Haven't seen it, but it sounds inane. I hope it's a one-time thing. One of the reasons I like the show is because the ingredients selected for the baskets are "out there" as complementary elements, but not completely inconceivable to combine in a dish. The chefs usually manage to make something at least palatable, and sometimes extraordinary, out of ingredients they would otherwise never have dreamt of using together.

I love this show. I recorded the Halloween special but haven't watched it yet.

Agreed. I've seen Ted on other shows and he's warm 'n friendly. Here he is very strict with no personality.

i think ted is an awful host. i liked him on queer eye and i love chopped but i think he sucks.

This is still the only cooking reality show that I truly enjoy. It's actually about the food instead of all the bullshit drama.

I agree about Ted not being the right fit for the show. He's not permitted to have a personality, but instead essentially serves to recite the rules over and over.
Of the judges, I think I like Aaron Sanchez and Chris Santos the most. They're the most down-to-earth and fair-minded. Zakarian can be extremely unpleasant, like the time last year when he scolded the (admittedly rather obnoxious) British woman so venomously that she almost walked off.

Did anyone catch the Champions finale? I had it saved on my DVDR and just watched it. That was some quality television.
I'm glad Madison won, because he was one of the most jovial, polite, good-natured contestants to have ever appeared. Still, I wouldn't have minded if Jason had won; he was a "proper bloke" too.
It was wonderful when they brought out Madison's daughter at the end and all the judges - even hard-hearted Zakarian - were in tears.

One thing that confuses me, though. There was an episode of Chopped not too long ago that stood out from the rest. One chef, who I think was ethnic, made three courses that were unanimously and unreservedly praised, which has never happened on the show. In the dessert round he was up against a man of almost equal calibre. I remember the judges being stunned by their talents and the high quality of their dishes. Yet, unless I'm mistaken, I don't think the winner of that episode was in the tournament of champions.

^ That sounds like the episode where Madison competed against the super religious Asian chef. The judges were stunned by how amazing both of them were, but obviously Madison won in the end. That, for me, was perhaps the best episode of the show to date.

Glad Madison won. His little girl is a cutie.

I've noticed the past few weeks have been re-runs. I guess the season is over?

This week's upcoming episode is a new one, Thanksgiving themed.

I like the show but I hate that female judge. She always looks disgusted and she just seems like a bitch. I know I shouldn't judge her like this but she brings it on herself. The show is hilariously self serious.

That must have been the one, and I agree that it was probably the best episode in the show's history. Makes me all-the-more glad that Madison took the championship.
She seems that way, but she showed a welcome human side in the championships. I don't like how Ted introduces the judges: "Illustrious blah blah blah of blah blah blah cuisine". Blow them a little harder, Ted.
Not nearly as much as Iron Chef, with that unendurably overwrought music and the overacting from Dacascos. Ugh.

Chopped All Stars starts tonight. Should be interesting to see how the celebrity chefs do on this.

I want to see how Duff does. I know he actually went to culinary school but I'm sure it's not something he uses on a regular basis.

Love Claire Robinson. Don't care how she does just want to look at her.

Something like this should be right down Robert Irvine's alley.

I despise Amanda Freitag and the way she sits there and judges like her shit don't stink. I hope for an early departure for her.

I'm interested to see how Duff does too. According to Wikipedia he worked at The French Laundry so he must know what he's doing.

LOL first episode was nothing but cast offs from this seasons Next Food Network Star. I did have to laugh at that. And how someone I know savaged that fact on FB going "Where are the Celebs?"

Yikes that was the worst collection of "All Stars" I've ever seen. Food Network can't come up the 16 network personalities without drawing from failed competition chefs? What's next week? "That guy that lost that one time on Iron Chef"?

Or maybe the TV personalities were afraid of being on there and getting stumped? I mean it would be hard for Bobby Flay to put chilis on some bottarga.

I can say I do not cook with to much fish. But Red Onions and Cheese yes (eating a red onions, Swiss cheese, ham sw right now).

yep. He was also a contestant on Iron Chef fairly recently (though he lost).

Yeah, that lineup pretty much sucked, but here is the full lineup:

March 6: Brad Sorenson, Debbie Lee, Lisa Garza, Michael Proietti
March 13: Anne Burrell, Claire Robinson, Duff Goldman, Robert Irvine
March 20: Anita Lo, Beau MacMillan, Jacques Torres, Nate Appleman
March 27: Aaron Sanchez, Amanda Freitag, Geoffrey Zakarian, Maneet Chauhan

The theme seems to be: rejects from TNFNS, real Food network stars, real chefs (are they all past chefs from the Next Iron Chef competition?), then Chopped judges. So the 2nd and 4th ones should be real fun, and the 3rd should have a lot of talent too.

Ooh, Debbie Lee was the evil one on TNFNS. I'll probably have to watch that on demand or something.

I thought Garza was the evil one, not Debbie on that season.

I'm sure he'd try to find a way to get some "chi-pote-lay" in there. If not, there's always blue corn meal.

I think they were in different seasons because I didn't recognize Garza but I did know the others. Debbie wasn't flat-out evil, I guess, but misrepresented herself to gain advantage and was generally annoying.

Yep. I hated Debbie from the word Go on her actual season and she was just as irritating on this. Even though I knew she would stick to her one dimensional cooking (Korean), it was still a bit comical to watch it play out that way.