Just how super was that Iron Chef America White House battle?

Since Scripps and Cablevision are still in the midst of their stand-off that prevents HGTV and the Food Network from being shown in my area(along with 3 million other viewers),getting the chance to watch the much touted Iron Chef America Super Chef Battle on WPIX this past Sunday was a truly relished delight.

HGTV fans received a similar thrill when Dream Home 2010 was aired last Friday afternoon on the same syndicated station. The Iron Chef America special was given a prime time showing,no doubt a clever way to showcase the ratings standard Food Network programming like that gets(a skillful ploy,folks).



First Lady Michella Obama did make an appearance,mainly to greet visiting chefs Bobby Flay,Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse who joined host Alton Brown and White House chef Cris Comerford to be introduced to the secret ingredient for the challenge;fruits and veggies from the White House garden. That was all the input than Mrs. Obama had towards the battle but that's fine. Just having her on the show for a moment was enough of a honor there:





As a semi-regular ICA viewer,I do have to say that we did get more of an extended look at the action in Kitchen Stadium than we usually do in the traditional hour long version,which had a touch of tension or two.

Emeril was seriously worried about a turkey roll that he deep fried(something that fellow fictional chef Sookie St. James isn't a big fan of)but it seemed to turn out just fine. He was paired up with Batali and their dishes were the first ones to be judged by a panel made up of Nigella Lawson,Jane Seymour and Olympic medalist Natalie Coughlin. Alton Brown sat in for the Chairman and it was a typically ICA food fest for the most part:



Bobby Flay worked with Comerford and while their dishes seemed to be tasty,there were some flaws in the favor. A couple of them were called bland and one had undercooked potatoes,a big culinary no-no there. I was hoping that Nigella would say something marvelously wacky along the lines of her Top Chef comment comparing a panna cotta to a courtesan's inner thigh but she was on her good behavior that day,for the most part:





While I wasn't totally surprised at which team won(you don't invite a special guest of national stature on your show without some extra consideration thrown into the bargain),it was rather obvious whose food tasted the best and was just as healthy as their competitors. Regardless of that, it was wonderful to watch a Food Network program again.

This showdown between Cablevision and Scripps is dragging on for far too long now and if Food Network and HGTV aren't back on the air before the end of the month,many of the fans are going to turn Veruca Salt on both parties and the fit pitched will be more sour than a barrel of lemons. Take heed, my corporate friends-all bad eggs end up in the same place: