01x04 - Battle Medieval

[bunniefuu]

[men chant]Yah ♪

[drum beats]

Rah ♪

[plays long note]

Yah ♪

I have blown the bugle of battle!

Rah ♪

[cheering and applause]

Hear ye, hear ye!

I'm, uh, Alton Brown, a mere page,

and my Lord, The Chairman,

has decreed that this arena

is hereby open for battle.

And I'm Lady Kristen Kish,

and soon brave combatants

will clash here in Kitchen Stadium.

Now, look, yonder cometh The Chairman.

I am the king of this kitchen,

and I decree

there shall be no challenger today.

The Chairman requires a battle

amongst his Iron Chefs

to further test and assess their skills

with a battle of epic proportion

as teams!

[Alton] Wow. Um, so an unexpected twist.

The Chairman has

summoned only his Iron Chefs today

for an extra-special battle.

First up, it will be

Iron Chefs Dominique Crenn

and Iron Chef Curtis Stone!

[cheering and applause]

Being an Iron Chef,

your food really has to speak for itself.

I grew up cooking in French restaurants,

so my style of cooking is very European.

I've worked in some of the best kitchens

in the world, so

I'm not easily intimidated.

Atelier Crenn is my restaurant

in San Francisco.

This is where I share with the world

the beauty of cooking.

I am the first female in the United States

who's received three Michelin stars.

So make no mistake, I'm here to win.

[dramatic music plays, audience cheers]

Versus Iron Chefs Gabriela Cámara

and Marcus Samuelsson.

My career has been defined

by farm-to-table Mexican food

using extraordinary produce.

I have opened 15 restaurants

around the world.

I'm excited to be competing

against two other Iron Chefs.

Competitiveness is what makes you

do things well.

Who doesn't love winning?

I'm chef-owner of Red Rooster Harlem,

and I've opened restaurants

all over the world.

My culinary style is very unique to me.

Being Swede-iopian means Nordic techniques

with African ingredients.

No one does what I do,

and I know I'm not

going to let The Chairman down.

Four Iron Chefs stand before me.

Two unbeatable teams.

Let us prepare for the biggest battle

this kitchen has ever seen.

I hope you are prepared to go back in time

to the origins of culinary combat.

For this battle, we will feast in

medieval times!

-What?!

-Oh!

Your medieval menu

must feature three secret ingredients,

but there are a labyrinth of surprises

in store for this battle.

Because you are all Iron Chefs,

you will not learn

of all the secret ingredients at once.

[chuckles]

The first secret ingredient

for you to get medieval with is

game birds!

The two additional secret ingredients

I will bestow unto thee during battle,

when the time is ripe.

Iron Chefs,

you will have just 60 minutes

to make an extravagant medieval menu,

a feast to be remembered!

Each Iron Chef team

will prepare four dishes

highlighting our secret ingredients.

Okay.

So now with an open heart

and empty stomach,

I say unto you in the words of my uncle

[plays long note]

Allez cuisine!

[Alton] And Battle Medieval is on

here in Kitchen Stadium,

and four Iron Chefs run for their fowl.

[Gabriela] What do we do? Where do

[Alton] Lot of birds consumed

during the medieval period.

[Kristen] Game birds

are one of those things

that really does test

the quality and the skill of the chef,

because it's not like

cooking a big rib eye.

They are very delicate in flavor

Because there's no fat in them.

No intramuscular fat.

[Kristen] You have to balance

with other ingredients.

-[Marcus] Nice squab.

-[Alton] We got squab.

-[Alton] Basically baby pigeons.

-[Curtis] I'll get you some pigeon.

[Alton] We have quail.

Whoa!

[Alton] I believe

I see a goose up there,

and I think that we have

got a couple of turkeys.

[Gabriela] Shoo! Shoo! [chuckles]

Okay, so maybe I'm gonna

In medieval time they ate a lot of pies.

Yeah.

Maybe I'll make a pie,

with the squab maybe?

-[Gabriela] Ready?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Alton] Looking around,

nobody came down with a turkey.

We've got squab and quail

on both sides of the kitchen.

-I'm gonna butcher the quail

-Yeah.

just so that the meat is clean,

I'm gonna marinate it, make a tamal.

-Tamal, nice!

-Yeah.

So medieval was always

about, like, a show.

We're gonna have

a lot of things happening.

[Marcus] We're gonna do the squab.

I'm gonna butcher that.

I'm gonna take out the liver.

Medieval is all about soft food, right?

They didn't want to use their teeth,

because they were bad.

Okay, we need

to do something with the bone,

make a stock with quail,

and then just layering flavors.

Then we see

what the other ingredients are.

We don't know what the other

Okay, let's get a start right now.

Yeah, we do. You start the stock.

-I'll make the pie dough.

-Yeah.

[Curtis] Let's go!Allez, allez!

Before things get all medieval

in this kitchen,

let's say hello to our own lords

and ladies of judging,

Nilou Motamed, Andrew Zimmern

and our special guest judge,

master of magic, comedian and host,

Justin Willman.

[Kristen chuckles]

[Alton] Ah. Okay. So thank you, judges.

-I have port wine for you here.

-Thank you, Chef.

[Alton] Chef Cámara breaking down

I thought that was squab. It's not.

it's a little quail, isn't it? Quail are

a little bit smaller than pigeons.

Of course, their meat's not as red.

All right, the Iron Chefs

are going to be busy today

cooking without any sous-chefs.

Each team must work together

to get everything done in time.

