- Welcome back, y'all
that was just a taste of "Iron Chef:
Quest for an Iron Legend",
which premiers on Netflix June 15th.
And we've got the five Iron Chefs featured
in the new show right here.
Ming Tsai, Gabriela, I wanna say this right,
Cámara, right?
- Cámara.
- Cámara. Yeah, it was with a rolled R right?
I just wanted to be sexy, Cámara.
- [Gabriela] Oh, thank you. - Okay, okay.
Marcus Samuelsson and Dominique Crenn and Curtis Stone,
Give it up.
(Audience cheers)
It's Iron Chef University, y'all.
Sexy names and all.
So to Ming, Dominique, and Gabriela, it's great to meet you.
I know that I've had Curtis on here before and Marcus
but welcome back to the show.
- Thank you.
- I hope you liked your new vinyl.
So Curtis, Marcus, and Ming,
so explain how "The Quest For an Iron Legend"
is different than past versions.
Curtis, I'll start with you.
- Well, look, it's the thing about Iron Chef,
it's not a battle as to who wins or loses.
It's almost like a degree of excellence, right?
Because we battle against some of the most incredible chefs
on the planet.
Some have three Michelin stars, you know, I mean
they're really intensely good chefs.
It's a different show because,
well, of course the Iron Chefs are new,
and there's just a lot more going on.
There's new hosts and there's,
it's a really fun, fun show.
- I love that you're saying it's not so much as competitive
as it is about just like pushing each other.
- [Curtis] Right.
- And like, cause it has to be, I mean I grew up like,
you know, running track and everything,
they'd be like,
you don't wanna run against the slower person,
you want to run against someone that's fast
that makes you better.
So is that kind of cool
when y'all get in an environment together,
do you just kind of feed off of each other
and just like learn different things?
- We had so much - [Gabriela] We-
- Yeah, go ahead. - [Gabriela] No, no you go.
- We had so much fun making the show and,
all of us, secret is that we're super competitive, right?
- (Kelly) Yeah.
- I love how Curtis said like,
"It's not about winning and losing,"
It is about winning and losing, though!
(Kelly laughs)
No, no!
- He's low key about it!
He's like, hey, being competitive is fun.
- [Marcus] Yes! - It's fun.
- But the other thing I love about this Iron Chef
is the talent of these young cooks now,
in this country, are phenomenal.
And beyond this country.
So there's that.
The stage, the technology, the amazing work
they put into kitchen stadium,
it's unbelievable.
Mark Dacascos is back, right?
The chairman is back and Alton Brown, which is awesome.
- [Marcus] Yeah, the icon.
- Right? We, they added Christian Kish
Who was a fantastic chef and she's a fantastic commentator.
And it's about the Iron Legend
Which has never been done before.
Right?
So someone that wins that ends up beating one of us
can then compete against all of us.
And if they beat us, they become the first Iron Legend.
It's never been done before.
- I just like how dramatic that sounds
like Quest for an Iron Legend,
I feel like I'm Zelda.
Like I feel like I'm playing that game when I was a kid.
Cause I love the quest part of it.
It's all awesome.
But Dominique and Gabriela,
Were you all fans of the older "Iron Chef" version?
- I was very much a fan of the "Japanese Iron Chef".
- Yeah. - Yeah, it was pretty amazing.
- But I was looking of that in,
I think 2009 or 2010.
I did the "Iron Chef America" against Michael Symon.
- [Marcus] How did you do?
- Oh, kicked his ass.
(audience laughs)
- Oh my god. Oh my god.
Oh my god.
I love it.
- If I could add, I was also on "Iron Chef",
- [Gabriela] It's good that when
- I was also on "Iron Chef America"
against Bobby Flay, and his ass also got kicked.
- I love it! Oh my god, I
- It's good that we're not competitive.
It's good that we're not competitive.
- I know, I love that this started out
It was like, we're all just really here to like,
bless each other with our experiences.
And then it like gets cutthroat.
I love it.
That's why people love it too though,
It's so fun.
So Ming, you're all passionate about-
Or all of you are passionate about
supporting the restaurant industry.
So how can people help?
- Ah, that's a great question.
Thanks Kelly.
- (Kelly) Yeah.
- You know, you just gotta come to our restaurants, right?
Go out and support and be kind, right?
There's some, some people are going to restaurants
and they're like impatient and yelling, these people
- Those are people that have never been
in the service industry.
- Exactly. So be kind,
because everyone is breaking their backside
to get food to you.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- And tip large, right?
I mean, if you can afford it, tip large.
- That's so true though.
Especially the last two years.
- This is the best way to support the restaurants.
Go out, go and big groups, tip large and just keep it going.
Cause that energy it's what,
it's why we're in the hospitality industry.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Right? We want to serve
We wanna make people happy through food and service.
- And I think people realize like how great we had it.
Like before two years ago, we realized how great,
you could go into a restaurant
and you had these amazing meals cooked for you
that you could never cook at home.
And if you say you can, you're lying
and you're not that good.
And I'm just saying like, it's an amazing experience
to be able to go into someone's house where they're cooking
- But it's also restaurants are part of every neighborhood
It's really the heartbeat of your community, no matter what.
- And it's where you gather.
- Yeah, it's where you gather,
If you can't just visit, do something
because the neighborhood, the restaurants right now
for the last two years
it's been the roughest time ever for our industry.
So we really need it.
- Because of being around it, yeah.
You weren't allowed to be, yeah.
It's, it's been really crazy and I was a waitress.
So like that's literally your livelihood is getting tips
and working off of that.
So well, Curtis, you are active with No Kid Hungry.
And why is this important to you?
- Look, No Kid Hungry makes sure that we,
we have a ton of food insecurity in America.
And when you think about a food insecure child
it's a horrible, horrible thing to think about.
- (Kelly) Yeah.
- So what No Kid Hungry attempts to do
is make sure that kids get food.
It's that simple, you know,
and whether that's in their classrooms,
first thing in the morning,
because there wasn't breakfast at home,
or whether that's making sure that kids get access
to pantry items for their houses.
So look, I think all of us,
whether it's your number one charity or not,
we all support No Kid Hungry because
- (Kelly) Absolutely.
- It's, it's just such a wonderful, wonderful.
So that's another way that you can
support people in need is to go to No Kid Hungry.
- Especially cause those kids that's,
they're not in that position
because of anything they've done.
- [Curtis] Right.
- You know? They just landed there.
Those are the cards that were dealt.
So, and especially the last two years,
Because kids were out of school too.
Like, a lot of those people
that survived on those meals at school didn't have them.
- [Marcus] Exactly.
- And everybody was kind of food poor
because of the pandemic
and everything was scarce in places.
It was really scary.
It's very cool though that you take your spotlight
and do something positive for others.
(audience applauds)
Like, you know, you could just succeed yourself
and be on your merry way,
but it's cool that you give that.
- It's cool,
and I get to meet these beautiful little kids, you know?
- (Kelly) Yeah.
- I go to these schools and I cook them breakfast
and it's really fulfilling.
- And you have no idea how many you even inspire to do that.
But you do.
- Yeah. That's fun. - Yeah.
I wish I'd have had anyone cooking around me.
Maybe that would've helped, Curtis.
I don't know.