The last chef standing has the Iron Chef title in sight, but he or she must first run the three-round gauntlet against legendary Iron Chefs Bobby Flay, Masaharu Morimoto and Michael Symon and finish with more points than the Iron Chefs combined. The finalist is given the opportunity to strategically choose which Iron Chef competes in each rapid-paced round based on the Secret Ingredients. In the end, judges Anya Fernald and Ludo Lefebvre decide if the finalist makes culinary history and becomes an Iron Chef or leaves in defeat.