Amanda Freitag Is Mixing Things Up For The 15th Anniversary Of Chopped - Exclusive Interview

The Food Network has brought us some of the greatest series in television history — from classics like "Unwrapped" to "A Cook's Tour" with the late Anthony Bourdain. But one of its most iconic series of all is "Chopped," the challenge-style show celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. For nearly two decades, viewers have watched "Chopped" contestants wrestle with eclectic mystery basket ingredients, like durian, gummy skulls, and spotted dick pudding. Surprisingly, their attempts to impress the judging panel with palatable plates often prove successful — but as we all know, things don't always go according to plan. 

One veteran judge who can attest to this is chef Amanda Freitag, who's been with the show since its infancy. We at Mashed caught up with the New Jersey native for an exclusive interview ahead of her appearance at the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival 2024, held from February 22-25. Aside from hosting a sold-out dinner at the upcoming event, the New Jersey native has a lot on her plate these days. From developing spice blends and bottled cocktails to starring in her online cooking series, "Easy AF," the celebrity chef is certainly keeping busy. 

As somebody who aims to make cooking more accessible to all, what are some of your favorite affordable pantry staples that can elevate a dish?

Oh, my favorite affordable pantry staples that can elevate a dish? Well, I always use olive oil everywhere and in everything. And actually, I have a good supply of vinegar and spices. I think dried spice is a good thing to have in your culinary arsenal. I have a line of spices that are great, but I even keep just basics like cumin and paprika. I have a few spicy things like cayenne or chili powder that I think you can make a blend of your own. Your everyday chicken can become something totally different if you just spice it up. So dried spices are really underused, and they're very inexpensive.

We know about your spice line, AF Spices, and it's brilliant. You have one blend that's called Jersey Italian. What's the inspiration behind it, and what's your favorite way to use it?

Yeah, Jersey Italian. It's totally inspired by my upbringing. Because I grew up in New Jersey surrounded by red sauce Italian restaurants, which was, I think, what I thought was Italian cooking when I grew up. All of those restaurants, including the pizzeria-style places, had these iceberg lettuce salads with black olives, red onions, and out-of-season tomatoes. And they would always have this great red wine vinegarette. And so the spices that are put together in the Jersey Italian are oregano, garlic, tomato powder, and Parmesan powder. If you take that Jersey Italian spice, mix it with a little red wine vinegar and olive oil, you have that exact vinegarette.

That's awesome.

It replicates it to a tee. And I love putting it on any kind of vinegarette, but also inside of meatballs and meatloaf. It makes a great pasta sauce, pasta salad, or anything that feels like you want to go for that red sauce Italian vibe; Jersey Italian is your go-to spice.

The New Jersey pizza scene continues to get more recognition, with spots like Razza in Jersey City garnering national acclaim. Do you have a favorite Garden State slice?

Oh, that's such a great question.

We know it's hard to just pick just one sometimes.

No, I mean, of course, I love Razza. He does such a good pizza. Out by my mom in Cedar Grove, we always get pizza from Esposito's because that's our place. Star Tavern makes the best bar pie, really. You can look it up. It's sort of a cult classic. And when I have a craving for that kind of pizza, that's where I go. They don't even deliver. So you have to go there.

That's definitely good to know. In your cookbook, "The Chef Next Door," you mentioned that you and your siblings were sort of latchkey kids, and you made quite a few quick dinners together. What were some of your most memorable after-school meals?

We had a lot of frozen stuff that my parents would load up in the freezer. We had French bread pizzas, and we had Steaks-umms that we'd make little sandwiches with. We, of course, would make grilled cheese, and then we would make our sort of toasted bagels that were like pizza bagels — a little tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. We'd put dried oregano. So the toaster oven was on a workout, with either the French bread pizzas, the bagels, or the grilled cheese. I love to make grilled cheese because I get to work with the pan. A lot of frozen things that kept us sustained.

And that sounds like something that would be good for the Jersey Italian spice, those little homemade pizzas.

Yes, it would be perfect.

You have a line of bottled cocktails, Freitag Chef's Cocktails. What's the key to a perfect Manhattan, from your perspective?

The key to a perfect Manhattan is balance. And you must splurge on a good cherry.

Do you have recommendations for the cherry?

I like the Amarone cherries. They're a dark cherry, and they're in a really intense syrup. If you like maraschino, that's you. You do you. But I prefer a darker Amarone cherry. I think it really levels up your Manhattan. And we also make our own bitters for the Manhattan, so I think that's really important.

Any suggestions for the bitters or other upgrades for those who want to make one at home?

I think there are so many really good bitters out on the market and a lot of artisanal ones. You can even get cherry bitters. So, to add to that cherry base flavor, and then definitely make sure you have a good vermouth as well. [For vermouth,] I would definitely make sure it's something that's not too sticky-sweet — more well-rounded.

Right. And your favorite two or three-ingredient cocktail recipe at the moment?

I just started trying to make these Carajillo. I don't know if you saw that. It's really hit the scene, and I think it's trying to kick the espresso martini out, and it's Licor 43, which is in the bottle. Get a bottle of that. A couple of shots of espresso over ice. It's really tasty. I thought it might be a little too sweet. The Licor 43 is sweet, but with the bitter coffee, it looks so well, and that's two ingredients.

You recently posted about the 15th anniversary of "Chopped." What was one of the most unforgettable dishes from the early days of filming?

Oh, man. We've all been really reminiscing lately about those years. So much has changed. We've really developed. We started out with only, obviously, New York City chef contestants, and we had some really nitty-gritty line cooks. So we had some people who probably wouldn't be asked back on the show. They would've been smoking in the kitchen.

Those are the best cooks, though.

But early on in the seasons, I remember this cook. He was nervous, and he didn't taste as he went through his competition and made it to the dessert round. When he got to the dessert round, unknowingly, he used salt instead of sugar. He presented his cake to us so proudly, and he had no idea. I took a big bite. We were always excited to get to the dessert round, and it was like a mouthful of ocean water.

I didn't know what to do. We had never encountered anything this bad, this big of a mistake. And I'm looking at my fellow judges; we're still figuring it out, and we're all sort of like, "What do we do? What do we do?" I wanted to spit it out, but I didn't. The chef saw our reactions. I think he was like, "Oh, oh, something's really wrong." Then we said, "Hey, chef, is there any way you might've used salt instead of sugar?" 

You could see it just washed over him and mortified, mortified. He would've won. He would've had it in a bag. And we really haven't encountered anything like that since. I've never wanted to spit anything out since.

But you kept it down. That's impressive.

Yeah, because we didn't know what to do. None of us knew what to do. And I think it was like the second season. I didn't want to be the Simon Cowell of Chopped. So that was extremely memorable on so many different levels.

That's a great story. Thank you for sharing it with us.