![]() I always enjoy head-to-head battles and I think you're in for some surprises. It just makes it that much more difficult. So the format is what you'd expect from Iron Chef America's head-to-head battles. Now, what you do first is that you all go at it in some type of initial challenge and then the bottom two have a head-to-head cookoff with a secret ingredient to see who gets kicked off and who stays. Mendelsohn: They did away with the old elimination challenge format in which all the competitors were up against each other. What can you tell us about the twist, the new format with the elimination challenge? Also, I don't have a Food Network show and am not currently in "the family." So maybe I look like I could be a bit of threat because they don't know too much about me. So I contribute what I'm about, what I do for a living. I'm pretty versatile in several different types of cuisine. Mendelsohn: I contribute some entertainment, some up-and-coming talent. What is the special thing you can add to the lineup? Is it personality or a particular culinary point of view? And Anne Burrell is a lot crazier than she appears. Mendelsohn: Well, as big and bad and muscular as Robert Irvine looks and comes off on television, he's a pretty sweet guy. Were there surprises meeting any particular person who wasn't what you expected? Mendelsohn: I think I'd like to try Chuck's food because he's a Montreal kid, and I'm from Montreal and I haven't eaten his food before, so I'd like to see what he's doing. Of them all, whose food want to eat the most? There were a couple of chefs that I personally consider the higher echelon of chefs just standing there in the stadium and just being on the show. It definitely was surreal standing there. Some I had been just acquainted with, some I had been friends with and some I had just seen through food festivals and things like that. Mendelsohn: I had met a lot of them before at one point in my career. Have you met your competitors before this? It takes me out of my everyday grind, which is dealing with contractors and restaurant employees. It's also something fresh and different all the time for me. I just think I had so much success with my first go at doing a show that it comes with the territory these days. Spike Mendelsohn: Some can say I'm an adrenaline junkie. Why did you decide to do Next Iron Chef after competing in Top Chef and Iron Chef America? Are you some sort of adrenaline junkie? He's the harshest judge I've encountered."Ĭheck out Mendelsohn's take on the new twist in the competition, which chef's real personality surprised him, how smart Alton Brown really is and what he'd like to serve Obama if she were a guest judge on the show. "He definitely lets you know what's on his mind and how he feels. "I think everyone would agree that Anthony Bourdain is like a culinary assassin when it comes to judging people," Mendelsohn admits. But even though he's fed the First Lady and survived two Top Chef seasons, there's still one person he finds intimidating when it comes to judging his food. Mendelsohn might be one of the younger chefs going into battle, but he already has a following, including Michelle Obama who frequents his Washington, DC-based Good Stuff Eatery and We, the Pizza. Adding even more heat to the competition are Top Chef Masters winner Marcus Samuelsson, Chopped competitor Geoffrey Zakarian and past Iron Chef America challengers Elizabeth Falkner and Beau MacMillan. Those other luminaries include current Food Network and Cooking Channel stars Anne Burrell ( Worst Cooks in America), Robert Irvine ( Dinner: Impossible), Michael Chiarello ( Easy Entertaining With Michael Chiarello), Alex Guarnaschelli ( Alex's Day Off), Chuck Hughes ( Chuck's Day Off). To be standing next to them, was kind of like, 'OK, you made it.'"Īnthony Bourdain on Paula Deen: "Her food sucks" There are a lot of chefs involved that I look up to and I follow their careers. I was definitely honored to have the opportunity. ![]() ![]() "I didn't expect them to cast me as part of this crew, alongside the other ones. I was actually quite surprised," Mendelsohn tells. Chef Spike Mendelsohn may have competed on Bravo's culinary reality show Top Chef- twice - but he still didn't expect to be recruited for Food Network's Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs, which premieres Sunday at 9/8c.
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