BROWN: The time has come to once again
answer life's most savory question.
Whose cuisine reigns supreme?
This is "Iron Chef America"!
♪♪
Allez cuisine!
BROWN: A delectable Japanese tradition
has taken root in American soil.
Another day in paradise over here.
BROWN: We have been graced with our very own Kitchen Stadium,
where the best chefs from around the world
will meet to face the ultimate gourmet challenge...
I'm raging. I'm ready to go.
BROWN: ...going head to head against
a member of the Chairman's pantheon of culinary greats --
the Iron Chefs.
How much time?
Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.
Whoo! Iron Chef back in the house!
Come on!
I love my job.
-Go team! -Go team!
♪♪
BROWN: In mere moments, one Iron Chef will be pitted
against our challenger, who thirsts to discover
our secret ingredient and enter the heat of battle
here in Kitchen Stadium.
Hey, let's get on with it, shall we?
The Chairman welcomes Chef Carolynn Spence.
With 26 years in the business, Chef Spence's impressive resume
includes stints at The Spotted Pig,
Chateau Marmont, and Mesa Grill,
working for Iron Chef Bobby Flay.
She is currently based in Seattle, Washington,
and known for her fresh take on dishes
featuring local, seasonal, and sustainable seafood.
I am definitely a rustic cook.
I like the flavors to basically tell the story.
When I'm coming into a competition, my mindset is,
"Keep my eye on the prize, keep my head down,
and pound those flavors out".
Chef Spence, welcome.
Thank you.
You have come to Kitchen Stadium
to take on the Iron Chef.
Are you ready to challenge a champion?
I am. Very good.
I have decided that you will go into battle against...
♪♪
...Iron Chef...
♪♪
...Jose Garces.
Iron Chef, please join Chef Spence.
Iron Chef Garces is not to be messed with.
He's got a lot of good spice flavors.
He's quite the competitor, but that 60 minutes --
that's the real enemy here.
There is one more ingredient to this battle --
our secret ingredient, the theme on which our chefs
will offer their succulent variations.
Today's secret ingredient is...
♪♪
...crab!
Hmm.
I am so stoked.
Crab is one of my favorite ingredients.
It just lends itself to a lot of different styles of cooking.
SPENCE: I live in Seattle now, the Dungeness crab-land,
so you have to get to know it.
Crab is a difficult critter to break.
Your initial dish featuring crab must be served to my judges
during the first 20 minutes of the battle.
Ooh.
So now, America, with an open heart and empty stomach,
I say unto you in the words of my uncle...
♪♪
...allez cuisine!
BROWN: The Battle Crab is on here in kitchen stadium,
and what an amazing bevy of crustaceaous life-forms
we have up on the altar today in a living state.
We've got Dungeness crabs.
Of course, those are named after the Port of Dungeness
in Washington.
We've also got from the West Coast red and yellow rock crabs.
I believe there are a couple of spider crabs up there.
There are also blue crabs from the Atlantic coast.
Uh, oh, he's going to go over -- teetering, tottering.
He's gone! Oh, crab down. Sorry, buddy.
We also have soft-shell crab here, which, of course,
is a blue crab that was harvested
during its molting phase before the shell hardens.
And then we've also got king-crab legs
and snow-crab legs as well.
GARCES: All right, guys.
I'm going to start with the stuff,
the piquillo relleno with king crab,
and I'm thinking about doing a Singapore spicy crab.
And we'll do little raviolis with the snow crab.
Crab cake? Crab cake.
Let's go, guys. Let's go.
The goal is let's get as much flavor out of these as possible.
Tim, you're going to get some of the shell extract
and some oil to go with a little dessert.
Euni, get some of the meat -- as much as you can --
and I will get the guts out,
and we'll make a crab-gut crepe.
FERGUSON: Okay. Ready?
Three, two, one.
BROWN: So, as I look over the kitchen,
we've already got some --
looks like some of the king-crab legs
and maybe some of the snow crabs in a large pot
over on the Iron Chef's side.
Remember that, uh, snow crabs and king crabs are all harvested
and typically processed right on the boats and frozen,
so that's why you do not see the bodies.
Meanwhile, Dungeness crabs over on our challenger's side...
Tim, I got some legs here for you for oil.
Olive oil now being added to some of the Dungeness carcasses.
There's pieces -- mostly claws and legs.
We're making a crab oil to go with our cake.
BROWN: And Chef Spence, as we can see,
is harvesting out just guts,
and she's not throwing those away,
so she might be using those.
Now, I do want to point out that crab guts,
used in a lot of especially Japanese cuisine --
flavorful stuff.
Chef, do you like crabs? I love crabs.
It's one of my favorite ingredients --
sweet, savory, as well.
It's a lot of flavor.
While I survey all from my perch here in the sky,
I do need Jet Tila down on the floor for intel.
Let's see what the chefs are doing.
Chef Spence, how are you? Oh, I'm great.
How are you? Excellent, excellent.
Okay, so how about quickly, your plan for your first course?
20-minute dish is going to be
take on a beggar's purse.
So we're going to start with a crepe
made with a little bit of the crab funk.
Is "crab funk" technical term for that stuff?
Yeah, the schmutz, the butter with crab meat
and crème fraîche on the inside.
Oh, so instead of the typical caviar filling,
you're using crab. Uh-huh.
A little bit of a "mermaid's purse".
I like that. Perfect.
Hey, Chef, I got these crispy crab legs in here.
Will you just keep an eye on them for me, if you can?
In the fryer over on the Iron Chef's side right now,
the soft-shell crab.
It was just lightly dusted with some rice flour
and potato starch.
