I am late in writing about redemption. That is the greatness of Chopped. It gives you the opportunity to write these kinds of sentences.
Last Tuesday was a redemption episode on Chopped. Four chefs came back who had previously lost in the competition. They were: Ana Maria, who apparently had seriously cut herself in her last time there; Troy who said that some had thought him to be pompous; Michelle, a pastry chef who forgot to turn on the ice cream machine during her dessert round; and Sammy, who said that he had not taken enough risks in his previous time there.
The thing that I thought was very interesting about this episode was that not all the storylines could be fulfilled. Often on these episodes, it seems to me that there is one truly compelling mission, and that is the person who becomes the Chopped champion. In this episode, after the first round, Judge Amanda Freitag welcomes Ana Maria back and asks if she would mind showing her her finger. Ana Maria tells her that is it fine now, but that she had to have surgery and missed several months of work. So then I'm thinking, okay, this is what we'll see. Someone coming back from cooking one-handed and overcoming physical adversity due to her experience on Chopped.
But she was eliminated in the first round.
Then I thought the most compelling story belonged to Michelle. She seemed to be a genuinely quiet, sweet person. Then an extra layer was brought in. She mentions that she had been a heroin addict. So then I thought, okay, serious drug addiction recovery plus the fact that she has a specific goal, she wants to show her stuff as a pastry chef, plus the fact that she seems to have a winning personality.
She was eliminated in the second round.
The final story to me was the most trivial. It was a story of dynamics. Tryg was unwilling or unable to drop his annoying behaviors. Sammy took offense to the point that he dropped red onion peels on the plates that Tryg had put out to serve his dishes. Snap! I was surprised that the judges didn't comment on this action during Sammy's evaluation. Is that something that you would want a Chopped champion to do?
Tryg is certainly not blameless. He was condescending to Sammy. But later in the dessert round, Sammy went and checked on Tryg's ice cream, tasted it and made a face. I was wondering if there was going to be further actions beyond this editorial commentary. Again, I had never seen anything like that before during these competitions. It surprised me.
When Sammy won, he was openly gleeful in the fact that he had won over Tryg. The judges choose to stay out of it. Ted had made some earlier comments about their dislike for each other, but it seemed to me that it was a fire that should have been put out with the onion peel.The judges instead focused on his original storyline: he had been more daring in his culinary choices in this competition. He had come from a hard life. He had started working in kitchens, because he was homeless and this gave him an opportunity to eat.
When I looked over my impressions of this episode, it was the personal dynamics that fascinated me. I thought the eliminations were just. Ana Maria did not cook the lamb properly; Michelle forgot to use one of the ingredients in Round 2; and Tryg turned his ice cream into butter. Despite the search for personal redemption, thingis still have to be properly executed. That to me seems to be the true dance of Chopped.
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