Knowing these chefs,

what do you think we're gonna see?

Over on Iron Chef Stone

and Iron Chef Crenn's side,

I imagine we're gonna see

very heavy French technique.

Then on Iron Chef Samuelsson

and Cámara's side,

their food will span the globe.

Iron Chef Samuelsson's Swedish background

has medieval influences,

but I'm curious to see

if he'll incorporate anything medieval

from Ethiopia.

Yes, and I really wanna

see medieval Mexico.

Iron Chef Cámara's mostly

focusing on quail.

She is so well known for tortillas,

for masa preparations, for tamals.

I'll be really surprised

if we don't see something like that.

All right, Iron Chef Stone

at this very moment,

that looks like squab being taken apart.

Squab is a fancy word for "pigeon"?

-Yes, it is. Yes.

-Same thing.

-Yes.

-It's a branding shift.

"Just us pigeons."

-"You don't wanna eat us."

-Exactly.

I'm a big fan of pigeon.

You know, it has similarities

to dark chicken meat,

but with an earthier, gamier flavor.

Currently over on the Stone-Crenn

side of the world,

Iron Chef Stone sautéing pigeon

or squab breasts.

Iron Chef, what is that going to become?

Back in medieval time,

they ate lot of pies.

I've always loved eating it.

I love cooking it.

It's a delicious thing. Why not?

I can confit the legs,

pan-roast the breasts.

I wanna get a nice amount of color

on the skin.

I'm gonna cook 'em

nearly the whole way through that way,

make the dough, rest of the dough,

make the mix, line the pastry.

Normally a pie would take

two and a half hours start to finish.

We don't have a lot of time,

but I'm very fast, so you just never know.

Chef Crenn, if I roast some spices,

do you think you'd have time to grind it?

Yeah. Look at that, baby.

Can you hear singing the bird?

Iron Chef Crenn, she is c*ck and spicy.

-Isn't she, though?

-Both.

Because she's arguably

the best chef in the world today.

No question.

Ah, this is so good!

Iron Chef Crenn loves

to play on senses and theatrics.

[Alton] Right now,

she's got a lot of something bubbly.

We'll call it Champagne. She's French.

It's not Champagne. That's cider.

[Alton] Not Champagne. It was apple cider.

Looking down into that pot,

that's got a bunch of the quail in it.

Looks like part of an apple.

It looks like a bird stock, with quail.

Ah, this is so good!

Clearly this would have been,

in actual medieval times,

we're cooking for rich folks here,

because the poor did not get fresh meat.

They got offal, they got leftovers.

But Iron Chef Samuelsson

has, I believe, some livers.

[Alton] Ah, okay. Look at that.

All of that liver and all of that butter

together in one place

over there, marinating,

I'm going to guess, pâté, right?

I'm going to make a squab

and chicken-liver mousse.

During the medieval time,

it was all about soft food,

and this is an opportunity to do that.

Interesting. Let's see what else

he's gonna do with the squab.

[Kristen] I see some squab legs

cooking in their own fat.

We're just gonna

confit a little bit of squab.

-[Kristen] Confit squab leg.

-[Alton] How can he do that in this time?

-It takes three days to do that.

-Well, they're little baby legs.

Confit and the method

of cooking meat in fat.

-Which is called fat poaching.

-Fat

Confiting would require

curing in salt and herbs.

-You have to take out the moisture.

-Call it confit if you want.

[Kristen] Then go tell him that.

[Alton] No. He does whatever he wants.

-How are you doing, Marcus?

-[Marcus] Doing good, Chef.

-I think it's a good fit, you know?

-[Gabriela] Yes!

I am making a quail tamal.

Quail is good for it,

because the meat is gonna be very tender.

You don't necessarily think of Africa

or America when you think of medieval,

and I just wanna make sure

that I highlight a little bit

of my Mexican culture, as usual.

This is from the Mayan culture

in the south of Mexico.

Okay. Use the achiote.

[Alton] And now she is taking

a little bit of achiote paste,

a light, nutty flavor.

[Gabriela] It's a paste

that comes from a seed

that I am very fond of.

[Alton] And citrus is being added.

[Dominique] How we doing here?

We are doing a tamal. I'm making a tamal.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah,

so you need that cut right?

Oh, thank you! Isn't she lovely?

Hey, you're on my team, Dominique!

Leave them alone.

-[Dominique] Just trying to help.

-Thank you!

[Alton] Iron Chef Crenn

went for a visit, on walkabout.

Stay on your side, Chef!

What are you doing?

She's so sure of her game

that she can help me.

[Alton] So Iron Chef Cámara,

she added her quail to that achiote paste.

Oh. Let's see what The Chairman

has brought to bear.

[plays bugle]

What's going on?

Behold, it is time to learn

of thy second secret ingredient.

Mushrooms!

Mushrooms?

Oh my goodness.

Ohhh! That is great.

Each Iron Chef team will have to feature

magnificent medieval mushrooms

in their menu!

[Curtis] Oh my goodness.

Yes, I love mushrooms!

Chef, get the porcini, get the porcini!

[Alton] Of course, during medieval times,

a lot of mushrooms were consumed,

but half of the people that ate them died.

-[Gabriela] What do we get?

-Trumpets.

-Yeah.

-Okay.

Okay, let's go.

-Trumpets, and then what else?

-Get some porcini!

[Kristen] Chef Samuelsson

went for one of absolute my favorites,

the king trumpet.

