Food Network

"You come from the City of Brotherly Love. SO WILL YOU BE READY FOR THE HOSTILITY OF KITCHEN STADIUM?"

So went the splendidly silly introductory warning from Iron Chef America's Chairman on last night's all-new episode. (Why does no one ever talk about how he's the dude from Only the Strong?) He was addressing none other than our very own Jose Garces, who met Bobby Flay head to head in a Kitchen Stadium battle (secret ingredient: melon) with a frigid twist: Each course had to feature a frozen element.

Recap and thoughts after the jump.

He won!

Now details.

This episode was filmed close to year ago, and you could tell — in Garces' bio clip, ICA host Alton Brown introduced our dude as merely the chef/owner of Amada. Since that time, he's rolled out Tinto and Distrito in Philly and Mercat a la Planxa in his native Chicago.

Garces' sous chefs were Will Zuchman, former chef de cuisine at Tinto, and Chad Williams, who'll be at the helm at Garces' Peruvian-themed Chifa, slated for a 2009 opening at 707 Chestnut.

The glut of preposterous post-production graphics and excruciating Brown puns ("Melon-oma! Har!") aside, this was a very entertaining battle, due to both the "brain freeze" hook (lots of fancy blast chillers and liquid nitrogen) and the fact that we had no clue what the hell both chefs were working on until mere moments before plating began.

At the judges' table, Garces said that he and his chefs strived to "accentuate melon [dishes] from different parts of the world," and he delivered. Garces wowed Jeffrey Steingarten, foodie omnipresence Ted Allen and The Insider's Victoria Recano with his five-course offering, which included a "breakfast" platter featuring caramelized cantaloupe served with quail egg and an espresso granita; a watermelon ceviche topped with luscious toro and garnished with a flash-frozen honeydew bonbon; a fancified spin on Amada's famous ham and melon tapa; Thai-style melon and beef pouches; and a "melon mosaic" dessert that featured a beautifully bruléed fruit arrangement alongside ricotta ice cream and anise-flavored effervescence.

Recano kept using terms like "punch" and "kick" to describe the flavors in Garces' dishes, which made us think that she is probably capable of extreme violence.

Judges were also very receptive to Iron Chef Flay's dishes, which included white gazpacho with frozen champagne grapes, a melon/scallop ceviche and a frozen watermelon parfait. But in the end, Garces topped his competitor by a single point, 50 to 49. (Each of the three judges can award up to 10 points for taste and as many as 5 points each in the categories of plating and originality.) In which category did he have the biggest edge? Taste, of course.

Congratulations to Garces and crew — and congratulations to us for having them.