Iron Chef Garces! What's happening?
How are you? Doing good.
What's your overall kind of feeling? What's your game plan?
It's really gonna be about highlighting the beautiful,
succulent sweet crab, so we might go to Spain for one,
Italy for another, Southeast Asia.
First course is a stuffed piquillo relleno,
which is a crab-stuffed pepper, more or less,
but I got some special tricks for it, so...
You always do, Chef. Good luck.
Thank you. All right, Jet.
How are those first dishes coming together?
How's it going, Alton? A lot going on here.
So on Iron Chef's side, he's doing a piquillo relleno,
so basically a roasted pepper stuffed with cheese,
crispy soft-shelled crab on top.
On top of that. Exactly.
On the challenger's side, it's going to be a crepe.
You say "crep", I say "crape".
I know. And she's making crepes?
And she's going to stuff that with crème fraîche,
a cornichon, and crab, so instead of a Beggar's Purse,
she's going to make a mermaid's purse.
[ Imitates explosion ]
Wait, we don't have any mermaid meat here in the pantry.
Can we get culinary on that please?
All right. Thanks, Jet.
I'll check back in with you in a bit.
In the blender over on the Iron Chef's side right now,
we got some piquillo chilis or peppers from Spain,
Northern Spain, as well as some lemon juice
and some Japanese mayo-nnaisse.
So he's basically made a piquillo aioli.
Euni, you working on that cake for me?
I'm working on your stuffing for crepes and the garnish.
Oh, you're working on stuffing? Perfect.
Working on crepe batter as I speak.
All right.
On the challenger's side, sous chef Euni
right now over in the pantry cutting down some cornichon.
In the blender right now, some of that strained crab gut
has been added to some flour, some eggs, and butter,
and also on that side of the kitchen,
sous chef Tim has been very careful.
He's been cleaning these shells, these Dungeness shells.
I imagine that they are going to be serving in that.
That will be a bowl of some type.
These shells for you, Chef. Thank you.
Over on the Iron Chef side right now, Iron Chef Garces --
now, he has made the filling for the piquillo relleno
that Jet Tila told us about,
stuffing that into that little piquillo.
Some crab meat there -- I believe king crab.
There's some crème fraîche, there's a little egg in there.
San Simon cheese,
which is a Spanish smoked-cow's milk cheese
with a flavor kind of similar to Gouda.
Now he's spooning some of the piquillo aioli over those.
Oh, it's going to Neil.
Perfect.
WOMAN: 15 minutes have elapsed.
BROWN: 15 minutes.
You got five minutes to get those first courses
up to the judges.
Five minutes.
First crepe, always the worst.
Our challenger -- not so happy with the way that
that crepe is coming together.
Try it again.
Euni, I might need a little help here.
We are moving crab-wise through this exciting battle,
but we got to take a quick break.
"Iron Chef America" will be right back.
♪♪
Hi. Welcome back to Kitchen Stadium.
Our battle today is crab between our challenger, Chef Spence...
Euni, I might need help wrapping up crepes.
...and Iron Chef Jose Garces.
GARCES: How are we doing on time, guys?
MAN: I think another five minutes, Chef.
Whose cuisine will reign supreme?
That is entirely up to the judges,
and to introduce them, we go up to the never crabby Jet Tila.
Thanks, Alton.
Today, we have Lesley Suter, two-time James Beard winner,
long-time editor of Los Angeles magazine,
and current travel editor of Eater.
And joining Leslie, our good friend Marcel Vigneron,
culinary genius,
competitor here in Kitchen Stadium,
and your restaurant just was named
one of the best restaurants in L.A. by L.A. magazine.
Thank you. Thank you.
Happy to be here. This is so exciting.
Crab is actually one of my all-time favorites.
Our Christmas Eve meal in my family growing up
was a whole, huge pile of Dungeness.
Maybe my -- maybe my death-row meal.
BROWN: Jet, thank you very much.
Let's get down here and see how things are coming along.
Time, please.
2 1/2 minutes 'til those first dishes
have got to be up to the judges.
HA: 2 1/2 minutes. 2 1/2.
Need some help with something? Any butter?
Let me grab you some.
All right, I got one more crepe on.
Looks okay. How's my filing?
BROWN: Over on the challenger's side,
they're stuffing the crepes
with a mixture of crème fraîche, some crab from the Dungeness,
and also some chopped cornichon pickles.
Beggar's purse is being wrapped up with chive --
they're mermaid's purses.
And those beautiful Dungeness shells are out on plates.
Now, I thought they were going to serve those inverted
and put something in them, but it's actually looking like
they're going to serve them right-side up.
One minute until those dishes must be up with the judges!
I'm excited to get that 20-minute dish.
I'm glad they added that into the format.
I know. It's an appetizer.
Don't expect me to wait one hour
to eat food. Yeah.
And make me smell it this whole time.
I will say, I hope they bring a bib.
Bring it on. Bring it on.
Over on the Iron Chef side of the world right now,
we can see that Iron Chef Garces is plating
those little stuffed piquillos
filled with the king crab and also some cheese.
Chile relleno would typically, of course, be fried,
but this one he has simply decided
to roast up there a little bit.
And then underneath is a bit of reduced crab stock
that was mounted up with a little bit of butter,
and they are now garnishing it with the soft-shell crab legs
that were fried. Heading up, guys.
Heading up. One is in.
BROWN: Iron Chef Garces --
heading up to the judges right now.
Oh, boy. Here we go.
HA: Last one is done. SPENCE: Good.
Chef Spence, literally on the heels of Iron Chef Jose Garces.
Wow. Coming at the same time.
