Iron Chef Battle

[Bond]

Hi Rick: I am not a professional chef or anything like that but I do like to cook. I first heard of you when I was watching "Iron Chef America". Personally - I thought you should have won that battle with Flay. As a fan of the "Iron Chef" series -there are some questions I'd like to ask.
Do the guest chefs get paid for their appearances or is it strictly a battle for pride?:
How much time elapses from the time the secret ingredient is uncovered to the time Mark Dacascos says "Allez Cuisine"?

Sometimes I get an impression everyone knows what the ingredient is before they uncover it. Were you surprised with the ingredient or were there some hints thrown around beforehand?

Are their any other tidbits of information concerning the "Iron Chef" that you can offer they might give us more of an insight on the show.?

Thanks

Steve

[Rick Bayless]

Hi Bond,

The Iron Chef is a lot of hard work, and my team and I spent a lot of time working on it. The time is real on the show--yes, you hear that woman announcing how many minutes you have left. You do not get paid, it is strictly for fun competition. You do not know about the secret ingredient, but you are allowed to walk the kitchen prior for a limited amount of time. It was a lot of fun, and maybe we will have a re-match!

[Bond]

Hi Rick:

It sounds like you spent a lot of time preparing for the Iron Chef competition.
How do you prepare for a "battle" in which you don't know what the ingredient is? Do you just run through the different scenerios with various ingredients? What was your strategy going in?

Yes- I definately think you deserve a rematch. As I recall - the contest was extremely close. Me and the majority of people who watched that contest thought you won it also. Flay just seemed lost for whatever reason.

Steve

[Rick Bayless]

Hi again,

We are given choices of what the secret ingredient might be. So we had to be prepared for any of those choices. Our strategy was to work together and stay calm-- it was almost like a well choreographed dance.

[Bond]

Hi Rick:

Thanks again for taking the time to answer all these questions from the members of this forum. I learned a few things- not just from my questions - but from many others also.

We always go to Chicago every summer for a couple weekends to catch the Cardinals and Cub series at Wrigley field. I will make it a point to visit Frontera's this year while I'm there.

Best regards

Steve

[Bond]

Hi Rick:

You mentioned in an earlier post that you were given some choices before the "Battle". Can you reveal the other choices? Was there another choice you wish you could have used instead of Buffalo?

Thanks

Steve

[Rick Bayless]

I cannot. It would ruin the show for everyone. We have worked with Buffalo before, so we were fine with it.