"Next Iron Chef" premiere (no winner/loser spoilers)

[Bob]

I really enjoyed the first episode of "The Next Iron Chef". The
promos made me fear that the focus would be on the challengers or the
interactions between them instead of the cooking or the food, but that
wasn't the case.

One thing that kind of bothered me: part of one of the challenges was
to produce a particular course out of items not associated with that
course. As near as I could tell, tonight's loser lost because of
failure to meet that challenge even though the food was tasty. (Full
disclosure: I was kind of rooting for that loser.)

The thing is this: is that challenge really related to producing good
food? Do chefs face anything like that in their real work?

[shawn]

Post by Bob
I really enjoyed the first episode of "The Next Iron Chef". The
promos made me fear that the focus would be on the challengers or the
interactions between them instead of the cooking or the food, but that
wasn't the case.
One thing that kind of bothered me: part of one of the challenges was
to produce a particular course out of items not associated with that
course. As near as I could tell, tonight's loser lost because of
failure to meet that challenge even though the food was tasty. (Full
disclosure: I was kind of rooting for that loser.)
The thing is this: is that challenge really related to producing good
food? Do chefs face anything like that in their real work?

Not in their real work, but they might face it as an Iron Chef. I've
noticed they will often choose to make a dessert as part of the
multi-course meal they produce on Iron Chef. Though in some cases the
final result isn't that good because of the secret ingredient they
have to use. Since they don't have to make a dessert on Iron Chef
America it's probably just a creative idea the chef had that didn't
turn out well.