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"Last Sunday&amp;#039;s secret ingredient was...   Snails.   Snails? SNAILS! I feel like Bobby Flay&amp;#039;s cuisine is about as far removed from snail cuisine as you get. Snails with avocado and chiles? Spiced corn with snail butter? Just doesn&amp;#039;t sound appetizing. But what do I know. Nevertheless, that was the secret ingredient the Chairman selected for competitors Chef Floyd Cardoz and Iron Chef Bobby Flay. I wasn&amp;#039;t familiar with Chef Cardoz before this episode, but his style of American and European dishes enhanced with Indian spices sounds very intriguing. Might have to try Tabla this weekend when I&amp;#039;m in NYC. I love it when the Chairman throws in a little joke like he did in this episode. &amp;quot;Can you curry favor with the judges in Kitchen Stadium&amp;quot; he asked Chef Cardoz. So funny that Chairman. The scripted lines they make the challenger recite are always tragic, though.  Let the battle begin! &amp;quot;These snails,&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;escargot&amp;quot; as Alton points out, &amp;quot;are coming to us from France.&amp;quot; While Alton always knows the tiniest tidbit of info, he admits he&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;scared to death&amp;quot; of Chef Cardoz&amp;#039;s spice area as it contains hundreds of Indian spices, many of which Alton was unfamiliar with. Time to get educated! And now some thoughts on the dishes... Alton thought the sausage Chef Cardoz was cutting up was chorizo. &amp;quot;Linguisa,&amp;quot; the Chef corrected him. I&amp;#039;m embarrassed to admit that I didn&amp;#039;t know what linguisa was until about a year ago. I ordered a pasta dish at a New York restaurant, linguisa being one of the ingredients listed. Well, I assumed that was just some kind of linguini! After a few bites I said, &amp;quot;I think this linguini tastes like sausage!&amp;quot; Luckily, it was delicious and I ate every bite. I&amp;#039;ve been a linguisa devotee ever since... although I have to hit the treadmill extra hard the day after eating it.  Chef Cardoz also worked on some sweetbreads. Yuck. Sweetbreads are neither sweet nor bread. Let&amp;#039;s meet the judges! Jeffrey Steingarten -- author of blah blah blah and other opinionated things. Alexandra Guarnaschelli -- Hey look! Commercials for your new show The Cooking Loft keep airing during every break. Double promotion! Batista -- WWE superstar. He&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;open minded&amp;quot; about the snails. Translation: never had them; don&amp;#039;t want them.  The final dishes: Bobby Flay: Snail Risotto (Could be delicious), Crispy Snails and Squid (Yum!), Grilled Snail Pizza (Ehh...), Snail Carbonara (Creamy and wonderful), Snails with Rioja Sauce (Wine and mushrooms can&amp;#039;t go wrong) Chef Cardoz: Fricasse of snails (OK), Crispy Snails 65 (Yum!), Snails and Sweetbreads (Yack), Snail Porridge (awesome presentation), Sweet Spice Braised Oxtails (Yum!) And the winner is... Iron Chef Flay. 51 to 45 thanks to Bobby&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;unexpected Mediterannean maneuver.&amp;quot;  I guess I can live with that. Snails anyone? AIR DATE: 9/7/08 "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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