What makes Bobby Flay such a competitor?
Plus, surprising behind-the-scenes stories about how the show is made!
Michael Phelps.Muhammad Ali.Serena and Venus Williams.Michael Jordan.Lindsey Vonn.Peyton Manning.Bobby Flay.
Credit: Scott Gries/Food Network
They’re all top names in their respective sports.
On that show, the winner gets bragging rights.
Here, if Flay gets chopped, the winning chef also takes home $50,000.
Scott Gries/Food Network
Overseeing the proceedings, per usual, isChoppedhost Ted Allen.
explains how the show is made).
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How is the energy different for an event or tournament like this?
Competitive cooking is a very specific thing that Bobby has spenta lot of timeat the highest levels perfecting.
It really challenges everybody else to bring their A+ game.
So, he’s really a pleasure to have in the house.
People are going to enjoy it.
We did it once before in 2016 and it was a blast.
What is it that makes Bobby a top athlete, so to speak, in his sport?
More than anything: experience.
There’s nobody alive that has as much experience as he has at competitive cooking on TV.
He’s obviously long past being fazed by cameras or lights.
Do you feel a difference in their nerves?
They’re all like, yeah, yeah, I really blew that.
[Laughs]
OnBeat Bobby Flay, he doesn’t pick who he cooks against.
But he gets to size up the competition here.
How is he as a judge?
Hewantsto be challenged in this thing.
His weight/loss rate is definitely higher in the department, but if somebody out-cooks him, then they win.
That’s the way it has to be.
They think they smell a rat anyway, when the person they like doesn’t win.
How often are you filming episodes?
We usually shoot anywhere from 40 to 50 episodes a year, and we are always airing new shows.
We are in pre-production planning hoping to get back on set someday soon.
Are multiple episodes filmed in a day?
It takes a whole day to make one episode about a 10-hour day.
And then there’s a lunch break.
You mentioned a lunch break.
I assume the judges are not eating more during that time.
Usually not, unless they had really bad dishes.
How much time is there between when the clock hits zero and when the judges start tasting the food?
Are the dishes kept warm, or, in the case of desserts, is ice cream kept frozen?
Well, it really is lightning in a bottle kind of thing.
But the thing is, it’s clean and simple and pure in its format.
The format doesn’t change much, episode to episode, or tournament to tournament.
You never know what’s gonna be in the basket.
Sometimes what’s in the basket is beautiful and wondrous, and sometimes it’s just mind-spinningly heinous.
So I think there’s enough familiarity and simplicity.
The editing is very important.
The music is very important.
[Laughs] And those are the moments that become the excitement.
I think that’s kind of it in a nutshell you don’t know what’s gonna happen.
And sometimes some pretty insane things happen.
Lots of flames leaping out a pot.
But you don’t know what’s gonna happen.
And our crew is expert enough to see to it that you see it.
It’s really quite a feat what those folks do.
Chopped: Beat Bobby Flaykicks off Sunday, Aug. 9 at 9 p.m.
ET on Food web connection.
