Chopped

- Season 18

(2013)

The chefs get a special tool in the basket to help bust open a challenging ingredient: a giant jawbreaker. Then, a trendy pastry meets a North African stew in the second basket. Rosemary and ginger must be combined into a dessert.

The Chopped all-star party begins with sparkling cider and doughnuts in the first basket. Wagyu steaks are served up for the entree round. And the final round competitors rush to get their plum pudding desserts plated.

With a $40,000 scholarship on the line, four teen competitors' first basket contains a sweet drink and juicy fruit. Then, entrées are made using super sophisticated ingredients; and breakfast-like foods are transformed in the dessert round.

Chefs are challenged to create tapas for all 3 rounds. They begin w/Spanish ingredients in the appetizer round. Later, 1 chef deals w/a fire during the entrée round; and mini desserts are made w/Catalan cream before a winner is determined.

Chefs make use of ingredients that are usually thrown out. Appetizers are made with juicer pulp and tea bags; salad dressing and remnants of poultry for entrées; desserts are made with veggie peels and discarded portions of fruit.

Firefighters compete and get the meal started with some hearty meat-and-cheese appetizers. Will the judges enjoy them? Then in the entree round, some big errors with a non-basket-ingredient gets one of the judges upset.

When the clock starts ticking down, the chefs must rush to make appetizers with pickled pigs' feet and sweet potato chips. And one chef doesn't realize they've made a potentially costly mistake until it's too late.

In the first round, one of the competitors takes a loose interpretation of the theme. Then some unusual toppings must be on the entree pizzas. And, a pizza for dessert with candied mushrooms and salted caramel sauce.

Home cooks compete, preparing chicken tenderloins in the appetizer round. Later, one hopeful tries to impress the judges with an ambitious hanger steak dish; and the dessert basket features two very unusual ingredients.

Chefs learn that they will be making hamburgers for every round, starting with veal burgers for appetizers. Then in the entree round a little quail egg causes a big headache. And who's ever heard of a dessert burger?

With chocolate in the baskets, the chefs must make this perennial favorite work in the first two savory courses. Then the remaining two competitors must combine two chocolate ingredients with cherries and German layer cake.

Bacon appears in the basket in every round. Other ingredients include apple chips, dried cherries and French toast. Judges: Scott Conant, Amanda Freitag and Adam Sobel.

Chefs are brewing up as all three rounds are devoted to beer. Chefs must make sausages work with toasted lager for appetizers and a tasty tripel ale's in the basket for the entree round. The iconic beer & pretzels must be made into dessert.