The past few days I've watched several episodes of the new Food Network show, "Chopped". (I'm in the process of moving my kitchen, and I watch way too much television when I'm feeling unsettled.)
A quick web search revealed that my initial impression is widely shared: it's a Top Chef knockoff. But it also has elements of Iron Chef, especially the mystery ingredients and Ted Allen's ultra serious demeanor and body language.
I thought the quality of the cooking didn't seem quite as high as on Top Chef, in fact, there was something about every dish in every round that could potentially have gotten someone sent home on the other show. But I really appreciated the lack of shameless product placement, even to the point that every ingredient was repackaged with a generic looking label. I wondered why they'd set it up that way, and discovered on Ted Allen's blog that it was a deliberate attempt to position themselves as different from Top Chef in that respect. Good move, guys.
No comments:
Post a Comment