silence him. They won’t need the Haitian pills since HRG isn’t a special, he’s a completely non-threat at this point.

Adam and Peter might learn about HRG and break him out, offering to ally with him in taking down Bob. After all, both Noah and Adam have the same goals – the obliteration of the Company. Peter will offer his help since he knows what the Company does to specials. The three will seek out the Haitian to join their cause, making it Bob and Elle(Mohinder may decide to remain neutral after what he’s done, realizing that saving the world isn’t worth killing someone, but I’ve been proven wrong before) versus HRG, the Haitian, Adam, and Peter, 75% of the group having powerful abilities.

(However, I think the Haitian will be useless here. If his ability-muting power affected ALL powers, or at least Elle’s, why didn’t HRG have him hiding in the background to stop Elle from zapping Claire and West? Nope, I think the dark-skinned one only mutes “psychic” powers like telekinesis, phasing, and mental stuff. Offensive and defensive abilities cannot be negated by his aura.)

Hiro might end up siding with the Company, unaware of the fact that once Bob learns about his time/space bending powers, he’ll knock the Jap-boy out once they win and stick him with an IV of cocaine to mute his powers while they study him. After all, I read that the trailer shows Hiro fighting Peter to get to Adam, now that he knows Adam killed his dad. Bob might use this to good use.

Then there is Nikki. Why did Bob let Nikki go? If Nikki had been called in as backup, Bob would have won and forced Claire to surrender, killing both the men she cares about. And there’s nothing Claire could do to stop Nikki – Bob could have ordered Nikki to break Claire’s arms and dragged her away again! Of course, Bob would have had to concoct a lie to get Nikki to do that, since Jessica is gone and this Gina personality seems like a wuss, but still, super-strength is really powerful. Bad move, Bob, letting Nikki go. You relied too much on Elle and almost got killed for it.

 Either way, I see Adam recruiting HRG to help him out by, at least, spilling the beans on the locations of the Company and thwarting any personal motives Bob has before killing him. After all, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” As long as Adam keeps feeding paranoia into HRG’s head and avoids doing something with Claire that would get HRG mad, like pull a “Bowser” and kidnap Claire to replace Yaeko as his princess, they will be strong allies.

Again, I’m just thinking about things that might happen in the next two episodes, this is all speculation. I could be 100% wrong when the final two episodes(I heard the season finale is called “Powerless”) air. Tim Kring is a writer, but he can’t read minds like Matt does and I can’t make Tim do what I want, like Matt did, so I have to trust Tim’s judgement. Either way, the last two episodes will be epic with the virus and the clash of heroes.

Sylar’s back, which may force the Company and Adam into a shaky alliance to get rid of the superpowered thief, especially if Sylar finds a way to get his powers back.

 All in all, the last episode got tense to the climax, then wound down into a poigant tear-fest. I almost felt like crying when I saw Claire being held gently by West while she cried herself to sleep, then gaped as HRG was revived. I can’t wait to see if he tries to escape and inform Claire that “I’m not dead!” ^_^

BTW: I seriously doubt that Micah and Monica are going to get involved with the upcoming battle as long as the conflict remains in New York or California or wherever this fight will be. If Bob asks “St. Joan” for help, we may see Monica get involved, but I doubt Bob will want to involve her, because he knows that might make her stop trusting him.

BTW: Will Caitlin ever be rescued from the future she was stranded in? Will Maya and Alejandro be free of their cursed powers? Will Sylar get his powers back and become a threat to everyone? Stay tuned!

A storm is coming…

“A storm is coming, and Claire is the key.”

Those words, uttered by Bob at the end of the Heroes episode, “Out of Time”, after Mohinder claims moral ambiguity and confessing to his working with HRG to take down the Company, give a chilling foreshadowing of events that might come.

Another foreshadowing were the last two pictures in the octet of paintings from Issac Mendez that foretold events after the artist’s death and the nuclear explosion in NYC. So far, all the paintings have come true in some shape or form.

Except for the last two – the one showing Mohinder with a smoking Company-issue gun in his hand and a look of rage on his face, and another where a girl was being whisked away by a figure in black as Noah Bennet lay on the ground, a bleeding bullet hole in the left lens of his infamous glasses and a look of agony on his face.

I recently came across a screenshot of a possible future episode. In it, Claire is crying while holding an urn of ashes, and Mrs. Bennet, her son Lyle, and West are in the blurry background with sad faces.