Chef Garces, please.
Here you go. Oh.
This is inspired by Spain.
It's a piquillo relleno,
but we used Alaskan king-crab legs as the center.
It also has two Spanish cheeses
and some crispy soft-shell crab legs for garnish.
TILA: Thank you very much, Iron Chef.
Before you dig in,
I'm going to have Chef Spence present her dish.
Welcome. Thank you, Chef.
SPENCE: We've attempted to make
a very quick little mermaid's purse,
kind of a take on a beggar's purse.
Crab-gut crepe with crab meat, crème fraîche,
a little chopped cornichon on the inside.
So the crab guts are in the batter for the crepe?
Yes. Amazing.
Yes.
It's a little stinky and funky, so...
Just how I like it. Thank you, Chef.
TILA: Thank you very much, Chef.
Well, first, I need to talk about how gorgeous
both of these are. Yeah, they both are, right?
I was hoping to see a crab vessel used as a dish,
and this looks beautiful.
And this -- a little bit less flashy, but classic.
So why don't we start with Iron Chef since he dropped his first?
Mmm. You know, it's really not fun
to be standing here watching you eat this course.
What do you mean? It looks amazing.
Great little texture from that crab leg.
Yes, it gives it a great little crunch.
Some people have mixed feelings
about the idea of cheese and crab,
but I think it's delicious together.
You get, like, almost a little bit of smokiness
from the cheese, which combined with the sweetness of the crab
is just really -- I mean, just a knockout.
The pepper's mild, the sweetness of the pepper
complements the sweetness of the crab.
That's just dynamite.
All right, I'm going to move into this one.
He's staring at me. He's watching me.
He's literally wondering when you're going to eat.
He says, "When are you going to take a bite of me?"
I'm going in.
Yeah, get after it.
Mmm, the cornichons is the first thing that hits me, actually.
With all the cornichons,
it almost has, like, a tartar effect with it.
Mm-hmm. Very creamy inside.
It's a juicy mermaid's purse right there.
[ Laughter ] Yeah.
I think she could have held back a little bit on the creaminess,
and you can taste the crab a little more.
It almost covers it up. The crepe on its own?
It has, like, the funk.
That's actually my favorite part of the dish, is that crepe.
Favorite part. Yeah, me, too, me, too.
All right, judges.
Bearing in mind, you're each going to be allowed
to award five points,
taking into consideration taste, presentation,
and creativity and use of the secret ingredient.
I'm going to leave the ballots with you,
and I'll be back in a little bit. Thank you, Chef.
BROWN: Thanks, Jet.
Now, let us get back to the action.
SPENCE: Tim, what are you working on over there?
FERGUSON: I got croutons in the oven.
You going to put together a little frisée salad with that?
Yeah. I got your claws going right now.
I got the vinaigrette working.
Over on the challenger's side, some crab pieces now
going into that crab-gut mixture.
Some whole-grain mustard has been added,
and that's some shallots in there, some sherry vinegar,
so it's actually becoming a vinaigrette,
only based on crab guts -- Dungeness crab guts.
Apple being peeled over on that side of the kitchen, as well.
That's being done by sous chef Euni.
Those apples being sliced thin now
and are going down onto a silicon mat,
where I imagine they are going to be candied in some way,
and Chef Spence seems to be boiling some eggs.
I'm going to soft-boil some eggs for a crab-cake Scotch egg.
BROWN: Looking back on the Iron Chef side,
I don't want to miss what sous chef Han is doing
over at his station right now.
Mousse is going on? What is happening here?
HAN: Yes, a little bit of scallop mousse.
So, I'm just emulsifying some double cream into it.
Uh, scallops. Scallops, a little salt.
Eggs? Yes.
What is this mousse going to be used for?
For a ravioli filling.
Oh, for the -- you're making raviolis.
Yes. I did not know that.
So we're going to have ravioli on the Iron Chef side today,
but I am not sure how crab will be incorporated into that yet.
We'll keep an eye on that.
Over on the Iron Chef side right now,
we can see the Iron Chef using a heavy bone cleaver
to break up that Dungeness body.
GARCES: This is, uh, Dungeness crab,
so that's for my kind of main course.
Look at this thing.
It's freaking -- this thing's ridiculous.
If we take a finger off with that --
be careful, kids at home.
Watch that.
BROWN: And there's also some garlic, some red-bell peppers,
some celery, almost kind of a sofrito thing going on,
simmering in a pot.
Euni, please.
Are you going to make an olive-oil cake for me?
I'm making olive-oil cake right now, Chef.
I do believe I just heard our challenger, Chef Spence,
ask about an olive-oil cake.
I think I'm actually seeing that come together
in the capable hands of sous chef Euni.
Now, this sweet Mediterranean cake
uses olive oil in place of butter,
and believe it or not,
she's folding some chopped crab meat into the batter.
That cake batter is actually going on top of the apples.
[ Laughs ]
"Crab apples". That's clever.
So is it going to be more sweet or more savory?
Sweet, but there is a crab flavor.
Also looking down over on the challenger's side,
a lot of bay leaf going into that dairy.
And it looks like fresh and dried bay have gone into that.
SPENCE: Needs more.
More sugar. More salt.
TILA: Chef, what's happening in that pot right now?
And that's going to be the bay-leaf ice cream.
Get out.
I heard the word "ice cream" right here first.
Crab and bay -- they're best friends.
I like friends.
Over on the Iron Chef side,
something being buzzed up with an immersion blender.
Some eggs being added into the admixture.
So this is the flan mixture right here.
So it's just simply eggs,
a little flavor from the crab stock,
and a little bit of lime.
