Ted Allen Says Chopped Judges Aren't Fooled By This Codeword
Televised cooking competitions like "Top Chef" or "Chopped" put chefs to the test and show off the contestants' culinary prowess. While these shows give individual cooks the chance to demonstrate what they know, some individuals like to play it safe, annoying the judge pool in the process. The judges on "Chopped" have seen it all, and at this point, have gotten incredibly tired of contestants presenting their own takes on bread pudding, per Insider. The professional cooks that hand down the verdict can see right through any culinary smokescreens put up by the contestants and don't take kindly to any pretentious cover-ups, especially when the participants mess up and try to pass off their dish as haute cuisine.
Ted Allen recently took to Twitter to share the very worst tactic he sees chefs try to pull. In a recent post, Allen tweeted, "Careful: 'Deconstructed' gets thrown around a lot. And #Chopped knows when that really means, 'I had five seconds left, so I just threw it at the plates.' [cue evil laugh] Bwah, ha ha ha ha!" Allen constantly sees through this pretension, and fans agree that passing food off as deconstructed comes off as a cheap trick.
Viewers don't like to see deconstructed food either
Respondents to the tweet agreed with Allen's sentiment. Replies to the tweet include "'Deconstructed' is either a last-minute Hail Mary, or eye-rollingly pretentious" and "Yes! Every time a contestant nervously announces, 'So ... I made you a deconstructed ...' I know disaster is only a heartbeat away!" Still, Allen defended chefs who truly make deconstructed food, saying, "I'm not sure it is pretentious — especially for a proud home cook who has heard the term 1,000 times on Food Network — but it sure has been used a lot by chefs. Maybe it's time to resume dishes that are — try to contain excitement, folks — CONstructed?"
Next time you see an on-screen chef panic at the last minute as their dish falls apart, see if they plan to present their dish as a deconstructed version of the same dish. If Allen's pattern proves true, you might agree that far too many chefs hide behind this term and start to feel bored of this style of cooking too.