Chicago's Own Stephanie Izard is Now An Iron Chef

By Anthony Todd in Food on May 22, 2017 7:42PM

Iron Chef Izard. Photo via Twitter.

Last week, Stephanie Izard (of Girl & The Goat) blew past the competition on Iron Chef: Gauntlet to get her chance to compete against Iron Chefs Morimoto, Flay and Symon to become one of the chosen few. Last night, she beat them all to become the next Iron Chef.

Izard, who originally became well known to Chicagoans by winning Top Chef, is no stranger to reality cooking shows, but this was at another level, beating not just fellow contestants but real veterans of Cooking Stadium.

This time, the gimmick was that Izard got to pick her challenger after she learned of the special ingredient for the round. Being the badass that she is, after the ingredient was revealed to be pepper, she picked Flay (known for Southwestern cooking. ""If I'm going to go up against Iron Chefs, I need to beat them at their own game," she said. It went on in the same style from there—she defeated Chef Symon with cheese and Chef Morimoto (a sushi master) with fish.

This means that Chicago has its first really-for-real Iron Chef. All hail Iron Chef Izard!