BROWN: And he's filling the crab bodies with that.
HAN: Yeah, I'm cooking the flan mixture in the shells.
It's going to be topped with a sofrito of a little crab meat.
BROWN: Now, he's created kind of a water bath of bain-marie
in that sautée pan
with those filled bodies, the Dungeness bodies,
and he's transferred that to the convection oven.
Alton Brown!
Jet Tila, are you talking to me?
Yeah, I got a Jet Cam moment for you.
These are mini -- I think they're called kanikko crabs,
but they're tiny, tiny little crabs.
Check 'em out in my hand.
But what's going on is sous chef has pureed them,
and they're using this powder to make a sweet crab cake
and crab ice cream for dessert.
So it sounds like we're going to have
cake and ice cream for dessert on both sides today,
but tell me more about these crabs.
So this little crab is already cooked?
It's already fried.
It is like a Japanese beer snack.
I will snack on that thing right now,
especially if you bring me the beer that you mentioned.
Ooh, yeah.
I do think this might call for a beer, this challenge.
If a chef knows what they're doing, they'll bring me a cold one.
TILA: Here we go, baby.
Look, it's adorable.
It's absolutely adorable.
I'm going to make it into a brooch --
no, a tie pin. See?
30 minutes have elapsed.
30 minutes remaining.
Half the battle is gone.
HA: Cake is in. Whew.
I'm worried about time, but I'm good.
How are you doing? Good.
How are you guys doing? All right?
Going in. Yeah?
All right. Cool.
Ah, I can see that Jet Tila has the ballots
for the first tasting in his hot, little hands.
The scores will be revealed
when we return to "Iron Chef America".
♪♪
Hey, welcome back to "Iron Chef America".
This is Battle Crab between our challenger, Chef Spence...
SPENCE: Eggs if you have time.
Yep. I got you, Chef.
They're right here. Thank you.
...and Iron Chef Garces.
Here's one more.
Now, let's go down to Jet,
who has the scores for those first dishes.
Jet, what you got?
All right, Alton, so Chef Spence -- 6 points.
Meh.
Iron Chef Garces -- 8 points.
So Chef Spence is in the hole for two points.
I'm not worried about the team being down.
We have a good team. We're gonna knock it out.
Iron Chef Garces? What's happening?
"No big deal. I'm just leading by a few points
and not showing any emotion or excitement at all
just 'cause I'm a badass."
I see how it is. Expected.
This is Kitchen Stadium.
I love this place... when I win.
All right, over on the challenger's side right now,
look at that food processor in the hands of Chef Spence.
There is some crab in there. I'm not sure what kind.
Some onion, some celery, some mustard,
and she just added breadcrumbs.
SPENCE: It's sort of a little crab-cake mixture
that is going to go around a soft-boiled egg.
That's actually going to become a Scotch crab egg.
They're going to put that mixture
around the egg and fry them.
Neat idea.
I am looking at sous chef Euni.
Now, she harvested some coconut meat from a very young coconut,
and she's harvested some coconut water, as well.
What exactly do you use it for?
It's going to be crab-and-coconut eggrolls.
Looking down on the Iron Chef side right now, white chocolate
was melted in hot butter by sous chef Michael,
and that has now gone into the crab powder
using flour, egg, and sugar.
So, all I can say is I think that
that is going to be a white-chocolate crab cake.
Did you try the crab?
No, I still have it right here. I named it.
I never should have named it
because now I don't want to eat it.
I'll bring you some dust over right now, the crab dust.
It's amazing flavor.
So, I don't know how I've been missing out
on this whole kanikko crab thing.
I just got to spend more time in Japan.
That's all there is to it. All right, I'm going --
I'm going to do a little -- little crab thing here.
Thanks.
Freaking delicious.
Ladies and gentlemen,
there are 20 minutes remaining in this battle.
20 minutes.
20 minutes, guys. 20 minutes.
Looking down on the Iron Chef side right now, in that bowl,
that is some rice flour, as well as some potato starch,
and there's also some salted cabbage over there.
What is that man doing?
I do not know, but it looks faintly Japanese to me.
And I think the Iron Chef has also added
some aged mirin and eggs to that mixture.
Chef Garces, what are you making?
So I'm making my version... Yep.
...of okonomiyaki pancake.
It's a seafood pancake.
In this case, we're going to use a lot of crab.
I'm also doing a Singapore-style red-chili crab.
Ooh. We're using Dungeness crabs,
so it's kind of, you know, my tour of Asia,
some of my favorite things I like to eat when I go there.
I love it. We'll see how it goes.
Thank you, Chef. All right.
Ooh, frisée.
We got a head of frisée on the challenger's side
being deftly taking apart.
That's how you deal with that.
That's how you get that core out.
Sous chef Tim putting it into a bowl
on top of the crab-gut vinaigrette.
That makes sense, and now we got some croutons,
just some sour-dough bread was broken down
and tossed with a little bit of crab-infused olive oil.
I missed this entirely.
That's now gone into that salad.
Oh, Chef Spence is going to the ice-cream machine right now.
So, this is the bay-leaf ice cream?
Yeah. Excellent. Um, what else is in there?
Milk, cream, eggs, sugar,
salt, and dry and fresh bay leaf.
So, really straightforward play?
Very straightforward. Wonderful.
I just want it to be a friend, not an enemy.
I like that. "A friend, not an enemy".
Thank you, Chef. Did you mess with her head, Jet?
You know, I'm trying not to.
I'm trying to be encouraging, actually.
Really? Yeah.