[Curtis] You're so greedy!

You're so greedy.

-You took everything.

-You can get some.

[Dominique]Allez!

[Alton] I see the biggest matsutakes

I've ever seen.

[Kristen] Those are amazing.

Mushrooms will go here.

Look at this beautiful deer. More porcini.

[Alton] Chef Cámara

has the matsutakes there,

some oysters, shiitakes,

and more of the king trumpets.

On the Crenn side,

we've got the chanterelles,

we've got shiitakes,

king trumpets are over there as well.

[Kristen] Mushrooms you just rattled off

are low in moisture content,

which will yield

a more concentrated caramelized flavor

without too many other steps.

[Alton] We're gonna probably see

a lot of sautéing, broths.

[Curtis] I have to think of another dish.

Chef, what if I do, like

I'm gonna do a dish in your honor.

-Medieval France.

-Whoo!

-The forest floor.

-Yes, yes, I love that!

Hey, I'm going to do medieval France

with Paul Bocuse in mind.

-Ooh!

-What do you think about this?

[Alton] Great idea, Iron Chef.

Paul Bocuse, of course,

one of the most prominent French chefs.

[Kristen] Maybe she'll make

one of Paul Bocuse's soups.

Mushroom, quail stock.

[Alton] Yes.

-[Gabriela] Marcus?

-Yes.

What do you think of doing

something with mushrooms and seafood?

-I love that.

-Just like the hint of seafood. Right?

-What do you want?

-Trumpet.

Let's do something with scallop.

-Did you see nice scallops

-Yeah.

-In the pantry? Perfect.

-Scallops. There's seafood there.

-Yeah.

-Mm, lovely.

[Dominique] Mm! Mm!

[Alton] So, we've still got

one secret ingredient left

from The Chairman.

Remember, each team of Iron Chefs

must prepare four courses

andincorporate

every secret ingredient at least once.

Iron Chef Samuelsson and Cámara

have three courses in play,

two with game birds

and mushrooms with scallops.

This is the base of the pie.

Get my stock in there.

Iron Chefs Crenn and Stone

have a game-bird pie in progress.

Iron Chef Stone

making pie dough of some type.

He's got a mixture of goose fat

and flour have gone in there.

[Curtis] Okay.

[Alton] We've got dough.

It's being rolled out by Iron Chef Crenn.

I think that's puff pastry.

[Dominique in exaggerated French accent]

La puff pastry!

[Alton] The dough gives it away.

She has to be making

Paul Bocuse's famous truffle soup

where puff pastry is baked

on top of the serving vessel.

What are you working on, first of all?

'Cause I see eight different

You know, in medieval time,

they would like pie.

And you know what?

Bocuse, kind of like,

you know when you do that puff pastry?

-Yeah.

-He didn't invent that.

They were doing that in medieval time.

That's what I'm gonna do.

[Kristen] All right. Thank you.

It's very French.

I gotta make my country proud, you know?

[Alton] Yes, so over

on Iron Chef Crenn's workstation,

a very large cast-iron pan

loaded full of various types of mushrooms.

She's gonna make a soup

out of that and the quail stock.

Yeah, I see you.

Is that just a truffle

hanging outta your mouth? [laughs]

I just felt medieval.

[Alton] Okay!

Over on Iron Chef Cámara's side,

she's gonna make tamales.

She's got the masa over there,

that's in a stand mixer. Very medieval!

In fact, some historians say

steamed corn preparations

have been around

for more than 10,000 years.

[Gabriela] Okay.

[Alton] She's got

the marinating pieces of quail.

Um, now she's got the banana leaf out.

Something to steam it in.

[Kristen] Iron Chef Samuelsson

has Ethiopian green coffee.

It's not roasted,

so it's lighter in color.

[Alton] Not something I would've

imagined for a medieval battle.

Iron Chef Samuelsson, what are you using

the coffee beans for?

I'm roasting Ethiopian coffee.

One of the oldest things of value.

-I'm gonna make a vinaigrette

-[Kristen] A vinaigrette.

with my squab dish.

[Alton] There's also some cracked wheat

that he has added some oil to and stock.

Maybe that's gonna go with mushrooms,

which, by the way,

is very true to the theme.

A lot of grains in medieval food.

[Kristen] Iron Chef Stone,

I saw him working a blond roux.

That roux is equal parts fat and flour,

usually used to thicken something.

[Alton] It's got to be

the filling for his pie.

[Kristen] I'm gonna go find out.

-Iron Chef Stone?

-Oui.

-Is this a filling?

-This is the beginning of a pie.

I love medieval.

You know, I'm quite a Neanderthal.

I mean, look at me. You can tell, right?

So, the whole idea of doing

something very primal and primitive,

it's how I like to cook anyway.

Okay, great pie. Look at this.

-Ah!

-[Kristen chuckles]

[Dominique] So good!

[Kristen] Approved.

She is one of the most unbelievable chefs

I've ever worked with.

We're gonna have each other's back

the whole way through.

-Thank you.

-You got it.

[Alton] We can see Iron Chef Samuelsson.

He's working with so many components

for his squab course.

Um, there's a lot of squab in a pan,

what appears to be its legs.

He's gonna be roasting those,

and also confiting squab in herbs.

Let's see, we also see a blender.

He's working,

adding that liver mousse mixture,

and it's also, I think, got some port wine

and a fair amount of shallot.

There's also a little bit of quail leg

going into it.

A port-wine mead.

Very medieval ingredients in here.

