Kardea Brown is celebrating the holiday season with her closest family and a traditional Sea Island menu. The stars of the table are Maple-Glazed Cornish Hens, and for sides, she makes the Lowcountry staple Limpin' Susan with Shrimp and her Grandma's Green Beans with Potatoes and Smoked Turkey. For dessert, Kardea turns to a Gullah classic, Sweet Potato Pone.
Noah Cappe welcomes the changing of the seasons at the Circleville Pumpkin Show in Ohio, where pumpkin stars in both savory and sweet treats like Pumpkin Chili Dogs and Fall Favorite Taffy. Across the country at the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh, he finds some Southern favorites that have gotten the midway makeover, including True Grits and Banana Split Pudding Bites.
Cauliflower is the veggie of the moment and the undisputed star of this Chopped battle. In the first round, the chefs must use the ubiquitous carb substitute in their dishes along with a funky Mexican delicacy. Kung Pao cauliflower is featured in the entree round, and the judges decide whether the remaining chefs' halo-halo cauliflower desserts are so-so or so good.
Faster than a speeding reindeer, Cooking Channel stars Gabriele Corcos, Kelsey Nixon, Roger Mooking and Jim Stacy are set to take on a holiday challenge in the Chopped Kitchen, with $10,000 on the line for their favorite charity. The beautiful appetizer basket features a whole roasted goose. Then after a meat-and-potatoes entree round, the two finalists open the dessert basket to find some fruit and some pie dough. Will they take the hint or take a more creative approach?
Competitors with successful online cooking shows arrive in the Chopped Kitchen ready to put their web-honed culinary skills to the test. There are smiley faces all around when the cooks find emoji cookies in the first basket, but round two has the judges monitoring the clock with doubts that all three chefs will be able to get a particular basket ingredient cooked in time. Then, a familiar boxed ingredient is one of the first things the finalists need to tackle for dessert.