Jason Zukas, executive chef of Bocca Fina in Forest Hills, god of bald men.

Last night, the Food Network rang in the new season of Chopped! with a bevy of sea beans, Thai chilies and according to their tease, “Mexican-inspired desserts” (which translated to ones that included pepitas and jicama). The chefs ran the gamut in terms of name recognition and included chocolatier Fritz Knipschildt, David Rotter, executive chef of Campo on the Upper West Side, Jason Zukas, executive chef of La Bocca Fina in Forest Hills (the self-described “Rocky Balboa of the competition”), and Cheryl Perry, an instructor at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts. Judges for the episode were Alex Guarnaschelli, Chris Santos and Marc Murphy. Read on for the blow-by-blow.

The appetizer round pitted the chefs against a mystery basket filled with pork tenderloin, ginger ale and those salty sea beans. While Zukas, Perry and Knipschildt all seared their pork, Rotter used the ginger ale to make a tempura batter. Perry was knocked for dropping a set of tongs and simply wiping them off before using them again, while Knipschildt was general comic relief since the man sounds like Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger. We also had to commend the guy for naming any dish “à la” himself, as was the case with his sea-bean-studded “Bloody Mary à la Fritz,” which mixed tomatoes and ginger ale. Though Guarnaschelli praised him for his creativity, the result was worthy of a trip to the Chopped! graveyard.

Entreés brought out baby artichokes, cashew butter, monkfish and Thai chilies. Zukas and Rotter both tried to crust their monkfish with the cashew butter, but Zukas’s use of panko bread crumbs ended up making a mess of the dish. Luckily, his accompanying artichoke ragout was a hit, as was his use of the Thai chilies to make a spicy oil that Murphy loved. Rotter’s cashew-crusted monkfish with artichokes barigoule was mostly a success, though it left Santos wanting some textural contrast. Perry—the culinary school instructor—again had sanitary issues, this time using an unwashed tasting spoon to distribute her spicy cashew sauce. It was for this reason, along with a partially cooked artichoke that Guarnaschelli described as tasting like “a torn piece of a leather wallet” that Perry got Chopped!.

Desserts found the chefs working with jicama, pepitas and blueberries. Zukas had a tough time with several of the appliances, but ultimately overcame his mechanical obstacles to create a blueberry-sauce-topped crêpe stuffed with jicama, ricotta and pepitas. Rotter went a more adventurous route, caramelizing apples and jicama and serving them with ricotta and chocolate mousses. Though the judges felt like Rotter had some spots of brilliance, they loved that Zukas’s dishes improved throughout the competition, and so Rotter was Chopped! and Zukas emerged the victor. Throughout the show, Zukas had made a point of bringing up his lack of classical training (using phrases like “the school of hard knocks”), and after taking celebratory shots with the judges, he proclaimed: “This is my diploma.” Thank you for bringing us to tears, you sweet, bald gentleman.—Zachary Feldman

Next week: Another group of chefs compete!