Netflix Pick of the Week: Chopped

Netflix Pick of the Week: Chopped

You may have heard of Chopped—it’s one of the Food Network’s longest-running programs, and has received copious awards for its format and ability to garner ratings. If you haven’t seen it, though, no worries: almost the entire series can be found on Netflix.

Chopped is a cooking competition, where each episode features four professional chefs from different areas of the United States. The chefs are pitted against one another in three rounds—appetizer, entrée, and dessert—and are eliminated one by one until only the best chef remains.

The concept may seem simple, but for the chefs participating it is anything but. For each of the rounds, the chefs are given a basket full of ingredients they must use within their respective dishes. The only issue? These ingredients aren’t normal fare. Including everything from chocolate-covered crickets to goat brains, the Chopped baskets often challenge all the chefs and serve to differentiate the best chefs from the rest.

Another fun element of the Chopped series is its tournaments. On occasion, the four chefs per episode are substituted for 16. The dozen-plus chefs first battle in groups of four in the semifinal rounds, before the winners all come to face one another in the tournament’s finale. These episodes are often a highlight of Chopped and contain some of its funniest moments.

If you’re looking to change up your Netflix repertoire or for some light-hearted, mindless fare, Chopped might be the series you’ve been waiting for.