That's not what we do here. [ Laughs ]
A lot of fun things happening,
so on Iron Chef Garces' side, we're going to Asia.
We got chili crab. Chili crab?
Yeah, probably the most popular crab dish in Singapore.
Imagine taking, like, spicy, tomato-y egg-drop soup
and making it into a concentrated sauce,
and then lacing that over beautifully fried crabs.
That is Singapore chili crab.
On top of that, okonomiyaki.
Okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki!
"Okonomiyaki" means
"anything you like on the grill". There it is.
And that's a dish that came out of World War II Japan
when rice was kind of rare, but they had more wheat flour.
And so they started making this awesome --
would you call it a pancake?
I mean, it's a pancake. I would call it
a savory pancake... Yeah.
...or a griddle pizza.
Hit it with mayonnaise and sweet sauce, deliciousness.
Okonomiyaki is one of the best dishes on earth,
as far as I'm concerned.
All right, thank you, Jet.
Over on the Iron Chef side,
sous chef Han rushing back over to the fryer
to check on some soft-shell crab that he's got in there.
They were lightly dredged
in some rice flour and potato starch.
That's the traditional dredging for those.
He's got something else going into that fryer,
some kind of chips.
I think they may actually be sunchokes.
Remember the sunflower family?
Nutty, delicious. What are those, sunchokes?
HAN: Sunchoke chips.
It's going to go on top of that flan.
Looking down on the Iron Chef side right now, in that bowl,
he's got some ketchup in there, some sweet chili sauce
is in there, some fish sauce, and some hoisin sauce.
That is going to be one big mouthful of sauce,
and I assume that is for that chili crab
that Jet was telling us about.
Also on that side, dough is being rolled out,
and it's a 00 flour.
There's egg in there and paprika,
so it has a very, very dark-red color.
TILA: Now how many times will you put this through, Chef?
HAN: Probably around three or four times,
just until I get the nice shape. All right.
I'll come back when this makes ravioli.
Thank you.
FERGUSON: That's what I like -- already cleaned.
Let's move over to the challenger's side.
Right now, soft-shelled crab being dredged in some semolina
and some Chesapeake Bay-style seafood-boil seasoning
that we're not going to name, but everybody knows.
FERGUSON: Uh, this is for the frisée salad,
getting ready to go into the fryer behind me.
BROWN: Eggroll sheets being worked by sous chef Euni.
There's crab in there, some celery,
some coconut in there, and cilantro.
She also made a kind of dipping sauce.
She's got cream and coconut in there, I think.
She's got some fish sauce, lime juice,
Thai chili, so it's kind of a nuoc chom-style sauce --
Vietnamese dipping sauce, quite spicy.
So we're going to have egg rolls over on the challenger's side.
We also know that Chef Spence
is going to be serving her crab-cake Scotch egg,
the frisée salad with crispy soft-shell crab.
FERGUSON: Soft shell going in the fryer. Careful.
BROWN: And, of course, that crab-apple cake
with bay-leaf ice cream for dessert.
Hey, Chef, do you have a little extra crab?
HAN: Not really.
I used most of them up. Use that?
Yeah, you can use that for -- Thank you.
Appreciate that.
Okay, the mixture that's going down into the little omelette
and little egg pan in the hands of the Iron Chef,
that's the okonomiyaki batter going over some crab meat there.
The ravioli has been stuffed with the mousseline of scallop,
crab, and a bunch of herbs,
and now the Iron Chef is pouring that chili sauce
over some Dungeness crabs
that have been cooking in aromatics and beer, in fact.
So, looking over on the Iron Chef's courses --
all right, he's going to be serving that crab flan --
cooked right into the shell --
the ravioli, his crab okonomiyaki,
and Singaporean chili crab,
and the white-chocolate crab cake.
Ah, sous chef Michael heads to the ice-cream machine
with a crab ice cream.
Now, we have had a lot of fishy ice creams in Kitchen Stadium,
all the way back to the Battle of the Masters
when one particular Iron Chef from Japan
made the most dreadful thing I ever put in my mouth,
raw-trout ice cream.
This is what we call extreme cuisine.
Well, I can get you more.
[ Laughter ]
BROWN: This crème anglaise was infused
with the powder of those tiny, delicious fried crabs.
45 minutes have elapsed.
15 minutes to go.
How are you doing, Chef? Good.
SPENCE: You going to be okay in 10 minutes to plate?
10 minutes to plate.
Two outstanding chefs are attempting to, uh,
claw their way to victory here in Battle Crab.
Who will win? I don't know!
"Iron Chef America" will be right back.
♪♪
Hiya, food fans.
The air in Kitchen Stadium is thick with tension
and the aroma of delicious crustaceans.
All right, let's get you caught up with Battle Crab.
Over on the Iron Chef side, the white-chocolate crab cake --
I said that -- was baked in ramekins.
The ravioli went into the boiling water,
and the crab flan is out of the oven
and has been topped with the sofrito.
Now, on the challengers' side, eggs were poached
and a salsa verde was created out of fresh herbs,
some vinegar and olive oil, and the cooking continues.
Ice cream's out.
Cake in the oven waiting for me?
Cake is out. Cake's out?
What's the time, guys? How are we looking?
10 minutes to go.
And you've got 10 minutes, ladies and gentlemen.
10 minutes.
Chef, you ready for plating ravioli? GARCES: Yeah.
On the Iron Chef side right now, we can see sous chef Han.
He has put his ravioli --
of course, he made those just minutes ago --
it's gone into the pan with butter and crab-stock reduction.
The okonomiyaki's out now over in the Iron Chef's side.
It's getting its traditional drizzling.
