Chopped (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Chopped is a reality based cooking television series created by Michael Krupat, produced by Linda Lea, and hosted by Ted Allen that pits four chefs against each other competing for a chance to win $10,000. New episodes air every Tuesday at 10 PM EST on Food Network.

Format

In each episode, four chefs compete. Their challenge is to take a mystery basket of ingredients and turn them into a dish that is judged on their creativity, presentation, and taste with minimal time to plan and execute. The show is divided into three rounds: "Appetizer", "Entrée", and "Dessert". In each round, the chefs are given a basket containing between three and five (usually four) ingredients, and the dish each competitor prepares must contain each of those ingredients. The ingredients are often ones which are not commonly prepared together. For example, in "Yucca, Watermelon, Tortillas," the episode which originally aired on February 10, 2009, the appetizer course baskets contained watermelon, canned sardines, pepper jack cheese, and zucchini.

The competitors are given access to a pantry and refrigerator stocked with a wide variety of other ingredients. Each round has a time limit: twenty minutes for the Appetizer round (thirty minutes in some season one episodes), and thirty minutes for the Entrée and Dessert rounds (some episodes gave the chefs 40 or 45 in the entrée round to allow them to handle whole large poultry, e.g. turkeys, geese, or ducks; another gave the chefs fifty minutes in the dessert round). The chefs must cook their dishes and complete four platings (one for each judge plus one "beauty plate") before time runs out. After each round, the judges critique the dishes based on presentation, taste, and creativity. The judges then decide which chef is "chopped," that is, eliminated from the competition. Thus, by the dessert round, only two chefs remain. When deciding the winner, the judges consider not only the dessert course, but the entire meal presented by each chef as a whole. The winner receives $10,000.

An episode of Chopped takes 12 to 14 hours to tape, with deliberations after each round taking about 90 minutes. While contestants do not know the ingredients ahead of time, they are given a tour of the kitchen at the start of the day and some preparation, such as pre-heating ovens and bringing water to a boil, are done in advance of each round. According to host Ted Allen, the show "was originally meant to be taped at some guy's mansion with him and his crazy Chihuahua. A stuffy fellow in a tuxedo was to host, and the losing chef's dish was then fed to the dog...it was too much for Food Network."

Chopped Champions

Starting September 8, 2009, and continuing for three additional episodes, Food Network aired the "Chopped Champions Event", wherein thirteen past winners returned and faced off against each other (four per episode) to retain their title of Chopped Champion. The winner of an episode in the event earned an additional $10,000, and the winners of the first three episodes moved on to the next episode to face a new set of three previous champions.

Starting August 31, 2010, and continuing for four additional episodes, Food Network aired the "$50,000 Tournament". Sixteen past champions competed. The winners of the first four episodes competed against each other in the "Grand Finale" for the $50,000 prize. The winner was Madison Cowan, Chef and Caterer, Avenue Inc, New York, NY.

Starting August 30, 2011, and continuing for four additional episodes, Food Network aired another "$50,000 Tournament", due to the popularity the first competition had. Sixteen new past champions competed. The winner was Danielle Saunders, a private chef from New York, NY.

Starting January 15, 2013, a new season of "Chopped Champions" will begin airing, with sixteen new past champions competing for the $50,000 prize.

Chopped All-Stars

Starting March 6, 2011, and continuing for four additional episodes, Food Network aired the "Chopped All-Stars" Tournament. Sixteen chefs competed. The first four episodes featured four types of chef: The Next Food Network Star contestants, Food Network celebrities, celebrity chefs, and Chopped judges, respectively. The winners of those four episodes then competed against each other in the "Grand Finale", where the winner received $50,000 to donate to a charity of his or her choice. Nate Appleman, a celebrity chef, won the competition and donated his $50,000 to Kawasaki Disease research, a disease from which his son suffered.

Starting April 8, 2012, and continuing for four additional episodes, Food Network aired the second "Chopped All-Stars" Tournament. Sixteen new chefs competed, again ranging from four different categories of chef: Iron Chef America chefs (the newest of the four categories), Food Network and Cooking Channel celebrities, The Next Food Network Star contestants, and Chopped judges, respectively. Celebrity chef & Chopped judge Marcus Samuelsson won this second competition, donating the $50,000 grand prize to the Careers Through Culinary Arts Program of New York (aka C-CAP), which helps underserved youth through culinary arts education and employment.

Chopped Grill Masters

Starting July 22, 2012, and continuing for four additional episodes, Food Network aired the "Chopped Grill Masters" Tournament. Sixteen "pro" grillers competed. The winners of the first four episodes competed against each other in the "Grand Finale" for a $50,000 prize. The "Grill Masters" episodes were taped outdoors at Old Tucson Studios near Tucson, AZ. The winner was Ernest Servantes, Executive Chef and Barbecue Pitmaster, Burnt Bean Co., New Braunfels, TX.

Judges

Judges	Seasons
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
Alex Guarnaschelli	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Geoffrey Zakarian	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Marc Murphy	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Amanda Freitag	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Aarón Sánchez	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Chris Santos	?	?	?	?	?	?	?		?	?	?	?	?	?
Scott Conant	?	?	?	?		?			?	?	?		?	?
Jody Williams		?	?	?
Sue Torres			?		?
Josh Capon			?
Mark Bittman			?
Marcus Samuelsson				?	?	?			?	?	?	?	?
Maneet Chauhan						?	?		?	?	?	?	?	?
Ken Oringer							?
Zakary Pelaccio								?	?		?
Susan Feniger									?
Seamus Mullen									?		?
Sam Kass									?				?
Missy Robbins										?	?
Anne Burrell											?
Elizabeth Karmel												?
Alton Brown												?
Giada De Laurentiis												?
Bobby Flay												?
Claudia Fleming												?
Marco Canora													?
Lee Anne Wong													?
Jet Tila													?

Series overview

See List of Chopped episodes for more information

Season		Episodes	Premiere	Finale
	1	13
	2	13
	3	13
	4	13
	5	13
	6	12
	7	10
	8	6
	9	16
	10	6
	11	16
	12	17
	13	15
	14	TBA

Awards

• Culinary Hall of Fame Induction

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