After weeks of competition, Chef LeFevre earned his place in the gauntlet — and now the real competition began. Iron Chef Stephanie Izard, who won this competition last year, was his first rival, and it was up to him to pick the Secret Ingredient. In a risky move, he chose goat, which happens to be her signature ingredient.

True to her style, Iron Chef Izard opted for an oddball ice cream concept. This time it was a goat’s-milk ice cream with crumbled sausage in the ultimate mash-up of savory and sweet. For Chef LeFevre, the approach was more traditional – a deeply savory preparation of goat loin atop couscous. While the judges loved his plating, they were less impressed with the look of hers.

Come the second battle, Chef LeFevre opted for seafood — his signature ingredient — instead of bacon, which is his challenger, Iron Chef Michael Symon, surely loves. This time around, the Iron Chef smoked his fish, while Chef LeFevre brought the heat with a grilled presentation. For judge Marcus Samuelsson, though, some of those flavors were lost when Chef LeFevre used avocado and citrus so freely.

In the last battle, this time against Iron Chef Alex Guarnaschelli, Chef LeFevre once again chose the ingredient he’d like to use most — uni — when faced with both eggplant and uni on the altar in this all-important showdown.