Chopped: Difference between revisions

** The judges' episodes in the ''All-Stars'' tournament definitely count as this.

** Keegan Gerhard (of ''Food Network Challenge'') and Jacques Torres got their [[A Day in the Limelight|day in the limelight]] during their appearances in ''All-Stars''.

** The second season features four of the Iron Chefs, including Cat Cora, who hasn't been on ICA in quite some time.

* [[Bacon Addiction]]: Whoever comes up with the mystery baskets has a singular obsession with bacon and its relatives (i.e. cured, fatty pork in all its forms).

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: Many of the special episodes where the contestants are competing for charity. One charity gets $10,000 (or even $50,000) dollars! ... And three charities (or twelve charities) get a bit of minor publicity.

** It was worse on the second season of ''All-Stars'' when Chris Santos was explaining why he was playing for charity <ref> His child was suffering a very debilitating disease, and the money was supposed to go to his charity.</ref>, Alex Guarnaschelli [[Defrosting the Ice Queen|shed tears of sympathy]]. {{spoiler|Chris Santos was chopped on the first round}}

* [[Brand X]]: Ingredients are never identified by brand name, instead being given a bland description; "chocolate-hazelnut spread" rather than "Nutella", or "fruit ring cereal" rather than "Froot Loops"

* [[Brain Food]]: A literal example when "goat brains" were one of the secret ingredients.

** Happens when contestants just "put the secret ingredients on the plate without doing anything other than chopping them." Usually.

** In the 1st ''All-Stars'' tournament, Jacques Torres pulled cocoa nibs from his pockets and the judges took note of it. When it came down to who to chop, it was either Anita Lo (who had failed to complete all four plates) or Jacques Torres (burnt chorizo on cocoa nibs). The judges opted to chop Chef Torres for using an illegal ingredient.

* [[Can't Hold His Liquor|Can't Hold His Spice]]: Geoffrey Zakarian. Made funnier when Aarón Sanchez and/or Chris Santos are part of the judging panel and they all get served a relatively spicy dish they both can handle.

** Amanda Freitag also seems to struggle with spice at times.

* [[Combat Commentator]]: Ted Allen and the judges follow a similar structure to ''[[Iron Chef]]'', commenting on the cooking techniques of the competitors. The competitors themselves get in on the action in after-action interviews.

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Judge Susan Feniger. She often isn't even looking at the person to whom she is talking. Given her behavior and her appearance, she would have been the perfect choice to play [[Harry Potter|Professor Trelawney]].

* [[Cooking Duel]]: The final round is a one on one competition between the two chefs who make it to the Dessert Round.

* [[Cooking Show]]: It is, after all, on the [[Shaped Like Itself|Food Network...]]

** Michelle Garcia inexplicably hitting the extraction button instead of production on the ice cream machine.

** In one of the earlier seasons, a chef lost track of time so badly that he did not plate a single thing in any of his four plates.

* [[Exact Words]]: When it comes to trick ingredients like boxed macaroni & cheese or Neapolitan ice cream, the implicit challenge is to use all parts of it. More than once, contestants have argued that they only used the easy part (i.e., just the pasta or just the vanilla ice cream) on the grounds that the rules say "use as much or as little as you want." Scott Conant actually agreed with the contestant's reasoning.

** May be combined with [[Analogy Backfire]]: The usual argument is "if you gave us a chicken, would you expect us to use both the breasts and the legs?" In several episodes where contestants were dealing with whole birds, the judges complained if they only received one type of meat.

* [[Hey, It's That Sound|Hey It's That Music]]: When the chefs are standing around the Chopping Block, the show sometimes plays background music from ''[[Space Empires|Space Empires V]]''.

** Some of the music used in Chopped seems to appear in ''[[Man v. Food]]''.

* [[Humiliation Conga]]: Happens in redemption and Championship episodes where the chef either wins or comes in 2nd place in his/her initial appearance only to end up chopped on the appetizer round of his/her redemption/Championship semifinal.

