You've been chopped!

I really enjoy TV shows with a feel good message.  Although, they are sometimes tough to find, they are there if you look.  Last night I turned on the Food Network to a repeat episode of Chopped.  If you don’t know the premise behind Chopped, it’s simple.  It’s a cooking contest between four professional chefs, where they each cook an appetizer, entrée and dessert during a timed head-to-head competition.  After each round, the chef with the least successful dish gets eliminated (chopped) and the last chef standing wins $10,000.  Sounds kind of easy, but the sticker is that the show provides the contestants with a mystery basket of ingredients.  The chefs have no idea what’s in each basket until the host Ted Allen, instructs them to open up their mystery baskets.  He reads the ingredients as they each pull them out of the baskets. 

“for our appetizer round we have…dill pickles…wild rice…pig’s feet…and licorice.  You have 20 minutes to make a composed dessert using all 4 ingredients and time starts…now!” 

Off go the chefs running around getting mixers, bowls and pantry ingredients.  They need to incorporate everything from the mystery basket into their dish before time runs out.  After the 20 minutes, the chef’s creations are presented to a panel of four celebrity chefs for judging.  There’s a critique and then after private deliberations, Ted Allen reveals which chef had the least successful dish and gets chopped.

If you haven’t seen the show, it’s worth giving it a try. 
Last night’s episode was a repeat of my favorite one yet.

Chef # 1 was named Chris.  He acted boastful and arrogant and really full of himself.  Bad roulade = first one chopped.

Chef #2 was named Siggy.  She made a nice entre which was a stew but her entrée’s lack of inspiration caused her to be the second chef chopped. 

Chef #3 was named Yoanne.  She spoke with a delightful French accent and said that her grandmother taught her how to cook and was her inspiration to be a great chef.  She also said that her grandmother is very ill and wants to use the money to fly back to France to see her before it’s too late.

Chef #4 was named Lance.  He is from upstate NY, a father and Christian.  Mentioned several times how his life has changed since giving his life over to Christ. 

The final round (dessert) was between Yoanne and Lance.  There baskets were comprised of duck eggs, Russet potatoes, farmer’s cheese and honey herb cough drops.  Sounds delicious!  Both battled it out to finish their plates on time.  Yoanne was nursing second degree burns on her legs from a previous round where she slipped and a pot of boiling water spilled on her legs.  She also burned her chocolate during the final round.  After the cooking and judging was completed, Lance and Yoanne were in the waiting room while the judges deliberated who would be the winner.  Such friendly and kind exchanges between the two as they waited to see who would go home with $10,000 and who would go home with nothing.  At one point, they agreed that they were both winners. 

Lance and Yoanne then stepped out to face the judges.  Ted Allen lifted the cloche and revealed that Yoanne was chopped.  With grace, a smile and a tear, she listened to judge chef Amanda Freitag explain the reasons they chopped her.  She thanked the judges, hugged Lance and proceeded to leave when all of a sudden Lance said “wait.”  He then explained to her that he didn’t expect to win and that she deserved to see her grandmother.  Thinking he was just giving her a little pick-me-up talk because of how disappointed she looked, she said politely in her French accent, “yes.”  She didn’t seem to understand quite what Lance was telling her until he said, “I want to give you that ticket”.  Cue the tears, hugs , smiles and tingly feelings from the judges, host and anyone watching the show!  Amazing!

Lance did an unselfish thing.  He could have kept all that money to himself.  He did after all, beat her fair and square and she accepted that.  Lance mentioned earlier that before giving his life to Christ he was a miserable person who would have stepped on anyone to get ahead.  This is completely 100% opposite of the Lance today and how he blessed Yoanne with such a selfless act.  In the final part of the episode, Lance says “what I have discovered about my faith is it’s not the destination.  It’s about the journey.  And today the journey was great.”

Below is a clip of the last 3 minutes of the show.  It’s from Youtube and the quality is low, but well worth watching…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6d-XvOxq54&feature=youtube_gdata_player