Kaboom: ‘Iron Chef America’ Returns This Spring

One of the most popular cooking competition shows of all time, Iron Chef America, is getting a reboot next month on the Food Network. Hosted by Alton Brown, Iron Chef Gauntlet will pit seven competitors against each other in two separate rounds of cooking — each episode will feature a Chairman’s Challenge, with a theme determined by Brown, as well as Secret Ingredient cook-off. After five weeks, the last chef standing will then go on to the Gauntlet, which is a series of three Secret Ingredient challenges involving Iron Chefs Masaharu Morimoto, Michael Symon, and Bobby Flay.

The format of this show is basically a mini-season of Top Chef plus a mini-season of Iron Chef America. But surely, the new season will appease the rabid Iron Chef fans who have suffered through two and a half years without a fresh episode of the show. Here are this season’s round one competitors:

• Nyesha Arrington, Los Angeles
• Jason Dady, of Tre Trattoria in San Antonio
• Sarah Grueneberg, of Monteverde in Chicago
• Michael Gulotta, of MOFO in New Orleans
• Stephanie Izard, of Girl & the Goat in Chicago
• Shota Nakajima, of Adana in Seattle
• Jonathon Sawyer, of the Greenhouse Tavern in Cleveland

The first episode premieres on the Food Network at 9 p.m. on April 16, with a finale on May 21. The competitions will be judged by a rotating cast of Iron Chef alumni. To get fans pumped for this new iteration of the show, the Food Network will also air a one-hour special before the April 16 premiere called The Legend of Iron Chef .

• Iron Chef Gauntlet [Food Network]
• All Coverage of Iron Chef America [E]