[Alton] The mead, of course,

is basically hooch made out of honey.

Can be delicious, but man, the headache.

Iron Chef Stone

just flamed some livers there.

He just flamed mead.

It's pretty interesting

that we do have liver and mead

on both sides of the kitchen.

They used a lot of wine in medieval time.

[Alton] That's true. Okay.

Back over to Iron Chef Samuelsson.

The liver mixture that he made earlier,

the liver, and all of that butter

going into small little buttered tins.

I would bet

that they're going to bake those

and call it a liver flan instead,

since a flan is baked and a mousse is not.

All right, we can see Iron Chef Cámara.

Right now, she's using the heat

from the range

to just loosen up her banana leaves

so she will be able to wrap

her masa and quail filling inside them.

I gotta keep up with my tamales

because I'm a little bit late.

[Alton] Making tamales is time-consuming.

If those banana leaves

aren't the right texture,

her tamale will fall apart when it cooks.

Back over, Iron Chef Crenn

is working with a lot of mushrooms.

Rosemary has been

added to the sautéing mushrooms,

kind of a mélange of mushrooms.

That's for the soup.

[Dominique]Ouah!

Yes, baby. Whoo! How are you doing?

All I'm focusing on right now

is exactly what's in front of me.

-[Alton] Chef Stone, what are you cutting?

-These are those beautiful porcinis.

I'm gonna go ahead and cook 'em in butter,

get 'em nice and brown,

my current plan.

Doing a bit of a re-creation

of the French landscape in medieval times.

A lot of people were foraging.

[Alton] So Iron Chef Stone

is going to turn his mushrooms

into a medieval scene.

I look forward to seeing that.

Back over Oh, our Chairman

-[plays bugle]

-[Dominique whoops] What's going on?

Oh my goodness.

At last, it is time

to learn the third secret ingredient

to work into thy menus.

Grapes!

Grapes.

Okay, I'm gonna go get them.

-Whoo!

-A fruit fit for royalty!

Make grapes great!

Whoo! There was grape on the floor, Chef.

How 'bout I just take these?

[Alton] At this point in the battle,

they better think fast

if they're going

to get a grape dish done in time.

We've got the red seedless,

green seedless,

some I think called black beauties,

which is a dark-skinned-seedless hybrid,

and concord grapes.

Speaking of grapes,

Iron Chef Crenn with a pinot noir.

[Curtis] Nice job, Chef.

[Dominique] I got some red grape seedless.

Very sweet.

I think they are the best right now.

[Alton] In the pinot noir,

maybe they're cooking those.

Do we want medieval? I'm gonna

poach them in red wine right now.

[Curtis] Right.

Then what should I do?

I'm gonna grill them. Do a honey butter.

-Chef, what do you say we grill grapes

-That would be amazing.

-as we have that grill.

-I love grilled grapes.

-I love.

-How are you coming along?

-I'm good.

-Good.

[Alton] Grilled grapes on both sides

of Kitchen Stadium.

I love when that happens,

because then you get to compare.

We've got a beautiful shot

from our overhead

on the Iron Chefs Stone-Crenn side.

Looking down

into that binchotan charcoal.

Japanese-style charcoal,

burns hot and even.

Look at those, baby. Come on, baby.

[Alton] We can see

that she dipped those grapes

into basically a pinot sauce.

[Kristen] And the honey butter.

She's brushing those grapes.

She's basting them in a honey butter

to really caramelize

and completely char the outside.

[Alton] Could be for a dessert.

Somebody needs to think about dessert.

[Kristen] Chef Cámara has a similar idea,

also quickly grilling grapes.

I can see mascarpone and Gorgonzola

there as well.

And she's being more careful

with her grapes

while Iron Chef Crenn is charring hers.

She must wanna add texture

and intensify the grape flavor.

[Alton] Okay, it looks like

Iron Chef Samuelsson

grabbed trumpet royales,

the king trumpets.

[Marcus] King mushrooms and shiitakes.

Flavor-wise, you know, they're very meaty.

I'm gonna marinate them

so I can roast them up.

[Kristen] You can use those raw,

confit them, roast them, uh, braise.

They can take up

any kind of cooking technique.

One of the things

people don't talk about with mushrooms,

they're almost impossible to overcook.

Now I'm gonna turn back over

to Iron Chef Stone's board.

We've got the dough.

Okay, Chef Stone is sweating a tiny bit.

Hey, Chef Curtis,

how is the dough coming along?

-Do you want me to be honest, Chef?

-Oui.

I messed it up.

Iron Chef Stone with his pie dough.

It looks soft from here.

Probably too much fat.

And all fat could be tricky to work with.

I'm kinda worried about that game pie.

What a mess. What a mess!

It's a dough-over.

A dough-over!

Ohhh!

[chuckles]

I like it, I like it.

I'll take it. I love a challenge.

If he is going to make a pie, he's gonna

have to get it into an oven soon.

Looks like he's just gonna let that rest

and firm up a little bit more.

There's a lot still to happen here

in this medieval battle.

Just to catch you up, Chairman has now

unleashed three secret ingredients.

Game birds,

then we've got a wide range of mushrooms.

Now, finally,

the third secret ingredient, grapes.

And they must incorporate

every secret ingredient at least once.

So we've sorted out all the dishes

they've been making, right?

[Alton] Yes. Iron Chef Stone,

I'm certain he's making a game-bird pie,

using squab breast, leg and liver.

Iron Chef Crenn is making

a classic French mushroom soup.

