A blatant excuse to re-post Dimeo's saucy Facebook pic.

Last night’s episode marked the end of Food Network’s slightly botched experiment with the tournament of Chopped Champions (the show returns to its normal schedule on October 13th). Last week’s winner, The Brooklyn Standard’s Cody Utzman, fought for a third win against previous winners John Lawson, executive sous-chef at Gordon Ramsay at the London; Diane Dimeo, chef of the underground supper club Red Box Bistro; and the owner of Exceptional Taste catering, Darius Peacock. Judges for the episode were Aarón Sanchez, Alex Guarnaschelli and Scott Conant.

Appetizers included live lobsters, bananas and endives. Peacock earned points early on for a stellar banana puree that overshadowed his too-tough grilled lobster; Dimeo, too, presented substandard lobster in her yogurty dish, which reminded Guarnaschelli too much of breakfast. Read more »

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. Read more »

Dimeo's Facebook photo. Yes, please.

It was a regular hygiene lesson on last night’s episode of Chopped!, “Buckwheat Blunders and Twists of Fate.” The episode featured a host of hometown talent, including Simon Lange of Apartment 138 in Carroll Gardens; executive chef Rory O’Farrell of Ayza; caterer and underground supper-club chef Diane Dimeo; and Mor Amitzur, executive chef at The View in the Marriott Marquis. Judging for the episode was handled by Aaron Sanchez, Alex Guarnaschelli and Chris Santos.

The appetizer mystery basket contained oil-packed tuna, English cucumbers and buckwheat flour. While trying to extricate his tuna from a faulty food processor, Amitzur managed to slice his hand pretty badly. Determined to continue working, he argued with producer Vivian Sorenson until finally ceding to her will, throwing a glove over his bloody paw and starting his tuna over sans hemoglobin. O’Farrell too put a little piece of himself into his buckwheat crêpe with niçoise filling: a hair poked through a queasy Guarnaschelli’s pancake. Lange was praised for trying to do a panelle with buckwheat flour instead of the usual chickpea variety, but was chopped because they hadn’t cooked through. Read more »

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. Read more »

Industria Argentina owner Stefano Villa, winner Natalia Machado and a big hunk o' beef.

Last night’s Chopped!—”A Prickly Situation”—featured the culinary talents of chefs Natalia Machado, executive chef at Industria Argentina in Tribeca; Yvan Lemoine, founder of iFoodStudios, a food-oriented media firm; and Ross Gill and Peter Klein of Home and Chow Bar, respectively. Judges for the episode were Aaron Sanchez, Chris Santos and Alex Guarnaschelli.

The appetizer round included the ingredient responsible for the episode’s title, sea urchin, along with brioche and fennel. Gill delivered a sea urchin chowder with fennel-frond salad and brioche croutons, but failed to get his roasted fennel bulbs onto the plate in time. Machado scored presentation points for serving her urchin in a spoon (and flavor points for keeping the roe raw), while Lemoine put forth what has to be one of the most hackneyed dish names we’ve ever heard: “Salvador Dali’s…Um, Spring Afternoon…Sea Urchin Feast.” Keep in mind, this guy runs a company that sells marketing concepts to food brands. Read more »

Anderson sprinkles as Viggiano is a blur…of failed ideas.

Last night’s Chopped! was the cheekily titled episode “Pretty Please with a Pepper on Top,” in which chefs including Tyler Anderson of the Copper Beech Inn in Essex, Connecticut; Paul Viggiano, the executive chef at the Grand Victorian Hotel in Spring Lake, New Jersey, who wanted on Chopped! because he felt the lighting was flattering; Chris Nguyen of Keo in York, Pennsylvania; and Barbara Sibley, co-owner of the La Palapa restaurants. Judges were Alex Guarnaschelli (with less bloodlust in her eyes), Geoffrey Zakarian and Chris Santos.

Appetizers had to be made with ground turkey, piquillo peppers and gooseberries. No one was able to produce a moist protein save Nguyen, who mixed butter and cream into his fowl (and even then, the judges weren’t crazy about his dish, with Zakarian calling it “salty” and “a punch in the face”). Sibley was first to go for putting an inedible garnish—unadulterated chilies—on her plate and for a lifeless turkey torta. Read more »

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. Read more »

Chef Michael Giletto mastered the art of beefcake long ago.

Last night’s Chopped! was all about jumbo shrimp, pepperoni and cereal. Contestants ran the gamut, from Michael Giletto, executive chef at Cherry Valley Country Club and former Mr. America runner-up, to Jackie Lee, a “freelance private chef predominantly working on mega yachts.” Oh, Jackie! Don’t you know you’ve only made it once you work on a super yacht? The other contestants were personal-trainer-cum-pastry-chef Alina Eisenhauer, and Todd Miller, executive at STK. Judges for the episode were Amanda Freitag, Geoffrey Zakarian and Alex Guarnaschelli. Read more »

Last night’s episode, “Coconut, Calamari, Donuts,” turned out (according to Ted Allen) to be “the closest decision ever on the show.” But first, there was a lovely group of competitors: Francesco Peluso of Peluso’s Italian Specialties; Mina Newman, executive chef at Christos Steak House in Astoria; David Ogren, executive chef at Ammos in midtown (and, full disclosure, an acquaintance of The Feed); and Gwen Le Pape, executive chef of all the Frederick’s restaurants. Judges were Alex Guarnaschelli, Aaron Sanchez and Chris Santos. Read more »

With a surprise batch of episodes airing every Tuesday until April 7 and a second season currently in production, Chopped! has proven it has staying power. And last night, it was all about quail, arctic char and beer. The contestants were Ralph Battista, executive chef at Butterfield 8; Abe Lopez of Pacifico in Center Valley, Pennsylvania; Lior Lev Sercarz of La Boîte à Epices; and Melinda Dorn, a chef whose “whole life has been leading up to this competition.” The judges for this episode were all vets of the show: Alex Guarnaschelli, Scott Conant, and Amanda Freitag—who was fresh from a hair-raising one-point loss to Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America last weekend. Read more »