Michael Smith versus Bobby Flay: Iron Chef America gets a little Canadian flavour

Michael Smith versus Bobby Flay: Iron Chef America gets a little Canadian flavour

Bobby Flay and Michael Smith (Photos courtesy of the Food Network)

Michael Smith has picked up the gauntlet thrown down by Bobby Flay. On the January 31 episode of Iron Chef America, the Canadian celebrity chef will face off with the American celebrity chef in New York’s Kitchen Stadium. Smith is bringing along two sous-chefs, part of what he calls his “A-team”: retired Navy cook Bill Pratt (Smith’s “logistics chief”) and Calgary restaurateur Paul Rogalski (Smith’s “general right-hand man”). The panel of judges that night will include actor Antonio Sabato Jr. and food expert Donatella Arpaia.

While Flay has some face-saving to do (having been a part of the whole rigged-vegetables-from-the-White-House fiasco), Smith basks in his Olympic nod: he’s just arrived in Whistler to lead a team of chefs in preparing a menu for athletes—that’s around 12,000 meals per day for all 85 of the competing teams.

We’re banking on an Iron Chef acting as a harbinger. If Canada can best the U.S. in Kitchen Stadium, can hockey gold be far behind?

• Canadian Chef Michael Smith battles it out on Iron Chef America [CNW]