Here we go: brand-new episodes of “Chopped,” and now in bright, beautiful Hi-Def! Food Network doubled the order to 26 for our second run, which we wrapped this past May at Eastlight Studios, Long Island City, Queens. Here’s some inside skinny on the new batch, debuting at 10 p.m. ET/PT Tuesday, June 16.

Among the many things we learned during shooting: that Scott Conant does not want to eat raw onions. If only we could show you his entire, thunderous aria, which lasted about 10 minutes and began something like this, after a deep breath: “My therapist told me that when I feel anger, it is essential for me to express this anger,” he explained slowly, one hand pressed to his forehead. “Otherwise, the feelings just build up inside, and eventually explode.”

Now that’s what a chef wants to hear a judge say about his dish.

Speaking of culinary jurists, all of our favorites from season one are back and hungrier than ever. Thanks, dear judges, for your incredible palates, your skill and wit, and your finely developed sitting muscles. There’s the delectable Alex Guarnaschelli (Butter), the irrepressible Aaron Sanchez (Centrico, Paladar), the illustrious Geoffrey Zakarian (formerly of Country and Town, now developing several new restaurants), the Bistro Baron Marc Murphy (Landmarc, Anvil), the hard-rockin’ Chris Santos (Stanton Social), the Italian maestro Mr. Conant (Scarpetta), and the incredible Amanda Freitag (The Harrison). Please visit them at their restaurants—and tip your bartenders and waitresses. We certainly have, and have loved ’em all, notably for wrap parties at Paladar and Butter, and for this season’s premiere, a screening at the fabulous Landmarc. Coming up on the show, a couple of special guest judges and a few special episodes—but I don’t want to spoil all the surprises here…

One thing I am particularly proud of regarding season two: virtually no processed foods in the mystery baskets. On that subject, a bit of background.

Just to recap for newcomers: “Chopped” is a competition show that starts with four chefs. They cook an appetizer course, using baskets of mystery ingredients; then, one chef is eliminated and the remaining three move on to the entrée course—and a new basket of mystery ingredients. After that course, another chef gets chopped, and the final two compete in the dessert round with a third mystery basket for a $10,000 prize.

The items in the baskets may sometimes seem random, but they’re not. They are chosen by the culinary department at Food Network, and an enormous amount of thought, argument and strategizing goes into their selection. The goal: combinations of ingredients that are not impossible to cook into something plausibly tasty, but that present traps, red herrings (the figurative kind) and pitfalls. For example, we might give the chefs bok choy, ginger and lemongrass, obviously steering them in an Asian direction—and then ruin that plan with a chunk of creamy Roquefort or an artichoke. Now, whaddya gonna cook?

In season one, the show also sought to trip up the chefs with shocker, packaged ingredients, such as macaroni and cheese from the blue-and-yellow box, gummi bears, cream of mushroom soup from a can, and string cheese. I think the idea was to use ingredients that are familiar and (in)famous, and also to enjoy the fish-out-of-water effect: When you require a fine-dining chef to cook with orange, powdered “cheese” from a packet, it throws him for a loop. And that’s funny.

But it’s also impossible to make a good dish with bad ingredients. Our challenge is hard enough without making it impossible. So I’m happy to say that those joke ingredients are out. In their place: exotic ingredients, like, say, sea urchin, or eel. Challenging mixes of sweet and savory items. Or things that are never used together—such as, we also learned from Italian specialists Guarnaschelli and Conant, fish and cheese. (There, another surefire way to bring out Conant’s anger-management techniques.)

The coins of the realm for “Chopped” are those ingredient baskets, and the casting of chefs and judges. With the judges and baskets, we’ve nailed it. With the chefs, who are the stars of the show, we’ve had some great people—somewhere near 150 of them—and we’re going to need more! If you’re a chef anywhere near New York City, sign up! Go here: http://citylightsmedia.com/casting/ChefCastingapply.htm, fill out the form, and find out if you have what it takes to be a “Chopped” champeen!

Hope you enjoy the season! And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m on vacation and I’ve got some cooking of my own to do—easy on the onions.  

Cheers, Ted

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