MANILA, Philippines - The "Iron Chef America" episode that starred Filipina White House chef Cristeta Comerford has come under fire lately for allegedly misleading the public in its use of White House Kitchen Garden vegetables.

Fox News reported over the weekend that chefs in the episode used "stunt double vegetables" instead of White House produce, as mentioned in the program.

Critics questioned why the vegetables used in the episode were referred to as "White House Kitchen Garden vegetables" instead of produce from a local New York grocery.

The news channel called the minor controversy "Food Network Fakery" and "Veggie-gate", a play on the Nixon-era White House scandal "Watergate."

The issue was reported on Entertainment Weekly, PoliticsDaily.com, and blogs by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

Secret ingredients

In its season-opener, "Iron Chef" aired a long sequence showing chefs Bobby Flay, Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali and Comerford (the episode's participants) picking various fresh vegetables from the White House Kitchen Garden.

The garden is a project initiated by US First Lady Michelle Obama.

The chefs battled it out in a time-pressure challenge that required them to cook several dishes using a "secret ingredient."

Obama herself introduced the show's "secret ingredient", ordinarily revealed by the show's "Chairman" Mark Dacascos.

Audiences believed the "secret ingredients" used in the episode (a variety of vegetables) were picked from the White House garden.

The vegetables used on "Iron Chef's" season opener include fennels, collard greens, kale, rhubarbs, broccoli, watermelon and icicle radish, purple cauliflower and Japanese eggplant, among others.

Rigged results?

Lynn Sweet, Washington bureau of the Chicago-Sun Times, was one of the first to state that the show used "stunt organic vegetables" in place of White House garden produce.

The garden is part of Obama's advocacy for healthy eating and backyard agriculture.

The issue prompted speculations that "Iron Chef" rigged the episode's ouctome in favor of Comerford and Flay, who teamed up for the challenge.

Comeford said in a statement that she combined her Filipino dish expertise with Flay's southwestern culinary flair to win the match against Lagasse and Batali.

Restaurant critic Sam Sifton said in a blog post that he had a feeling the results were rigged.

"My feeling is [Team White House] would have won with a pile of blue-corn tortillas, some honey mustard and a heap of steamed kale. I think it would have been hard...to deny Ms. Comerford or her employer's vegetables the win," he said.

Food Network admits switch

However, in a press statement, Food Network Public Relations director Lisa Krueger explained the show's use of stunt vegetables instead of White House produce.

She said the White House vegetables were donated to a local pantry.

"Due to the production delay between the shoot at the White House and the shoot at Food Network, the produce used in Kitchen Stadium during the 'Super Chef Battle' was not actually from the White House garden," she said in a statement to The Talk.

"The vegetables were locally sourced and the chefs were only allowed to use the types of produce that they had harvested from the garden themselves," Krueger said.

The Food Network episode, which Comerford and Flay won, garnered record viewers.

It is estimated that 4.6 million people tuned in to watch the show, which featured a special cameo appearance by Michelle Obama.