I’ve gotta say that I enjoyed last night’s Next Iron Chef finale as much as I’ve ever enjoyed any episode of Iron Chef America and rivaled the excitement of any Top Chef finale, as much as I think that is the protoype of competitive cooking television. Even my girlfriend, who had never watched a single episode of the Next Iron Chef miniseries, was on pins and needles as Chef John Besh raced to finish his swordfish-inspired brik pasty dessert, as jokingly requested by Iron Chef Masahuru Morimoto with seconds remaining on the clock. It was gold, Jerry, gold!

The show and the series was really good and for me, has heightened my interest in watching Iron Chef America, having now gotten to know one of the Chefs over the course of seven weeks. One of the best moments for me was the unveiling of winner Michael Symon’s Chairman Mao sized portrait on the wall of Kitchen Stadium. There was something triumphant about that moment, as much as I think the show’s drama is trite and completely contrived.

I think the judges, in this case Morimoto, Bobby Flay and Cat Cora, really got this one right. Besh was, without a doubt, consistent throughout the competition but I thought he relied a little too much on his style, which he defined last night as a contemporary french with a definite Louisiana influence. Kitchen Stadium only has room for one one-trick pony and Bobby Flay doesn’t plan on going back to Mesa Grille anytime soon. Simply put, it appeared that when Symon was at his best, he was a knotch above Besh.

The real telling sign for me last night was that Symon, famous for his love of pork and his Mediterranean-influenced food, pretty much steered clear of pig and had only a couple traces of his greek roots. It showed a versatility, a daring and growth.

I hope that Food Network decides to do this again at one point. I’m not sure how much of a turnover they can possibly have amongst the Iron Chefs but the show and it’s abbreviated format were a well-received respite from a Top Chef-less world.

As a sidenote, was anyone downright horrified by the prospect of a Marc Ecko-designed chef’s jacket. I’m expecting some ghastly hip-hop inspired mess, maybe some graffiti or Pollock-esque paint spatterings. Here’s hoping I’m wrong.

Apparently there was some sniping between the judges over voting, Michael Ruhlman has more on his blog.

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Serious Eats has some recipes for… wait for it.. bacon-wrapped Turkey.

The Indianapolis Star has a good article today about Big Ten teams and bowl eligibility. As of this week, only Minnesota doesn’t have a chance to become bowl eligible.

Georgia might be rocking black jerseys in their game against Auburn this weekend.

USAToday has a nice Indiana basketball preview story.

Lifehacker had a link to a handy app called BookBump. The application helps you keep track of books in your library, books you’re looking to acquire and helps student cite books in different formats for academic papers.

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The Amateur Gourmet has a great Q&A with Michael Ruhlman on his new book, The Elements of Cooking.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Mark Bradley has a fantastic lead in his column today about the Georgia-Auburn series.

The James Beard Foundation has released its list of the 20 essential cookbooks.

The New York Times’ Grub Street blog wonders if white truffles have jumped the shark after today’s announcement that the restaurant at Times Square’s Westin Hotel will be offering a $1,000 white truffle bagel.

A nice article by SI.com’s Cory McCartney on IU being bowl eligible for the first time. It’s a nice article if you haven’t been reading these kinds of stories in the Indianapolis Star or other places who do a much more thorough job, as they should, of covering IU football.  McCartney’s article does, in my opinion, give a little too much credit to interim coach Bill Lynch for the job he’s done. Given their schedule, a schedule that doesn’t include Michigan or Ohio State, it would have been tough for them not to get to six wins this year. I don’t think he should be hired back at the program’s permanent leader but I’ll have more on that tomorrow.

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The Writers’ strike may bump the new season of Lost back to Fall 2008 or — February 2009! The LA Times has a great grid showing, by network, how many episodes popular TV shows had in the can before going dark this week.

Why are priests stalking Conan O’Brien?

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The New York Times has a great article about Wylie Dufresne and the molecular gastronomy movement.

The Consumerist has a list of the Top 10 least on-time airports in the country.

Judd Apatow talks to IGN about the writers’ strike.

The New Yorker has a review of ‘Pushing Daisies.’ What is particularly interesting about this review is how the reviewer shares my belief that the show will have a short lifespan.

“”Pushing Daisies” probably shouldn’t last longer than a season; fairy tales aren’t supposed to go on forever. It will then take its place proudly beside other worthy efforts that lived fast, died young, and left behind a beautiful DVD.”

.. is also the third best competitive cooking show on television.

I speak, of course, of Food Network’s Next Iron Chef America, which has found a home on my TiVo for the last six weeks and has kept me entertained throughout. The premise of the show is one you might recognize. Take some of the best chefs in the country, test their culinary skills through a variety of challenges and one by one (for the most part) send them packing; leaving one to remain to be the next Top Chef Iron Chef.

While I poke fun at the laughably unoriginal premise of the show, it’s actually a pretty good watch. The pacing of the show is quick and brisk, just enough time to develop your own personal favorites and not enough time to tire of the “Chairman’s” completely cheesy theatrics and martial arts exhibitions and Top Chef copycat challenges. The show, and this week’s finale, features some familiar faces to foodies: chef Michael Symon of Cleveland’s Lola and chef-turned Katrina activist chef John Besh of Restaurant August in New Orleans. Judges Michael Ruhlman, Andrew Knolton and Donatella Arpaia provide a refreshing break from the uber-machismo of Tom Colicchio, the relatively vacuous Gail Simmons and the ridiculously melodramatic Padma Lakshmi. The comparisons to Top Chef are unavoidable and it seems the shows creators haven’t tried to avoid them, even making the chefs cook airplane food, a challenge done on Season 3 of Top Chef.

