There are three rounds: appetizer, entree, and dessert. In each basket you will find four mystery ingredients. You must use all four of these ingredients in your dish. After each round one of you will be chopped.
Ahh, Ted Allen. He has such a way with words. There is nothing better than coming home from a long day of adulting, pouring yourself a bowl of cereal, turning on the TV and seeing that there is a Chopped marathon on. Now, I have been watching Chopped for quite some time and on every episode you will find several similarities.
1. The ingredients will not go together whatsoever.
Let's see what you can make with hotdogs, chocolate snack cakes, rainbow carrots, and lard. I don't know how these people do it, but somehow they do and it looks super edible.
2. There will always be an ingredient that you question if it is real or not.
What in the actual hell is brown bread in a can? Why is that allowed? What do you even do with that? No one knows, but let's put it in this basket and make some people figure it out. 2. The ingredients will not go together whatsoever.
3. There will always be a chef with a sob story.
Why do you want to win Chopped? Well my mom's uncle's brother's cousin's dog has heart worm and I need the money to help the animal shelters. Okay, well shut up and just make me some food.
4. The appetizers.
There will ALWAYS be a salad, one that is way too big, one that is way too small, and one that went horribly, horribly wrong. Get it together people!
5. There will be too much, or not enough seasoning.
You better salt that meat, but not use too much chili powder because they will call you out. You are a chef, you should know better. No one wants bland food or food that is inedible.
6. One of the chefs will always have to "stick to their roots".
There will be a completely Jamaican, Latin, Yugoslavian, you name it, it will happen.
7. Something will be overcooked or undercooked.
Stay away from pasta and potatoes if they are not mandatory basket ingredients. Stick to the way that you know how to cook meat, do not stray. You will be chopped.
8. Someone will hide a basket ingredient instead of highlighting it.
The basket ingredients are meant to be highlighted and if you try to hide it, the judges will get really angry.
9. Someone will forget to transform an ingredient.
30 seconds left on the clock, you look down and notice you haven't touched your peanut brittle. Let me quick smash that up and throw it on here as a garnish, which is also a no-no.
10. Someone will burn the caramel they are attempting to make or set something on fire.
The look on the judges faces when they smell something burning is always priceless, but really, you don't want to be that guy.
11. Someone will always get an injury.
You may not always see it aired, but you will come back from the commercial break and there will be a bandaid on someone's finger or hand. The pressure of the ticking clock just adds to the potential for cuts or burns.
12. Someone will choose the wrong plate for their dish.
Make sure that plate is not too big, too small, too round, too rectangular, or too square. It must be perfect for the judges in order for you to get a good score on presentation of the dish.
13. Finally, someone will always manage to leave off a basket ingredient.
It's inevitable. At some point one of these chefs will get down to the wire, plate their dish, and then realize that they didn't touch one of the mandatory ingredients. You're chopped. Don't even act like you aren't.
There you have it. All of the things you will definitely see on an episode of Chopped. It may seem ridiculous, but damn it is good television.
