Chopped Challenge

[CoffeeMonkey]

I think this sounds fun, and I might join in a time or two.

One suggestion: There are three rounds of chopped. I suggest three baskets per trial. One geared towards the app, one towards the entree, and one towards the dessert. Do weird things, or non-standard things end up in the baskets all the time? Sure do. But if you look, they are generally assembled so that there's only a few curveballs per basket for that challenge. Such as, you don't generally see the long-cooking, heavy protein in the app basket, and you don't see prawns for dessert.

With no time limits, the app and the entree baskets would be pretty much interchangeable, but dessert is going to be out of the question for most of us if there are meats or seafood in the offing, and that means the pastry chefs don't get to play.

Mystery baskets are fun. We did them in our plated dessert class for our practical exam plus two practices. I'll link to some pictures if I ever get around to loading my camera.

[MoonCat]

I play this game at least five or six times a month! Only I have to actually make food appear, as I don't have the luxury of taking a family of 5* out to eat very often.


*Can I point out how weird that number seems to me? For 13 years I've been a family of 4.

Oh, we just joke about it. We don't eat out very often. Between two of us eating most things, one being a sort of demi-vegetarian, my diabetes, and all three of us watching our weight, eating out has become a bit tricky. But we get a kick out of looking in the freezer or the cupboards and picking out the three strangest "these-don't-go-together" ingredients we can find.

[AccountingDrone]

As an allergy sufferer myself, I'm definitely sensitive to other people's need to avoid certain foods. If I was playing instead of being the arbiter, we'd have to do the entire challenge sans tomatoes, as I can't even touch them. I think that in the stage where we wore proposing ingredients, any objections like that should be mentioned and I will use that information in deciding the final ingredients.

Would be lots of fun, but I am deathly allergic to mushrooms, and I don't normally consider my epi-pen to be part of my kitchen equipment=) So unless I can simply not use shrooms when they are in the bin I would have to step out.

And I should be disqualified for once being a professional chef...

[Jester]

You have questions. I have answers.

Just a thought -- Perhaps alternates could be suggested for people with allergies -- e.g. if one of the ingredients is "peanuts," perhaps allow for substitutions of almonds or something similar.

No. And yes.

I feel that all participants should be using the same ingredients. But we can add allergy to availability for reasons for a participant to challenge a proposed ingredient. So, if peanuts are one of the proposed ingredients, and Chef Bilbo is allergic to peanuts, he could challenge it on that basis. Because to have one chef using almonds while the others use peanuts? That isn't the same challenge for all chefs.

Now, this is if the participant (or I guess someone they'd be cooking for, since this is not being done in a vacuum) has the allergy. Not if someone in the gallery does. I love mathnerd to death, but I am not going to limit my use of tomatoes in my cooking for any dishes I am not actually cooking for her. Does this make sense? So any ingredient challenges can only come from participants, not from those of you just watching along the sidelines.

So... which is it to be? Because I have a list of suggested ingredients, some of which play to my strengths, and some of which most certainly do not.

Yeah. I wrote that as kind of a stream of consciousness thing, and it evolved as I was writing it. So I am gonna stick to the latter, that being that all proposed ingredients should come from non-participants, or the gallery as I've been calling it. Those participating should not be able to pick ingredients, just as the chefs on Chopped do not get any foreknowledge or selection of their Mystery Box's ingredients. So if you are a declared participant, any ingredients you have suggested will be ignored by the Arbiter for selection.

And please, let's not have it where one person suggests some ingredients, then declares themselves as a participant, then has one of their friends re-suggest some of those ingredients so that the participant gets to use stuff they want to use. That's shady, annoying, and against the spirit of the whole thing.

One suggestion: There are three rounds of chopped. I suggest three baskets per trial.

With no time limits, the app and the entree baskets would be pretty much interchangeable, but dessert is going to be out of the question for most of us if there are meats or seafood in the offing, and that means the pastry chefs don't get to play.

For now, I'm gonna stick to one, which will be challenging enough. We all have our regular lives to lead, and other stuff going on. The first time around, it may well be a basket geared towards savory dishes. The second one after it may be geared more towards desserts. Which would put me in the gallery, as I don't bake. But that would be fun for me too, seeing what others come up with. Because while I am not a baker, I am still a foodie.

