Last night, I couldn't sleep so I ended up watching hours of
Chopped, one of my favorite shows. Four chefs compete for $10,000. Many of these chefs are highly accomplished and either own their own businesses or are executive chefs at top restaurants.
If you are not familiar with the format of the show, there are 3 rounds - appetizer, entree and dessert. A basket of secret ingredients is opened at the top of each round by each chef. Some of the more exotic ingredients have included rattle snake, eel and canned whole chicken. I didn't even know that there was such a thing as canned whole chicken. Each chef has only minutes to conceptualize, prepare and plate a course which must include the secret ingredients and then are judged by a panel of celebrity judges. My favorites are
Alex Guarnaschelli,
Amanda Freitag,
Marcus Samuelsson,
Chris Santos, and
Scott Conant. Of course, I can't mention Chopped without mentioning,
Ted Allen the wonderful host of this awesome show.
Because I watch the show so much, and given the frenetic pace of action in the Chopped kitchen, it is not unusual to watch a chef hack their finger like a stubborn piece of eel. Almost ALWAYS, they run away from their station, while the clock is still ticking, and will throw on a rubber glove or two and then run right back to preparing their course. Only one time have I ever witnessed the judges not eat food from one of these chefs because his injury was so bad that the glove could not contain the gush. Last night however, was different. Over the course of 2 episodes, the grossness factor was elevated to a new level.