If you recall, the urn of ashes appeared before – the urn was given to Mohinder and he went back to India to deposit its contents in the waters, the ashes of his dead father Chandra.

The last painting and this screenshot both point to a grim future for Claire – her adoptive father shot dead and his body cremated for burial. Now, a comment the actor Jack Coleman(who plays HRG) said retorts otherwise, that HRG won’t die. But who knows how long ago that comment was made? The evidence is becoming more and more conclusive.

HRG’s days are numbered.

Now, as I said before, I’m no pessimist, but HRG’s actions and behaviors are all pointing to paranoid over-protection of Claire. His worst nightmare is about to come true – the Company will take Claire away and use her blood for research, she’ll be dissected like an alien. His paranoia has elevated to dangerous levels, and Claire is getting sick of it.

When Mohinder confronts HRG and asks for Claire, he will most likely respond with violence, deaf to the plea from his treacherous partner that Claire’s blood can save Nikki’s life. He doesn’t care about Nikki, probably has never seen the woman, so why should he hand over Claire to a company who would likely lock her up like they did Peter?

He won’t have it, and that will lead to his death.

We knew that this would happen. HRG got too attached to Claire, and now that she is old enough to give a piece of her mind, she is alienated from him and feels alone. HRG did something bad to her boyfriend and now she lost West, and now HRG is trying to isolate her, keep her hidden like some dirty little secret. No wonder she wanted to be normal in Season 1.

Bob’s word ring very true as we approach the ninth episode, “Cautionary Tales.” A storm is coming, and it will claim HRG’s life, and maybe others. Storms are violent vessels of destruction, and even if nobody dies, damage is done. The storm is the inevitable confrontation between Noah and the Company over Claire, and the damage will be great…Noah should have never gotten involved in the Company to begin with, but now he must face the consequences of his actions.

Sorry, Noah, but your princess is in another castle, and you lost your last life from falling into the bottomless pit of paranoia.

Is TV really worth watching anymore?

A fellow blogger of mine, Seamus(his blog, Twenty-Sided, is quite interesting – check it out if you’re a D&D fan), has sworn off of TV. He gives his reason in a post called “Television.”

 I agree with some of his reasonings, but I do watch TV…I just happen to own Direct-TV satellite thanks to my parents, so I don’t watch the local channels except during Thanksgiving(for the Macy’s Day Parade, the next one is coming up this Thursday, which happens to be Turkey Day) and for new episodes of Heroes on NBC Monday Night.

I agree with Seamus that reality TV is a bit over-rated. Recently, watching “The Next Iron Chef”, I got a little perturbed that there was too much conflict and the challenges were ridiculous – I mean, why did they have to prepare food for dignitaries or airplane passangers when they are going to be battling all the time in Kitchen Stadium? And why make them cook on a grill when they won’t need to in Kitchen Stadium? Sanchez was portrayed to be a b**** and Donatello was said to be a slut, which really makes the whole exercise stupid in the first place.

Food Network, don’t go the way of the local networks. This is a contest to replace Mario Batali, not Survivor!

But aside from that, Food Network’s shows are all great. I love watching Alton Brown make biscuits in “Good Eats” or Rachael whip up a 30-minute meal, regardless of the fact that she has her own talk show now.

Sadly, not all shows are blessed. I just started in on “Heroes”, and now they’re going to cut it short this holiday season? Their spin-off got axed and isn’t coming back? And why is that, because some Ebnezzer Scrooges in the production offices in NBC won’t put out a little from their royalties with Internet content to these scriptwriters? Come on, this is stupid!

If Maury Parkman recovered and used his power on me, he’d make me see his world get erased as “Heroes” gets axed and won’t have a Season 3. The prophecies will show NBC and its brothers go bankrupt because all they can show is news and reality shows, and Food Network, Discovery, and TLC buy them out and stick all their old shows on the gutted channels while they cram their networks with more reality manure.

I’m not being pessimistic, just realistic – we may lose many shows in the war between the writers and producers as the strike drags on indefinitely. I don’t want “Heroes” to be one of these casualities. *cries black tears of death*

Interesting theories about Adam

In my last post, I talked about the events in the latest Heroes episode, “Four Months Ago” and my confusion over who was the bad guy – Adam or the Company. Well, I read this message on the 10th Wonders forum by a poster called “Gabrial Grey”(Sylar’s true name):

I have this wild and completely unsubstantiated theory that Adam arranged for Mr and Mrs Petrelli to have Peter much in the same way that Linderman did with Nikki and DL. It makes sense since Linderman was Adam’s disciple. He could have learned this tactic from Adam. Adam could have known they would have an offspring that was an empath and he would have his new “blunt instrument” to use for his revenge. Plus to use a son or daughter of his former partners would add insult to injury. I don’t know. I’m probably wrong…

That got me thinking…could Chandra Suresh have had a grandfather who was studying genetics, and Adam worked with him, like how Gabriel Grey worked with Chandra? Perhaps Adam cracked the genetic code long before Mohinder did and found that one can manipulate the powers a person is born with by having him be born with certain parents?