Mayonnaise went on there, as well, as some oyster sauce.
Yum.
There's still a lot of room left on that board.
I wonder if he's going to serve his other Asian dish,
the chili crab, with that.
Oh, and that's where that soft-shell crab went
and some bonito flake on top of the okonomiyaki.
I always love watching those bonito flakes
when they go on something hot.
They look like they are alive, writhing in pain.
Trust me. They are not.
How's the cake, Chef? Beautiful.
On the challenger's side, we can see that entire cake now
out on her board.
Sometimes the Chairman stocks Kitchen Stadium
with specialty items
or accessories for the chefs to use,
and I guess that's where she found that crab cookie cutter.
I really like how they cut that crab cake
in the shape of a crab. That's pretty witty.
That syrup is being ladled on top of their crab-apple cake,
and that syrup is just some apple cider
that has been reduced down with a little bit
of crab-infused olive oil, and now a torch is out.
And it looks like our challenger is going to do a little brûlée.
She's going to brûlée that, too? Ooh.
Maybe get it, like, a little...
Crunchy shell?
Like a little crème brûlée outside?
And it will really change the color.
Genius.
Over on the Iron Chef side of the world right now,
there's that little cake.
His crab-cake dessert is out.
Oh, yeah. We got oozy, oozy cake.
And, um, some little-bitty -- I don't know what variety,
but tiny variety of banana is being dealt with.
You're going to brûlée?
MAN: I'm going to brûlée. Okay.
Just so it can warm the banana through.
I just give it a little touch of sweetness.
And, yeah, it gives it a little bit of a crunchy sugar texture.
On Chef Spence's side of the world,
there's that Scotch-crab egg
that is just barely cooked through in the yolk,
so that will be nice and runny.
SPENCE: Oh, yes. It's pretty.
BROWN: It looks like a little salad, a little herb salad
that's getting some whole-grain Dijon mustard
over on the challenger's side,
sherry vinegar being added to that,
a little salt to the side salad.
Eggrolls are being checked by sous chef Euni.
How are you doing? You need a plate? You got one?
HA: Yes. Beautiful.
And it looks like she's already started
a plate for her eggrolls.
There's the spicy Vietnamese dipping sauce.
She has a leaf of romaine,
some cilantro on that plate, as well.
Uh, definitely Southeast Asia happening here.
Yep.
FERGUSON: I got salad and eggs right here, Chef.
Also on that side is the soft-shell crab that was fried.
It's gone underneath that frisée salad.
A poached egg has gone on top of it.
She's doing a riff on a frisée lardon.
It's a famous French salad where you cook a lardon of bacon,
and you use the oil to make a dressing.
So it's kind of a riff on that,
except with a vinaigrette made of crab guts.
5 minutes to go.
Chefs, Battle Crab is a mere five minutes
away from the history books.
Michael, how are you looking? HAN: Pretty good, Chef.
Over on the Iron Chef's side,
the sunchokes are going on top of that crab flan.
Some thinly sliced Fresno chilis are in there, as well.
Chef, behind you. Flan.
Beautiful, Chef. Beautiful. Raviolis?
You want to do it? Got it.
Aww, there's all the good stuff right there.
BROWN: There's the spicy chili crab
being poured into that bowl.
The ravioli has gone into a bowl with the crab-stock reduction,
as well as some crème fraîche has been dotted onto that.
Caviar has gone onto that, as well.
Beautiful mess.
Rice crackers on there? Yeah, yeah.
Chefs, if it's not on the plate in 2 minutes,
you can just eat it yourself because the judges won't.
So, going over the Iron Chef's menu --
all right, he has the crab flan,
topped with sofrito and sunchoke chips.
His ravioli filled with crab and scallop mousse,
and that's being garnished with some rice crackers --
I imagine to give it some crunch.
There's the okonomiyaki with crispy soft-shell crab,
and, indeed, his Dungeness chili crab
is being served with that.
And then, of course, they also have their crab cake
and that caramelized baby banana,
which is going to go with the crab ice cream
at the very, very end.
Let me get my beer going.
You can win me over with chilis and a beer.
FERGUSON: Got what you need, Chef?
Got your egg, got your salad and crab.
You got your ice cream somewhere?
You need me to grab that? Ice cream's frozen.
So looking over at Chef Spence's plates,
the Scotch crab egg is going onto a mixture of salad,
and that is getting some salsa verde.
So it looks like that plate is done.
She's got her frisée crab salad with crab-gut vinaigrette.
She's got the crab and coconut eggroll,
the nuoc cham, and there's some kind of drink.
HA: Fresh young coconut water. Just refreshing.
BROWN: We've got this upside-down crab-apple cake,
which is pretty clever.
That's going to get the bay-leaf ice cream.
15 seconds!
GARCES: That's it. We're done.
For once, I'm going to enjoy my beer.
Mmm.
BROWN: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6...
Anything else, Chef? A lot of ice cream.
...5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
[ Buzzer ] Time is up.
All right. Put that down.
That Food Battle Crab is history.
Good job, guys.
Tasting awaits.
Let's go to the Chairman. Thank you.
Chef Spence, please tell us what your overall approach was
to today's secret ingredient
and then about this first course.
My approach was just trying to take as much flavor
from all the different parts of the crabs,
mostly Dungeness because we are Washington-based
and those are our local critters.
The first dish is crab-cake Scotch egg,
so soft-boiled egg coated in a little bit of a crab-cake mix.
Give it a quick fry.
And it's got a little drizzle of salsa verde in there.
SUTER: This looks great.
VIGNERON: Presentation-wise, absolutely beautiful.
