Iron Chef San Jose Summer 2009: Mango

Once again, I'm completely floored by the skills of the chefs in this competition!

Such imaginative uses of the secret ingredient - I'm definitely going to have to step up my game next time!

Congratulations to all the winners! Can't wait to see what you make next time.

Summer 2009 Overall Winner: Fan Zhang and Tracy Lin

Best Taste

1. Fan

2. Tracy

3. Karen

Most Original

1. Tracy

2. Fan
3. Diana/Brian

Best Plating

1. Diana/Brian

2. Tracy

3. Fan

The dishes:

Fan: Man-Hole

Tracy: Fancy Mango Soup

Ed: Mango in a Blanket

Pachi: Snowing on Mango Mountain

Lulu: Mango-Misu

Karen: Mango Tango

Jocelyn/Peter: Mango Minus

Diana/Brian: Mouthful of Mangooedness

Tina: Mango Salad

Leo: Mango Crepes

Iron Chef San Jose Spring 2009: Mushrooms

Sorry about the late post! It's been a busy quarter for your ICSJ hostess! I'm still working on that ICSJ Ning page... hopefully I can put it up sometime this year!

A new year, and the chefs do not disappoint! http://picasaweb.google.com/pachi.chen/IronChefSanJoseSpring09?feat=directlink

Thanks for all that participated, and all the extra treats from those who attended in on the fun. See you next season!

ICSJ Spring '09 Overall Winner: Fan Zhang (In the Next Room)

Best Taste

1. Seila and Ed (Cambodian Mushroom Soup, Mushy Tips)

2. Fan

3. Emily (Chawanmushi)

Most Original

1. Tracy and Pachi (Space Mistroom 420, Mushroom Resting in Spring)

2. Fan and Patrick (In the Next Room, Smurfette's Dip)

3. Seila

Best Plating

1. Patrick (Smurfette's Dip)

2. Fan

3. Tracy

The 2008 ICSJ Awards Ceremony * note I forgot to announce Tracy's award during the ceremony and found it later! Round of applause for everyone!

Fan: Most Creative Dish Names (Imperial Fly Ly, Monkey Love, Gator Bait, Grand Tetons)Tracy: Highest Originality and Presentation Avg, Most # of Awards

Alex: Most Improved

Jing: Most Consistent

Emily: Most Matching Serving Ware

Ming: Most Memorable Dish Name (I got Crabs)

Ed: Most Surprised Winner

Pachi: Highest Overall Points, 3rd place Presentation Avg score

Lulu: Most Desserts: (Apple/egg pie, Peach Sponge pudding, Lava Flow)

Howard: Most Unexpected Pairing (Cheesy Peachy Crisps)

Yeelo: Best One-TimerMark: 3rd Place Taste Avg score

Seila: Best Use of Host Home Appliances (oven, grill)

Alix: 2nd place Taste and Originality Avg Score

Pascal: Highest Taste to Plating Delta: "I may not look good, but I sure taste good"

Patrick: Most Worth the Wait

Iron Chef San Jose (Winter 2008): Chocolate

Dessert Edition! I knew this would be a tough one for me, personally, given my limited baking experience. But it was fun regardless! More newbies (specifically, Frenchman) - so I knew the competition would be fierce.

Congrats to the winners! It's been a great year. Like I said tonight, we've had diversity in the champions so I'm proud to say that everyone has "made" it this year! Thanks for everyone's effort this year - you've definitely made some good meals for me. :)

The dishes:
Mark/Liz: Gimme Smore Cupcakes
Pachi: White Christmas Brulee
Tracy: Chocoman
Fan: Grand Teton
Pascal: French Decadence
Alix/Seila: 3-Layer Meltaways
Lulu: Lava Flow
Patrick: Improv and Desperation
Winter 2008 Overall Winner: Lulu Chou
Best Taste: Lulu
Most Original: Tracy
Best Presentation: Lulu

Iron Chef San Jose (Fall 2008): Pork

Battle Pork. The chefs once again stepped it up. We're actually getting pretty good at this cooking thing, I think! I was thinking to myself while tasting - everything is really good. And it was difficult to identify one clear winner. The points are relective of this, as the top 5 are all within 5 or so points of each other.

The dishes:

Fan Zhang: Gator Bait

Tracy Lin: Porsh

Alex Kuperman: Happy Piggy Curry

Jing Zhang: Circle of Pork

Emily Wu: Chinese Style Pork

Ming Kuo: Miss Piggy

Edrick Wong: Pork Swords

Pachi Chen-Wong: Pulled Pork Sandwich

LuLu Chou: Pork2Pork

Mark Lee: Mini Pork Daggers

Liz Nguyen: What the Con Heo Tart

Seila Kheang: Grilled Pork

Alix Koyama: Pork Tarts

Again, improvements are being made by several chefs. Keep up the good work!

Fall 2008 Overall Winner: Liz Nguyen
Best Taste: Edrick Wong
Most Original: Fan Zhang and Tracy Lin
Best Plating: Tracy Lin and Pachi Chen-Wong

Iron Chef San Jose (Summer 2008): Peach

Season 2! You guys rock. Everything was delicious!

Seriously fierce competition this time. And talk about a buffet. It was a feast.

Shockingly, the "newbies" KILLED the "old-timers"! I was seriously humbled by the skillz that I observed this time. Even from the old-timers. Some seriously crushed me!

Dishes:

Fan Zhang: Monkey Love

Alex Kuperman: Decadent Baked Stuffed Peach Halves

Emily Wu: Peach Shrimp Satay

Ming Kuo: Peach Cobbler

Edrick Wong: Peach-adilla

Pachi Chen-Wong: P^3 = Pachi's Pork & Peach

Lu Lu Chou: Peach & Sponge Pudding

Howard Yuan: Cheesy Peachy Crisps

Yeelo Ng: Peachy Loins

Mark Lee; Maui Wowie Beef

Liz Nguyen: Baby Peach Tart

Seila Kheang/Alix: Peach Pizza

Summer ICSJ Overall Winner

Yeelo Ng

Summer ICSJ Best of Class:

Best Taste: Liz Nguyen and Yeelo (again)

Most Original: Howard Yuan

Best Presentation: Yeelo (again)

I also graphed our progression since the last contest (yes, I'm still a nerd at heart) and I noticed that cumulative point averages in summer were generally lower than in spring. No worries, though, means are expected to go down with larger sample sizes anyway (ok, I'll stop the geekiness now). However, two contestants: 1. Fan, 2. Alex, had overall averages go UP from Spring to Summer. Great job! When I graph the RANKING trends, too, there are obvious PROGRESSIONS from a certain chef (ie: Fan).

Don't be discouraged, chefs. We will step up our game next season! Hope you all had as much fun as I did! Keep up the good cooking!

BTW, I welcome recommendations for next season's secret ingredient... i'll figure out this voting thing eventually. (or seila writes a html script for me)

Much love from your ICSJ hostess, aka PEACH :)