Our hometown culinary hero Michael Symon is in South Beach for the annual SoBe Wine and Food Festival, where tonight he'll go for an unprecedented four-peat at the Burger Bash. In fact, last year's three-peat was already a first for the event.
This morning, he and other "Iron Chefs" participated in a panel discussion at the Hotel Victor in Miami, where they discussed fame, "selling out," and other issues unique to high-profile celebrity chefs. On the panel with Symon was Geoffrey Zakarian, Marc Forgione and Alex Guarnaschelli.
In a write up for Zagat, writer Kelly Dobkin shares a bit of the chat:
"Michael Symon shares that being on Iron Chef America made his restaurants busier by 25% and that no other show has the impact that it does in terms of helping chef's restaurant traffic. He also tells the audience when pressed between doing The Chew and Next Iron Chef he would do the The Chew, because in his mind it helps him reach a larger, less privileged audience."
"The food we do on The Chew everyday is typically under $3 a portion but made from scratch. It gets you into the fabric of American families. Not only America but middle America. The Chew is geared toward people that maybe can't eat at our restaurants but want to eat our food," Symon is quoted as saying.
Read the rest right here.
