Top Chef may get more attention (particularly since the arrival of grumpy English critic Toby Young who memorably compared one chef’s dish to cat food), but my vote for the best food-competition show on the air is Chopped. It’s the first thing I’ve wanted to watch on the Food Network since I got bored with Alton Brown’s antics.
Chopped is hosted by Ted Allen (who left Top Chef to work for Food Network), and it has a pleasing whiff of Iron Chef: Judges watch the chefs cook their dishes, and comment on ingredients and preparation. In addition, the chefs are given ample time to discuss their choices. It gives the show a leg up on Top Chef, which has always focused more on the food and less on the drama. And it makes me very hungry, even when contestants are trying to work gummi bears into a dessert course. The Food Network is currently airing a “mini-season” of four Chopped episodes.
Way too much with the drama, too little on the food for me (anyone else note how FN is addicted the same 3-4 “dramatic” sound cues?).
Judge Alexandra Guarnaschelli seems to be someone who tries to find faults, however unreasonable they may be, just to be able to criticize.
I would initially agree with your comment Scott about it not being enough on the food but upon further thought disagree. You’re correct in that it’s not about the food in the same way most of the other cooking shows are but ultimately it really IS about the food, but from a different lens.
As for Judge Alexandra Guarnaschelli, I also thought the same thing the first few times I saw her on the show, then she wasn’t there for a couple shows and I actually found myself missing her and found here presence refreshing when she returned. Ultimately, I agree with Joyce, CHOPPED is my favorite food show!
I like “Chopped” too
Actually, I find that FN shows are less and less about food, Chefs vs. City being among the most egregious examples, especially if you stick with prime time shows. In many ways, the food on Chopped is a MacGuffin–it doesn’t really matter what the chefs do.
Now, in and of itself, I’m not opposed to this as a matter of principal, but what does it in for me is the judging, which seems designed to embarrass.
Not to get off on too much of a tangent, but I find shows like that distasteful, a sort of exercise in schadenfreude. In contrast, for example, the judging on Next Food Network Star–a show that’s certainly built around drama–where at least the judges there exercise a certain degree of class.
Guarnaschelli’s aims, on the other hand, seem to simply be to be put downs. What has struck me is how many times the other judges seem puzzled by her objections, to some degree here, but more explicitly on Iron Chef America, where my distaste for her began (I have a mental list of her standard objections; if she says “it could use some citrus, to add acidity” one more time, I’ll scream).
Chopped is not nearly as good as Top Chef, but it is about the best thing Food Network has going.
I once watched hours of FN, but Chopped and Alton Brown are the only shows I regularly watch anymore.
The rest of the FN shows have gone to Hades. Mario, where art thou? I tired of Emeril’s schtick, but even he would be so much better than the current crop of amateurs cooking 10 cent dinners and cake mix casseroles.
Guarnaschelli looks to insult, not inspire. We watch every cooking challenge show on television, and she ranks up there (or down there) with Gordon Ramsey in Hell’s Kitchen as the two chefs least likely to encourage, and most likely to discourage.
Chopped has the worst judges in the history of judges. They love to insult and if someone tried to explain why they did something ALL of the judges automatically take offense to someone talking back. It’s like they think they are high and mighty just because they are judging some horrible show that I only watch at 3am because I’ve already seen sportscenter 3 times….
They pick the worst ingredients and by far have the worst judges and worst interactions between them and their chefs.