It was Battle Coconut on “Iron Chef America” as challenger Jehangir Mehta took on Iron Chef Morimoto. The judges were former NFL player Tiki Barber, food reporter Alpana Singh, and food author Eric Gower.
Iron Chef Morimoto presented five dishes: coconut milk with noodles, coconut poached snapper with frozen lettuce, coconut clam chowder, coconut curry with beef katsu, and coconut desserts, which included sushi rolls.
Chef Mehta also presented five dishes: seared scallops with fried coconut and pina colada, turmeric coconut cod with coconut chips, coconut curry shrimp with coconut rice, papaya and mango tartare with coconut sorbet, and coconut desserts, which included coconut cotton candy.
The judges seemed very impressed with both judges, but it was Morimoto who took the win – just barely. He beat out Chef Mehta by three points on taste (28 to 25), lost one point on plating (13 to 14), and tied on originality to score 54 to Chef Mehta’s 52.