Comerford and Flay get fresh (veggies) in the White House garden.

Jeesh, speaking of predictions, Y&H should have guessed this would happen as soon as the White House broke ground on its kitchen garden in March: Iron Chef America has trotted out three of its, ahem, heaviest hitters to cook a meal from ingredients plucked from the hugely symbolic garden.

The special two-hour episode of Iron Chef America, dubbed with a stunning lack of subtlety, Super Chef Battle, features Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse, who take on Bobby Flay and White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford in the competition.

The episode has already been filmed, and according to The New York Times‘ account, First Lady Michelle Obama laid out the ground rules to the teams (they had to cook five dishes using ingredients from the White House kitchen garden) and put in a good plug for her Healthy Kids Initiative.

The show will air on Sunday, Jan. 3, on the Food Network.

Not surprisingly, the air date is politically tinged. So says Y&H’s virtual friend, Obama Foodorama, who writes:

Read More “Should Have Seen This Coming: ‘Iron Chef’ Visits White House for ‘Kitchen Garden’ Challenge” »

Marian Burros has a nice scoop today for the New York Times, reporting that “Sam Kass, a private chef for the Obamas while they were living in Chicago, is now working in the White House.” This news comes just a few weeks after the First Family opted to retain Cristeta Comerford as White House chef.

Burros points out that Kass’ appointment not only signals good news for the local/sustainable movement, but also, believe it or not, for Comerford herself. Reports Burros:

Read More “The Obamas Hire Their Own Personal Chef, After All” »

Barack Obama’s transition team has just announced that it will retain current White House chef, Cristeta Comerford, a naturalized U.S. citizen from the Philippines. Hate to tell you, but Palena chef and owner Frank Ruta, a former White House cook himself, virtually predicted such a thing back in November when Young & Hungry contacted him.

Here’s the money quote from Ruta back then:

Read More “Another Feather in Ruta’s Cap: White House Chef Prognosticator” »