Philly chef is America's newest iron chef

NEW YORK, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- The Food Network's "Iron Chef America" says Philadelphia chef and restaurateur Jose Garces joins the show by winning a weeks-long battle with nine other chefs.

Garces is the executive chef and owner of Amada, Tinto, Distrito, Chifa and Village Whiskey in Philadelphia, and the executive chef at Mercat a la Planxa in Chicago.

Each iron chef competition features a guest chef challenging one of six iron chefs -- Bobby Flay, Masaharu Morimoto, Mario Batali, Cat Cora, Michael Symon and Garces. The 60-minute competition features a secret ingredient.

"Iron Chef America" emcee Alton Brown said the expansion of iron chefs was logical because "there's so much more talent out there."

"It's really nice to have new voices, new styles, new stories and new people," Brown told United Press International in a telephone interview.

From his standpoint, he didn't think adding another chef would dilute the iron chef pool.

"I don't know if it matters about the number of personalities," Brown said. "With a platoon of iron chefs (viewers) can say, 'Well, this is my favorite.' We're a long way from that."