From left: Judges Friedland, Thompson and Casella

Photograph: Beth Levendis

Blau keeps her cool

Photograph: Beth Levendis

Daniel Gritzer, Eat Out assistant
A foodie since he traded a bar mitzvah party for dinner at Chanterelle, Gritzer has cooked at Beppe and Aix, and learned traditional cuisine while working as a sheep herder in Italy.

Blau keeps her cool

Photograph: Beth Levendis

Nicole Blau reader
American-born Blau owned a catering business and adopted Tuscan techniques while living in what she calls “the Hoboken of Florence,” Pontassieve, Italy. She is now an artist and clothing designer.

THE CHALLENGE
Each contender must prepare a marinara sauce and pasta in TONY’s own version of the Iron Chef’s Kitchen Stadium, swanky Soho space the Culinary Loft. Using only their wits—along with a lot of onion and some very big knives—Gritzer and Blau will attempt to create the perfect tomato sauce. The judges are Cesare Casella, dean of the Italian Culinary Academy; Gabriel Thompson, chef of West Village eatery dell’anima; and Josh Friedland, editor and publisher of blog The Food Section (thefoodsection.com).

PART ONE: SHOPPING
“How are we going to do this? Pistols at dawn?” asks Blau before we begin. In place of firearms, the dueling chefs hit up the Union Square Greenmarket for more edible ammunition. After purchasing near-matching sets of onions and herbs, Gritzer starts to look a little nervous. “There’s a big variety in canned tomatoes,” he says after we move on to Whole Foods. “If I could only have come in this weekend and tried every one.” He makes his pick, the Biona brand, bonding with Blau as they mourn the lack of wine to drink during the competition. Forget the smack talk—these opponents are about to ditch the hot stoves altogether in favor of splitting the nearest bottle of chianti.

PART TWO: COOK-OFF
The spirit of sharing carries into the sunny kitchen, where meal prep is periodically interrupted to compare knives or taste homemade Israeli olive oil. Both manage to chop a pile of onions, cooking them in a frying pan (Blau) or in a massive pot (Gritzer) until an almost edible aroma hangs in the air.

Finally a distinction emerges between the overly friendly competitors’ techniques: Gritzer grinds his tomatoes through a food mill, while Blau merely picks off pieces of blood-red skin before adding them to the stove. “I like to leave it chunky,” she says. “I sacrifice a few seeds so I can get chunks between the fusilli.”

Gritzer will be finishing long spaghetti in a smoother sauce. That is, he will if he has any left; he repeatedly mops up his creation with French bread as he works. “The cook should always have lost his appetite by the time the meal is served,” he insists.

Herbs are added to the simmering marinara pans, and once again Blau and Gritzer are in agreement: Oregano makes a sauce taste canned. It’s rosemary for Blau and marjoram for Gritzer—and lots of it. Before the hungry judges can pounce, the challengers again display a deplorable lack of competitiveness, calling it a “cook-in” rather than a cook-off. “There are no winners here,” Gritzer says. “Otherwise it wouldn’t be in the Italian spirit,” Blau agrees.

PART THREE: THE JUDGES
The tasting trio take on Gritzer’s spaghetti. “It’s definitely salty,” says Friedland. “I don’t think so,” counters Thompson, then admits, “I get hazed for using too much salt, though.” Casella finds the spaghetti to be cooked perfectly, but thinks the marjoram may be too strong. Up next, Nicole’s fusilli is served topped with grated Parmesan. “It’s all rosemary’d out,” notes Thompson, but that’s no dis—he practically licks the plate clean. “There was more seasoning in the first dish,” says Casella, but all three agree that the chunkier sauce matches the pasta choice.

AND THE WINNER IS...
It’s unanimous: Gritzer’s smooth spaghetti wins, though not before he’s chastised for herb over-usage. His prize is a three-month subscription to Astor Wines & Spirits’ Italian Wine of the Month Club, which, in the spirit of the least-contentious cook-off ever, he vows to share with Blau: “She deserves it.”

Check out Daniel Gritzer's winning marinara recipe