Allez Cuisine!

The highly anticipated debut of Iron Chef America last night certainly lived up to its billing. Iron Chef Bobby Flay (right) faced challenger Rick Bayless (left). This matchup pitted an expert in Southwestern cuisine (Flay), against Bayless, an expert in Mexican cuisine. The theme ingredient: buffalo meat. And the two chefs produced some eye-catching dishes. I wanted to try each one! But alas, I could not. The verdict was very close — one point separated the winner from the loser. I won’t tell you who won in case you want to watch the rerun Wednesday (1/19/05) at 11pm ET/PT on Food Network and Saturday (1/22/05) at 7pm ET/PT.