You've Been Chopped!

I wonder who came up with the premise behind the show "Chopped?"  It is one of my favorite cooking shows EVER, but who thought of this?  It's the dessert round, Chefs.  Open your baskets.  Here are your four mystery ingredients:  purple yam jam, liver-flavored cat treats, children's gummy vitamins and duck feet.  Make a dessert!  Yes, I am exaggerating, but I am not dipping very far into the exaggeration pool here!  (By the way, we really do have purple yam jam in our pantry since Better Half was raised on it.)

I never miss this show.  The chefs are insanely talented.  They can make anything into something spectacular.  What I don't like is what I refer to as the human error gross out factor.  There are times I promise I will never eat in a restaurant again.  For a foodie like me, that's a bold statement.  However, these contestants are supposed to be some of the finest chefs and restaurateurs in the country and they have some pretty bad manners. 

Yes, they can blame the "clock" for their bad decisions, but come on already!  How many times have I seen them cut them selves with the knife and continue to handle the food until someone calls them out for it?  Or they use the same spoon or even their finger to double dip over and over again to taste the food.  I don't want to see that spoon go from their mouth back into the pot.  But mostly, the thing that gets me is the inevitable sweat factor.  I am often heard yelling at my TV with a loud, "Ewwww, you are sweating right off your nose into the bowl!"  Yuck!  I love restaurants, but if these top chefs are behaving that badly and while on camera, who's making my value meal?

I applaud them for their creativity though.  I know I couldn't work under those conditions.  After all, I don't even know what half of those ingredients are.  I have enough trouble bringing a family dinner together when I haven't been to the grocery store in a week.