Iron Chef Stone also what he's calling

a wild-mushroom forest floor.

And Iron Chef Crenn

is making poached and charred grapes

with honey butter.

Gabriela, can you shave me some truffles?

Yes, of course.

Other side of Kitchen Stadium,

Iron Chef Cámara making a tamale

with achiote-marinated quail,

and then, of course,

Iron Chef Samuelsson is making

one game-bird course, roasted squab,

and one mushroom course,

mushrooms with scallops.

And also Iron Chef Cámara,

she's grilling the grapes

that could be for her dessert.

Take a look. We have got blue masa,

has gone down on top of the banana leaf,

and that achiote-marinated quail

is now being wrapped up.

-Chef Stone over on his back station.

-Oh, look at that pie.

I'm just making a couple of pies,

pigeon pies.

[Kristen] He didn't have time

to remake the dough

so he chilled it to get it firm enough

to be able to form the pie.

The dough is a little softer

than I'd like,

which is gonna mean

it's gonna to taste amazing

if it doesn't melt.

[Alton] He might have saved time,

but we'll see whether he ends up

with a proper medieval pie.

Iron Chef Samuelsson

working with a mixture,

some of the cooked cracked wheat

that he had earlier,

some truffle shavings.

Now he's opening up some coconut milk.

Coconut, truffle, cracked wheat.

A different approach. Interesting.

[Kristen] We have sunchokes

on Iron Chef Stone

[Alton] Yes. Mandolin now in the hands.

Don't do this at home, kids.

Use a hand guard.

Iron Chef Stone is a professional chef.

Doesn't have to.

Sunchokes come from the sunflower family.

It's almost like a starchy apple,

a little bit.

-Like a potato and apple

-[Alton] But with celery rubbed onto it.

And I like 'em fried.

[Kristen] I love them.

They're absolutely delicious.

[Alton] So those are definitely

going to become crisps.

I'm putting the puff pastry right now.

[Alton] Iron Chef Crenn, she's got

a beautiful soup tureen, antique.

It's probably 7000 years old.

She just added some of the mushrooms

that she cooked down

and some crème fraîche

topped with the puff pastry, striated.

There it goes.

-[Kristen] Look how beautiful that is.

-[Alton] That's in the oven.

Iron Chef Stone, now he's got a blender

that he's working with,

the porcinis

that he was working with earlier.

Now he's pouring a mixture.

What's in the foamer, Iron Chef?

Uh, porcini puree.

-Just puree?

-Yeah.

[Alton] Porcini puree.

That could be going

with his sunchoke and parsnip.

Don't know.

Okay, looking over on Iron Chef

Samuelsson's side of the world,

he's got What is that?

-Tuna.

-It's tuna.

-[Kristen] Why?

-[Alton] Because that's a medieval fish.

[Kristen] I'm gonna find out

what Chef Samuelsson's doing.

[Alton] Go.

-Iron Chef, we see toro.

-Yeah.

Wait, and scallops?

Yes. I don't know

if I had a plan for medieval.

I'm older than you,

but I wasn't around at that time.

You know?

But why not? This is delicious.

Medieval is all about

cooking on high heat and fire,

so we just burnt them a little bit.

-[Kristen] A surf and turf for the ages.

-Yes. That's how people ate.

-Surf-and-turf everything!

-Thank you, Chef.

[Alton] Iron Chef Stone's pie

is coming out of the oven right now.

It still looks good,

but we'll have to wait and see

if it's cooked all the way through.

Okay, plating happening

over on the Iron Chef Crenn-Stone side.

That is a whimsical arrangement.

I feel like that's actual bark.

It is Oh, the bark is bark.

[Kristen] Where did that soil come from?

From medieval time.

[Alton] Dirt from France

provided by The Chairman.

They're gonna build something

that is an amusement,

so it will be inedible.

My idea is

we put this in the middle of the table.

It looks like a foraging scene.

[Alton] Plating happening on both sides.

[Kristen] Iron Chef Samuelsson

is plating that toro and the squab

going with that mushroom sauce.

We also see on top

of that, uh, cracked-wheat mixture,

um, he's got the scallop

and some of that beautifully

sautéed mushroom on top.

[Marcus] Looks great.

[Gabriela] I'm doing

just a little of the mascarpone.

[Marcus] Yep.

[Alton] Over on the Iron Chef Stone-Crenn

side of the world,

Iron Chef Stone is taking so much care

to remove the outer skin

from these fried parsnips.

Now they fried the parsnips whole

to help remove the skins,

which is apparently all they're using.

Now they're frying the skins again,

to make tube-shaped bark

or little logs

for his forest-floor scene. Smart!

The plating happening fast and furious.

The grapes are down.

Let's plate like this. This is delicious.

-What do you want to do?

-I wanna do it like a soil.

Like a soil? Okay.

-Is that okay?

-Yeah.

[Alton] What's crumbled up,

that's the chokes that they fried up.

There comes the porcini puree.

And now they've made

a little hollow log out of parsnips.

It's a forest floor!

All right, there's Iron Chef Stone's pie.

Very rustic.

It'll come down to texture and taste

for the judges, I imagine.

The tureen is out.

Sixty seconds and it'll all be over,

except the eating and judging

and the winning and losing.

[Gabriela] There we go.

[Alton] The courses are, at this point,

Iron Chef Samuelsson and Cámara

have a tamal

with achiote-marinated quail,

and a tomatillo salsa.

