Allez Cuisine!

the gals were in the house tonight on iron chef america. rachael ray and giada de laurentis battled it out tonight. how fun. rachael was paired with mario batali and giada was paired with bobby flay. i am rooting for giada and bobby.

food network has been playing thanksgiving shows almost non-stop this past week, so it's no surprise that this battle is holiday themed. the secret ingredient: cranberries. i bet you can do some really neat things with cranberries . . . rachael mentioned cranberries with pasta - hhmmm.

rachael and giada both look like real amateurs compared to bobby and mario in the beginning. the girls are both so damn girly! i wish they were more like iron chef cat cora - serious and with a little hustle. rachael and giada were all smiles. there is no way those two would be able to handle the battle on their own. instead of one hour they'd be in there for four hours. at one point giada couldn't get the container off the food processer so she had to ask bobby for help. are they doing this on purpose? make the girls look this flakey? oh brother.

the food of course is amazing. cranberry tempura. cranberry butter. cranberry and pork tamale (hell ya!). cranberry and squash ravioli with cranberry simple syrup. french toast and cranberry with goat cheese stack. cranberry polenta with cranberry and bacon wrapped shrimp. venison osso buco with a cranberry glaze. cranberry suger topped donuts. cranberry risotto. sausage and cranberries with the spaghetti (which is some fancy type of spaghetti that was cooked in wine).

bobby and giada's dishes:
cranberry custard french toast
squash and cranberry ravioli
cranberry and duck confeit tamale
venison osso buco with cranberry risotto
cranberry zeppole

mixed reviews from the judges. some they liked but they had criticisms for most of them.

mario and rachael's dishes:
cranberry ajo blanco
panchetta wrapped cran-glazed shrimp
drunken bucatini with sausage and cranberries
turkey osso bucco with saffron cranberry fregula
panettone zuppa inglese

the judges loved every dish. i didn't hear one negative comment.

i have to say, when the chefs were talking to the judges, rachael came off much smarter than giada. giada was still giggling and acting kind of flakey. and bobby spoke more so it didn't really seem that giada contributed to the team too much. rachael presented almost all the dishes and you can tell that she actually made some dishes on her own. she impressed me. she came across as gracious, intelligent and easy-going. and going into this i was rooting for giada so that says alot.

and the winner of battle cranberry . . . rachael and mario. they blew them a way with 53 points vs. giada and bobby's 46 points out of a total possible 60 points - 20 from each judge. in most battles there are only a few points different. i've never seen it over a four point difference. well, if you missed it tonight don't worry. i checked the schedule and it will be on about 20 more times between now and christmas.