Redskins-Cowboys. Ali-Frazier. Potter-Voldemort. Morimoto-Donna?

Last night on the Food Network's Iron Chef America, Galileo's Roberto Donna avenged his very lopsided defeat in March 2005 at the hands of Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto by scoring a victory over his cooking rival in "Battle Squid." Much as then-challenger and now-Iron Chef Bobby Flay surprisingly defeated Morimoto in a rematch on the original Iron Chef show after initially having been quietly humiliated by Morimoto, Donna -- who did himself in the first time around by plating only two dishes -- put together six apparently delectable dishes and took home the revenge win by a six-point margin.

Although many fans firmly believe that Morimoto's rematch loss against Flay was as fixed as the 1919 World Series (mainly to ensure that the Food Network's favorite son Flay didn't come off looking like more of a jackass than he did when he jumped on his cutting board in his first battle with Morimoto), Morimoto's rematch with Donna seemed fairly even throughout. Whether through the miracle of editing or through his bringing his A-game (and his executive chef Amy Brandwein), Donna methodically prepared his squid dishes and kept an eye on his true nemesis -- the clock -- by asking host Alton Brown for frequent time updates. Indeed, Donna plated his first dish with a comfortable 24 minutes to spare.

But more important to the result of this rematch battle, the three judges -- American food writer and Jeffrey Steingarten-wannabe Melissa Clark, Oprah's bearded personal chef Art Smith, and Japanese food writer Akiko Katayama -- simply preferred the taste, presentation, and originality of Donna's dishes to Morimoto's. Donna's winning menu consisted of: squid stracciatella (a tomato-basil Roman soup with squid), squid potato salad (with a salsa verde "bridge" between squid tentacles and the salad), a "squid trio" (fried calamari, calamari stuffed with braised cabbage and pancetta, and stewed Italian sausage with squid over machine-churned polenta), Israeli couscous "caviar" with squid, squid and garlic soup, and hand-cranked bigoli (whole-wheat spaghetti) with calamari. Of his six dishes, Donna's Israeli couscous "caviar" was undoubtedly the most creative, with the pearl-shaped Israeli couscous doubling as caviar in a metal ring atop the squid.

Donna hosted a viewing party last night at his restaurant for the rematch. It's a safe bet he wouldn't have done so if he'd tanked again; otherwise, he would have looked like Bob Alexander sitting among his pals while getting upstaged by Dave Kovic.

For now, at least in Kitchen Stadium, Donna's cuisine reigns supreme. But before we get a Morimoto-Donna rubber match on Iron Chef America, former Signatures chef Morou will tackle prettyboy whiner Bobby Flay in a match skewed in favor of Morou, what with Mayor Anthony Williams sitting in as one of the judges.

The Morimoto-Donna rematch will re-air several times this week on the Food Network -- the first time on Thursday at 10 p.m.

Photo courtesy of flickr user sbma44 and used under a Creative Commons license.