The Next Iron Chef: Who will climb the ranks to culinary greatness? Sundays at 9pm/8c

The Cast

Andrew Knowlton

Age: 32

From: Born in Gainesville, Fla., and raised in Atlanta, Ga.

Current hometown: Brooklyn, N.Y.

Married: Yes

Children: No

Culinary education: Culinary classes here and there; worked at a few restaurants in NYC

Restaurant experience: The Grocery and Panino’teca 275, both in Brooklyn

Current job: Restaurant Editor, Bon Appétit Magazine

Read Andrew's full bio

Q&A with FoodNetwork.com

What is your favorite meal?
You didn’t say "favorite dish," so here’s a last supper: I’d start with a dozen Glidden Point oysters from Maine on the half shell followed by little pimento cheese sandwiches and my mom’s chicken liver pate. Perhaps some deviled eggs and shrimp and grits if I was really hungry. Followed by, hmm, either fried chicken, a lobster roll or fish tacos. I’d go with fried chicken with a side of biscuits and Benton’s ham, corn meal-fried okra, cole slaw, and sautéed collards. Champagne and a few bottles of good Burgundy. I’d finish with some unpasteurized cheeses and a big piece of red velvet cake.

What is your favorite restaurant?
C’mon that’s an impossible question to answer and you know it.

Favorite food destination?
The American South

Who are your culinary inspirations?
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall; Bill Neal; Harold McGee; Richard Olney; Elizabeth David; and anyone who cooks for me, really.

What's your alternative dream job?
To be a small-scale farmer who produces food that makes people really happy and convinces them that they’ve been eating all wrong up to this point.

What are some of your interests, besides cooking?
Does making cocktails count as cooking? Fishing, a little running, and I do try to grow vegetables in my backyard, but it’s kind of difficult in Brooklyn.

What are you looking for in the next Iron Chef?
Someone who’s fearless, creative, technically sound, and able to tackle any battle, from Battle Abalone to Battle Zebra

What's the hardest part about being a judge on The Next Iron Chef?
Taking a bite of a dish and then five seconds later passing judgment on it in a thoughtful, intelligent way while the chef who prepared it is standing five feet away. You can’t hide behind your anonymity like you can in print.

The best part about being a judge?
Eating all that amazing food prepared by standout chefs and then having them act like they care what you think.

Would you want to be an Iron Chef?
If I had a really, really, really good sous chef, maybe.