Marc Forgione Explains Why He Went on Next Iron Chef

It's rare that you see any cross-network food show smack talk. Marc Forgione, fresh off his Next Iron Chef win, has been doing a lot of interviews lately, but uncannily this was from an interview with the Food Network's blog, the FN Dish. When asked why he signed on for the Next Iron Chef, he said:

The only show that I would have done on TV was The Next Iron Chef. There are a lot of other chef shows, competitions that are on TV that I won’t name by name, but The Next Iron Chef is the only one that truly says, we want to see you as a chef, and we want to see who can actually be an Iron Chef. Not to see who can entertain us with the after-work antics and all this kind of stuff. It's about the food.

Surely he's not talking about Hell's Kitchen or Cupcake Wars. Update: Forgione told NRN, "I was also asked to try out for Top Chef and Chopped, and I never felt like that really had anything to do with what I wanted to do. "

· Exclusive Interview: Forgione Dishes [FN Dish]
· Marc Forgione on being the Next Iron Chef [NRN]
· All Marc Forgione Coverage on Eater [-E-]