Food Network has announced the lineup for Next Iron Chef, premiering October 3 at 9 p.m., and it’s as follows: Marco Canora (Hearth, Terroir, and Terroir TriBeca, in New York), Bryan Caswell (Reef, Stella Sola, and Little Bigs, in Houston, Texas), Maneet Chauhan (Vermillion, in Chicago and New York), Mary Dumont (Harvest, in Cambridge, Massachusetts), Duskie Estes (Zazu Restaurant + Farm, Bovolo, and Black Pig Meat Co., in Sonoma County, California), Marc Forgione (Marc Forgione, in New York), Andrew Kirschner (Wilshire, in Santa Monica, California), Mario Pagán (Chayote and Lemongrass, in Puerto Rico), Celina Tio (Julian, in Kansas City, Missouri), and Ming Tsai (Blue Ginger, in Wellesley, Massachusetts). Judges will include Simon Majumdar, Donatella Arpaia, and Michael Symon, the doppelgänger of Arpaia’s on-the-outs business partner Michael Psilakis (awkward!). This season’s challenges will include cooking on a desert island and other such silliness — interesting move for Ming Tsai, who’s already a food personality in his own right. Here’s hoping Marc Forgione unleashes some of the fury we saw earlier this year.