Does this mean that not everyone will be able to participate in a given round? Yes. Oh well. Not to be rude, but this isn't tee ball. And again, the next round could be more sweet than savory, so everyone will eventually get a turn. I think that's more than fair.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

I`ve seen meat and seafood both in the dessert round of chopped. Part of the fun is seeing what the chefs do with a WTF basket for each challenge. If you`re a pastry chef, why could you not make a dessert with duck and gouda? I think that`s just part of the challenge.

[Tama]

Given Andrew Zimmern's (and pretty much most people's) reaction to it...durian!

[Kittish]

And I should be disqualified for once being a professional chef...

I disagree. My own skill approaches a professional level. The only reason I'm not a professional chef is that I don't want to be. Jump in and have fun!

[Jester]

I agree with Kittish. No one here is disqualified for any of their previous experience. Especially because, once again, this is a fun challenge, not a competition. And even professional chefs can be thrown by an odd and challenging basket of ingredients,

[EricKei]

Jester - Yeah, I should have rephrased (Note to self: THINK before typing!). I was referring specifically to competitor challenges, and also meaning "if one person is allergic to X (e.g., peanuts), then replace X with Y (e.g. almonds) for ALL competitors."

[Ghel]

This sounds like fun! I may not be able to participate in a given round because of financial and time restrictions, but I'm definitely going to try.

[MoonCat]

The second one after it may be geared more towards desserts. Which would put me in the gallery, as I don't bake.

There are actually a lot of no-bake dessert recipes out there.

[Kittish]

Not being familiar with Chopped or other cooking shows since I don't watch television, a question has occurred to me. When the mystery basket is announced, will be limited to just those ingredients, or can we use anything else we need in preparing a dish with the requirement that the mystery ingredients be in there also?

[Jester]

There are actually a lot of no-bake dessert recipes out there.

I also don't make desserts. So there.

Not being familiar with Chopped or other cooking shows since I don't watch television, a question has occurred to me. When the mystery basket is announced, will be limited to just those ingredients, or can we use anything else we need in preparing a dish with the requirement that the mystery ingredients be in there also?

No. You will not be limited to just those ingredients. You will be able to use anything you want and have at your disposal. But you MUST use all four of the Mystery Basket ingredients in the dish, and ideally, make at least one of them. And preferably more than one of them, the star(s) of the dish.

Example: the four ungredients are car tires, dinosaur bones, reindeer rectums, and shopping cart wheels. You can use anything you want in the dish, even if it is unavailable to other participants, so long as you use the aforementioned tires, bones, rectums, and wheels in the dish.

[AccountingDrone]

I`ve seen meat and seafood both in the dessert round of chopped. Part of the fun is seeing what the chefs do with a WTF basket for each challenge. If you`re a pastry chef, why could you not make a dessert with duck and gouda? I think that`s just part of the challenge.

There was an episode of Iron Chef where someone made trout ice cream ....

And I could imagine duck skin in a dessert - all grilled up nice and crunchy, and seasoned with cardamom with a very tiny honey drizzle though perhaps not gouda - after all membrillo and manchego [spanish sheepsmilk cheese] are commonly served together. You could easily add a crispy bit of duck skin to that combination and it would be quite excellent. Grilled duck skin with black pepper springs to mind.

[fireheart]

There was an episode of Iron Chef where someone made trout ice cream ....

They've also done cod roe ice cream and Morimoto once did natto and Coke of all things. O.o

I did manage to get a chance (through the wonders of Google) to watch the Iron Chef episode with Homaro Cantu and I believe it was Morimoto doing a challenge with Beetroots. The entire episode had the commentators squeeing over the lasers and other equipment Cantu bought in. (even if his molecular gastronomy results were a bit odd...)

I also remember an episode of Hell's Kitchen where they had to do a challenge where the contestants had to roll a die and call out an ingredient that started with the letter that came up on their die (so for instance "H"=Haricot verts). One contestant called out figs and the remaining folks on his team just called out random ingredients after that. Somehow it actually worked

And history repeated when another contestant had the letter "D" (another contestant in his confession cam started chanting "protein protein protein protein duck duck duck duck") and she called out dragonfruit. They still won.