The Best Dish Curtis Stone Made On Iron Chef - Exclusive
There's no doubt that one of the best things about watching "Iron Chef" is the guarantee that once the timer runs out, you're going to see some extremely well-crafted, delicious looking plates of food. Even if you don't get to taste them, the feast for the eyes is worth it alone. This is nothing if not more true with the newly revived "Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend." This season features a diverse range of talent from five new Iron Chefs, including Chef Curtis Stone.
The Michelin-starred Australian chef is well-known through his range of restaurants, cookbooks, and TV appearances. In true "Iron Chef" style, he brought his A-game to Kitchen Stadium for "Quest for an Iron Legend." Speaking exclusively to Mashed, Chef Stone detailed the best dish he made during the competition, sharing the inspiration behind the dish and the Iron Chef-level techniques he used to impress the judges.
Chef Stone described his edible foraging forest
If you ask Curtis Stone, the dish that showcased his skills the most stars not much more than a humble parsnip. Stone made the dish as part of a medieval-themed challenge, and the idea involved some quick thinking.
"When you think medieval, you're like, 'Oh, my God, what did they even eat back then?'" he said. "I had this quick idea that, because in medieval times people used to forage for food, maybe I can create a dish that looks like a foraging scene." To bring the dish to life, Stone explained he "had this idea of creating a parsnip that looked a bit like a log, and then I was going to stuff it, and I was going to have mushrooms look like they were growing around this log."
To create an "Iron Chef"-worthy dish requires thinking outside the box, and that's exactly what Stone did to create this dish. To start, he deep-fried an entire parsnip, then removed it and "refried the skin and got it super crispy." He used that crispy skin as the log to build his foraging forest around, all the while not knowing if his creation would come together. "I knew all of the elements would taste right," said Stone, "but I had no idea whether it would work."
If you hadn't guessed, it definitely worked. The judges "loved that dish," said Stone. For him, it was a victory not just for himself, but for his star ingredient as well. "Parsnip's one of those unsung heroes. It doesn't get much love, but if you treat it right, it can be quite delicious."
"Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend" is now available to stream on Netflix.