The Gist: Four chefs enter; one chef is crowned the winner by episode's end. Sounds simple enough, right? The challenge is the mystery basket (Oh, hi lamb testicles!), which contains four ingredients the chefs must utilize in some way. They only receive 20 minutes for the appetizer round, while the three advancing contestants get a new mystery basket and 30 minutes for the entree round. Finally, the last two chefs face off in the dessert round to win the $10,000 grand prize and earn praise from the show's esteemed judging panel (which rotates each episode) and dapper host Ted Allen. Talk about an intense work environment!
Why We Love It: It's everything you want in a cooking competition, without the petty drama that comes along with having the same chefs week in and week out fighting and coping 'tudes with each other. You meet four new chefs in every episode, and they stick around just long enough for you to get invested in their journey. But if you don't like them, it doesn't matter because they're all gone by the end of the episode! And if you do enjoy the petty drama that accompanies competition shows, you'll definitely get the right amount if one of the chefs has a giant ego. And there's always one in every episode.
Plus, if you're the kind to geek out over cooking techniques, learning about new foods and watching chefs make a delicious sauce out of ingredients like Skittles and green apple vodka, then guess what? Chopped has all of that, and so much more. You can't even handle the food knowledge that comes at your face in each episode. We could tell someone exactly how to handle durian and how to correctly pronounce gochujang. Can you do that? Better start watching Chopped!
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