Iron Chef finds 2nd show not impossible, just hectic

Chef's newest place will open Nov. 1

By Lisa Abraham
Beacon Journal food editor

Published on Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008

Cleveland's Iron Chef Michael Symon will debut as the new host of the Food Network show Dinner Impossible on Aug. 20.

I recently had the chance to chat with Symon, who earlier this summer spent six weeks taping 10 episodes of Dinner Impossible and nine Iron Chef America battles.

''Thank God I don't have any more hair to lose,'' Symon said of the hectic schedule.

But squeezing a year's worth of television fame into a few weeks of taping isn't a bad deal for Symon, who's happy to be home in Cleveland with his wife and dog, spending time in his two restaurants, Lola and Lolita.

Symon, 39, said his Iron Chef fame hasn't changed his life much, except that he gets recognized now when he's traveling. He won his Iron Chef title in a Food Network competition in 2007.

''In Northeast Ohio, people respect your space. I still spend most of my time in the restaurants and everybody knew who I was there anyway,'' he said.

''I'm still at the restaurants about 90 percent of the time.''

Symon said the format for Dinner Impossible is unchanged — he and two sous chefs must prepare a meal for 150 to 600 guests in about six hours.

''It's just two chefs and me and occasionally we'll pick up a helper or two,'' he said.

Symon's favorite episode was preparing a meal on the boardwalk at the Jersey shore. ''It was a blast to do and we had a ton of fun.''

The most difficult was a dinner at Alcatraz in California, because everything had to be transported to and from the island. The day began at 6 a.m. and finished about midnight.

''I'm used to 18-hour days,'' Symon said, adding that he's not used to having only two helpers. ''I really don't think that anything can prepare you for the show. It's truly that hard.''

Years of working in restaurants where he had to cut up cases of vegetables and meats were good preparation — ''I'm happy that I have fast knife skills.''

Now that he's back home, Symon's busy working on a new patisserie, Bittersweet, which is to open at Eton in Woodmere on Nov. 1. He said the venue is for Cory Barrett, the pastry chef at Lola, whom he describes as ''one of the top 10 pastry chefs in the country.''

Symon will replace Barrett with pastry sous chefs at each restaurant, but Barrett still will be in a charge of creating desserts for both places, as well as showcasing his talents at Bittersweet.

''The nice thing is he'll really be able to control the desserts for both places. At Lola, the pastry kitchen's not that big. Now he'll really be able to strut his stuff.''

Symon also is consulting for the Starwood hotel chain, and will see their first collaboration open in Detroit in October: a restaurant called Roast in the Westin Book Cadillac Detroit hotel, which is undergoing a $200 million restoration. Not surprising for the meat-loving Symon, the eatery will focus on lamb, steaks and sausages.

Symon said he's proud of Cleveland's standing as a ''food city.''

''I've always said for a city its size, its food scene is incredibly strong. I look at Pittsburgh and Minneapolis and they don't have near the amount of independent chef-driven restaurants, that you could really put anywhere in the country. Clevelanders and people in Northeast Ohio are really blessed and finally, people are starting to recognize this.''

Symon is stumping for a new convention center in downtown Cleveland as the key to putting the city on the culinary map, because it would bring in a large influx of out-of-towners each week and show the rest of the country what Cleveland's got.

So where does the Iron Chef eat when he's not at his own restaurants? Symon has a long list. On top is Bar Cento, run by former Lola chef Jonathon Sawyer, and chef Karen Small's Flying Fig.

''I'm very happy to have Dante Boccuzzi (Dante's in Independence) back in town. He's amazing. Doug Katz at Fire does a great job. Red is one of the best steakhouses in the country. Lucky's in Tremont for one of the best Sunday brunches, and I love to go to the Baricelli Inn and sit on the patio in the summer.''

Symon doesn't venture to Akron much, but when he does, he's a big fan of chef Roger Thomas at Piatto Novo in Cuyahoga Falls.

''I've heard wonderful things about the new vegan restaurant in Akron (VegiTerranean), but I can't bring myself to go,'' Symon joked. ''I will make the trip. I'm going to smuggle in some bacon in my pockets.''