Culture

It Sure Looks Like John Besh Was Edited Out Of This Week's 'Iron Chef Showdown'

John Besh
Dan Myers|

UPDATE: A Food Network spokesperson has confirmed that the episode was re-edited to remove Besh. 

If you happened to catch last night's episode of Iron Chef Showdown, in which Wisconsin chef Tory Miller took on Iron Chef Bobby Flay, you probably noticed that there was only one judge at the Judges' Table – Giada de Laurentiis – when just about every other episode of Iron Chef has had two or more. That, plus the awkward way in which Giada was shot (the camera was zoomed in on her a little more than usual, and she was slightly off-center), got us wondering if perhaps there had in fact been a second judge at that table, one who was edited out.

So we kept an eagle eye on the background during the competition, and sure enough, there was in fact another judge sitting alongside Giada, one who looked a whole lot like disgraced New Orleans chef John Besh.

According to Madison.com, this episode was originally supposed to air on December 13, but was pushed back to yesterday due to a "scheduling change." Host Alton Brown also appeared to take responsibility for the holdup in a Dec. 13 tweet:

Besh stepped away from his restaurant group after a bombshell October report by the New Orleans Times-Picayune's Brett Anderson accused him of fostering a culture of sexual harassment at his restaurants; he later admitted to having an affair with an employee. Besh appeared, unedited, as a guest judge in the first episode of the series, which premiered on November 8.

We reached out to Food Network for comment and will update if we hear back.

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