Iron Chef Morimoto

[Rebecca]

Yesterday I was watching Iron Chef on the Food Network, and the battle was between Iron Chef Morimoto and a French chef challenger. The ingredient was lobster. I didn't stick around to see who won, but I was captivated and inspired by watching Mr. Morimoto at work. He had half an hour to create 5 separate lobster dishes. Each chef had to start out by picking whole lobsters from a tank, and they accessed the meat in various ways with knives and scissors. Morimoto never looked hurried or harried in spite of the extreme time constraints. He seemed relaxed while he created innovative, playful, and skillful dishes from this rather difficult ingredient, such as a lobster tamale sandwich covered in tempura, using a huge variety of ingredients and kitchen implements. Each dish, of course, came out looking like a work of art.

If it were me in the competition, I probably still would have been staring in dread at the whole lobsters after half an hour.

I would like for a little bit of Morimoto's genius to rub off on me, whether I am in the kitchen or just trying to accomplish any task.