Crawfish and rosé were flowing during Sunday night’s Iron Chef Gauntlet viewing party at Jason Dady’s Shuck Shack with a guest appearance by Chicago’s chef Sarah Grueneberg.
Like most predicted, Dady is a natural on camera and was even able to tackle baited questions by Brown, expertly.
We won’t keep you in suspense: Dady totally cruised into safety after nailing the Chairman’s Challenge (Brown is the Chairman now?! À la cuisine, I guess) themed after Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” using woodland creatures. Dady’s dish of mushroom-crusted elk, plated to resemble a wooded forest, got passed the Brown sniff test. Chicago’s Stephanie Izard, the first-ever female Top Chef, ultimately won the challenge and picked a chef to compete against last place Grueneberg.
Grueneberg, though, went on to win the Showdown against chef Nyesha Arrington of L.A., a Top Chef Texas contender, who wowed the judges with her lobster dishes, but fell short by two points.
Dady and Grueneberg answered a few questions on taping, but left the crowd with more questions as to who ends up the overall victor.
The next installment of Iron Chef Gaunlet will air Sunday at 8 p.m. Central.
Read more about chef Jason Dady in our cover story on the chef’s 16-year career in San Antonio.
This article appears in Apr 12-18, 2017.