Ready, set, 'Iron' cuisine! Fans reinvent dinner party
By Melissa Kossler Dutton
Associated Press
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Like their television counterparts, the Lander family treats the secret ingredient with reverence.
It is concealed under a domed basket as it is carried into the family's gorgeously appointed kitchen. With great dramatic flourish, it is revealed to their eager guests.
Thus begins the cook-off, a reality television-inspired dinner party that pits guests against one another to create the most beautiful, original and delicious dish using the secret ingredient.
Welcome to "Iron Chef," the home edition.
Since it began airing on the Food Network in 1999, the chef-vs.-chef competitive cooking show has become a pop culture phenomenon. And now it is invading the home dinner party.
After years of watching Japanese-made "Iron Chef" and its U.S. spinoffs, "Iron Chef America" and "The Next Iron Chef," in which pros rapidly prepare meals based on a single ingredient, amateur cooks have started staging food battles in their own kitchens.
"It's done with great fanfare," Eric Lander says of the "Iron Chef"-style dinner parties he and his wife and three children regularly host at their Cambridge, Mass., home.
"There's no time for recipes," says Lander, a 50-year-old scientist who worked on the Human Genome Project. "You're jockeying for burners, negotiating over shrimp. You draw on what you know."
The parties are a great way to bring together friends who share a passion for fine food and competition, says David Cavuto, who adapted the rules of the show for use at dinner parties. He's been hosting them since 2001.
Secret ingredients at Cavuto's parties have included cranberries, shiitake mushrooms and onions.
"I was really surprised," says the 34-year-old engineer from Edison, N.J. "People were more enthusiastic about coming to a dinner party where they participated in this formal way."
Some tips for planning your own "Iron Chef"-inspired dinner party:
FUN KIND OF STRESS
Participating in the competition was fun but stressful, says Michele Martin, 27, whose recipe for potato cheese steak won the Lander competition. (The secret ingredient was cheese.)
Mike Slagle, a 26-year-old leadership trainer who challenged a coworker to an "Iron Chef" contest, said he's drawn by "the challenge of it, trying to prepare multiple things with the same basic ingredient in a short amount of time."
Diners are always looking for ways to make their meals more engaging, says Mitchell Davis, vice president of the James Beard Foundation in New York.
"We've been trained to expect a certain level of excitement from our food," he says. "Sitting down to dinner isn't enough."
AMERICAN THING TO DO
Just as Americans push themselves on the ball field or in the office, they want to challenge themselves in the kitchen, says Dana Cowin, editor-in-chief of Food & Wine magazine.
"It's part of the nature of Americans," she says. "It does make sense that we would take it in the kitchen."
And that's fine with Bruce Seidel, producer of "Iron Chef America" and a senior vice president at the Food Network. He's thrilled that people are using the show as a model for entertaining at home.
In fact, the network even invites viewers to submit videos of their own competitions, and sometimes sends film crews out to capture them, posting the videos at www.howdoyouironchef.com.
"It's a canvas for people to grow their skills and show off," he said. "Food is a lifestyle."
