The Chairman may believe his Iron Chefs can vanquish any challenger who enters Kitchen Stadium, but ask any Iron Chef and they will tell you that there is at least one battle that almost killed them. For Iron Chef Bobby Flay, Battle Buffalo threatened to be his undoing. Immense buffalo ribs and loins were difficult to break down, and the Iron Chef faced off against a competitive challenger in the legendary chef Rick Bayless. In the end, a slim one-point difference was the margin of victory for Iron Chef Flay.

When the Chairman presents a live ingredient on the Kitchen Stadium altar, he changes the dynamic of the battle and elevates the degree of culinary difficulty. Chefs Jamie Oliver and Mario Batali had to catch their cobia, dispatch it and then prepare five wildly different dishes. And when an Iron Chef with one of the highest winning percentages went head-to-head with one of the best-known chefs on the planet, Battle Cobia became an instant classic.

The toughest Kitchen Stadium battles often involve satisfying the Chairman's demand for both sweet and savory dishes. When the secret ingredient was eggnog, things got even tougher for Iron Chefs Bobby Flay and Masaharu Morimoto. Add in thousands of pounds of ice blocks that had to be carved into icy serving vessels and all the elements were in place for one of the Chairman's frostiest holiday celebrations.