Chopped is a Food Network competition cooking show that has four competitors facing three rounds: first appetizer, then entree, and finally dessert. Simple, right? Well, here's the catch: Each competitor receives a basket; in that basket are ingredients that must be used in some way in their dish. Not using a "secret ingredient" could get that chef chopped from the competition.
The last chef standing, wins the prize of $10,000.
There are nine regular judges that appear on Chopped, but only three appear together in any given episode. The judges are:
- Aaron Sanchez
- Alex Guarnaschelli
- Amanda Freitag
- Chris Santos
- Geoffrey Zakarian
- Maneet Chauhan
- Marc Murphy
- Marcus Samuelsson
- Scott Conant
In addition to these regular judges, special guest judges also serve on the judge's panel.