Iron Chef

I summon . . . Iron Chef! It's the second-most-watched show on the Food Network, and surely the most innovative, imaginative, and downright weird cooking program in the history of food on TV. The Japanese import started running on the Food Network last June with dubbed translations for the Iron Chefs and subtitles for the host, Kaga Takeshi (one listen, and you'll know why the Food Network lets him speak for himself). It features four chefs, each with an oversized personality, fashions usually not seen outside a Siegfried and Roy show, and a floor reporter who darts from rice cooker to ice-cream maker to stove breathlessly shouting out the components of each dish as if he's delivering secrets of state across enemy lines.

10 tonight FOOD NETWORK Iron Chef Michael Symon (right) tours the country to settle longstanding culinary rivalries. Philly's cheesesteak is vetted tonight as Pat's King of Steaks faces off against Geno's Steaks? What, no Tony Luke's?

* There's still time this month to catch the peachy specials at Gemelli on Main (4161 Main St., 215-487-1230): a summer cocktail of Peach Infused Bourbon with Ginger Beer and Fresh Mint ($10) and a Warm Peach and Goat Cheese Bruschetta with Honey Caramelized Shallots, Baby Arugula, Candied Pecans and Port Wine Reduction ($12). Monday's BYO night at Clark Gilbert's modern continental. * Pay tribute to French artist Paul Gauguin and his Polynesian masterpieces with the Tiki Cocktail Dinner Aug. 26 at Granite Hill at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (26th and Benjamin Franklin Parkway, 215-684-7990)

Who: The James Beard-awarded Philly chef operates seven local restaurants (Amada, Distrito, Garces Trading Co., Tinto . . . ) and won Season 2 of Food Network's "The Next Iron Chef. " Age: 39. From: Chicago. Where now: Center City and Ottsville, Bucks County. On TV: See him face Tuscan-Italian chef Cesare Casella in a seafood-centric battle in Kitchen Stadium on "Iron Chef America" on the Food Network at 10 p.m. Sunday. Touch that dial: Iron Chef, schmiron chef.

When Jose Garces opened Garces Trading Company in 2009, the branding opportunities were endless. Garces coffee! Garces honey! Garces macarons! Now, through a partnership with chocolatier Chris Curtin of Éclat, we get cocoa with a touch of Iron Chef. The milk chocolate with warming mole amarillo is a natural pairing, while others, such as porcini, thyme, and white chocolate, are less intuitive but still intriguing.   - Ashley Primis Garces Trading Company chocolate bars, $8 at Garces Trading Company and online, 1111 Locust St., 215-574-1099, garcestradingcompany.com

Opening: Preview, Monday-May 24; grand opening, May 25. Size: 6.3 million square feet, 47 stories on 20 acres. Cost: $2.4 billion. Guest rooms and suites: 1,898 (all rooms have ocean views). Smoking policy: 100 percent smoke-free. Spa: 31,000 square feet. Retail: 55,000 square feet. Theaters: Two, with capacity for 5,050 and 700 seats, respectively. Nightclubs: Two. Day clubs: One, featuring performance deck, cabanas and saltwater pool (42,000 square feet of space)

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AS AIRY as meringue and as sweet as a chocolate confection, the British foodie comedy "Toast" certainly goes down easily. Based on a memoir by English food writer Nigel Slater, this slight but whimsically enjoyable film charts his coming-of-age as a food enthusiast and gay youth, both of which were pretty difficult in mid-'60s Britain. Oscar Kennedy plays the preteen Nigel, a precocious kid with an interest in cooking even though his mother's idea of dinner is canned vegetables and toast.