[Gabriela] Little bit of sauce over?

-[Marcus] Great.

-[Gabriela] It's gonna be spicy.

[Alton] Okay, roasted mushrooms

with scallops and cracked wheat.

Coffee and honey-glazed squab

with the liver flan and fire-roasted tuna.

-[Marcus] Got the grapes?

-[Gabriela] Got the grapes.

[Alton] Also fire-roasted grapes

with Gorgonzola and mascarpone cheese.

-This looks medieval to me.

-Behind!

Coming up on the 30-second mark.

-Hurry up.

-[Dominique] Oh my God.

[Alton] Over on the Stone-Crenn

side of the world,

now their courses

are, okay, mushroom forest floor

with a parsnip crisp,

sunchoke crumble, and porcini puree.

[Curtis] So that's

the fully edible version of that.

[Alton] A classic French mushroom soup.

[Dominique] Curtis, let's get that out.

[Alton] A game-bird pie

using squab breast, leg, and liver.

-[Curtis] Confit leg, crispy leg on top.

-[Dominique] Yep.

[Alton] And poached and charred grapes

with honey butter.

Five, four, three, two, one,

and medieval battle is over

here in Kitchen Stadium.

A clash of Iron Chefs.

[Marcus] Good job.

Okay, that is joy. That is pure joy.

-[Gabriela] Look at that feast!

-Beautiful.

Look at that feast!

-[Marcus groans]

-[Dominique whoops]

Oh là là.

[Curtis] You were amazing.

I kind of was a little slower

than I should've been.

[Dominique] Three secret ingredients!

And I'm like,

you really have to think so fast.

-[Marcus] It's gonna be amazing.

-Right?

Medieval is all about soft food.

-[Gabriela] Tamal is very soft.

-[Marcus] Yes.

[Gabriela] That flan was out of control.

Yeah. I think it's gonna work.

No, it's definitely gonna work.

Our flavors are so much better

than theirs, I can guarantee you.

-I love that.

-All right.

[heavenly choral music plays,

dramatic drum beats]

Judges, welcome to the table

that's named after you.

This has been a pretty epic battle

and it's time for us

to get medieval on the offerings.

So remember, you are judging

on taste, presentation,

and use of the secret ingredient.

You have 100 points to play with

for each team's offerings.

Let's start with Iron Chef Crenn

and Iron Chef Stone.

-[Nilou] Hello.

-[Andrew] Evening.

[Nilou] Oh!

Ooh.

[Justin] Thank you.

-[Kristen] Thank you.

-Pleasure.

Greetings, Iron Chef Crenn,

Iron Chef Stone.

Before you describe this fascinating dish,

give us some insight

into your general approach

to the medieval challenge.

Well, it's an exciting challenge.

The medieval times

was a time of entertainment,

a time of surprise at the dinner table,

but it was also an interesting time

in terms of classes.

Right? There was the regal dinner parties

that were thrown,

and then there was also

people less fortunate

that were out foraging for their food.

We're trying to show a few

of those different classes in our feast.

You'll see what people may have found,

wild mushrooms growing amongst logs

and some foliage,

and what I've tried to do

is recreate the center of the table

in an edible form.

The log is actually a parsnip crisp.

The soil is made up of a sunchoke crumble.

The mushrooms have been cooked

with a little garlic and shallots.

There's a porcini puree.

I do feel like I'm foraging,

because I kind of keep on

wanting to find the perfect bite.

You have all that creaminess

from the puree

that has a strong porcini flavor,

and then you get hits of acid

from the chanterelles.

You have really given us

a piece of art here.

Thank you, Nilou.

I wasn't alive during medieval times

like Andrew,

but it takes me to my Missouri summers

as a kid where I would go forage.

I would, not even knowing,

just figure out what leaves I could eat.

It really is a work of art.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

There's a chips and dip aspect to this

that is really whimsical.

It never loses sight of the fact

that we're eating mushrooms.

It is absolutely glorious.

Iron Chefs, thank you.

We look forward to the next course.

Thank you so much.

I'm staring at this thing, trying to think

of what I would do differently,

and I'm just like, "Wow."

-When you start out up here

-[Nilou] Mmm!

my God, where are we gonna go?

-Oh là là là là là là.

-Oh my God.

That's called making an entrance,

I believe.

-[Nilou gasps]

-Ooh!

It's drama.

We call this the Hunter's Soup.

We make a stock with quail,

and then reduce that down

with a little bit of cider,

cook down the mushroom.

We have a little bit

of different mushroom in it.

We have porcini, we have girolle.

Nilou, what do you think?

You've developed so much flavor.

The mushrooms are smoky and woody,

and you obviously have

all of that delicious game-bird flavor,

and two of the very key ingredients.

And it just feels like

somebody who loves me made it for me.

-I love you!

-I hope I'm not overstepping.

-I hope I'm not overstepping.

-No, it's great. Thank you.

The stock, the cider, the cream,

the mushroom broth.

I mean It

I I am truly speechless

at the quality of what's underneath.

The puff pastry itself

is buttery, crunchy,

it's like the best crouton for a soup.

It's exquisite.

Thank you.

I didn't know it was possible

to progress from that.

Now I'm really wondering

where you're going with the next one.

When you said you can tell

that this was made with love, like,

like, really, it's like a hug.

You can tell when you just look at it.

You're like, "This is special."

-Iron Chefs, thank you very much.

-[Dominique] Thank you.

What we've seen thus far

is really beautiful execution.