If this was the case, and if Adam discovered that Kaito Nakamura was the father who conceived the man who ruined his early life, why didn’t Adam just break up Kaito’s marriage before Hiro was conceived and erase Hiro from existence? Perhaps Adam didn’t realize that Hiro was the son of one of his “disciples” until it was too late, U dunno.

If the theory’s correct, Adam could have forced Niki and D.L. to bear Micah, knowing that his power would be machine empathy and have Linderman kidnap the boy and turn him into a tool to ensure Nathan’s election, and was then planning on using Micah’s power again to ensure Nathan’s election into the White House, which is why Linderman refused to let him go after Micah did his “dirty deed.” Micah was a powerful sword to Adam.

Likewise, Nathan was a powerful sword because of his flying powers – he wouldn’t need to spend money on a private jet, he could be a Superman clone – up up and away! And Peter was obviously the “one-man-army”, with every power in the bag.

Who knows how many kids he had arranged to be born? Hana? Candice? Maybe even Claire! Adam is a crafty fox…if the theory is correct.

We won’t know until the next three episodes air. *shrugs*

Review: “Four Months Ago”

I’ve just gotten into the hit drama “Heroes”, which I like because of some of the characters(Hiro Nakamura is my favorite) and the sci-fi plot of people gaining superpowers and their lives changing because of that. That is why I named my blog “Shrine of the Sacred Eclipse.”

I know I’m really out of the loop here by reviewing a second-season episode of “Heroes” without reviewing the last 26+ episodes, but honestly, there are podcasts that discuss those episodes already. Maybe if I get some time, I can do a big recap of the first season and the first seven episodes of the second. Be patient, okay?

WARNING: Spoilers for the episode are below. If you haven’t seen the episode yet and don’t want to be spoiled, look away!

 If you’ve watched the episode “Six Months Ago”, when Hiro goes back to April 2006 and finds out that he went back too far, you will get scenes on the other characters and their backstories; Matt flunking his second detective test, Claire getting into the cheerleadnig squad, Nathan and Peter’s father committing suicide, and so on.

This episode does the same thing, only it fills us in on the events that happened between Peter going “boom” and him being found locked up, half-naked, and amnesia-stricken in a cargo crate in Ireland’s dockyard in the second season premiere. I won’t spoil anything here, but only enough to give my thoughts.

Niki’s behavior is understandable. I have taken medications before for my autism and it has really upset me enough to “forget” to take the meds. Niki thinks she can control her strange disorder, but sure enough, what Bob says comes true and another rogue persona of Niki’s surfaces and takes control…which leads to D.L. getting a raver angry enough to kill him. Without D.L. in her life to guide her, she ends up having no choice but to enter the Program…and now her veins are coursing with a fatal disease that ends up being the world-annihilating epidemic Peter had experience in the near future.

The other two stories explored are Peter’s and the Honduran twins’. The latter is less important, but reveals when Maya’s “black tears of death” first manifested and when Alejandro’s “healing touch” first manifested, and how they became fugitives. The second is more important in my eyes.

At the beginning of the second season, I thought that Bob was trying to undo the bad things that Linderman and Thompson did, but after seeing this episode, I’m not so sure that Bob is any better than Thompson. Sure, he doesn’t plan to dissect Peter and Adam, but he keeps them locked up for who knows how long, and plans to stick them with hypos when the vaccine(which I believe is the Shanti Virus) was perfected, taking away their powers.

I mean, Bob is so unreasonable. Even when Peter begs to get some fresh air and promises to take the drugs, and even says Elle can watch him, Bob says “no.” I’m wondering if Bob is nuts or not. Noah Bennet may have some truth in not trusting the company, even when Ivan said that it’s under Bob’s control and has “reformed.” Has it? Even if it was for the safety of the world, I think Bob is being too paranoid not to trust Peter. I’m sure he can get some references who would vouch for Peter’s honesty, but he doesn’t – he just locks Peter up like a common crook.