I always admire how chefs are able to keep the yolks
so runny when you're frying the whole egg like that.
The acidity in the vinaigrette
allows you to cut through some of the fattiness
that you find in the egg yolk, which is really nice,
although if I didn't know this was a crab cake,
I wouldn't really think of this as, like, a crab dish.
This isn't evoking, like, crab challenge for me.
This is a heavily bread-crumbed crab cake.
I love the fried texture.
It's nice, but I'm losing a bit of the crab,
getting a lot of bread.
Thank you, Chef. Next course, please.
Thank you.
Next course -- we're going for a sort of
a Vietnamese-style crab spring roll
with a little bit of young coconut flesh on the inside.
You get the coconut water from inside to kind of go with it,
and we have a nuoc cham.
Take it with your lettuce leaf, roll it all together, dip it in,
and bon appetit.
SUTER: I love this presentation.
I love anything I can eat with my hands.
It's beautiful. It's got its own little wrapper,
and any time you give me a beverage on the side, I'm happy.
I tend to like the way the lettuce picks up the sauce
when you're eating it.
SUTER: Mmm.
There's the crab I was looking for in the last dish.
Wow, tons of crab in there.
Lots of great crab flavor, and I love the nuoc cham.
It's spicy, it's delicious.
I want to dip everything in that.
For having, like, a deep-fried egg roll in there,
it's still surprisingly light and refreshing
with the lettuce wrapper and with the nuoc cham.
Textually, you get the crispy, the crunch,
and when you get all that heat, to be able to wash it down
with a sweet, like, cool coconut water.
It's really nice. Awesome.
Thank you, Chef Spence. Next course, please.
Our next course is sort of a take on the frisée lardon,
instead it's more of a frisée "crab-on",
so we did a little whole-fried,
cornmeal-dusted soft-shell crab on the bottom
with a crab-butter vinaigrette with a little pulled crouton,
and then we get poached egg on top.
I'm not going to lie.
I was, like, a little bit worried from, like,
an architectural standpoint of this dish.
Putting the fried crab, like,
underneath the heavily dressed salad.
Then I felt like the crab wasn't really
going to be crispy anymore,
but it still is. Mm-hmm.
We still have all these crispy, crunchy bits.
You got tons of acid to cut through
all the natural sort of fattiness
of all the fried bits in the crab.
You really get that crab guts,
which I'm sure at home sounds gross, but trust me, it's delicious.
The depth of crab flavor is really something.
Is there mustard seed in there, too?
Mm-hmm. I have a pop of mustard seed.
Yep. It's nice.
The poached egg, too, is beautiful.
I cut into it, and this waterfall of yolk
kind of fell all over. I love this.
I would want this as a lunch-time salad any day.
Thank you, Chef Spence. Next course, please.
All right, our final course is sweet.
So, we have a crab-apple olive-oil cake
with a little bit of crab folded into that at the very end.
It's been soaked in some apple cider,
a little bit of infused crab oil and torch,
and I have some bay-leaf ice cream to go with it.
The writer in me loves the fact
that you snuck two puns into this dish.
Not only a crab apple, but a crab cake.
[ Chuckles ] Bravo for that.
And the texture of the ice cream is just smooth, it's silky.
You get that nice laurel,
which lends itself so beautifully to crab.
I think maybe it's the crab oil
is where I get the actual crab flavor.
It's there, but it's subtle.
I am reaching for the crab in this.
As a cake, it's delicious.
I love the brûlée crust.
It's totally balanced,
but the question it raises is why do a dessert
if you're not going to really celebrate the crabbiness in it.
But it's shaped like a crab, and that I appreciate.
Overall, you get, like, an A-plus on cleverness.
For this whole menu,
it was certainly original, very clever.
It was all delicious,
but in terms of actual crabbiness,
it could have been a pinch more.
Well-done, well-done. Yeah, I got one.
Chef Spence, thank you for your wonderful offerings.
Thank you. Thanks, guys.
It's very difficult to make five dishes
that are very crab-forward without being too simple.
I didn't want it to just be crab on a plate.
We tried hard, and we still stand by it.
Well, we're halfway through our tasting,
and the judges have sampled our challenger, Chef Spence's, fare.
We will find out what they think of Iron Chef Garces' food
when we return.
♪♪
Welcome back. Oh, what a battle it has been.
Let's refresh, shall we?
Today's battle, featuring secret ingredient crab,
has come to its delicious end.
Aww, there's all the good stuff right here.
BROWN: The judges have weighed in on our challenger,
Chef Spence's, menu.
It was all delicious,
but in terms of actual crabbiness,
it could have been a pinch more.
Now it is time for Iron Chef Garces to present his dishes.
Iron Chef Garces. Chairman.
Please tell us what your approach was
for today's secret ingredient,
and then about this first course.
We really wanted to incorporate
as much of the altar as we could.
My approach was also using different worldly inspirations.
For your first dish, we have a crab flan.
The flan is basically a custard that's made
from a stock of the rock crabs, eggs, a little bit of cream,
crispy sunchokes, and some Fresno chilis.
Enjoy. It's beautiful.
Did you actually cook the flan in the crab shell?
GARCES: We cooked the flan in the shell, yeah.
From the shell, you get, like,
that roasted aroma before you even dive in.
Mmm. And it just evokes, like,
the essence of the crab. Yes.
So much flavor coming out of this.
You got loads of garlic and that chili.
Tons of crab.
Your spoon glides through it.
It's silky, so it's both really delicate,
sort of texturally,
but then really powerful in terms of flavor.
This would kill it in any restaurant.
I love this dish.
