Utzman basking in the dim glow of success

Last night’s episode of Chopped!, “A Wish Upon a Star Fruit.” featured a few local competitors: Cody Utzman (chef-owner of Papacitos and The Brooklyn Standard Deli) and Ming Liu (a line cook at Le Cirque). They were joined by Lisa Schoen, a food stylist for The Fabulous Food Show, and FreshDirect sous chef Pedro Diaz. Judges for the episode were Alex Guarnaschelli, Marc Murphy and Aaron Sanchez.

For appetizers, the chefs were given merguez sausage, red-currant jelly and broccoli. Utzman got props from the judges for marrying the jelly with yogurt for a cool vinaigrette. Schoen was praised for a visually appealing broccoli sausage salad, but was docked points for leaving puddles of vinaigrette at the bottom of her bowls. Diaz’s cloyingly sweet sausage and peppers fell flat, but it was Liu’s poorly executed chive crêpes that got the knife. Sirio Maccioni must be so disappointed.

The entrée round had the chefs dealing with chicken breast, dandelion greens, star fruit and cherry liqueur. Schoen garnered praise from Sanchez and Murphy for the tropical-fruit salsa topping her fowl (Guarnaschelli hated it). Utzman’s use of capers and olives to balance the sweetness in the cherry liqueur was a hit, while Diaz was slammed for yet another overly sweet sauce. He was the second to be chopped (serves FD right for delivering our order late last week).

Desserts pitted Schoen and Utzman against a tough array of ingredients: grape leaves, sesame seeds, honeydew melon and pickled ginger. Schoen busted out some sesame beignets, with a fruit salad made from the melon and diced grape leaves that wowed the judges. Utzman too made an impression, for wrapping his melon in the grape leaves and incorporating the pickled ginger into a scone. Though Guarnaschelli pointed out that the two competitors had been neck and neck all day, the judges chose Utzman for the win for his consistent, creative three-course meal.—Zachary Feldman

Next week: Ted is back on vacay? Chopped sure is a fickle mistress.