★ M.A.R.A.★

Winners! Iron Chef America Super Battle: Filipina White House Executive Chef Comerford & Chef Flay

Filipina White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford and renowned chef, restaurateur, and TV personality Bobby Flay defeated Mario Batali and Emeril Legasse by only 5 points in the Michelle Obama special-guest-hosted Iron Chef America Super Battle held at the White House Sunday, Jan 3rd, 2010.  The winners receive $25,000 to contribute to the charity of their choice.  (See why the White House approached the Food Network about this opportunity.  Hint: Sustainability, healthy eating)

Renowned English food writer, journalist and broadcaster Nigella Lawson was a judge along with actress Jane Seymour, and Olympic Gold medalist, Natalie Coughlin (who is part Asian-click on her name to see her intriguing gene mix!)

Videos of each team presenting their dishes to the judges and the winner announcement are below.  The dishes are mouth watering and beautifully crafted.  Definitely worth the viewing.  The cauliflower gratin is most likely the one dish I could recreate.  Flay’s recipe! Woot!

I was a bit confused about the results because the judges seemed to highlight more of the Batali/Legasse team’s dishes in the final judges’ comments.  In viewing both teams’ presentation videos, however, the judges had more accolades for the Comerford/Flay dishes than they had for those of the Batali/Legasse team.  Video editing aside, I’ll give the point system the benefit of the doubt.  It was only a five point spread after all.  ALL the dishes looked beautiful.  I would be a judge in that battle anytime.  YUM!

(Tumblr “followers” must go to permalink to see videos.  Top right corner of the dash post.  Tumblr, will embeds ever be made available on the back end? Sigh…)


L to R: Flay, Comerford, Brown, First lady Obama, Batali, Legasse [via]


Comerford and Flay pick “secret ingredients” from the White House Garden [via]

Iron Chef America Super Battle Intro

Comerford & Flay Presentation (Sorry bout the quality folks. Will update with better quality vids when made available)

Batali & Legasse

Iron Chef America Winners




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Sources: WSJ, Washington Post, The Food Network

Filipino White House Chef draws attention to healthy eating

Only one more month till we see Filipino White House Chef, Cristeta Comerford, in an Iron Chef America challenge against renowned chefs Bobby Flay, Mario Batalli, and Emeril Legasse.  First Lady, Michelle Obama, will make a cameo appearance introducing the secret ingredient: anything grown in the 1,100 square foot White House garden.

The White House approached the Food Network about filming “Iron Chef America” at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as a way to reach those people who haven’t heard yet about the first lady’s efforts to curb childhood obesity through healthy eating and exercise, the New York Times reports.

Actress Jane Seymour, food writer and journalist Nigella Lawson, and Olympic gold medalist swimmer Natalie Coughlin will judge.  The episode will air Jan 3, 2010 on The Food Network @8pm/ET. [Note: Coughlin is Filipino too (part)]


[via]

Comerford was hired at the White House in 1995 as an assistant and became the first woman and Filipino to hold the White House Chef position when she was hired by Laura Bush in 2005.  Sharing the perspective on the importance of healthy eating and healthy families, Michelle Obama announced that Comerford would remain as White House Chef in early 2009.  More on Comerford. 



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Sources: Slashfood, The Washington Post, Wiki
Keywords: Filipino White House chef, Filipina White House chef, Filipino on Iron Chef, childhood obesity, Michelle Obama, Public Health, healthy eating, healthy habits, healthy practices

Natalie Anne Coughlin

famousfilipinos:

Natalie Anne Coughlin (born August 23, 1982) is an American swimmer who has represented the United States at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, and at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.


At the Beijing Olympics, she became the first American female athlete in modern Olympic history^[4] to win six medals in one Olympics and the first woman ever to win a 100 m backstroke gold in two consecutive Olympics. She is known for her dominance in a short course pool and for her underwater kicking ability. She currently holds World, American and US Open records in various events and has eleven Olympic medals.

Coughlin was born in Vallejo, California, to Jim and Zennie (Bohn) Coughlin. She went to school at St. Catherine’s of Sienna in Vallejo from K-8 then transferred to another school in Contra Costa county afterwards. Coughlin lives in Lafayette, California, was originally from Concord, California and is of Irish and one quarter Filipino^[5] heritage.