There are many things that I enjoy about this show.
There are the competitors' personal quirks, set up in the introduction in each show. In this case, there was Ian, who was trained as a French chef and thought the ingredients chosen were beneath his skills; Adrienne, who saw this competition as a way to build her confidence; Clark, a young man, only twenty-four years old, who used to work for Dan, an established D.C. chef, who was having a hard time feeling all right about competing against Clark.
It seems pretty clear to me that if you want to be successful on Chopped, you need to park your attitude. In this particular episode, Adrienne, the person who had only five years of experience as a culinary professional, ended up as the winner. The odds were against her succeeding, but she kept her head down; she focused on the tasks at hand; she wasn't uber confident about her chances of winning; and she didn't trash talk her competitors. In Chopped, that can take you a long way.
I woke up this morning and thought perhaps one of my go-to mantras could be, "What would a Chopped judge do?" I recently wrote that I believed Iron Chef America could take a page from Chopped in terms of their judging panel. Chopped would never have a reality show star as one of their judges. They seem to have a set list of the people they use in this position, and they are all accomplished restauranteurs who seem tough, but they also seem to have the competitor's best interest at heart. They assess what's on the plate, what goes on in the process of making what goes on the plate, and they also address character. I think they do a really good job.
I realized last night that I missed Ted Allen. Sure, he's there, annouincing various things along the way, but these are minor variations on lines that he says every week. I know it's a steady gig, but is he bored? Perhaps he could again be one of the regular judges on Iron Chef America? I miss hearing more of his thoughts on things.
The last thing that I really like about this show is the ingredients. There are generally at least two items on this show that I have never heard of before, and so it's interesting to hear an explanation of what it is, what it tastes like, and what are the best ways to deal with it in the kitchen. I think it's an ingenious show.
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