Didn’t see this one coming! Food Network has decided on it’s replacement of Robert Irvine for the new host of Dinner: Impossible. And who is this new-comer stranger? That’s the surprise; it is apparently a familiar face instead, none other than Iron Chef Michael Symon.

That’s right, Symon is taking over the helm of the Food Network’s third highest-rated show.

From his home-town paper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

He begins shooting 10 “Dinner: Impossible” shows next week, finishing at the end of May. [...] One episode of “Dinner: Impossible” will air in July, said (the show’s) executive producer Marc Summers, with the new season slated to start in September.

Symon, who won the network’s The Next Iron Chef competition in 2007 and appears on its Iron Chef America series, replaces Robert Irvine, who left last month following revelations that he’d exaggerated details of resume. Irvine had hosted the show for four seasons. Btw, new episodes of “Iron Chef America” will begin airing in November, Symon said.

The format of the show won’t change. Symon won’t know where he’s going until he gets to the airport and won’t know his cooking mission until he arrives at the site, and will have a set time to finish the mission. Past missions included catering a wedding for 200 and preparing an 18th-century meal for food historians in Colonial Williamsburg.

“This is my cup of tea,” Symon said. “Tell me something’s impossible, that gets me going to prove you wrong.” What will change is the length of the show — from 30 to 60 minutes. Symon says it’ll give viewers a chance to see more of how the mission unfolds

{21 Apr 2008}