Since 2009, Chopped has been blessing Food Network viewers with the kind of fast-paced
kitchen competition content we crave. But the show, as it turns out, isn't exactly the
best guide for how to operate in the kitchen. Here are the lies that Chopped made you believe
about cooking.
We're absolutely not saying that you should always add dozens of complex ingredients to
a kitchen mainstay, but the Chopped judges' insistence that a meal's four basket ingredients
make up the core of every dish is not good cooking advice. Yes, some simple recipes are
fantastic, but so are complex ones. And just because a recipe has a grocery store aisle's
worth of ingredients doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a try. Have a little fun in the kitchen,
and try ingredient-dense and complicated recipes if you feel like being fancy. We believe in
you.
"You want to win $10,000. Bring it."
"I got it. You'll see."
Just because the Chopped chefs are tasked with making four unique ingredients the absolute
stars of a dish does not mean that you, as a home cook, should feel the need to do the
same.
In Chopped lore, it's common to believe that if you make it to the fateful dessert round,
the one thing you need to push your final dish over the finish line is fresh-churned
ice cream, sometimes combined with very bizarre basket ingredients. And as good as a weirdly
savory ice cream may sound, it turns out real live kitchen chefs don't actually need to
reach for that ice cream machine. There are literally hundreds of desserts that are not
ice cream that are every bit as good, if not better. But if you can't be talked out of
making ice cream at home, there are plenty of no-churn methods to try.
Even for Chopped contestants, the ice cream machine may not be the best way to go, since
every fan of the show knows there's only one machine. Ever wonder why they can't just buy
a second one? As several judges on Chopped admit, the single machine adds drama to the
show. Luckily, that drama doesn't need to translate to your kitchen because you don't
need to make ice cream at home.
On Chopped, contestants have, depending on the round, twenty or thirty minutes to make
a dish. In real life, it's probably going to take you quite a bit longer if you're putting
together a recipe. And that's a good thing - fast cooking does not necessarily yield
good food. A slower heat can make tougher cuts of meat more tender and can increase
the flavor in just about any dish. Not only that, but slow cooking can be easier than
faster methods of cooking. Many slow cooking recipes simply involve popping prepped ingredients
in a slow cooker in the morning and plating the finished meal for dinner in the evening.
Low and slow isn't going to work on Chopped, but it may be the best bet for the average
home cook.
Taking your time to cook at home may be able to improve your mental health too. Slowing
down and taking the time to cook while paying close attention to the taste of ingredients
can help people manage anxiety, whereas cooking with the frantic pace of a Chopped contestant
probably isn't the best way to wind down after a long day.
On Chopped, using a pre-made aioli can be deadly for contestants in the appetizer and
entree rounds, but in real life, store-bought aioli and mayonnaise can be your best friend.
We mean no disrespect to homemade aioli, but if you're spending valuable time whisking
your own oil and eggs for health or taste reasons when making something as simple as
a sandwich or an aioli-based salad dressing, consider skipping it. Tuna salad with store-bought
aioli can be just as good if not better than tuna salad with a gourmet aioli.
If you do want to exercise your Chopped chef skills and make that aioli yourself, be our
guest. Consider starting with basic mayonnaise from Samin Nosrat , host of Salt Fat Acid
Heat. It's perfect for sandwiches, french fries, and salads, plus you can easily alter
it for more complex flavor. But you may want to stretch beforehand, as this recipe is a
workout on the forearms.
The contestants on celebrity Chopped episodes typically tend to be, let's face it, horrible.
Plenty of superstars have competed in the reality kitchen showdown, like basketball
player Charles Oakley, musician Coolio, Comedy Central star Sinbad, and High School Musical
drama geek Lucas Grabeel , and some have been more successful than others. On the celebrity
Chopped episodes, there tends to be an attitude that celebrities, be it due to fame or wealth
or maybe laziness, cannot cook. But this isn't true for lots of celebrities out there. Plenty
of celebrities are great cooks, and many have even written cookbooks.
Of these, supermodel and Twitter personality extraordinaire Chrissy Teigen may be the most
notable with her successful cookbook, Cravings. But did you know rapper 2Chainz can also throw
down in the kitchen? Or that musician Questlove has written his own cookbook? Former Sister,
Sister star Tia Mowry even has her own cooking show.
Celebrities: They're just like us. Except some are much, much better cooks.
"And that means, Brandi Chastain, that you are the Chopped champion and we will see you
back here for the tournament of stars finale."
It's every Chopped chef's worst nightmare: they rush to finish cooking and plate their
culinary creation as Ted Allen counts down from ten. The chef wipes stray sauce from
the rim of the plate, inhales the aroma, and steps back with their hands up, only to realize
they've forgotten an entire ingredient. Fortunately for home chefs, this cooking nightmare is
completely limited to the universe of Chopped, and you're unlikely to face it in the comfort
of your own kitchen.
Even if you do start baking and realize you've forgotten that one key ingredient, there's
a world of other options as substitutions. For instance, did you know you can use applesauce
instead of eggs in your chocolate chip cookies? Vegans have been doing it for years. Just
make sure you're not the unfortunate chef who mistakes salt for sugar. There's really
no coming back from that one — even in your own kitchen.
