One of the reasons I chose Le Cordon Bleu in Paris is for the experience level of the chefs. Each one comes from a unique background and has a resume that will blow your mind. From heading three star Parisian restaurants to working for the Gabonese President, our chefs have done it all. One has competed on one of my favorite food programs, Iron Chef, and this is his story.

Parisian Chef Guy began his culinary career at an early age – in his parent’s kitchen. As the oldest child, he was responsible for making meals for his two younger siblings. And this is where his love for cooking blossomed. “For me, cooking is a pleasure,” Chef Guy said. “It must be a pleasure for us as chefs and a pleasure for our customers.”

In 1987, Chef Guy moved with his family to a small town in Japan and opened his own restaurant called Le Champs Vert. But cooking for the Japanese was a challenge as tastes ran towards steak. At that time, French cuisine hadn’t become popular yet. One day, Chef Guy met Uchiyama Toshihiko, a famous Japanese chef responsible for over 25 private resort hotels around Japan. Chef Guy went to work in Toshiko’s kitchen at The Rose Room, and there he worked for the next 10 years developing his talents and managing staff.

Since Chef Guy was no stranger to competition, a friend encouraged him to enter a culinary contest in Japan. After winning the event, he caught the eye of the producers from Iron Chef. Not too long after the competition, Chef Guy received an invitation to compete against the French Iron Chef Ishinabe Yutake. Previously, only one other French chef had been invited to compete on the show, so Chef Guy readily agreed. After watching several episodes of the show, he knew he could create a menu that would sweep the votes.

Two days before the show was set for taping, a crew from Iron Chef came to his restaurant to film him in action. For those of you who haven’t seen the show, the audience is shown a short video on the competitor as he’s cooking in his kitchen. This is accompanied by the chef’s history.

During the taping, the show’s producers told him that the current French Iron Chef was retiring and he would be competing against a new chef. Immediately Chef Guy knew that if he won, it would spell disaster for the new Iron Chef. After all, if the new Iron Chef lost to the very first competitor, would he be worthy of his title? It was then Chef Guy made a very difficult decision. Instead of competing to win, he knew he had to put on a show – something that would show to the judges and the viewers his expertise and training.

The day of the competition arrived. Dressed in his brilliant chef whites, he calmly selected Hiroyuki Sakai from the Iron Chef line up. The two competitors stood next to each other as host Takeshi Kaga unveiled the secret ingredient – wild oysters. The competition was underway.

After collecting his thoughts for five minutes, Chef Guy selected 14 oysters from the platform. Now you may think 14 seems like a small amount, but these oysters were over eight inches long. Imagine being served those on a bed of ice with a slice of lemon at a fancy restaurant!

Opening the oysters was no easy feat. On prying the first one open, Chef Guy broke his knife, a frustrating occurrence when you only have one hour to create pure magic. He then resorted to a different tactic – he placed all the oysters in the oven for two minutes until the shells opened enough to slide a knife in and remove the delicate flesh. Once all the oysters were shucked, he poached them in a 25 second bath of white wine and oyster juice for flavor. Since the oysters were so large, the gills had to be removed before going any further.

For his first dish, Chef Guy carefully wrapped each oyster in smoked bacon. This combination represented a marriage between earth and ocean. He then injected each oyster with black truffle juice using a syringe and served them in a earthy truffle sauce with a julienne of gently fried leeks. Anyone craving oysters yet?!

In his second dish, he made a vegetable and oyster ravioli. He thinly sliced diakon radishes and softened the slices by poaching them. He laid a single slice of diakon on each plate, placed the oyster in the center and covered it with a second slice of diakon. The raviolis were served with a sauce made from yuzo – a citrus perfumed liquid – and cucumbers.

The third dish was the piece de resistance – oyster soup. Chef Guy used oyster juice, chicken stock, foie gras and, of course, oysters to make his masterpiece. But then tragedy struck. Ironically, there were no dishes to for serving the soup. Because the quantity of soup was so small, there weren’t any dishes small enough at his disposal. He considered using the shells, but it wouldn’t have made for a beautiful presentation. Instead of serving something that tasted heavenly but looked average, he opted not to serve his final dish.

The outcome went as Chef Guy had pictured. The new Iron Chef was pronounced the winner. But Chef Guy was not disappointed. He was proud of the dishes he prepared, his performance in the kitchen, and the flavors he created. I asked him if he’d compete again. With a spark in his eye and a slight smile, he quickly replied yes.

Chef Guy has been teaching part-time at Le Cordon Bleu since 1999. The thing he loves about his job is transferring knowledge. To him, he’s passing along a little gastronomie Franciase (French gastronomy) to each student he teaches. In Group A, we love having Chef Guy in class. As one of my classmates looked at her rather complicated recipe before class, she said, “I hope we’re having Chef Guy today. He keeps us so organized.”

Chef Guy was the one who calmly replied, “Ce n’est pas grave” (don’t worry, it’s not bad) when I knocked my stroganoff sauce off the stove and on to the floor. As I stood frozen in shock, he casually walked around to each of my classmates and took a ladleful of their sauces to make me a new one. He’s also the one who took a whole 30 minutes during class to explain the science behind hollandaise sauce. He helps us make sense of the complex science and rules behind cuisine.

Now if I can just get my hands on that episode of Iron Chef!

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