Who Are the Chefs of Netflix’s ‘Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend’?
Former Iron Chef America host Alton Brown is back as the host of Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend, and Mark Dacascos returns as “The Chairman,” but otherwise, the Netflix show is unlike past Iron Chef iterations. For starters, Kitchen Stadium has been “reimagined” for the new series — which starts streaming on Wednesday, June 15 — and former Top Chef winner Kristen Kish is joining Brown as co-host.
Plus, the Challenger Chefs will cross knives with five new Iron Chefs: Marcus Samuelsson, Curtis Stone, Dominique Crenn, Gabriela Cámara, and Ming Tsai. Longtime Iron Chef viewers may recognize some of those names, but for those of you unacquainted with these culinary talents, we have the rundown on all five of the new Iron Chefs below.
Gabriela Cámara
Cámara is the creative force behind the Mexico City restaurants Contramar, Entremar, Itacate del Mar, and Caracol de Mar, and the San Francisco eatery Cala. In 2019, she became an advisor to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. And in 2020, TIME named Cámara one of its 100 Most Influential People, with chef José Andres singing her praises: “Gabriela Cámara is one of those chefs who is more than a chef — she is a Renaissance woman on the front lines of our industry, fearlessly forging a path toward the more perfect society she envisions.”
Dominique Crenn
Crenn is the chef and owner of Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, and it was through her work at that “ode to ‘poetic culinaria'” that she became the first female chef in the United States to receive two — and then the first to receive three — Michelin Stars. In 2020, Michelin awarded a star to Bar Crenn, the wine bar Crenn opened next-door to her Atelier. That same year, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants honored the chef — who’s engaged to NCIS alum Maria Bello — with its Icon Award.
Marcus Samuelsson
Samuelsson’s restaurants include the acclaimed Red Rooster in New York City, Marcus Restaurant + Terrace in Montreal, and locations of Kitchen & Table throughout Scandinavia. The Ethiopia-born chef became the youngest person to ever receive a three-star review from The New York Times, and his James Beard Foundation Awards include the title of Best Chef: New York City. Samuelsson won the second season of Top Chef Masters and returned to the franchise last year as a co-host of Top Chef Family Style. He is also a frequent judge on Chopped and the second-season winner of Chopped All-Stars.
Curtis Stone
Stone is another culinary star with a Top Chef connection: He hosted three seasons of Top Chef Masters, judged Top Chef Junior, and hosted and judged Top Chef Duels, in addition to his many appearances on the flagship show. Offscreen, Stone is the chef and restaurateur behind Maude in Beverly Hills, Gwen Butcher Shop & Restaurant in Hollywood, and Georgie in Dallas. The husband of actress Lindsay Price, Stone is also a New York Times-bestselling author whose cookbooks include What’s for Dinner? and Good Food, Good Life.
Ming Tsai
Tsai earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Yale in the 1980s but spent his summers honing his cooking skills at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. In 1998, he opened his first restaurant, Blue Ginger in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and soon earned the titles of Best Chef: Northeast from the James Beard Foundation and Chef of the Year from Esquire. The chef opened his second restaurant, Blue Dragon, in Boston in 2013. Tsai, who’s the uncle of Legion actress Lauren Tsai, earned a 1999 Daytime Emmy Award for his Food Network cooking show East Meets West With Ming Tsai, and he has hosted the WGBH cooking show Simply Ming since 2003.