** Chris Coombs suffered a very ''bad'' case of this, especially losing to the same chef that originally got chopped for plating only one rattlesnake dish.

*** As if that was not enough, he outright admitted that he was cooking for himself and not for the judges, then he actually gets angry when the judges comment on what they disliked about the food and eventually eliminate him.

** Surprising no one, Penny from [[The Next Food Network Star]] in her appearances on the ''All-Stars ''battle. She was as rude as ever to the other competitors, and she repeatedly made it very clear that she was there purely for the attention and because she apparently thought if she won, Food Network would decide to give her a show after all. Her charity was always mentioned as an afterthought, if at all.

* [[Impossibly Delicious Food]]: Considering the randomness of what's inside the baskets, the good dishes are often this.

** The appetizer basket of the second ''All-Stars'' Tournament episode contained ''canned haggis''. Because fresh haggis wasn't bad enough. And all four chefs made it delicious!

* [[Oven Logic]]: Invoked and played straight many times, especially if the chef misjudges the time it takes to cook the food. Or when a chef cooks pork chops on the whole rack or double bone, but find out five minutes near the end that the center is raw.

* [[Positive Discrimination]]: The baskets on the New Orleans chefs episode were loaded with softballs like andouille sausage, shrimp, and rice. They may as well have just let the chefs bring their own ingredients, to allow even more time for forced attempts at [[Tear Jerker]] moments about Hurricane Katrina.

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: Geoffrey Zakarian in the episode where the judges compete. Aarón Sanchez asks him to save him some eggs. Geoffrey's response is a joking "Fuck you!"

* [[Pungeon Master]]: Ted Allen.

** Averted in one episode where fish was an ingredient in both appetizer and entrée rounds, but not in the dessert round.

* [[Runs with Scissors]]: One contestant got so wrapped up in a round that he did not realize he ran from the cooking area to the pantry and back with knife still in hand (blade out!), much to the horror of the judges.

* [[Serial Escalation]]: Each successive season tops the last with weird and challenging basket ingredients. The Season 8 redemption episode featured a dessert basket containing duck eggs, russet potatoes, farmer's cheese, and ''honey herb cough drops'', which aren't even technically ''food''.

** And surprisingly, neither chef complained.

** How about "chicken in a can"? So odd that Ted actually said the ingredient name twice.

*** Canned. ''Haggis.''

* [[Schmuck Bait]]: You'd be surprised how often contestants serve judge Scott Conant mistreated Italian ingredients - especially pasta. Although they've appeared to become a bit [[Genre Savvy]] and don't offer him raw red onions anymore.

** Or how often someone bleeds all over the place and yet still doesn't quite understand how this dooms them.

** Subverted into [[Did Not Do the Research]] in one one odd case. One of the contestants opted to make potatoes because that's what one of the judges likes. He was explaining to Geoffrey Zakarian that he knew that he likes potatoes, but Geoffrey said "No, no. That's Marc." The kicker? Marc ''wasn't'' one of the judges that episode. However, he was a judge in a previous episode the same contestant had been in.

* [[Technician Versus Performer]]: Happens often enough in the dessert rounds when chefs with different styles face off. The judges often describe one as having a very precise style of cooking, with the other cooking more creatively and soulfully. This usually balances out to a very close last round.

* [[Title Drop]]: "Whose dish/plate is on the chopping block?"

** [[Elimination Catchphrase]]: "You have been chopped."

** Chef Jessica Mogardo, at the time working for free and living in her sister's apartment, was so nervous in the beginning of her competition that Marc Murphy had to calm her down. Not only did she end up winning against 3 seasoned chefs and getting $10,000, she would later be a sous chef for Iron Chef Jose Garces on the Mexican Chocolate episode of ''[[Iron Chef America]]''. Quite a level she's jumped.

*** She then appeared on a season 2 episode of ''[[Sweet Genius]]'', which she also wins.

[[Category:Nonfiction Series]]

[[Category:American Series]]