Einat Admony earns membership to the illustrious "Chopped Two-timers Club."

Last night’s continuation of Food Network’s show-within-a-show, Chopped Champions, pitted last week’s winner James Briscione—an instructor at ICE—against fellow former champions Einat Admony of Taim, Gavin Mills (most recently at Broadway East) and Pippa Calland, a caterer from central Pennsylvania. Judges for the episode were Chopped! favorites Scott Conant and Aaron Sanchez, along with legally embroiled chef Jody Williams. 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 »

Runner-up Zappoli and his grandmother, who loves his zeppole.

Well, dear reader, we lied to you. We thought workaholic Ted Allen was taking a break this week, but the man and his crack team over at Chopped! are apparently in this one for the long haul. Last night’s episode, “Pods, Grills and Sticky Fingers,” included chefs Maristella Innocenti of Matilda restaurant; Joe Bayley, sous chef at Cobblestone Foods in Brooklyn; Matthew Zappoli of Tre Amici in Long Branch, New Jersey; and Moha Orchid, an NYC-based private chef who claims to have invented couscous sushi (”Instead of rice, it’s couscous!”). Judges this time around were “illustrious restaurateur” (Ted’s words, not ours) Geoffrey Zakarian, Amanda Freitag and Scott Conant. 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 »

Frola plates his duck appetizer.

Last night’s episode of Chopped!, “Pride on the Plate,” depicted the gastronomic talents of Roshni Mansukhani, an executive sous and private chef in Boston whose parents think she chose the wrong career; Giuliano Matarese of Arte Cafe; Pasquale Frola, executive sous at Naples 45 (and whose wife is a Rockette); and Shaya Klechevsky, kosher personal chef and owner of At Your Palate, based in Brooklyn. Judges this time around were Marc Murphy and Chris Santos, alongside the always-irascible Alex Guarnaschelli. Read more »

Julio Lazzarini and his friend the blender.

Last night’s episode of Chopped! demonstrated that, despite the New York–centric nature of the program, even chefs from as far as Wilmington, Delaware, have a shot at the title. That chef—Julio Lazzarini of Orillas Tapas Bar—was joined by Mark Spooner, a veritable mountain of a man and chef with Great Performances catering, “the fourth largest catering company in America,” Massimo Felici of DeGrezia restaurant in midtown, and Christine Campbell, a butcher and private chef working on Long Island. Judges were Aaron Sanchez, Scott Conant and Amanda Freitag—who sported a wispy, almost Shirley Temple–esque ‘do. Read more »

Michael Ferraro slices his ill-fated squid.

Apologies, Feed readers, for this late dispatch of Tuesday night’s episode of Chopped! We’ll be back in the saddle with (timely) recaps next week.

The second season of Chopped! moseyed along on Tuesday night with episode two. High-fives all around for the serious tristate-area representation: Chefs included Michael Ferraro of Delicatessen; John Lawson, executive sous chef at Gordon Ramsay at the London; David Kirschner (W Hotel in Hoboken); and Nicole Puzio (Ox Restaurant in Jersey City). 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 »