Wednesday, October 2, 2013

The Food Network's "Chopped".

               The Food Network is my favorite channel to watch. I enjoy watching......


Top Chef





Kitchen Nightmares, Chef Ramsey is hilarious!






and my favorite of all time Chopped. Yes, Chopped.

Panel of Judges

 Chopped is about four chefs, all competing for $10,000.There are 3 rounds and each round is timed.
The first round is 15 minutes and  both second and third rounds are 30 minutes. The competition is fierce the Chef’s must prepare an Appetizer, EntrĂ©e and Dessert for a panel judges based on creativity, presentation and taste. Chefs come from all over to compete for the $10,000 prize and of course to become a “Chopped Champion.



The best part is the four chefs must create nearly perfect dishes from a basket of mystery ingredients. The ingredients are usually something you or I have never heard of and wouldn't dare to use. Such  as Japanese Mayo, Black Chicken, Goat brains, Cactus Flower Buds or Durian. Which makes the show so entertaining... you have a group of chef's forced to make outstanding dishes, with limited time and unfamiliar ingredients to a panel judges who are award winning chef's.

BLACK CHICKEN


The chefs have access to a nearby pantry and fridge that is full more common ingredients, such as parsley, onions, apples, balsamic vinaigrette, cereal, flour and so on. In addition the pantry is filled with gadgets, food processors, blenders, a glass freezer, a ice cream maker and much more. So you constantly see the chefs running back and fourth to the pantry for kitchen tools and ingredients. They may run into another, slide or fall, and sometimes they will get mad at each other for using all of an ingredient from the pantry like parsley, or for taking up too much time at the ice cream machine, because there is only one.

The Pantry


In the mist of all this madness they must not burn or over cook their food and most importantly not forget to leave any mystery ingredients off the plate once their time is up. If a chef fails to include all the mystery ingredients on the plate when the clock runs out they will automatically be "Chopped", eliminated. My favorite part of the show is every time the Chef's open the mystery ingredient baskets, when they look inside and their faces look as if they have seen a ghost :-D !They either do not know what the ingredient is, or they do not want anything to do with it, hilarious!



Although what I really love about Chopped is that it introduces me to ingredients I have never heard of or seen before. Some of the ingredients that I may find repulsive are every day ingredients or delicacies in other parts of the world. I also enjoy watching the winner accept their title as "The Chopped Champion", I can only imagine how they feel, how rewarding. And for those of you who have not seen Chopped, give it a chance. You can watch Chopped with anyone, grandma, dad, boyfriend or sister and it will be one of your new favorite shows.

Chopped Champion: Jun Tanaka