Kidsday interviews 'Iron Chef' Marc Forgione

Although many people pass by Reade Street in Manhattan, they do not realize that No. 134 has a special “Marc” on it. When you step inside, the warmth of this restaurant engulfs you. This place is like a cozy log cabin, with a slight modern edge. This is Marc Forgione’s restaurant.

Marc Forgione got his newfound fame by being named “The Next Iron Chef” on Food Network. This competition consists of a series of challenges to prove which chef is worthy to win this prestigious title. We were able to meet his inspiring chef.

Marc showed us his restaurant, and then brought us into his kitchen for a special activity. We were about to learn a few unique skills. Marc demonstrated the tasks to prepare a duck for brining. The night before, Marc put spices and other ingredients on the duck to make it rich in flavor when it was finished. Through this, he showed us how to make a butcher’s knot, which is good for packaging and tying certain foods, such as meat. Once we successfully completed this, the duck hangs for 28 to 30 days to become dry and then it is ready.

After our wonderful experience in the kitchen, Marc gave each of us his autograph with a special message. Then, we noticed one of the key factors of the restaurant, the shelves. These shelves were filled with gifts from customers and also from celebrations. There was everything from a large bottle from the night the finale aired to a T-shirt that read Team Forgione.

This experience was very exciting. Chef Forgione was wonderful and his restaurant had a pleasant feeling throughout. We definitely recommend the restaurant from what we have seen. The mood, the staff, and the guarantee of an Iron Chef cooking is all part of the experience. We had a great time, and Marc Forgione is a true Iron Chef.

What first inspired you to become a chef?

Well, my dad’s a chef and he really didn’t have to say anything, just by watching him growing up I was always attracted to the business of food and I use to get into trouble because I would get too close to the stove when I was a kid. I just always liked to cook.
 
How did you get on “Iron Chef”? How did you get selected?

They called me one day. I was busy in the kitchen working. And I got a phone call and it was a talent scout and they asked me a couple of questions, kind of like you guys are, and I guess I answered the questions the way that they wanted me to. And then I had to go for a couple more interviews and again, I guess I just answered the questions right and everybody on that show was already pretty established. So a lot of the stuff you did in your career got me on to that show.
 
What was the most difficult parts of being on the next the show?

The most difficult parts . . . When you work in a restaurant like this, your team is what makes your restaurant. So to be on "The Next Iron Chef" we were all by ourselves. Everything we had to do on that show was with your own two hands. You didn’t have a sous chef or a manager or a cook. Everything you had to do was completely by yourself. And some of the things they had us do, some of that stuff even for us who have been cooking all of our lives was pretty difficult.
 
What motivated you to tryout for the show?

You know, of all the TV chef shows that are out there right now and there’s a lot of them (I don’t know if I can name them by name). Of all the ones that I’ve seen and been asked to do, "The Next Iron Chef” was really about food and respect and who was the best chef. Not who’s the funniest, the best looking, did all that kind of stuff. It was who was the best chef and who cooked the best food. So for me I wanted to show that.
 
What advice do you have for people who want to become chefs?

Sleep now. Honestly, if you really want to be a chef, I guess it’s like anything you really need to put your time in. Make sure you love food. Because if you don’t love food, you can’t be a chef. It’s not one of those businesses where you can kind of pretend. Oh I like my job, this is OK, that will rise to the top very fast. So if you don’t love food I would suggest doing something else.
 
Would you want to compete against your dad or with your dad?

Do you know people keep asking me that question? I would never no matter how much money was offered of me, no matter what they promised us in the end. I would never battle my dad head to head. And if people ask me who’s the better chef. He is.
 
Which current “Iron Chef” would you like to compete against and why?

I think I would like to go against Morimoto. Just because he’s been doing it the longest and when I was -- how old are you guys? -- 13, I think when I was about your age, I was watching him on the Japanese "Iron Chef." So I think to be able to go against somebody that you use to idolize and watch as a kid would be pretty cool.

What kind of ingredient or staple can you not live without and are always found in your kitchen?

Extra virgin olive oil. I like them all, Italian, Greek, French. I’ll show you when we get in there. I have all different bottles. I like different spices. I always have spice blends set up in my paths. I can’t cook without the spices. And a good cast iron pan.
 
What kind of challenges faced you when you were part of the "Iron Chef" competition and not in the restaurant?

Kind of goes back to what I said in one of the first questions, you really need to have a good team. Because they need to understand that when I’m not here they need to keep the ball rolling. When people come into eat here they don’t care if I’m in the kitchen or not. They want their food that they’re paying for and they expect it. So those guys really need to step up and it falls on me to make sure I hire the right people.
 
Have you ever watched the competition once it aired after you came back?

Yeah, we actually had big parties here every Sunday. I wish I had met you guys sooner. I would have invited you. But in particular the night of the finale we had a really big party. Everybody that I have known pretty much throughout my life came. We had a big movie screen on this side, had a big movie screen on that side. It was really cool. When they pulled down the curtain, “The Next Iron Chef is," when they showed my face, the whole place was packed. There were hundreds of people. The whole place went crazy and all of these things were shaking. It was like an earthquake. Everything in the place was shaking.
 
What was your reaction seeing yourself on TV?

The first thing that I noticed right away was my accent. I didn’t know I had a weird accent. You kind of get use to it. The only thing I was surprised about was my accent.

Is what you see on the screen the same memory of what happened when you were participating in the tournament?

Yeah, they did a good job. They cut out a lot of kind of stuff that didn’t have to do with food. But I think that everybody, all the chefs, all 10 of us, that their personalities kind of came out. And I think everybody that you saw, that’s who they were.
 
Do you plan on opening other restaurants?

Eventually yeah. I think for the next year or so, with kind of new found fame, I guess you can call it. I want to concentrate on this place. Because we worked very hard to get where we are now and to leave to open something else now when we finally got to where we want to be, I think there will be plenty of opportunities I think.
 
What other cities would you like to go to?

I’d like to do something on Long Island, believe it or not. Off the top of my head I don’t know. I really had a good time while we were in L.A. while we were filming there. I think what we do here could fit out there. I’d love to do something extravagant in Las Vegas. We’ll see.
 
What was your favorite food when you were growing up?

It’s funny it wasn’t healthy at all, but my thing to eat was a bagel with cream cheese and crushed barbecue potato chips on it.
 
How do you create the menu for your restaurant? Do you use family recipes or original ideas?

Our menu here is not a very large menu compared to other restaurants. What we do is we change it almost daily with kind of what’s in season and what’s available. I’ll sit down with my sous chefs and cooks and we’ll just kind of have a discussion, kind of like we’re talking right now. Somebody will bounce an idea, we’ll talk about maybe this and we’ll go from there. But some do come from family recipes, some of them come from old cookbooks, places I’ve worked, stuff we’ve tried here.
 
What is your favorite meal to cook for special gatherings or for yourself?

Most of my days off, my girlfriend requests a roasted chicken.
 
And do you have any signature specialty dishes?

We’ve got a couple now. We have barbecue baked oyster. We do a spicy lobster dish that everybody likes. Our chicken is pretty much a signature and then we do a whole roasted baby halibut.