Celeb chefs Mario Batali and Masaharu Morimoto have staged an epic culinary battle on the Food Network's popular "Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters" show. But last week, the competition escalated into a delicious street fight along a block of 10th Avenue in New York's trendy Meatpacking District.

In December, Batali and partner Joseph Bastianich opened the 22,000-square-foot Del Posto — the largest, most luxurious restaurant in their mini-empire (which includes Babbo and Esca). The northern Italian dishes (and $200 entrees for four) quickly got attention.

Last week, Morimoto and partner Stephen Starr opened a reported $10 million, 12,000-square-foot branch of Morimoto's self-named Japanese restaurant in Philadelphia.

That's just for starters: By the end of this month, a block away, Starr will have opened another behemoth: the 260-seat Pan-Asian restaurant Buddakan, a branch of another upscale Philadelphia eatery.

Seems the accountants will need the iron wills.