Mm-hmm.

But we're halfway through the menu,

and we don't have,

like, a dramatic meat dish.

Two dishes to go.

-[Justin] Oh, hello.

-[Nilou] Ooh!

Thank you.

God, does that smell good

with the herbs on the

[Justin] Thank you. Mm!

-Chef Stone, I believe this was yours.

-It is.

Tell your tale.

[Curtis] This is game-bird pie.

Inside you'll find the liver

of the pigeon,

as well as the breast and some more leg,

and I've made pie dough.

Mm!

Chef Stone, what happened with your crust?

We were watching you struggle with it.

[Curtis] I did this one

with a 50-50 ratio of duck fat and butter,

and the duck fat had gotten too warm,

but I think the flavor

is really wonderful.

I have to tell you,

I thought, "That's not gonna work."

I was dead wrong.

I like that soft crumble.

Almost delicate shortbready quality

because of the duck fat.

[Nilou] Mm!

The filling is absolutely exquisite,

seasoned beautifully.

The gravy is fantastic.

You know, a little more liver,

throw in some vegetable,

something else in there

to crunch or something.

It's a minor quibble.

Very nicely done, Chef.

Thank you so much.

This little guy

was among the highlights for me,

even though I love

what was inside of the pie.

I love gamey taste,

and so this really

represents it beautifully.

That said, I do wonder

if there was a moment

besides this little bone

where we could've had

a little bit of meat drama.

[Curtis] Mm.

I had never had squab or pigeon,

because for 20 years of my life,

as, like, a kid magician,

I used pigeons and doves.

-They were like my friends.

-Mm!

But enough time has passed

that I feel like it was time for me to

Let's eat one,

and I feel like we did it up right.

Like, this could be my last squab,

and I will die a happy man.

-Aww.

-[Dominique] Wow.

-[Nilou] That is nice.

-That is nice.

Thank you.

Iron Chefs, thank you.

We look forward to your final course.

[Nilou] Thank you.

-[Nilou] Wow.

-[Andrew] Mm.

There's your flagon.

-Chef Crenn.

-Oui.

Please explain.

[Dominique] So the third

mysterious ingredient was grapes,

so we wanted to bring back the idea

of they were making wine,

and the grapes and the fire,

and the smokiness.

We poached the grape inside of the wine

with cinnamon, orange juice,

and grilled them.

And we want you to eat with your hand.

-Are you saying like this?

-[Andrew] Yes.

Like this.

I love grilled fruit, but this is one

of my new favorite combinations.

With the sourness of the crème fraîche

and that little drizzle of honey,

it's just perfect.

And I do like the fun of doing this

if I wasn't so afraid of dripping

all over myself. Gorgeous.

I almost wanted the clusters of grapes

to be a little bit higher off the flame

so that there wasn't quite as much char

on some of them.

That said, when you do

get a perfect grape,

it creates this incredible

expl*si*n of grape in your mouth.

-And that is pretty joyful.

-Thank you.

I love the char. I love the mulled wine.

I would love to see Andrew

serve Nilou a grape in the proper fashion.

-Oh my Lord.

-[Justin] To cap this meal off.

I am mad about this, but

Oh.

Thank you, Andrew.

-That's sexy.

-[Nilou] Thank you, Chef.

And now, Andrew.

-[all chuckle]

-[Nilou] Oh.

Too much. Too much!

Iron Chefs, thank you

for an outstanding meal.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, Iron Chef Samuelsson,

Iron Chef Cámara.

[Gabriela] Okay! Good evening.

-[Justin] Good evening.

-Hi!

[Andrew] Ohhh!

Ooh, I have been waiting

for this for a minute.

[Alton] Iron Chef Cámara,

Iron Chef Samuelsson,

please give us some idea of how

you approached the medieval challenge

as a team.

So we approached medieval

through our lens and our history.

Africa, Italy, the Nordics, and Americas.

[Gabriela] In front of you, a quail tamal.

While thinking of medieval,

I needed to make something with corn.

-Mm.

-This has bones.

-[Nilou] Mm!

-The quail is cooked in there.

-There's a leg, a quail leg.

-Oh!

And the breast.

Chef Cámara, I mean, I'm obsessed

with what you do with masa.

The achiote is beautiful.

The flavor balance that the tomatillo

gives you, the brightness.

This is a perfect starter

to what I know is going to be

an unexpected series of dishes

from you both, so I'm very excited.

And there will be bones.

There will be bones!

[all laugh]

-Mmm!

-Because bones is where the flavor is.

The challenge is medieval,

and I recognize this.

-This is gorgeous.

-[Gabriela] Thank you.

-Bravo.

-Thank you.

When it was clear we would get a tamale,

I mean, he was giddy

like Springsteen

was playing "Born to Run."

You know, it was like, "Oh!" Bravo indeed.

-Thank you.

-Chefs, thank you for the first course.

We look forward to the next.

-Okay.

-[Nilou] Thank you.

The corn flavor is so intense,

and it's not over-seasoned.

There wasn't too much of the salsa.

There wasn't too much of the game bird.

That course was really, really yummy.

I was very happy. Very happy.

[Gabriela] Hi!

[Marcus] If you can,

start eating right away.

-If we can.

-Oh.

-[Gabriela] Comin' in hot.

-You don't have to worry about me, Chef.

Chef Samuelsson,

please tell us what you made for us.

Yeah, medieval, the crew,

they were the OG partiers,

but also the big surf-and-turf guys.

