Food Network has continued to expand their exciting lineup of reality based programming with Chopped. The show, hosted by Ted Allen of Bravo’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Food Network’s Food Detectives, is a cooking competition program centered on cooking with mystery ingredients.

The structure of Chopped is simple yet enthralling. Four chefs compete over three rounds, divided into categories that mirror a standard meal – Appetizer, Entrée and Dessert. The chefs compete by preparing a meal that must make use of multiple mystery ingredients. These ingredients are unveiled to the chef immediately before the round, and often include challenging items that are not commonly paired together, such as chicken and fruit punch. After each timed round of cooking, a panel of judges taste and evaluate each dish for flavor, creativity and presentation. The judges then choose one chef to be ”Chopped”, or eliminated from the competition. The chef that remains after all three rounds wins the competition and is awarded $10,000.

Chopped utilizes a revolving panel of celebrity chefs and restaurateurs to judge the competition.