One of the things that I really liked
that was a surprise in here
was just the texture of the sunchoke chips.
To have that crunch of the chip was just dynamite.
Thank you very much. Thank you, Iron Chef.
Next course, please.
Iron Chef?
All right, so we made a snow-crab ravioli
with smoked-paprika dough.
In the filling itself, it's snow crab.
There's a little bit of scallop mousse in there,
and then garnishing the plate is a little caviar
and crispy puff rice.
I saw this one being plated,
and I was very excited to have it land in front of me.
You think ravioli, and you think of a sort of
dense filling that's maybe got some, like, cheesiness to it.
This airy, light, beautiful, delicate snow-crab filling
makes the whole dish just feel sort of ethereal.
It's a generous portion of crab.
The scallop is just there holding up the crab.
It's super crabby, but in a good way.
The one thing I have mixed feelings on --
the puffed rice on top.
Normally, I love a little crunch.
Here, for some reason,
it's reminiscent of a bit of shell
that might have been left in your --
in your filling. I concur.
Thank you, Iron Chef. Thank you.
Next course, please.
For this course, I'm taking you to two of my favorite parts
of Asia -- Singapore and Japan.
I brought you some gloves and a bib... Oh, yeah.
...just so that, you know,
you can keep it clean, and there's a little beer.
SUTER: I asked for two things today.
I said I hope I get a beer
and I hope someone gives me a bib.
And you give me both.
GARCES: All right.
On your left, okonomiyaki cake
with crispy fried soft-shell crab, bonito flakes,
and then to your right of the cake,
Singapore-style spicy red chili crabs.
I'm going in. All right!
I just want to say, I'm really psyched
to see you guys with your gloves and bibs on.
I love it.
I literally forgot I was on TV for a second.
I just kind of want to dig in.
I'm just digging in, like this is delicious.
Ooh, good kick of heat in there, but lots of sweetness.
Not overpoweringly spicy, but...
just enough to make you sweat
and need the beer, which is great.
I love the bits of crab in the pancake
and the texture of it's lovely.
My pancake -- in the middle,
I'm not sure if it's, like, undercooked.
It's definitely kind of like --
like just straight, like, mushy or like mealy almost.
I like the texture of the crab on top,
but I think it's just I have some issues
with the doneness of the pancake or the flavor of the pancake.
It's one of those things where two delicious dishes
might suffer from their proximity to each other
because this one sort of ends up overshadowing this one,
which this -- this okonomiyaki pancake
would actually be lovely on its own,
but when you put it next to this guy,
it's easy to forget about.
Thank you, Iron Chef. GARCES: Thank you.
Next course, please. Thank you.
Time management -- to be able to cook all these...
Oh, my God. I know.
...in that short amount of time.
That's crazy to me. Very impressive.
All right, so finally, for your last course,
we made a dessert take on a crab cake,
and so it's an old-school
molten-lava white-chocolate crab cake.
We got crab ice cream, caramelized banana.
Enjoy.
It looks so innocent, but you know inside
is some weird crab white-chocolate thing
that I'm going to be honest with you sounds petrifying.
I feel like this is what you come to Iron Chef for.
You have crab, and you know you got to do a dessert.
Like, this is what I would expect to have,
and, yeah, it's weird.
You know what I mean? But it's like -- It's not bad.
Coming from a weird guy, like, it's delicious.
It's blurring those lines in between sweet and savory
where you're not sure if it's going to work, but it does.
There is crab there.
There's actually quite a bit of crab flavor coming from that cake.
Textually, I will say this beautiful little lava cake --
like, I don't care what flavor you put in that.
The execution on that dish
as just a piece of pastry is astounding.
Overall, I feel like you really embraced the challenge.
Thank you very much.
Iron Chef Garces, thank you for your wonderful meal.
Thank you. Thank you, Chef.
Thank you very much.
GARCES: I think the judges understood our battle strategy
and appreciated our execution, so I'm feeling pretty good.
Time to tally up the scores
and find out who's the crabbiest chef of all.
"Iron Chef America" will return.
♪♪
Hi. Welcome back to "Iron Chef America".
It is time for results,
but first, Jet Tila is going to explain how the scoring works.
Jet? Thanks, Alton.
Each judge can award a chef up to 10 points for taste
and flavor, 5 points for plating,
and 5 points for originality in the use of the ingredient.
These scores will be added to the points
already awarded for the first dish,
so that's a total of 25 points available for each chef.
Jet, thank you very much for that clarification.
Now let's go up to the Chairman
and find out whose cuisine reigns supreme.
Today, two champions met in Battle Crab
here in Kitchen Stadium.
Chef Spence.
♪♪
Iron Chef Garces.
♪♪
The judges have spoken, and the winner is...
♪♪
...Iron Chef Garces.
Thank you.
Good job.
Thank you.
BROWN: An impressive win,
and nothing to feel crabby about for the Iron Chef today,
as they pinched victory in every category in Battle Crab.
I guess I'm my own worst enemy sometimes,
but I'm a perfectionist.
I wanted to do the stuff exactly the right way,
but that time crunch can get in your way sometimes.
'Til the next time. Maybe.
[ Laughter ]
Chef Spence certainly held her own.
Her dishes looked really delicious,
but it's always good to win in Kitchen Stadium.
I leave you today with a quote
from my favorite crustacean of all time.
That would be SpongeBob SquarePants' boss,
Mr. Eugene H. Krabs, who said,
"What is today but yesterday's tomorrow?"
Indeed. I'm Alton Brown.
On behalf of Jet Tila, the Chairman,
and everyone here in Kitchen Stadium,
I bid you good eating.
♪♪