Georgia-born French-trained chef Virginia Willis has made cookies with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, foraged for berries in the Alaskan wilderness, harvested capers in Sicily, and beguiled celebrities such as Jane Fonda, Bill Clinton, and Morgan Freeman with her cooking — but it all started in her grandmother's country kitchen. She is the author of Secrets of the Southern Table: A Food Lover’s Tour of the Global South; Lighten Up, Y'all; Bon Appétit, Y'all; Basic to Brilliant, Y'all; Okra; and Grits. Lighten Up, Y'all received a James Beard Foundation Award. She was the TV kitchen director for Martha Stewart, Bobby Flay, and Nathalie Dupree and has traveled the world producing food stories — from making cheese in Sonoma to escargot farming in France.
Mary DeAngelis is an associate producer at QVC and the host of In the Kitchen with Mary on QVC2 and One on Wine on Youtube. She grew up in a food-oriented Army family, spent most of her childhood in Germany and tried all kinds of cuisines along the way.
Four chefs from the Big Easy take on the big challenge of excelling in the Chopped Kitchen. In the first basket, half of the ingredients are very familiar, while the other mystery items just might throw the competitors off their game. In the entree round, the chefs make some very original choices with chai tea powder, and a judge makes a very surprising discovery on one of the plates. When both finalists take similar approaches to the dessert course, whose dish will the judges prefer?
In the Appetizer Round flower power rules as the contestants find ways to incorporate zucchini blossoms into their first dishes, and more than one of the chefs must explain major failures with the mystery ingredients. Then, watching from the sidelines in the Entrée Round, the judges are upset by how one chef disrespects the kitchen and an unusual ingredient, burdock root. And in the Dessert Round, the judges are intrigued to see fresh chickpeas in the mystery basket, while the chefs are inspired by family.
Four more very skilled teen chefs fight it out in the Chopped Kitchen for the last remaining place in the Grand Finale. In the appetizer round, salsa verde is a very fresh surprise. Then in an intense entree round, the competitors do their best with couscous and buffalo, and one teen chef must stay strong to finish the round after a big setback. And popcorn balls and gummy fish are paired up in a sweet dessert round.
Four chefs with incredible weight-loss stories charge into the Chopped Kitchen to compete. In the first mystery basket they find a fatty protein that challenges them to stick to their healthier-food philosophies. In the entree round, there's a fish to breakdown and a snack food to transform. And when the final two physically fit competitors dash into the dessert round, the judges watch eagerly to see if their angel food cake creations will be heavenly.
Bring on the burger battle! Four chefs who are obsessed with burger mastery compete to see who will reign supreme. The grinders are going strong from the start as the chefs race to make magnificent appetizer burgers using premium beef before setting their sights on epic lamb burgers for the main. As if making sweet burgers for dessert wasn't challenging enough, one chef ups the level of difficulty by breaking a critical piece of kitchen equipment.
Four talented junior chefs are ready to prove their expertise in the kitchen to judges Marc Murphy, actress Debby Ryan, and Geoffrey Zakarian. In the first round, there's a run on tortillas in the pantry as the young competitors figure out what to do with "poor man's lobster" and a sweet surprise. An Indian tea snack and a lean meat are two of the ingredients in play in the second round, and chocolate and vanilla mingle for dessert!
The holidays descended upon Kitchen Stadium for one of the Chairman's most memorable holiday parties. That year, he wrapped up just about the best gift a loyal viewer can receive -- fruitcake! Oh ... why the frowns? Witness what an Iron Chef can do when presented with a magnificent fruitcake for the ages. Alton Brown's very own fruitcake was the secret ingredient that Iron Chefs Masaharu Morimoto and Michael Symon used to create holiday culinary magic in this legendary battle.
Four champions who were previously defeated by Chopped judges return to the kitchen, hungrier than ever to take down everyone in their paths and win a $100,000 grand prize. Big stakes, little fish: sardines are the main protein in the champs' appetizer basket, and a jiggly mustard-flavored surprise threatens to throw the chefs off their game in the second round. Then, in the dessert round, two chefs must try to make something magical using unicorn milkshakes.