While this is technically doable even for home chefs, maybe consider not melting leftover
candy down into an edible sauce. It seems like Ted Allen's favorite Chopped trick to
play is to give contestants a sweet, sticky food in an early round that they have to scramble
to find a place for. Savory chocolate sauces are actually quite common and easy, and Chopped
chefs are well aware of that. But as far as those fruity, sweet confections go, the recipes
aren't as simple.
It turns out, if you're not actually competing on Chopped, there really isn't any reason
to melt down your candy into some sort of salad dressing or marinating liquid. Instead,
consider this tried-and-true recipe for candy that we swear by: open the candy bag, and
then eat the candy. Much better, right?
One of the first things most people learn as home cooks is that you have to salt your
meat before cooking it. Meat can be dense, tough, and low in moisture. It needs time
for the salt to move through fatty membranes and provide flavor from the inside out. But
Chopped contestants don't have hours — they have minutes. So, if they are working with
a large slab of sirloin or a whole chicken, they need to butcher the meat or poultry into
smaller pieces in order for the salt to absorb faster. This isn't a skill restaurant or home
cooks necessarily need to learn. It's often easier to prep meat well ahead of time, allowing
the salt to really soak in.
For this reason, Chopped contestants have a bad habit of under- or over-salting their
food. It's not because they don't know how to season correctly — it's because in the
limited timeframe Chopped allows, the seasoning game is a whole different story.
One of the reasons Chopped is as popular and beloved as it is may be that some of the contestants
seem to have such intense, moving, and even tragic backstories. For instance, Chopped
contestant Hiep Le was placed on a raft and sent out to sea by her mother as a refugee
of the Vietnam War and went on to start a successful restaurant. Or Nong Poonsukwattana,
a Thai food truck owner who specialized in the simple dish of chicken and rice and managed
to pull off a Chopped victory using her cooking skills.
These stories are inspirational and make for great television, but you don't need a long
and difficult backstory to make great food. You just need a grasp on good flavor and a
place to cook. So while cooking can be a great way to work through past trauma or make a
living without a traditional school education, it's also a great hobby for the rest of us
who never end up competing on Chopped.
Sure, on Chopped, cooking is a competition, and it's a cutthroat one at that. But cooking,
as it turns out, is fun even when it's not a competitive sport. Cooking can be a great
way to connect with friends, plan a fun date night, or as a stress relief on your own.
Cooking is the perfect pair activity. This is because cooking gives you something to
do and something to talk about so there are no awkward silences. It can also be a low-cost,
low-maintenance date idea, way more economical than expensive concert tickets or a five-star
restaurant. Plus, at the end of the activity, you get to share a meal together, and what's
better than that?
"We are super excited to invite four couples to compete."
So, open a bottle of wine, put on some nice music and settle in for an evening of cooking.
At least if the food doesn't turn out, you'll still have wine and music.
Ted Allen, the host of Chopped, is one of the most recognizable faces on the Food Network.
While he may be known for his quick wit, ruthless hosting, and excellent chopping block-unveiling
skills, Ted Allen is actually a pretty nice guy. He also has relatable sensibilities regarding
food. For instance, Ted Allen reportedly loves cheese, sushi, and Indian flavors. According
to a Food Network interview, he's a fan of simple ingredients, like vanilla and mustard,
and he loves silly things, like the sound whole-chicken-in-a-can makes when it plops
out of the can.
Allen can keep up his stern and intimidating persona on Chopped all he wants, but at the
end of the day, he seems like a generally down-to-earth guy with a love for food, gardening,
and music.
As it turns out, even the Chopped chefs have a little help when it comes to getting those
meals churned out before Ted Allen announces that time is up. Apparently, simple kitchen
prep tasks are already completed for the Chopped contestants, helping them get through their
cooking projects more quickly. For example, Chopped contestants do not need to wait for
their pot of water to boil. Production assistants on the show always get the water going before
the clock starts.
Additionally, Chopped contestants' ovens are already preheated to 350 degrees when the
round begins. Waiting for an oven to preheat does not really test how well contestants
can cook. Plus, a bunch of Chopped contestants sitting around playing on their phones and
waiting for their ovens to preheat would not exactly make for great television.
When the time comes for you to make something in your kitchen, you shouldn't assume that
you can manage to get dinner on the table in 20 minutes. Oftentimes, just waiting for
your oven or stovetop to be ready will take most of that time.
A Chopped episode is only 40 minutes long, so you may think that the filming process
is a relatively quick process. But filming these episodes actually takes way longer — sometimes
up to 14 hours!
Even though Chopped is a lightning-fast cooking competition show, production aspects including
preparation, cooking, judging, cleaning, and resetting stations make shooting an episode
a full-day affair, and an exhausting one at that. Even though the actual cooking is timed
on a really tight schedule, judging can take way longer than television episodes depict,
especially if two judges have a particularly heated disagreement over a dish.
The magic of television is strong on Chopped – it may look like it takes no time at all
to put everything together, but each episode takes a lot longer than it seems.
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