Woodlands Area Chef Takes On Bobby Flay In Iron Chef — Thomas Bille, a Trusty Knife and a Kitchen Dream

Armed with his trusty Yoshihiro knife, Belly of the Beast chef Thomas Bille headed to New York to take on Bobby Flay in Season 41 of Food Network’s Beat Bobby Flay.

While the actual challenge took place in January, everyone will find out this Tuesday, August 4 just how far Bille got.

The episode, dubbed Mole Mania, features Bille of the Michelin-recognized Spring restaurant going up against Austin chef Keegan Andrews of ATX Cocina. Also appearing on the episode is actor Jeff Hiller and chef Amanda Freitag, who recruit Bille and chef Keegan Andrews of ATX Cocina to “cook up a spicy dose of defeat for Flay. ” The judges are Alex Stupak, Lourdes Castro and Grace Ramirez.

When the opportunity to film in one day came up, Bille jumped at the chance.

“This is like a bucket list thing — it’s Iron Chef Bobby Flay,” Bille tells PaperCity The Woodlands.  “I grew up watching him.  I used to always think like, ‘If I was ever on Iron Chef,  I’ll challenge him. Because we use similar ingredients, like chilies and limes.”

The First Chef Battle

But before Bille can meet Flay, he has to beat Andrews.

Each 30-minute Iron Chef episode begins with two chefs competing to create a dish using an ingredient chosen by Flay. The winner of that challenge advances to  the second round, in which that winning chef competes against Flay. The challenger has an advantage by being able to prepare a signature dish unknown to Flay until the start of the round.

Then, Flay prepares a similar dish with his own stamp on it.

The two chefs have 20 minutes for the first round, and Bille notes that the countdown clock is prominently displayed. While he may have had some jitters initially, as soon as the timer started Billie locked in.

“I was just so in the zone,” Bille says. “I put my head down, and I just went in, ‘put the fries in the bag’, like my kids say.”

While moving past Keegan was no lock, Bille knew he had to be ready to advance. He put himself through the 45 minute part of the challenge in the kitchen at Belly of the Beast just once, and managed the time pressure in his own kitchen. Competitors who advance to challenge Flay can set up their station and any cooking equipment they need before the 45 minute countdown begins.

Mole is the star of this episode, and Thomas Bille is an expert with the Mexican sauce. His signature mole includes 32 different ingredients.

“I grew up with a huge fig tree at my house,” Bille says. “And we could only make so much preserves or whatever we used to do out of them.  So I said I’m gonna make a mole out of them, and this is like 20 years ago. So having access to that and being able to learn certain dishes and develop them over time, they become your identity.”

The Yoshihiro knife that came with Bille to New York City is one that this proud Texas chef has used for more than 10 years.

“I brought my knife because I don’t like using other people’s knives,” Bille says. “That’s kind of an extension of my arm. And if I use someone else’s, I’m not gonna move as fast because I don’t know that knife.”

Thomas Bille’s Iron Chef episode airs this Tuesday, August 4 at 7 pm on Food Network.