Contestants Have Been Narrowed

So, a couple of seasons of Next Iron Chef back, Johnny and I each chose our favorite chef during the first episode.  John chose Chef Michael Symon and I chose Chef John Besh.  And they ended up being the final 2. =D  It was totally awesome and a lot of fun for us.  It was basically our superbowl.  Hahaha!  Last season I was really pulling for Chef Ming Tsai and John was rooting for Chef Marc Forgione.  Well, poor Ming ended up only making it to the final 4.  It made me sad, but I was happy that John's pick won. :)  This season I DVR'ed the first few episodes and Johnny and I watched them together during his R&R and we chose our favorites again as usual.  I chose Chef Geoffrey Zakarian and John favored Chef Elizabeth Falkner.  And they are the final two once again!!! =D  I'm so excited.  Every week I send John a synopsis of the most recent episode so we are both having lots of fun with this season.  I was really nervous this week because it came down to either Chef Chiarello or Chef Falkner.  This was a dire circumstance because John and I both rather dislike Chef Chiarello.  He has proven himself condescending, pretentious, and conceited throughout the competition.  We both felt he should have been axed in the second episode and that Chef Robert Irvine should have been allowed to continue in the competition.  But, bygones.  So, here's a little bit about our two favorites/finalists.
Chef Elizabeth Falkner is the executive chef of Citizen Cake in San Francisco, as well as of Orson which she co-owns in the same city.  We had seen her compete in some different challenges and thought she was pretty badass.  She has even taught pastry courses in Japan! o.o  She gets props from me for that, definitely.  She is also an out and proud lesbian, which would be kind of cool to have two gay Iron Chefs (Cat Cora and her partner, Jennifer, have two sons and a happy life together).  It makes me happy to have positive icons in the media to help open minds and lessen bigotry in our country. :)  Chef Falkner actually has worked as Iron Chef Cora's sous chef before and done battle against her on Iron Chef America.  A lot of people assumed that Chef Falkner was "just" a pastry chef and wouldn't last long, but she has shown herself to be a very talented chef all around.  Many pastry chefs out there are full-fledged chefs that just enjoy working in the pastry realm, like Duff Goldman of Ace of Cakes who has competed in kitchen stadium against Iron Chef Michael Symon. :)

Chef Geoffrey Zakarian is also awesome. ^_^   Chef Zakarian graduated from the Culinary Institute of America.  He has worked at some very prestigious establishments, such as Le Cirque and the '21' Club.  He and his wife, Margaret, are 20 years apart, which I find pretty sweet.  Often in relationships like that you know they really love each other because they are together even though they know their relationship will be judged by many and they don't care what anyone says. :)  Margaret does PR and marketing for his restaurants. Chef Zakarian is frequently a judge on the Food Network show Chopped and can be a tough critic.  He also has quite a sense of humor.  Apparently, Calvin Klein used to always order french fries with his meals even though fries weren't on the menu, so Chef Zakarian would just send someone to McDonald's for the fries and slide them onto the plate and send it out to him. xD  That made me laugh and laugh when I heard the story. :)

No matter who wins, Johnny and I will be very pleased. =)

*Note: Sometimes CIA means Culinary Institute of America and not the government... and if you're writing on your blog late and don't realize that Johnnybear didn't know this when he was all excited telling you about Chef Zakarian's badassery  you could end up looking a tad idiotic. xD  So... yeah... Chef Zakarian was not Agent Zakarian... Hahaha!