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<3<3<3 Michael Symon for standing up to Jeffrey and supporting Morimoto:

Morimoto: "[Mehta] tried a lot, but a lot of fail. People who can be the Iron Chef, have to do something successfully.... Then, if I still fail, possibility to be more creativity...." (I think Morimoto--for whom the show usually has an overdub--is saying that first a chef has to be technically competent, and only then can indulge his creativity, and if one fails at creativity, the judges can say "well, at least he got the technique right", which is I think what the other ICs were saying about Garces's food.)

Jeffrey (in a snit, esp. given his Brooklyn Bridge remark): "Morimoto is a fabulous modern Japanese judge" (I have to think Jeffrey meant to say "chef" here), "but if he were cooking simple Japanese dishes perfectly, but it was all things you get in a Japanese household, I don't think he'd ever win Iron Chef. Morimoto wins because of his creativity."

Symon: "But [Morimoto's] able to be creative, Jeffrey, because he's a master technician and a master of fundamentals."

Alton Brown to Symon: "So without that base, true creativity is not possible?"

Symon to Jeffrey: "If you're creative, and you fail, are you creative, or are you a failure?"

Jeffrey: "You're exaggerating how challenged Mehta is."

Symon: "He did some great dishes today. I'm just saying there's some basic technique stuff that he failed on, and that frightened me."

Morimoto is without question the most accomplished IC. Though I appreciate Jeffrey's contributions as a judge (even including his curmudgeonliness), and have read and enjoyed his books, Jeffrey does not always deserve to be in the same room as Morimoto.