Chris Santos

Become a winning Chopped competitor at home by taking the Chopped Dinner Challenge: Cook your way through a series of recipes developed by Food Network Kitchens that feature mystery basket ingredients from the show.

Amanda Freitag is a judge on Chopped, has battled Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America, and she competed for the title of America's Next Iron Chef. When she was growing up in New Jersey, Amanda's passion for food was fostered by everyone from her grandparents to her high school home economics teacher. They encouraged her to pursue a cooking career and to enroll at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. After she graduated from culinary school, Amanda's first position in a New York City kitchen was as rotissier and garde manger at Vong under the guidance of Jean-Georges Vongerichten. It was there that she was introduced to marrying French technique with Southeast Asian ingredients and flavors. In 1994, Amanda began working with Chef Diane Forley at Verbena, where she rose quickly through the ranks to become the restaurant's chef de cuisine. Forley taught Amanda the importance of using local, organic ingredients and introduced her to the Union Square Greenmarket. During her time at Verbena, Amanda realized how much she had yet to learn about the culinary world, and in 1999 she traveled extensively through France and Italy to explore the bountiful markets and progressive restaurant scenes. While in Paris, she spent two weeks working under Chef Alain Passard at his venerable Arpège restaurant. While her time there was short, the lessons she learned were life-changing. At Arpège, Passard insisted on the freshest ingredients, so there was nothing left in the walk-in refrigerators at the end of service besides butter. This eye-opening experience helped Amanda to further develop her deep appreciation of superlative ingredients and the flavors of the Mediterranean region. Upon returning to New York, Amanda worked at some of the city's most-popular restaurants, including Cesca, where she cooked alongside Tom Valenti as his chef de cuisine and earned two stars from The New York Times. Following Cesca, Amanda accepted the position of executive chef at Gusto in the West Village, where her food was met with critical acclaim. In January 2008, Amanda took over as the executive chef at The Harrison in Tribeca. Over the three years that she helmed the kitchen, The Harrison received numerous accolades from local and national media, including a two-star review from The New York Times. Amanda's first cookbook, The Chef Next Door: A Pro Chef's Recipes for Fun, Fearless Home Cooking, was released in September 2015. When she is not in the kitchen, Amanda enjoys traveling the world and collecting restaurant menus to add to her ever-growing collection.

Maneet Chauhan grew up cooking in India and, after studying hotel administration, she now appears as a frequent judge on Chopped. Find out more on Food Network.

Dean McDermott, actor, television personality and Gourmet Dad, opened his home to America during the six seasons of the hit show Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, along with wife Tori Spelling. Born and raised in Toronto, Dean is the winner of Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off, Season 2 and recently returned to his hometown to host the highly anticipated Food Network Canada series Chopped Canada. A self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie, the father of five is an avid adventurer and a mixed martial arts enthusiast. He also races motorcycles and is a phenomenal cook and a master DIYer. He appears regularly on a variety of daytime talk and entertainment shows, is a regular contributor to Parenting.com and is concentrating on growing his Gourmet Dad brand as he continues his culinary arts studies at the Art Institute of California's Culinary School. Dean shares his experiences and knowledge on his website, DeanMcDermott.com. From family and relationships to projects and hobbies, the site serves as a pit stop for dudes and dads of any age who want to talk shop about man-of-the-house stuff. Dean recently finished production on Tori & Dean: Cabin Fever, a series that follows Tori and Dean and their kids while they renovate an Ontario lakeside cottage into their dream vacation home. As a modern-day renaissance father, Dean keeps family, food and fun his primary focus. Dean is currently working on his first cookbook, which will be released in 2014. Find Dean on Twitter, @Deanracer, and Facebook, DeanMcDermott007.

Chopped host Ted Allen has the perfect solution for all that leftover holiday wine: Make your own vinegar. He shared his vinegar-making secrets with Food Network Magazine.