For a very long time, Chopped was my consolation TV present of selection. The bite-sized segments and wild card components stored the present entertaining, to not point out the movie star judges and their quirks. (In the event you nonetheless haven’t realized to not serve Scott Conant uncooked crimson onions 61 seasons in, you need to be chopped.) I nonetheless discover myself placing the present on after I want background noise, particularly on a airplane. I’ve dabbled in different Meals Community reveals over time, however nothing has been in a position to take Chopped’s place.
Till 2020, when Meals Community debuted its very personal Cinematic Universe present, pulling in cooks who’ve gained recognition from throughout the community and past, together with Bravo’s High Chef and Fox’s MasterChef. The idea behind Match of Champions, which is hosted by Man Fieri, is fairly simple — a seeded bracket of top-tier cooks compete towards one another to indicate off their cooking abilities, with eliminations each spherical till a champion is topped. The gamified components embody a large slot machine referred to as the Randomizer, which Fieri spins to find out dish necessities like protein, produce, tools, fashion, and extra. To take away bias, the dishes are judged blind and primarily based solely on style, how effectively they use the Randomizer, and presentation. Two meals consultants, authors Justin Warner and Simon Majumdar, interview the cooks whereas they cook dinner, offering context when wanted and presenting the dish for judging.
Probably the most spectacular half is the massive names who stay up for cooking on TV (Alex Guarnaschelli, Elizabeth Falkner, Jose Garces, to call just a few), maybe partially a credit score to the goodwill Fieri continues to engender amongst his fellow cooks. There’s one thing very pure about watching cooks competing with — and being judged by — their friends, with what seems like little or no ego.
Not a lot has modified concerning the present format in its first few seasons, and what has modified largely follows the standard meals present trajectory: a rise within the variety of episodes, size of the present, and the advertisers that come alongside for the trip. It’s clear why Meals Community loves a Man Fieri present — he clues the viewers in on his data in a non-pretentious approach, and he’s a giant fan of each contestant, whether or not they’re an Iron Chef or a Man’s Grocery Video games winner. He’s a chef’s chef who doesn’t take up an excessive amount of air as host, a lot in order that we are able to forgive him giving his son Hunter a job as backstage interviewer.
Now in its sixth season, Fieri and group have modified up just a few issues: they’ve eliminated the marginally arbitrary East and West division, which grouped contestants into two brackets relying on the place they’re primarily based. All earlier Match of Champions winners (4 extraordinarily spectacular ladies over 5 seasons) are actually “retired” from the competitors, giving somebody new a greater probability of profitable.
However the core of the present stays pleasant — this season’s primary seeds, who’ve all traditionally gone very far on this present, embody Antonia Lofaso, Jet Tila, Britt Rescigno, and Tobias Dorzon, who’re — for now — ranked above abilities like Amanda Freitag, Stephanie Izard, and Rocco DiSpirito. The present is not any Chopped (the whopping two-hour episode size requires an honest quantity of dedication) however for anybody who’s been watching Meals Community so long as I’ve, the enjoyable is in watching these extremely lauded cooks showcase their abilities, get stumped by the Randomizer, and cheering one another on. For TV’s most well-known cooks, it’s an opportunity to show they nonetheless have what it takes, and even higher, do it whereas hanging out with their associates.