Right now, I’m feeling a bit like Mohinder at the end of the last episode; I don’t know who to trust. The Company might know something about Adam and Claire and how their blood can undo damage to tissue and might cure the virus(after all, when Nathan was given a dose of Adam’s hemo, he started to regenerate right away), but if it means putting Claire in the Program – after all, Adam has the same power and they locked him up – I’m going to be a little wary of them. Not enough to put a bullet through the Company’s head like Noah wants to do, but just enough.

On the other hand, Adam was once Takezo Kensei, and he was just as unreasonable when Hiro promised to leave as soon as the war was over so Yakeo would turn to him…and look what he did – he decided to change history so he was the Emperor of Japan, and even refused Hiro’s hand when he was engulfed in the explosion. I bet he killde Kaito Nakamura in spite. And now he’s using Peter…like he used Matt’s dad, perhaps? I’m still grey on his motives, but if his plan to save the world involves injecting his blood into Niki like he did with Nathan, then chances are Peter’s trip to the future won’t happen….

…oh my god, what about Caitlin? She’s still trapped in that future! If it changes, she’d cease to exist! Argh!

Hopefully the final three episodes will tell us all.

My thoughts on the trailer:

• Hiro goes back to the time of his father’s death and tries to save him…but as we saw, his attempts to rescue Charlie from Sylar ended up a failure because he learned that Charlie was going to die from a brain clot anyways. Will fate prevent him from saving his old man?
• Claire is in her cheerleading outfit, and we heard Noah ordering everyone to pack for a move. Do you think Claire convinced her adoptive daddy not to move? Not like it would matter anymore, since the Company will probably ask Molly Walker to find her, now the little girl is safe from the Nightmare Man.
• Noah is angry as heck and ready to shoot someone. Could this mean that the last two paintings are going to be accurate and Mohinder shoots Noah through the eye, killing him?
• And could Adam be the one who kidnaps Claire as soon as she sees her foster daddy dead? Remember what I said about Adam being the man in the hoodie who threw Kaito off the building? The guy who “grabs the girl” in the last painting could be the same one who killed Kaito, since they dress alike. Just a theory, but an interesting one. Now that we know that a person with spontaneous regen. is basically ageless and undying, Claire will probably end up never getting any older than sixteen and Adam probably decides to make her his new “princess.” Just a theory.
• Finally, the money question…WHAT ABOUT CAITLIN? DID THE WRITERS FORGET ABOUT HER AND PLAN TO ERASE HER FROM THE SHOW? ARGH!!!!

Whatever. Peace out.

Never thought I’d see the day…

Well, this is my first blog. I never thought the day would come when I would commit to a blog. When I first heard about blogging, I thought it was some crazy Internet fad and didn’t think twice about it.

But after recently bookmarking other people’s blogs, I came to understand the whole concept. It’s like an Internet-based journal about the things you like, and you control what people are allowed to say and what you put in.

Anyways, this isn’t a specialized blog – it’s not a blogs on “Heroes” or Dragon Quest or Pokemon. It’s a menagerie of those things and more. Sort of like Shamus’s Twenty-Sided, only with different topics.

I plan to start by putting things about what I’ve watched on TV recently and wing it from there. I seriously hope you enjoy this blog and please comment if you feel like it. Just censor your language(I want kids to hang out here too, I love kids) and don’t be negative(I’m technically an optimist).

Ciao! 6_-

The Next Iron Chef?!

In March of 2007, when Food Network aired the second season of their reality series “The Next Food Network Star”(I had missed the first season in 2005 because my introduction to FN was in November 2005, way after the first season had finished – in fact, I didn’t even know about the first season until the second season aired!), I made a mistake. I latched onto the cute Asian girl, Jess Dang, and rooted for her. When she got axed in the first elimination and started crying about it, part of me died that day.

“Okay,” I told myself, “so you lost the cute Asian girl…maybe that nice Beth will win!”

 As if. She was axed in the second elimination, and her fellow girls were axed in future episodes.

By the time the final elimation axed the Carissa Seward and left me with two fat men(Reggie Southerland and Guy Fieri), I did everything in my power to insure that the “sassy” Southern negro didn’t win, voting for Guy in both of the computer I have access to. Needless to say, Guy won. No offense to Reggie, but if he won, then the Food Network would have lost my respect. Luckily, Guy’s “badnik” attitude and macho looks won him the spot.