There was fish and meat

served at the same time.

So you have coffee-and-honey-seared squab

with a liver flan and fire-roasted tuna.

From a texture standpoint,

the insane crunch of the caramelized honey

and coffee on the fried bone

is a beautiful expression of who you are.

-I I want a pile of these.

-[Nilou] Yeah.

There's nothing better than the bone

that has a little meat on it.

Really beautiful to see you

blend your story in here with medieval

I think was also very important.

-Gorgeous food.

-Thank you very much.

This pudding-flan-liver moment

tastes like my dream chicken-liver mousse,

and then the perfect sear on squab.

-A resounding yes.

-Thank you.

When you think medieval feast

you think of excess.

And not always. It's about decadence,

and I feel like this was

that perfect expression of less is more.

I loved the crunch of this squab bone.

It was It was just perfect. It was great.

-Great.

-Iron Chefs, thank you very much.

Thank you!

What he's doing here

is the minimal Scandinavian presentation

of what he imagines

a period in time to be,

and I think it was very compelling.

Yeah.

Oooh.

-Oh-h*!

-[Gabriela] A feast.

Ooh là là.Oh, thank you.

-[Gabriela] Here we are again.

-Yes, welcome to

The mushroom feast.

[Marcus] The dish you have in front of you

is roasted king trumpet mushrooms,

shiitake, and scallop,

finished off with cracked wheat,

young coconut, truffle sauce.

It's just a celebration of mushrooms.

Iron Chefs,

it's a celebration of mushrooms,

but I think it's the texture

of the mushroom

somehow making the coconut

and the scallop together

like this little family,

reminding you what they have in common.

It was fantastic.

What joins it together for me

is the scallop,

because oceanic flavors,

I think, marry really well

with the woodsiness of the mushrooms,

always have

Yeah. Well, that's a sort of a classic.

There is so much amazing flavor

on this plate.

Feels, like, really autumnal,

the mead that you've infused this with

is really beautiful.

That, to, me is pure Iron Chef

Kitchen Stadium magic.

I wanna keep on eating this, for sure.

Thank you.

We look forward to your final course.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

If you were not in a competition,

you didn't know it was medieval-themed,

you might not know

this was medieval themed

-That's exactly

-The other team

-Well, they really nailed that.

-It was very medieval presentation.

But this was definitely unique

and beautiful. Yeah, gorgeous.

-[Nilou] Oh!

-[Kristen] Thank you.

[Nilou] Ah!

[Justin] The grapes.

So this is our interpretation of medieval

-Yes.

-Europe.

This is fire-roasted grapes

with Gorgonzola and mascarpone cheese.

This is sort of an homage

to my grandmother.

She's Italian. She's from Florence.

We had the mascarpone

and the Gorgonzola cheese,

and I remember she was always making a dip

that we ate with grapes, so this is it.

So interesting to see across two kitchens

the idea of fire-roasted grapes

and how differently

the dishes were ex*cuted.

What I am really responding to

is the salinity of the cheese

that you've introduced.

-It almost feels like a cheese course.

-Yup.

It does have a panforte.

Very Italian feeling. I loved.

I love it. Superb, and it obviously

ties together with the blue-vein cheese.

Bravo, and, like you,

I just love cooked grapes.

The delicate nature

that these grapes were cooked,

the care that

You know, they're cooked so evenly

and they're so warm inside,

like a little burst.

I mean, it's really fantastic.

Iron Chefs, thank you

for a spectacular meal.

-We had a blast

-[Andrew] Thank you so much.

-We had so much fun.

-[Nilou] Great job, great job.

-Hope it showed in the food. We had fun.

-It did. Gorgeous.

Damn! So interesting,

a white dairy with roasted grapes,

but a very different experience.

Two great minds

sort of hit on the same basic idea.

-We could talk all night long.

-[Nilou] We could.

But you go off to your table

and do what you know you gotta do,

and Kristen and I will get ready

to do what we gotta do.

Thank you, both of you.

[Alton] Will it be

Iron Chef Stone and Crenn's European take

on a medieval menu

or Iron Chef Cámara and Samuelsson's

global view on The Chairman's challenge?

True culinary nobility

duked it out tonight,

but a winning team must still be crowned.

Sire?

This was an Iron Battle

of culinary warriors.

You took us back to medieval times

and valiantly fought with flavor and fire!

But only one Iron Chef team

reigns supreme,

and that winning team is

Iron Chefs

Cámara and Samuelsson!

[cheering and applause]

[Marcus mumbles]

-[Gabriela mumbles]

-[Marcus] I love you.

[Gabriela] You too.

-[Curtis] Congrats.

-[Marcus] Thank you.

Well, food fans, there you have it.

Our Iron Chefs have met in brave combat,

and Iron Chef Cámara

and Iron Chef Samuelsson

have vanquished their opponents

in this medieval Iron Battle,

but only by a slightest of margins.

The judges scoring it 85 points to 84.

[Kristen] From Iron Chefs

Cámara and Samuelsson,

we truly saw an unexpected take

interpretation of the medieval theme.

[Alton] Ultimately, the judges felt

it was a bolder, riskier approach

to the secret ingredients.

This tag team of titans was a triumph.

Gosh, that's a lot of Ts,

but the quest for an Iron Legend

shall continue in the next battle.

So thank you, yonder patrons,

for watchingIron Chef.

I'm Alton Brown, a lowly page.

And I'm Lady Kristen Kish.

And we are proclaiming adieu for now.