This holiday season, Iron Chef Canada’s Chairman requested an epic baking battle for the ages. This fall’s #1 Canadian program on Food Network Canada, and a top five network performer, Iron Chef Canada warmly welcomes celebrity chef, television personality and best-selling cookbook author Anna Olson as a special guest Iron Chef in this festive episode.
The powerhouse all-baking showdown will feature Chef Olson battling challenger and pastry chef of Toronto, Ont.’s Forno Cultura, Laura White. The must-see holiday battle airs December 12 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Food Network Canada.
Iron Chef Anna Olson is a Food Network Canada celebrity chef and internationally recognized as Canada’s baking sweetheart. Chef Olson is trained in savoury cooking, and is equally known for her pastry-making abilities. Her challenger, Laura White, is a pastry fanatic who initially worked as a savoury chef, only to find her true passion for baking in 2000 while working at Iron Chef Susur Lee’s Susur Restaurant. Chef White is now the pastry chef at the acclaimed artisanal Italian bakery Forno Cultura in Toronto.
On December 12, Iron Chef Olson faces challenger Chef White in a seasonal showdown that is all about nuts – aptly named “Battle Nutcracker ‘Sweet’.” Sous chefs Lisa Rollo and Mia Bachmaier join Iron Chef Olson, while Chef White brings sous chefs Christina D’Angela and Andrea Mastrandrea into Kitchen Stadium for their blizzard of baking excellence. The judges’ panel includes Montreal Gazette restaurant critic Lesley Chesterman, food writer Adam Gollner, and host of the upcoming new Food Network Canada series Big Food Bucket List, John Catucci, as they critique the final dishes and declare a winner.
In each episode of Iron Chef Canada, a worthy chef challenger is pitted against one of the legendary Iron Chefs, Hugh Acheson, Amanda Cohen, Lynn Crawford, Rob Feenie, Susur Lee and now Anna Olson, in an epic culinary showdown. The Chairman kicks off each battle revealing the secret ingredient that must be incorporated in each of their five dishes while host Gail Simmons, alongside floor reporter Chris Nuttall-Smith, provide a rundown of all the culinary action.
