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mengels-5
Reviews
Iron Chef America: The Series (2004)
Don't bother
Weak Bobby "Pineapple Salsa" Flay and Mario Batali bring this down.
Flay being the worst. Definitely a one trick pony, I think they could have gotten other American chefs to come to the table on this one as the Iron Chefs. The kind of dishes this duo come up with really...don't reflect on the creativity of the original Iron Chef Series. I don't think Batali even went to chef school, actually. There are a lot of great chefs in America, I just wonder why they don't appear on the Food Network.
It would also help to have more regional ingredients and perhaps co-hosts who can handle the pressure. I like Alton Brown, but he is a bit too flippant/funny for this role.
Spain... on the Road Again (2010)
Horrible
Watching a very obese Mario Batali made me want to diet, not eat. It was worse when he hit on Claudia all the time and made her obviously uncomfortable. It seemed like Paltrow was very extraneous-just there for star power. She had several segments (it seemed like one in each show) with Mario where she whined about her life. The interplay with these gorgeous women really detracted from what Mario did well in his Italian series-which is really good research and explanations of the local specialties. There was one bit in Asturias where it was just the guys and it seemed better due to the focus on what he's good at.
Cinematography was reasonably good. But this is off my DVR.