Stephen Colbert’s version of Chopped, with Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone competing to create a dish in just one minute, should become a real competition.
Chopped
Chopped viewers screw over judges, chefs, prove that Pinterest is evil
Chopped remains a strong cooking competition, although it’s one I tend to watch only when there are very special episodes. Those include the quasi-spin-off seasons, like the all-star competition currently airing on Sunday nights; themed episodes, which are usually show up around holidays; or episodes that have a certain type of chef, like those who… continue reading
Top Chef’s Lee Anne Wong judging Chopped
Top Chef season one finalist Lee Anne Wong, who later worked on the show for four seasons as a culinary producer, is judging an episode of Food Network’s Chopped today. It’s not clear if she’ll be permanently in the rotation, or when this episode will be broadcast. Lee Anne posted a picture of her with… continue reading
Reviews of summer food competitions: Rocco’s Dinner Party, Extreme Chef, Chopped, more
Food competitions have multiplied across network and cable channels, and summer seems to be the time when they proliferate. While we wait for the return of Top Chef Just Desserts later this month, I thought I’d look at some new and returning food competition series and give them brief reviews. Let’s start with Hell’s Kitchen… continue reading
Chopped All-Stars ends strong, but why did Food Network give nothing to losing charities?
Chopped ended its five-episode all-star season last night, and although the winner received $50,000 for charity, the losers all got nothing–a really disappointing coda to a strong season. (Update: the network is giving an additional $50,000 to charity of the chef who gets the most votes in an online poll. More below.) The series has… continue reading
Chopped judge Amanda Freitag reveals judging secrets
The final semi-final round of Chopped‘s Champions season airs tonight, before the four winners face off for $50,000, the show’s biggest prize, next Tuesday. Over its life, the competition has really grown on me from my initial ambivalent impression, and while it used to be nice to have when Top Chef wasn’t on, I now… continue reading
Scott Conant, red onion fan, hosts and judges Food Network’s new 24 Hour Restaurant Battle
Food Network has a great reality competition in the Ted Allen-hosted Chopped with its baskets of mystery ingredients, and tonight it debuts a show that seems even more like a Top Chef challenge that’s been turned into a series: 24 Hour Restaurant Battle, which debuts tonight at 10 p.m. ET. The “restaurant wars” challenge has… continue reading
Top Chef Masters is surprisingly delicious, Next Food Network Star is very satisfying, and Chopped is just filler
Usually, copycat shows tend to suck, but two food competitions on cable networks have done an excellent job of taking Top Chef‘s format to new levels, starting with a spin-off of that show, while an older food competition series has gotten even better with time. When Top Chef Masters was announced, I was extremely skeptical:… continue reading