Iron Chef HubSpot's first annual competition continued last night at 5 p.m. in HubSpot Kitchen Stadium (AKA the Brogan Game Room), with six more teams battling for a chance to compete in the final round.
While the team of Karen Rubin and Dan Abdinoor took home the win with a landslide victory, perhaps the most memorable moments from last evening's event were the comments from the judges as well as the peanut gallery.
Overheard at Iron Chef HubSpot
During Round 1:
Competitors: Chris Keller & Dan Zarrella vs. Adrian Mott & Kate Gillette
Secret Ingredient: Cranberry!
Ellie Mirman (spectator): "Is something burning?" Dan (competitor): "The burning flame of competition."
Kirsten Knipp (spectator/winner of Orange Championship): "I'm very excited about the facial expressions from you." Heidi Carlson (judge): "They will be genuine."
Heidi (judge): "It was surprisingly not bad."
Yoav Shapira (judge): "I went to Mexico a couple years ago and had some chicken mole negro. It was a little better than this."
Mike Volpe (judge): "I admire the creativity in this. But that's about all I can admire."
Adrian (competitor): "This is a traditional ginger bubble tea... fruit snacks are the bubbles."
Mike (judge): "If the secret ingredient had been peanut butter..."
Yoav (judge): "Other than the texture, I'm not sure what I like about it."
During Round 2:
Competitors: Amy Eastment & Dan Prior vs. Jeremy Katz & Paul Sutherland
Secret Ingredient: Orange!
Heidi (judge): "I'm just glad it doesn't have peanut butter in it."
Yoav (judge): "It's not the worst thing we've tasted. It's the second worst."
During Round 3:
Competitors: Ryan Carrigg & Jordyne Wu vs. Dan Abdinoor & Karen Rubin
Secret Ingredient: Garlic!
Karen (competitor): "I want to know if I can make this for dinner."
Shannon Sweetser (spectator/former competitor): "It's actually pretty good. The potato is very potato-y."
Karen (competitor): "Where's the garlic?" Jordyne (competitor): "It's all around. Avoidable."
Adam Smith (judge): "It's not the worst dessert here."
Dan and Karen's winning plated dishes
Special respect should also be paid to the team of Jeremy and Paul, who filled in at the very last minute and still made 3rd place in last night's championship.
Stay tuned for news of the final competition, which will take place in early January after the holidays and will be livestreamed on http://hubspot.tv. The final round will feature last night's winners, Karen and Dan, versus last week's Orange Champions, Kirsten and Carol.
Dan and Karen, winners of the White Championship
Click here for a recap of last week's Orange Championship.
For more photo documentation of this and last week's competitions, check out the Iron Chef HubSpot set on Flickr or watch the full slideshow below.
Originally published Dec 17, 2009 1:34:00 PM, updated January 17 2023