So Cal Iron Chef Report Battle# 257 November 27, 1998 "Porcini Confront" Greetings, Iron Chef Fans: This is the report on "Porcini Confront", aired originally in Japan on November 27, 1998. Challenger: ----------- Iron Chefs are having tough time the past few weeks (ref 11/20/98 "Mai Take") Our Iron Italian Kobe was bruised and battered. Note that here in So California, the Banana & Chocolate episode was aired several weeks ahead of its proper order, to comemorate Valentine's day, it actually made things worse. But the best (worst?) is yet to come. Last week's challenger (from the banana confront) was the winner of the international desert chef competition, Coop de Monde. This week, the challenger is even bigger. Marco Morinari (32) is an Italian Chef who won the International Pasta Contest in 1995. The competition is said to be held only once ten years. In other words, the last pasta champion of this century. He started the training under his father when he was 7. When he was 13, he was already working at three star restaurant "Marcage". He won the pasta contest in 1995 and last year (1998), he opened a restaurant "Ristorante Muzeo" in Tokyo. Why in Tokyo? I don't know. They didn't explain. I suppose it's not like he lives and run the restaurant in Tokyo, but he comes over now and then. He must have a real shop in Italy. [well, he seemed reasonably fluent in Japanese! - j] Iron Chef: ---------- It could have been Sakai (French) or Kobe (Italian), but no. It was meant to be a direct confront between Italian and Japanese. Morimoto, the Iron Japanese, was chosen to take Marco's challenge. Theme Material: --------------- On top of this tough opponent, further handicap was put on Morimoto. The theme material chosen was porcini mushroom. It is a gourmet mushroom (hence expensive -- though you couldn't tell from the way these chefs are using them) shipped from Toscana, Italy. The name Porcini means "Little Pork", possibly implying its flavor, or perhaps it is "almost truffles" -- pigs are used to find the French mushroom. In any way, our challenger Marco must be intimately familiar with this mushroom as opposed to Morimoto, who may never have used it before. One interesting note: Aside from our semi regular judges (Congressman Kurimoto -- sometimes referred as "diet man" and Ms. Hosogi, one of the guest judge was an Italian Cameo sculptor Francisco Esposito. See how he likes this Italian - Japanese confront. Dishes: ------- Challenger Marco Morinari Before start cooking, he said "Pasta has been around since the Roman Empire. The secret of success is to have fun making it". As for the porcini, "Some are good and some are bad. Some may seem to have caught cold", whatever that means. [too much refrigeration in transit, I might expect - j] - Porcini Quiche Porcini with good texture was wrapped in crisp pie. It was served on a dish sprinkled with 60 year old balsamico which looked like chocolate. They said balsamico that old has very special flavor and becomes a sauce by itself. [it was beautiful looking stuff! - j] Morimoto casually protested its usage. "If you use that, the food doesn't matter". [he's right! - j] The dietman Kurimoto said the dish has very deep, delicate sweetness to it. - Espresso Feticini with Porcini Sauce You must have the world's best pasta from the champion chef. Marco prepared a special feticini, with Espresso coffee mixed in, and served with sliced porcini sauce cooked with butter, white wine and fon de voire (beef stock). The pasta was made on the huge marble surface. Marco first heated it with burner [flaming alcohol! - j] to set a certain temperature, then kneaded wheat cooled with dry ice was presented. Why cool the pasta like that? Marco said it was secret. To everyone's surprise, he put on a pair of goggles, a mask and rubber gloves to knead the pasta material. What is this secret? "I got hay fever". That's what he said. [I imagine he didn't want frostbite from the dry ice! - j] Morimoto couldn't resist coming over and observe what his challenger was doing. Marco measured the temperature of the pasta before he started cutting but he was very careful no one, including the camera, seen the gauge. The temperature is the real secret, and he learned what it is from his father, only two months before he died. Anyway, he cut the pasta by hand, not using the pasta cutter, and dried them on the stand. He would boil it at the time of tasting. "For this pasta champion, there is no such thing as boil and store". He said. The Italian judge, Esposito, said "I thought pasta with coffee mixed cannot taste good. I was very wrong". - Porcini Soup In order to bring out the best flavor of porcini, Marco reduced the salt. The semi regular judge Hosogi said, "The first sip wasn't so good. The second sip brought a special flavor. Third, it started to grow on you. I couldn't stop after that". - Roasted Quail filled with Porcini Risotto Marco prepared risotto using rice and porcini, filled it in quail and roasted, then served with porcini that are sliced and fried, and ones diced and fried. The dish is said to "deliver the three different flavor and texture of porcini". Esposito said the its wonderful flavor notwithstanding, it is served beautifully. - Porcini Mont. Blanc Marco made a special desert in the style of French dish Mont. Blanc. A special paste made with maron and powdered porcini delivers a delicate sweet flavor. No words from judges on this dish. Iron Chef Morimoto - Pickled Porcini and Duck meat He made a special stock using shaved dried bonito (katsuobushi) and more than 20 porcinis, cooked in pressure cooker to marinate the duck meat. The dietman was impressed with the wonderful harmony of flavors. - Deep Fried Porcini Morimoto chopped porcini in half and fried it, Japanese style. He used garlic to amplify the flavor of porcini. Served with Tar tar sauce. - Steamed Rice with Porcini mixed in Grated Root Morimoto steamed the mixture of rice and wheat (4:1 ratio) and served with grated root (tororo) mixed with diced porcini. My friend Jeff calls this grated root as "mucus-like thing" and won't eat it, but even the Italian judge said "This is perfect". [hey, by the time Morimoto was done I didn't even recognize it... - but you should see this stuff - ye gods! - j] The dish was served with "memma (Chinese style pickle)" porcini. The Italian loved its texture, too. - Porcini Rah-Mein Morimoto had to do something to battle Marco's feticini. So he come up with porcini-mixed rah-mein. I often refer to this noodle as "Japanese bastardized version of Chinese egg noodle". Bastardized or not, though, this one produced renewed respect for this American living Japanese chef. Especially the Italian judge. But more on this later. The soup is made of duck and porcini. It is served with baked porcini on top. Just like Marco, the noodle was boiled just before the tasting. - Porcini Creme Brule Morimoto combined stem part of porcini and vanilla cream for this desert dish. Not much was discussed and there was not word from judges on this one. In the end, Marco said he enjoyed the competition and had a good fun. He was sprinkling the powder all over, answering the cheer from his fan section. Enough that commentator was lamenting the clean up effort afterward... And Now the spoiler!!! Don't read this if you don't want to know. SPOILER!! SPOILER!!! SPOILER!!!! SPOILER!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!!! SPOILER!! SPOILER!!! SPOILER!!!! SPOILER!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!!! SPOILER!! SPOILER!!! SPOILER!!!! SPOILER!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!!! The judges gave it to the challenger Morinari. The tally was 3-1. But no one voted more than one point in favor of either chefs. Curiously, the only judge voted for Morimoto was the Italian judge, Esposito. He was really sold on Morimoto's rah-mein saying "I've never tasted a great noodle as his rah-mein". I agree that this was a difficult one to judge. Especially since I am a sucker for any noodle dishes, be it pasta or rah-mein. The show made me hungry for a good noodle. I know what I'm having for lunch tomorrow!!! Ciao till next week! -ICR also edited by JDS