‘Close-up of the Iron Chef America poster’
courtesy of ‘Nicole Lee’
Last night, a couple of our hometown heroes made an appearance in Kitchen Stadium. Chefs Katsuya Fukushima (formerly of Minibar and Cafe Atlantico) and Ruben Garcia (culinary director of THINKfoodGROUP) went to battle against the newest Iron Chef, Jose Garces, in Battle Mahi-Mahi. Previously undefeated, Garces went down 55-50 with Fukushima and Garcia outscoring him on plating and originality. And with their first course complimented by the ubiquitous Minibar cotton candy, who is really surprised?

The Chairman was unfortunately unavailable for last night’s battle (I like to think he was somewhere handing out an employee of the month plaque or trying to work on the FY 2011 budget), but Alton Brown filled in with his best Chairman impression. He tried his hardest, but the impression ends up somewhere between the Chairman and a constipated gorilla. Eater National has the video here. Battle Mahi-Mahi will rerun this Thursday at 9pm on the Food Network.

Ashley Messick

Ashley is a born and bred Washingtonian who left for college but came running back to the District as fast as her little legs could carry her. By day she is a Capitol Hill brat, but by night she is a lean, mean, eating machine. It’s her goal in life to steal Anthony Bourdain’s job…by whatever means necessary. Contact her at Ashley (at) welovedc (dot) com or follow her on Twitter.