candidate: The sous - chefs employed by the Iron Chefs are as follows : Batali – Anne Burrell and Mark Ladner Cora – Lorilynn Bauer , David Schimmel , Ed Cotton , Richard Blais ( other sous - chefs have been employed on occasion ) Flay – Flay employs a rotating staff of sous - chefs from his restaurants Morimoto – Ariki Omae , Makoto Okuwa , and Jamison Blankenship ( other sous - chefs have been employed on occasion ) Symon – Cory Barrett and Derek Clayton Garces – Dave Conn , MacGregor Mann , Jessica Mogardo Forgione - rotating staff of sous - chefs from Forgione 's restaurants Zakarian - Paul Cosentino , Eric Haugen , Alex Guarnaschelli ( before her promotion to Iron Chef ) Guarnaschelli - Ashley Merriman and Wirt Cook All of the sous - chefs for both the Iron Chef and challenger are informally introduced at some point in the contest , unlike the original " Iron Chef . "