New York Fails to Bag Yet Another Next Iron Chef

Even though five of the 10 competitors on the latest edition of The Next Iron Chef—Graffiti's Jehangir Mehta, The Harrison's Amanda Freitag, Public's Brad Farmerie, Pulino's Nate Appleman, and Boqueria's Seamus Mullen—hail from New York, none of our city's esteemed chefs were able to clinch the title in the end. As anticipated by his suspicious "viewing party" in Philly this weekend, Jose Garces won the second season of the show, beating out dark horse Mehta in last night's finale. Even though Mehta had some of the best dishes of the night (and the show), he also had some flops, allowing Garces to take home the title based on technique and consistency. Garces joins the growing melting pot of Iron Chefs that now includes Mario Batali, Cat Cora, Bobby Flay, Masaharu Morimoto, and season one winner/cackling man Michael Symon. But hey, it makes one want to hit up Graffiti, no?

What Garces has in the works. >>