So Cal Iron Chef Report Battle# 269 February 26, 1999 "Sturgeon Confront" Greetings, Iron Chef Fans: This is the report on "Sturgeon Confront", originally aired in Japan on February 26, 1999. Challenger: ----------- Troigro (pronounced [tro-ah-groh]) is one of the most famous, highest rated contemporary style restaurants in France. Michelin Guide has been rating this place three-star since 1968. They cook in contemporary style French, and specializes in seafood dishes. Two brothers, Jan (deceased) and Pierre Troigro built up this dynasty and continues to be the leading star of French culinary. No, Pierre is not challenging the Tetsujin tonight. Century Hyatt Hotel in Shinjyuku district of Tokyo has been building up a close relationship with Troigro, and Pierre has been in Tokyo to train their chefs. Among them, Ryozo Asoh (48), the chef of the French restaurant "Chunanseau" in the hotel, is Pierre's favorite student. Pierre showed up pleading in the pre-recorded video, "I know high level culinary contest is very hard to judge. I ask for a fair judgment in the competition. Because, if you do, my friend (Asoh) will win". Now, an additional tidbit about the challenger. A chef from Century Hyatt has challenged Tetsujin in the past and won. Their executive chef, Hiroshi Yamaoka defeated Iron French Sakai in August of 1997 (original Japan air date) in "Hakusai Confront" (Yamaoka is a Chinese chef). Well, hakusai (white leaf) is a tough material for French, but not so for Japanese and Chinese, and the judgment was lopsided 4-0. Nonetheless, Hyatt marked its presence in the Kitchen Stadium and wants to keep its winning streak alive. Iron Chef: ---------- Last time, Chinese Hyatt chef beat Iron French Chef. This time it's the other way around. French Chef Asoh challenged Iron Chinese Kenichi Chen. Theme Ingredient: ----------------- Sturgeon. In case you are not familiar (yours truly certainly was not) with this unusual fish, it is a specie of shark, better known for its eggs (caviar). It also supply excellent shark fin. But to this date, I did not know you also eat the fish meat itself. Well, according to information at hand, it is referred as "royal fish" in Europe, and in China, "Imperial fish", implying they are so good, people of high status ate them. There is nothing you cannot eat about this fish, and its white meat is said to have a nice texture. This evening, they prepared 3 live fish, two preserved ones, and almost 45lbs of caviar (!). Neither chefs ever dealt with this big fish (though both heard of it), so the theme will challenge their creative instincts. They both struggled to get the live fish out of the tank, and both lamented that the shark doesn't die very easily, despite their best effort. [BTW, so cal fans, Santa Monica Seafood (www.santamonicaseafood.com) normally carries good fresh sturgeon. I tried some on a few occasions, and mmmm, they are good. Not being an Iron Chef myself, I only marinate and bake in the oven, but it has more body than other white meat fish like halibut. You should tyr it. -ICR] Dishes: ------- Challenger Ryozo Asoh - Sturgeon Culpaccio Asoh found sturgeon meat tastes like Koi (carp), and thought of serving a sashimi in arai style (fresh water fish like carp has special fishy smell. Chefs use sake liquor, vinegar and/or other liquid to kill the smell to serve its sashimi). He flavored the fish with salt of caviar he stuffed the tomato with. Served with sour sauce, its crisp texture is said to be great. Our East German of the judges, Asako Kishi, said of this dish: "I've never tried sturgeon before, but it tastes like koi (carp) or catfish. The texture is excellent". - Sauteed Sturgeon with Truffles Even the best of chefs make boo-boos. Asoh tried to make a rice noodle (soh-men) mixed with minced sturgeon, but it did not work. Instead of making a thin threads of noodle, the mixture spread across the pan. But he thought it too bad to abandon this nicely gelatinous, well, "thing", so he sauteed with truffles and encased in the red bell pepper. Would it turn Asoh's misfortune in to triumph? I wouldn't know, since they did not show the judges' comment on this dish. - Twenty first Century Coose-Coose a la Troigro Coose-coose (no idea if I am spelling it right) is a crop produced in Northern Africa that Troigro is pioneering as the "material of 21th Century". It makes a nice harmony with the consomme soup, flavored with salt only. - Imperial Roast of Sturgeon This is the highlight dish of the evening. This is Troigro's specialty fish recipe, and Asoh tried with sturgeon. He cuts slits on sturgeon slice, slid in sliced foie gras and truffles and wrapped in caul (pork fat that looks like a net). Then it is cooked in the oven. If you recall, world's top three delicacy include foie gras, truffles and caviar. This dish has two of them wrapped in the mother of the third. Curious. This royal fish is served with sauce made of fon de veau and balsamico. This dish was a big hit with the judges. Semi-regular guest judge Masumi Okada (an actor), said "The texture of the fish meat is so lively! Mr. Chen, watch out. The score of this dish is very high!!!". Iron Chef Kenichi Chen At the end of the competition, Chen said "I've never prepared sturgeon before. But you know, chefs are greedy animals. I wanted to try this and try that, not even knowing if that'll taste good. It was a very busy hour. I ran out of time." - Three Flavor Sturgeon Hors d'Oeuvre Sturgeon sashimi was served with ginger mixed soy sauce with Chinese Sho-koh-syu liquor added. Next to it is sliced meat heated with boil- ing water shabu-shabu style served with spicy sauce with toh-ban-jung sauce. It matches with bland flavor of the fish meat. Third is the finned liquor, where the shark fin is dipped in Chinese tai-chu. Fish fin brings out a very special flavor to the drink. Ms. Kishi loved the shabu shabu, "It's an absolute rarity". - Sauteed Sturgeon Fuwa-Fuwa Style with Caviar Chen uses this fuwa-fuwa (bubbly texture made with egg white and milk) contrast with crisp texture of the fish meat. The combination of the sturgeon meat and caviar is said to be wonderful. - Paku-tan Stew of Sturgeon Chen produced a thick soup stock with the fish head, mixed with white soup (paku-tan) and cooked shark fin with it. It is said to deliver nicely deep flavor. - Szechwan Style Sturgeon Stew This is another of the evening's favorite. This spicy dish is cooked in Szechwan province country style. Chen used cartilage of the fish as well, which produced gelatinous texture to it. The judges said of this dish "It looks fatty, but it's not. I was deceived by the spiciness of the dish, then the gelatin just slipped right through." - Gruel in Chin-tan Soup with Fah-tsai Dumpling Rice gruel is cooked in chin-tan (clear soup), then sturgeon meat and dumpling made of Fah-tsai (Chinese vegetable that yours truly is not familiar with) are added. The contrast of texture between rice gruel and dumpling are charming. - Frozen Sturgeon Head Desert The English translation of the name doesn't sound so appetizing... At the very beginning of the cook off, Chen screamed "All right! It's got it!!!" He meant the gristle in shark's head. He froze it to make this cold desert. Not much further explanation as its taste, nor comments from judges on it. And Now the spoiler!!! Don't read this if you don't want to know. S P O I L E R ! ! ! The judges gave it to Iron Chinese, Chen. The vote was 4-0 in his favor. While both prepared nice looking dishes, I think Chen's creativity shined over Asoh's. Judges must have agreed, to result in this lopsided result, but not an indication of challenger's weakness. Anyway, the Iron Chefs of Gourmet Academy avenged the earlier loss to Hyatt hotel kitchen. So, till next week (I believe the show will air around 6:50PM), when the Iron Chef emeritus went to New York to visit Morimoto on his first anniversary of becoming the Iron Chef, Ciao. -ICR