Iron Chef beats Iron Chef. This is the first half of a story we will tell once more in this book.
Alex Guarnaschelli — Butter NYC, Iron Chef America 2012, longtime Beat Bobby Flay judge — got tired of judging and decided to compete. She picked lobster Newberg, the kind of clubby French dish that nobody under fifty cooks anymore and that is, when done right, devastating: sherry, cream, paprika, butter, lobster meat, the whole thing nappé over toast.
She did it right. Bobby did not. He admitted, on camera, that he had not made lobster Newberg in twenty years. We believe him.
The second Alex Guarnaschelli entry in this book. She has now beaten Bobby with lobster Newberg and sole almondine — both of them old-school French dishes that no chef under fifty cooks anymore and that, when she cooks them, you remember why anyone ever did.
Sole almondine is a clarified-butter dish. The fish gets a light dredge in seasoned flour, sautéed in butter foamed almost to brown but not quite. The almonds toast in the same pan after the fish comes out, the butter goes nutty, a squeeze of lemon hits the heat and lifts the whole thing into vapor. Guarnaschelli runs Butter in New York, which is a place named after the ingredient she just out-cooked Bobby with. Twice.
He admitted, the first time, that he had not made the dish in twenty years. The second time, he did not say.