Iron Chef Cooks Up Specialty at TSK

Tuesday night was busy, as usual, at Thames Street Kitchen, or tsk, as it is more commonly known.

The menu featured inventive and seductive dishes like fried chicken with Marrakesh slaw and honey spaetzle, and lamb’s tongue with tzatziki, feta, and cucumber. But right in the center of the yellow menu one entrée stood out: Iron Chef Marc Forgione chili lobster. 

Indeed, the Iron Chef had joined his old pals Chefs Chad Hoffer and Tyler Burnley in their kitchen for just one night and Newporters got to taste his award-winning creation. The New York Times voted it a top ten dish.

Forgione said that he created the plate one night when he was ravenous and a little bit hung-over. He remembered Singapore’s spicy crab and began experimenting with the concept using lobster and Texas toast at home. It was so good he added it to his restaurant’s menu. Now people yell if it’s not there.

He changed up the dish a little for Newport, though, he said. Instead of the usual toast, he substituted Portuguese sweet bread, which he loves, for a new flavor.

He said he doesn’t keep his recipes secret. “Chili Lobster” is online here.  He has no problem with people trying it out on their own, he said, because, "if ten people try this recipe at home, it will come out ten different ways. Recipes are guidelines, not iron clad rules."

Since becoming an Iron Chef in 2010, his life’s grown a lot busier, but the advantage is that it has allowed him to cook the food he wants to cook and his patrons trust him to give him the best.

He was inspired by his fellow chefs in the kitchen here as well. One of them reintroduced him to charred onion and vinegar sauce and he intends to add it to his own menu when he gets back to New York City.

Forgione said he has planned to spend Wednesday as his vacation in Newport, as well.

“That’s as long as my vacations last these days,” he remarked.