December 10, 2010 Lata vs Garces
We've had one hell of a week here at FIG! We had two major national media premieres back-to-back, starting on Sunday, when Mike battled it out on the Food Network's Iron Chef America. Mike went up against the newest Iron Chef, Jose Garces, and was presented with a next to impossible ingredient to work with: sparkling wine (FN chose this ingredient because this show marked the beginning of their holiday season line-up). Throughout the intense 1 hour battle, Mike and sous chefs Jason Stanhope and Matt Bolus, stayed calm, smiling, laughing and generally having a blast. They ended up putting out 8 incredible looking dishes, all of which were praised by the judges (Andrea Robinson, Steve Olson, Debi Mazar, and Simon Doonan). Alas, in the end, Mike was bested by Garces, who only won by a slim margin. Team FIG came out way ahead in the taste scoring, but lost a few points to Garces for originality.
We had a blast watching the show live at Taco Boy downtown, surrounded by a rowdy crowd and the guests of honor, Mike, Jason + Matt.
All in all, it was a wild ride and one that we all enjoyed immensely. It was one for the record books! Click here to view clips of the show online.
On Tuesday night, we tuned in to ABC to watch Mike's segment on Nightline's Platelist. He talked about growing up, his first food memories, why he decided to become a chef, and why he still thinks he has the best job in the world. We also got to see him prepare a beautiful swordfish dish as well as those famous pork trotters with a sunny side egg. See the full interview by clicking below.
Thanks for all your support this week and always. We love what we do!
