PORTLAND -- Vitaly Paley, chef of his namesake Paley's Place restaurant in Northwest Portland, bested Iron Chef America's Jose Garces in a competition that aired Sunday evening on The Food Network.
The theme ingredient was the radish. His sous chefs included his chef de cuisine Patrick McKee and chef Ben Bettinger of Beaker and Flask.
The dishes he prepared on the show will be available in the restaurant this week.
The dishes included a radish quartet appetizer; radish greens and ricotta gnocchi served with glazed French breakfast radishes, Oregon Dungeness crab, parmesan and preserved lemon; daikon radish and turnips cooked sous vide with bacon and chanterelle mushrooms, accompanied by pork tenderloin with horseradish, according to publicist Melissa Broussard.
Paley even managed the true Iron Chef challenge - a dessert from an unlikely theme ingredient. He made a watermelon radish tarte tatin with Granny Smith apples, a watermelon radish caramel sauce, and radish green and mint syrup.
The contest was taped some time ago. Paley kept the outcome a secret. At a viewing dinner Sunday night, Mayor Sam Adams awarded him a Fork to the City.
He told KGWthat the one-hour battle, in which five dishes must be completed, might have been the fastest hour of his life.
