by Danae Young

This week on the season premiere of The Next Iron Chef, ten super chefs compete to be a culinary hero. 

Each week there will be two challenges: Chairman’s Challenge and Secret Ingredient Showdown. 

Each chef was given a match and Chef Spike Mendelsohn chose the match with the red tip so he got to choose his partner for the Chairman’s Challenge. He also got to pair up each of the teams. 

Chef Spike chose Marcus Samuelsson to be his partner. He then paired up Anne Burrell with Robert Irvine, Elizabeth Falkner and Alex Guarnaschelli, Michael Chiarello and Chuck Hughes, and Beau Macmillan with Geoffrey Zakarian. 

For the Chairman’s Challenge, the teams were brought to the great outdoors where they had to embrace a simpler style of cooking using heat and meat. They had to use the resources around them in the wilderness to create a fire and the only meat they had was one whole pig. They also had three pantries with wild ingredients including vegetables, herbs, dry goods and dairy. 

Each team had 90 minutes to prepare two dishes for the judges. 

With no surprise, there were a few minor road blocks along the way. Within the first five seconds of the competition, Chef Macmillan rolled his ankle on a rock. Later in the competition Chef Falkner had a slight panic attack when she realized she burned an entire pig leg. 

The judges were Michael Symon from Iron Chef America, Judy Joo from Iron Chef UK and Simon Majumdar, a food writer. 

Chefs Burrell and Irvine were the first to share their dishes. Dish 1 was a Braised Pork Belly and Pork Cheek, which was followed by Porchetta. 

Chefs Spike and Samuelsson were up next. Dish 1 was a Pork Stew and Dish 2 was Honey Orange Glazed Pork Ribs. 

Dish 1 for chefs Macmillan and Zakarian was Pork Shoulder and Barigoule. Dish 2 was Spit-Roasted Leg with Scalloped Salsify. 

Dish 1 for chefs Chiarello and Hughes was a Salad of Crispy Pig Ear, which was followed by Grilled Pork Chop with Pig Brain Duxelles. 

Last up was chefs Falkner and Guarnaschelli. Dish 1 was Pig Four Ways and Dish 2 was Glazed Pork Belly and Roasted Leg. 

Chefs Macmillan and Zakarian pulled out the top spot from the judges, which guaranteed them into the next round of the competition. 

Unfortunately chefs Spike and Samuelsson failed to impress the judges so they had to battle it out in a cook-off in the Secret Ingredient Showdown. 

There were two ingredients sitting on the table. Diver sea scallops were under a red cloth, and the canned tuna was under a black cloth. Luckily they chose what was under the red cloth. 

Each chef had just 30 minutes to come up with the best dish possible. 

Chef Spike was up first. He made Scalloped Soffrito. 

Chef Samuelsson cooked Scallop Corn Miso Soup and Seared Scallop with Porcini. 

After much deliberation, Samuelsson was the survivor, which left Spike packing. 

Watch all new episodes of The Next Iron Chef Sundays at 9/8c on Food Network.

(Image courtesy of Food Network)

Follow Danae @danaeyoung