Catch Alton Brown Sunday in the Next Iron Chef

I have neglected to talk much about the Next Iron Chef competition amid all of the other Alton Brown related happenings in October. Now that November is upon us, his book tour is over, let's get down to talking about some of the shows. Since the Next Iron Chef hasn't received much attention, I'll start there.

This week's new episode, premiering Sunday night at 9 p.m. Eastern, will test the remaining chefs in the "Pressure" challenge and eliminate two of them in the process. The first task at hand for the six remaining will be to create essence of Indian cuisine in one bite in only 30 minutes time. The main challenge has the chefs cooking a five-course Indian fest in only two hours.

Thus far in the competition, ethnic cuisines have played a major role. Week one brought world ingredients. Week two had international cooking vessels. Last week it was Mexico, the week before Asian and in coming challenges Indian and Japanese. It does make interesting challenges for the chefs especially when a style is not a strong suit.

Right now, there's not one favorite chef for me--unlike the first Next Iron Chef when I was with John Besh from the first episode. Seamus Mullen would be my front runner right now, he's been strong in several of the challenges and seems to have skill to prepare many dishes. Personality wise, I enjoy Roberto Treviño.

Alton's role in the show is enjoyable, as always. The first week he was deliciously annoying going to and fro chef stations asking what they were making. The chefs handled his interruptions well, personally, if I were there I may have told him to go away. Yes, I would've told my culinary hero he was annoying the crap of me. The Koren taco cart scene in week two was classic AB. But last week his lecture to Chef Jehangir Mehta about the many failed ice cream attempts was an unexpected element to the main challenge. Although, Alton was correct on Chef Mehta missing the mark with ice cream, in the end, Chef Mehta pulled off his frozen dessert in the challenge.

Once the smoke clears and field is two chefs smaller, the remaining contestants will fly off to Japan and a special date with Iron Chef lore. Can't wait to see that episode, but before AB and crew head to the Land of the Rising Sun, two must be cut. Remember to tune in Sunday night to find which four survive.