A considerable time ago, I vowed to never again watch the Food Network's Chopped. It wasn't because I was bored with it, and it certainly wasn't because I had too many other shows in my rotation. The moment I decided to hang it up for awhile occurred during two specific episodes from a few years ago. I was already growing perturbed by the escalating gladiator music in the background, along with the soul-piercing death stares from the judges (who all seem to have vocations titled restaurateur. Are we just making up job titles now?) whenever something on their plate wasn't pleasant for them.
The first episode that made me question the veracity of the program occurred when a cook simply wasn't able to finish a particular dish in time. What caused him to be unable to "plate" his dishes is something I can't recall, but that's beside the point. When the time came to face the judges, this cook still had to answer their queries.The biggest question (or statement, rather) was the most obvious - "There isn't anything on my plate." Right, we got that, and I'm sure the cook did too, because he ran out of time to plate. But lo, this was not good enough for the Choppeddramatic effect production team. The cameras panned to each judge's plate, each plate empty as the one before it. The judges blabbered on about something, probably about time management responsibility or some crap, and the cook was voted off because of such. Nevermind the cook probably owned his own restaurant where he churned out hundreds of plates a day. Unable to finish plating on a reality cooking show is apparently akin to being a part-time teenage fry cook at McDonald's who keeps calling out - so away with you, sir. That was strike one for me.
Strike two occurred around the same time, on another episode. Some guy was preparing some dish, and dropped some food on the floor. Meat, perhaps. He picked it back up, and plated it. Come judgment time, the restaurateurs all mentioned that he dropped the meat and still plated it, admonishing him in the process. When it came time for soul-piercing judgment day, someone else was "chopped." Someone who didn't drop food on the floor. Read that again - a cook dropped food on the floor, served it anyway, and was allowed to stay on for another round before eventually getting chopped himself.
And, I'm done. Or I thought I was, anyway.
Fast forward a couple years until fairly recently. Having obviously run out of dramatic tactics in-studio, Chopped has decided to go what I like to call The Extreme Home Makeover route. In case you're unfamiliar, Extreme Home Makeover involves a bunch of people building homes for families. But not just any families. Families who are so rock bottom destitute or facing life-threatening conditions that warrant ratings based on tears potential. The worse a family has it in life, the more tears are shed and naturally, the higher the ratings. Playing on viewers extreme emotions is the new television money-making scheme. In Chopped's case, there have been two instances where they pulled this, but it was too painstakingly obvious in their tactic. One cook had spoke of his family, and how his wife had cancer. He ended up winning the show. But here's what is amusing about all this - the show did not get into the personal family lives of the other cooks. Just him. A few nights ago, they did this again, some cook mentioning how the money would help his business and family, with Chopped showing pictures of his wife two little girls. None of the other contestants spoke of their families, nor had photos of families posted for viewers to see. Guess who won the show?
The first episode that made me question the veracity of the program occurred when a cook simply wasn't able to finish a particular dish in time. What caused him to be unable to "plate" his dishes is something I can't recall, but that's beside the point. When the time came to face the judges, this cook still had to answer their queries.The biggest question (or statement, rather) was the most obvious - "There isn't anything on my plate." Right, we got that, and I'm sure the cook did too, because he ran out of time to plate. But lo, this was not good enough for the Chopped
Strike two occurred around the same time, on another episode. Some guy was preparing some dish, and dropped some food on the floor. Meat, perhaps. He picked it back up, and plated it. Come judgment time, the restaurateurs all mentioned that he dropped the meat and still plated it, admonishing him in the process. When it came time for soul-piercing judgment day, someone else was "chopped." Someone who didn't drop food on the floor. Read that again - a cook dropped food on the floor, served it anyway, and was allowed to stay on for another round before eventually getting chopped himself.
And, I'm done. Or I thought I was, anyway.
Fast forward a couple years until fairly recently. Having obviously run out of dramatic tactics in-studio, Chopped has decided to go what I like to call The Extreme Home Makeover route. In case you're unfamiliar, Extreme Home Makeover involves a bunch of people building homes for families. But not just any families. Families who are so rock bottom destitute or facing life-threatening conditions that warrant ratings based on tears potential. The worse a family has it in life, the more tears are shed and naturally, the higher the ratings. Playing on viewers extreme emotions is the new television money-making scheme. In Chopped's case, there have been two instances where they pulled this, but it was too painstakingly obvious in their tactic. One cook had spoke of his family, and how his wife had cancer. He ended up winning the show. But here's what is amusing about all this - the show did not get into the personal family lives of the other cooks. Just him. A few nights ago, they did this again, some cook mentioning how the money would help his business and family, with Chopped showing pictures of his wife two little girls. None of the other contestants spoke of their families, nor had photos of families posted for viewers to see. Guess who won the show?