I never in a million years expected that the Iron Chef America taping of the battle between Peter X. Kelly and Bobby Flay would be so thrilling.

Driving down to the Food Network TV studios, I was talking to a friend who’s often a lot more enthusiastic than I on my cell (yes, I was hands-free) and she said: “Aren’t you excited? It’s going to be so much fun!�

“Well, yeah,� I answered. “I guess so.�

Yeah. Because being in the midst of 12 cameras swaying up and down, side to side around at the same time, and stage managers waving their hands like conductors to give cues isn’t really that exciting.

Standing six feet from Food Network star Alton Brown as he’s basically sports casting — giving running commentary for an hour straight isn’t really that exciting.

And watching top chefs concentrate (so hard it almost hurts watching them) to create a glorious four-course meal in less than an hour in a studio with a fog machine and hundreds of lights isn’t really that exciting.

I had a total blast.

I am not allowed to reveal the winner — or the secret ingredient — until after the show airs next season in early 2007, but I can show you some photos of the behind-the-scenes action.

I’ll assume you all know the premise behind Iron Chef, but in case you don’t, here’s a link explaining it. In a nutshell, it’s a competition between two chefs to prepare four dishes in less than an hour using an ingredient revealed to them only moments before.

Peter Kelly, the chef-owner of Xaviars at Piermont, Freelance Cafe & Wine Bar in Piermont and Restaurant X in Congers, brought along two sous chefs: his brother James, the chef de cuisine at X; and Cathy Egan, the chef de cuisine at Xaviars.

Here’s Cathy, flipping her body around to check on that steaming pot.



When I first got to the studio, I didn’t dare approach them. They were too busy concentrating and gearing up for the battle. It’s very obvious you have to be in a zone to be mentally prepared for this challenge. No wonder it’s called a battle. They really do have only 60 minutes to prepare the meal and it’s taped live.

There was a lot of hustle and bustle before the battle began. Stage managers were directing camera operators. Someone from the Food Network tried to muscle through he crowd, obviously angry about how many people were around: “Can we put any more f-ing people in this studio?!� This photo is afterwards, but see all the silhouettes of people in the background?

The countdown started with the chairman yelling; “Allez cuisine!� and the chefs ran to their stations with the secret ingredient. Bobby Flay was in such a hurry to get his to his kitchen that he dropped one of the trays on the way. It clattered on the floor, and was actually the loudest sound we heard in the hour. Unless you count when one of Bobby Flay’s live ingredients — a crustacean — bit him as he was putting it in boiling water. It broke the skin (he showed me later) and I’m pretty sure he cursed. (I would have!)

The chefs worked very precisely and quietly. Alton Brown, on the other hand, really got the energy going. Well, it’s his job. I know the chefs’ jobs are hard, but I was so impressed with Alton that I told everyone when I got home I had a crush on him. (I always think the geeky ones are dreamy. I also had a crush on Martin Short (!!) when I was 13.)

I was standing next to Susan Stockton, the vice president of culinary productions at Food Network, and she was explaining all the work that goes into what Alton does. (Here’s a photo of Susan and her husband Rick. They live in Nyack.)

OK back to Alton. (I feel I can call him Alton now.) He stands there in front of two monitors that show him four angles each of what’s going on in Kitchen Stadium and narrates the entire hour. He’s so knowledgeable about food to begin with, but just in case he can’t quite see what the chefs are doing, help on the floor — Kevin Brauch, known as “The Thirsty Traveler,� who walks around with a clipboard looking very important (as clipboards do) — and in the control room can talk to him through a bug in his ear, like the ones newscasters and secret service agents have.

Three times during taping, Alton turned to the camera behind him to give those “we’ll be right back� messages.

Here’s another photo of him. Just because.

And while we’re on “just because,” here’s a photo of Journal News photographer Mark Vergari shooting the taping.

Back to business. Peter gets to invite people to sit in his VIP section. It was mostly family.

From right to left, Peter’s wife, Rica, his brother Ned and another brother Paul.

The chefs plate the food and take it to the judges.

For this battle, the judges were Ted Allen of Queer Eye, Karine Bakhoum of KB Network News and Isaac Mizrahi, the designer. They really do taste the food, discuss it and make notes, and nobody in the studio knows the outcome of the battle until after they tally their scores. Here they are scoring.

It was hard to hear the commentary on the judging, so I went into the hallway, where the taping was being show on a couple of televisions. The monitor:

Here are a couple of other photos I thought you might like. The pantry items:

The fog machine:

One of the stoves.

After the battle, Peter and Bobby posed for the publicity photos that the Food Network will use to promote the show. I got to take some too.

I was so sad it was over. Don’t worry; I’ll keep you posted when I know about the airdate, and we’re sure to cover the story in the paper and in our magazines.

When can we go back?