What I think Next Iron Chef does better than Top Chef is the show’s ability and seemingly its desire to showcase the culinary personality of each of these chefs, whereas on Top Chef, you really get the sense that the competition itself and to some extent the judges are the show’s stars and the competitors are set pieces. On this show, you don’t have Michael Ruhlman stalking around the kitchen, asking the chefs what they are working on and weighing in on a dish in the early phases of its conception and execution. The judges do not come into play a moment before the dish is set down in front of them for tasting and I think that is much to the show’s credit.

Next Iron Chef is the Eli Manning to Top Chef’s Peyton. Unassuming, kind of dopey but still pretty darn good.

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The hilariously funny Zach Galifianakis has landed two upcoming movie roles.. regrettably one of them is opposite Ashton Kutcher.

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The WGA strike may cause season 2 of Heroes to end next month.

Arizona basketball coach Lute Olson is taking a leave of absence from the program for undisclosed personal reasons. Olson has been a class act and a great ambassador for college basketball and let’s hope that whatever is to blame for this leave resolves itself quickly and painlessly.

Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio has been named one of the sexiest men alive by People Magazine. This obviously spells disaster for the next semi-sharp looking dude who happens across the judges’ table. It won’t end well — just ask season 2’s Sam Talbot.

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Coldplay is almost finished with their new album, which unfortunately is promised to be no more than an already-measly 42 minutes in total run time.

Bottom Line fave Anthony Bourdain sits down for a Q&A with Time Magazine.

The grossly overrated D’Angelo Hall isn’t talking to the press for the rest of the year. Who does this guy think he is? I really think that he believes that he is a captivating superstar on par with what Deion Sanders was in the mid-90s. Someone needs to inform him that that isn’t the case. I’m really beginning to wonder what it is about Virginia Tech that it keeps producing this guys with behavior and character issues. D’Angelo Hall, Mike Vick, Marcus Vick, I mean what’s going on with Frank Beamer’s program that the kids who pass through end up being so troubled.

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We Are Scientists drummer Michael Tapper has quit the band. My favorite parts of WAS’ spectacularly average songs have been Tapper’s drum parts and I’m not sure what will keep me listening to this band, given this announcement. Guess we will find out whenever they stop touring England and hit the studio.

Since reading about Melanie Dunea’s new book “My Last Supper,” where the author asks 50 of the world’s greatest chefs what they would want to eat for their last meal on Earth, I have been thinking about my own answer. Last night, I was in bed, reading Anthony Bourdain’s “The Nasty Bits,” when I thought of a way I could answer Dunea’s fascinating question. A better question for me, I thought, would be what would I want to eat if it were my last night in Destin. What would I want from the local culinary scene that you just couldn’t get any other place in the country. What follows is an artery-clogging five-course history of my life in Destin.

Course 1: Fried Sea Scallops - Dewey Destin’s - I’ve eaten a lot of fried seafood in my life, both here in Destin and elsewhere, and few have bigger or tastier scallops than Dewey’s rustic (and I mean rustic) restaurant down on Choctawhatchee Bay. Are they pricey? Absolutely but the scallops are enormous, beautifully done, and well worth it.

Course 2: Margherita pizza - Camille’s - I consider myself to be something of a pizza connoisseur and I’m not sure that I’ve ever had a better, lighter piece of pizza than Camille’s margherita. It’s not greasy, it’s not dry. It just is. I’ve been to Charles Morgan’s restaurant in Crystal Beach half a dozen times and my order has never deviated. Some might say that’s closed-minded but I know a good thing when it’s placed in front of me.

Course 3: Italian Sub - Callahan’s - Callahan’s holds a very special place in my heart as it was the first place that I ever lunched in Destin. I think that day, if memory serves, I ordered the mahi, which was fine, but the Italian sub is as good as any on the planet. Simply put, this sandwich is huge. You’d have to have intestines of steel to eat the whole thing in one sitting. I can put away some food but I would never attempt to eat the Italian sub all at once. It’s a fool’s errand. When the thing plops down in front of me, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that half of the thing is going home in a box. It just doesn’t get better.

Course 4: Seafood Pasta - Graffiti’s Baytowne - I think this dish really encapsulates everything that owner Chuck Stiles set out to do when he opened Graffiti’s, both the one now open at Baytowne Wharf and the flagship restaurant off 98 in Destin. It’s seafood, it’s pasta and it’s amazing. Big sea scallops, clams and shrimps all tossed with a spicy red sauce.

Course 5: Key Lime Pie - The Donut Hole - Simply, a Destin institution. Key Lime Pie is the official desert of the South and no one does it better or does it fresher than The Donut Hole. For me, heaven on a plate is an ice cold piece of key lime pie with a graham cracker crust from the Donut Hole, though Publix’s pie isn’t anything to scoff at.

So there it is. It’s not foie gras terrine as requested by Daniel Boulud or Scott Conant’s choice of a spit-roasted goat but the meal for me really represents Destin, my Destin, the once-sleepy fishing village that I came to a year and a half ago. Bon Appétit.

What would you want to eat if you knew you were going to die the next day?

A fairly simply question that author Melanie Dunea asked 50 of the world’s greatest chefs in a book that’s out this week. Included in the book, which features an introduction from Bottom Line fave Anthony Bourdain, is Eric Ripert, Mario Batali, Daniel Boulud, Wylie Dufresne, Thomas Keller, Masa Kobayashi, Jamie Oliver and Jacques Pepin.

It seems like a really insightful book into the greatest culinary minds of our generation and I’ll be very interested to thumb through it. Time has a slideshow of some of the chefs and their choice of dish.