Supreme cuisine: ‘Iron Chef America’ returns to its classic formula

By Andrew Warren TV Media

Two chefs enter the kitchen, and only one emerges a culinary champion — a classic format for a contest, to be sure, but when one of those competitors is an Iron Chef ... well, let’s just say that the lack of a home-field advantage is the least of the challenger’s hurdles.

“Iron Chef America” returns to Food Network on Sunday, May 20, with new challengers, a new floor reporter and all sorts of new secret ingredients. That spiffy freshness, though, is tempered by a return to what made the series great and oh-so popular in the first place.

After new episodes failed to materialize for several years de- spite the show never officially being canceled, “Iron Chef” burst back onto the culinary scene last year with “Iron Chef Gauntlet,” a spinoff series that saw Chicago chef Stephanie Izard earn a coveted Iron Chef’s jacket. Not long after that, “Iron Chef Showdown” entered the fray: it was more or less the same show as the original “Iron Chef America,” but with the addition of a showdown between two non-Iron Chef hopefuls in the first half of each episode, battling each other for the right to challenge the Iron Chef.

Well, “Iron Chef Showdown” is no more — long live “Iron Chef America.” Alton Brown (“Cutthroat Kitchen”) is back as the competition’s host, spinning his vast culinary knowledge into play-by-play commentary for those of us watching from home.

The Chairman, played by “Hawaii Five-0” actor Mark Dacascos, also returns, overseeing the competition and revealing each battle’s secret ingredient. Jet Tila (“Chopped”) takes over as the floor reporter, getting up close and personal with the chefs as they cook.

In this week’s premiere, chef Brittany Anderson of Richmond, Virginia, enters Kitchen Stadium to challenge Iron Chef Alex Guar- naschelli. In classic “Iron Chef America” style, the Chairman will reveal the battle’s secret ingredient, and both the Iron Chef and the challenger then get 60 minutes to prepare five stunning dishes — and, of course, the secret ingredient must be the star in all of them.

It certainly isn’t an easy cooking competition, but it sure is riveting to watch. “Iron Chef America” returns to its roots on Sunday, May 20, on Food Network.

Friday, May 25

Saturday, May 26 a.m. (2) KTCA Essential Pepin 11:00 a.m. (2) KTCA Kevin Belton’s New Orleans Kitchen (N) TRAV Bizarre Foods: Delicious Destinations

11:30 a.m. (2) KTCA Sara’s Weeknight Meals

TRAV Bizarre Foods: Delicious Destinations Noon (2) KTCA Cook’s Country From America’s Test Kitchen (9) KAWE Cook’s Country From America’s Test Kitchen

TRAV The Zimmern List

12:30 p.m. (2) KTCA America’s Test Kitchen From Cook’s Illustrated

TRAV The Zimmern List

1:00 p.m. (2) KTCA Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street

TRAV Food Paradise

1:30 p.m. (2) KTCA Nigella: At My Table

2:00 p.m. TRAV Food Paradise

2:30 p.m. (8) WDSE Nigella: At My Table

3:00 p.m. (8) WDSE Martha Stewart’s Cooking School

TRAV Food Paradise

4:00 p.m. TRAV Food Paradise

9:00 p.m. (8) WDSE The Great British Baking Show

Brainerd Daily Dispatch, MN: Food May 20, 2018 to May 26, 2018 not all of the people involved are actors, and that the game and real life are intersecting in unpredictable and highly dangerous ways that make surviving the night unlikely.

Directors:John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein. Stars: Jason Bateman,Rachel McAdams,Kyle Chandler,Sharon Horgan,Billy Magnussen,Lamorne Morris, Kylie Bunbury,Jesse Plemons. 2018.100 min.Comedy.

Red Sparrow

Accomplished Russian ballerina Dominika Egorova (Lawrence) struggles to make ends meet as she supports her ailing mother, especially after she suffers a devastating injury that brings an abrupt end to her dancing career. Her uncle (Schoenaerts) recruits her to work as an asset for Russian intelligence in exchange for help with her mother’s expensive medical care, and she undergoes training to become a Sparrow, a spy skilled at seducing her assigned targets. When she’s given her first target, a CIA agent (Edgerton) based in Budapest, the two of them begin an intense romantic relationship that threatens the security of both nations.

Director: Francis Lawrence. Stars: Jennifer Lawrence,Joel Edgerton,Matthias Schoenaerts,Charlotte Rampling,Mary-Louise Parker. 2018. 140 min. Drama.

Early Man

When his peaceful Stone Age tribe is driven out of its idyllic valley by a Bronze Age civilization led by Lord Nooth (Hiddleston), caveman Dug (Redmayne) challenges the “civilized” people to a high-stakes game of soccer, with ownership of the valley at stake. When he tries to whip his tribe into shape and teach them the game, though, Dug fears that Nooth’s highly competitive team will effortlessly wipe the floor with them, leaving them exiled from their home valley until the end of time.

Director:Nick Park.Stars:Eddie Redmayne,TomHiddleston, MaisieWilliams,RichardAyoade, TimothySpall,MiriamMargoyles. 2018.89 min.Animation.