Sameh Wadi and his mother, Shahira Abu Najim, at Restaurant Max in the Hotel Minneapolis, awaiting the "Iron Chef America" broadcast.
For Minnesota cooks, the Sunday night competition didn't take place only on a New Orleans football field.
At the Kitchen Stadium on the Food Network in New York City, the battle that mattered was "Iron Chef America," between Sameh Wadi, chef/owner of Saffron Restaurant & Lounge in the Minneapolis Warehouse District and Masaharu Morimoto, chef/owner of three Morimoto restaurants in the United States and restaurants in India and Japan.
Wadi is the first Minnesota chef to compete, and at 25, the youngest competitor to appear on the show, which was shot last summer. He lost by a narrow margin.
The secret ingredient in the competition: mackerel. Each chef had to incorporate the fish into five courses.
Wadi told the judges, "We wanted to take you kind of throughout a journey with this fish. A lot of this inspiration is modern interpretation of classic dishes."
His dishes were influenced by the cuisines of Spain, Greece, the Middle East and North Africa. They included a Spanish escabèche of mackerel (fish covered with a spicy marinade), and an Indian watermelon curry with mackerel done two ways: seared, and deep-fried in a tempura-style batter. Other courses included a mackerel spanikopita, North African tagine, and a whole fried fish marinated in chermoula.
Family, friends and loyal customers gathered at Restaurant Max in Hotel Minneapolis to watch the broadcast. Whenever Wadi appeared on the large screen, there was a deafening roar of approval.
