Briscione, a two-time winner
Earlier this week we took in the premiere episode of Chopped Championship, the tournament-style repackaging of Ted Allen’s Top Chef knockoff, Chopped. The concept: Thirteen Chopped victors duke it out to determine whose cuisine reigns supreme…or whatever.
Kicking things off were chefs Natalia Machado (Industria Argentina), Michael Carrino (Passione in Montclair, New Jersey), Sandy Davis (a chef at the Union Theological Seminary) and James Briscione (an instructor at ICE). Judges for the episode were Geoffrey Zakarian, Marc Murphy and Alex Guarnaschelli.
Appetizers were made with live crawfish, fiddlehead ferns and red seedless grapes. Briscione and Davis—both Southern gents—were comfortable working with the live crawdads, but Davis chose not to clean the vein in his crustaceans. Carrino was the only contestant bold enough to try for a soup, but his efforts fell flat and so he was chopped.
For the entrée round, the chefs were given quail, guava nectar, udon noodles and dinosaur kale. During judging, a fiery Machado defended her decision to leave the tailbone on her bird (for structure and presentation), prompting Guarnaschelli to call her a “real barracuda.” Rawrr. Davis was censured for his boring guava-orange glazed quail with garlic noodles. Arrivederci!
But what’s this? Before we could even get to dessert, Food Network ran a spoiler commercial for next week’s episode that had Briscione calling himself a two-time winner! We’re assuming it was meant to air after the show, so we figure whoever works promos over at the Food Network’s Chelsea Market fortress called in sick this week. Indeed Briscione won, using the mystery ingredients (baby kiwi, couscous, rice paper and saffron) to make a couscous pudding and a fruity summer roll. The coup earned him $10,000 and secured his spot in the next episode.—Zachary Feldman
Next week: Briscione defends his title.
I think it was wrong of them to boot Michael Carrino. Natalia Machado served a rotten crawfish with poop in the dish. She even admitted it. That’s a HUGE health risk over a soup they thought was too thick. I think the producers of this show pick the winner before they evern start taping.
Alex Guarnaschelli - lighten up. You make Andy Rooney seem easy going.
I agree that Michael shouldn’t have been chopped. He didn’t serve any rotten or uncleaned crawfish, as did two other chefs. Unfair. He should have moved on to the entree round.
My scorecard had Machado ahead of Briscione two rounds to one; would have to watch the ep again before agreeing with the judges’ final verdict.
The spoiler commercial: Someone in the FN promo department should have been, er, chopped.
David: Nobody puts Alex in a corner.
I am not a big James fan myself. I was glad to see him loose in the next round.
Sustainable Energy Financing
Chopped ought to be chopped. The basket contents are interesting but the use of a single cutting board, no available sink and sweat dripping on the food, ….. oh my!! At least they tell you where these “chefs” are from so that you never have to eat at those places. An interesting show which would be fun to watch with some safe food practices!!!!