the first of april's tomfoolery played me like a 1930s frenchman played his accordion.

hunh?

sunday night was the airing of food network's iron chef (american flavor) battle pitting america's grillboy bobby flay against the emeril of spain and avant-garde mega-chef in dc, jose andres.

thanks to dpl, we were able to snag reservations to crystal city's jaleo to attend the iron chef viewing party hosted by senor andres and co. when we got there for our 8:15 seating, there was a live band playing upbeat spanish hits, large screens were set up all over the restaurant (showing emeril, which must have been the program before the 9pm battle), free paella at the bar, and j.andres supporters (and flay haters) vying for a sweet spot to witness a possible beatdown.

the secret ingredient? goat!

speakers blasted the audio, and to be honest, it was hard to hear alton brown's commentary. but from what we could hear, and definitely see, cooking progressed and ended how i thought it would: j.andres, katsuya, and ruben put together an innovative 5-course menu, while flay does what he always does, sloppily stringing along 5 courses incorporating his "southwestern flavors" (blue-corn crusted, chipotle flavored, tamale wrapped, etc.).

so why was i played? during the commercial breaks, j.andres would get up on the mic and make comments like, "when we were shown the secret ingredient and rushed up to the table to grab pieces of the goat, i was all the way on the one side, and ended up with all goat's head, meanwhile, bobby flay was on the other side and ended up grabbing all of the loin!" while my heart was truly on j.andres' side, my brain was picking up mixed signals and was starting to believe the impossible. how could that cocky and repulsive flay beat out my beloved j.andres?!?!

when judging time came, the obnoxious (yet somehow lovable) jeffrey steingarten was sitting in the first spot of the judging table. after watching several hilarious videos of j.steingarten and reading the man who ate everything, i knew fair refereeing would occur (read j.steingarten sees through flay's demoded and obvious "tricks"), and that it would be smooth sailing for j.andres & company. senor andres could fool me no longer!

i vaguely remember the final score (maybe j.andres 55 to flay's 48?) due to the copious amounts of sangria imbibed, but when the chairman handed down the verdict, unanimous cheers sounded from the restaurant. i think i threw my hands up in the air and was hootin' and hollerin'! que fantastico!

as soon as flay got served, the band started up again, people were very lively and still indulging in j.andres' triumph and even started dancing at the bar.

it was getting late for cavin and i, so we decided to head out. on our way out though, we spotted j.andres welcoming the accolades from everyone present. redhead and i snagged a picture with j.andres. we're such groupies!

(first two pictures from food network online.)

Labels: chaos, cooking, event, games