 When the next season aired this summer, I kept my bias down and tried to be neutral. As people got eliminated, there was an incident where a young woman called Amy Finley was having a bad time and it looked like she was going to be eliminated. She began crying and telling the judges “Eliminate me, I deserve it” but in the end she recovered and found she was still in. At the final elimination, the judges picked J.A.G., a black-Latino with Guy’s macho attitude, over Amy and she was axed…and then J.A.G. came clean and dropped out of the competition in a twist of fate, because he had faked some of his background. Bad move, Jason, bad move! So Amy came back and I voted for Amy on one computer(because my mom liked her a lot), and guess what…she won! The girl who was struggling and almost got axed came back and won it!

So, where am I going with this?

Well, as of this writing, I feel a little like Food Network decided to revoke their 2nd season results, axe Guy and bring back Reggie as their Season 2 winner of “The Next Food Network Star(TNFNS).”

Recently, Food Network’s famous show “Iron Chef America”, had a turnover. Mario Batali has left the stage, and they hosted a reality series to recruit a new one, putting eight famous chefs through tests to see who had the “right stuff.”

This show, called obviously “The Next Iron Chef”, had the same drama that last season’s “The Next Food Network Star” had to the nth degree. I was upset when the only two female contestants got axed in the beginning, but Traci De Jardins and Jill Davie needed to be more creative.

I was rooting for John Besh, who lives in New Orleans…which is a city I hope to visit some day. Maybe I’ll try out the food in Besh’s place and, if a miracle occurs, meet the man myself and shake his hand. He’s a warrior(in both senses – he was a Marine) and personally, a hero to me.

Besh made it to the top.

He didn’t win.

Who won? Some knock-off of Duff Goldman, the Ace of Cakes. A shinytop with a goatee.

I am not starting my first true blog post with a rant about how Besh was far better and sexier than Michael Symon will ever be. I may have back when I was a Food Network newbie, if this show had aired during the time of “The Next Food Network Star.” But I’ve grown mature a bit in the two years since then, or at least I’d like to think so.

I know now that my current thoughts are of bias – I’m prejudiced against bald men. When Nathan Lyon was eliminated in Season 2 of TNFNS, I smiled. When Patrick Rolfe was axed in the beginning of the current season of that show, I said “meh, good riddance.”

It’s not that I hate bald guys, it’s just that hair makes a person look nice. Women are never shown bald because they look like aliens and guys who are bald remind me of evil people like Mr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies. (My mom watched the first movie and I ended up watching a bit of it.)

Duff Goldman is an okay bald guy because he’s badnik and designs cakes. Nothing more oxymoronic has ever existed. ^_^

So, how will I survive the future of Iron Chef America now that Duff Goldman’s twin brother is wearing the smock(not the old one, a new one designed by a mother-daughter team and which will be made by Mark Ecko)? Well…

It’s gonna be hard. Very hard. Now that Batali is no longer in the Food Network or on ICA, I’ll miss his cute comments, but Symon has shown entertainment potential(which I think is why Besh was rejected – he was playful, but at the final battle, he was heaving and a man of few words). Symon’s first battle will be the Sunday after this post is posted, and though I won’t record it on VHS, and while it will be hard to hear Alton say Symon’s name in the Iron Chef sound-off at the beginning of the show at first, I will adapt and survive, as I did when Tina Woods and Laura Foy went off the air after G4TV.com was cancelled and vanished from the annals of human memory.

I will not, however, bemoan this situation. Cat Cora is my favorite Iron Chef, and when she said about Symon’s second dish “This roxx!”, I knew that Symon had it by a landslide. Besh may have tried to make a risky swordfish desert, but it didn’t have the fishy taste that is mandatory for an Iron Chef dish and therefore it killed him. I respect the verdict.

Still, I’m sure people will be lamenting the fact that instead of “Bobby Flay, Masaharu Morimoto, Cat Cora, and Michael Symon”, it should have been “Bobby Flay, Masaharu Morimoto, Cat Cora, and John Besh” until some mysterious virus wipes out 93% of the population and people are too busy surviving on K-9 rations to watch TV anymore.

 (Whoops, sorry, a Heroes reference got leaked into this post, my bad.)

EDIT: I read Ruhlman’s blog and he said that he waited for the Iron Chefs to vote, and he also said that the other judges(Knowlton and Arapaia) were upset he sided with Symon. Donatella also lost it and got on the Iron Chefs’ backs. It is nice to see that a judge can sometimes get too emo about a decision.