The Chopped Champions Season 4 finale is here!  Let’s get the inside scoop from Laureen Pittman…

I was all geared up for a showdown and Chopped, as usual, didn’t disappoint.  This show is really the best and most “pure” of the competitive cooking shows on the air.  It is, plain and simple (and gloriously so), about the ingredients and the creative culinary prowess of the chefs.  No soap opera-style drama or underlying, ongoing personality conflicts from forcing strangers to live together for weeks that drag on from episode to episode , coloring the judges’ opinions and casting a weird “Jersey Shore”-type shadow on the tone of the show.  Just real chefs, mystery ingredients, judges and a clock. Oh, and don’t forget the $50,000 grand prize.

In case you haven’t been following Chopped this season, we’ve been watching 16 chefs, each with a previous Chopped win under his or her belt, return to the kitchen to compete for a second time in a timed three-course cook-off.  There is no cash prize for the individual winners of the Chopped Champions series episodes.  Instead, the winner of each episode secures a spot in the season finale to compete for $50,000.

Tonight was the season finale.  The competitors were: Kenneth Johnson, Executive Chef, Pescatore, New York, NY; Vinson Petrillo, Executive Sous chef, Caviar Russe, New York, NY; Rob Evans, Chef and Restaurateur, Hugo’s / Duckfat, Portland, ME; Jun Tanaka, Executive Chef, Pearl Restaurant, London, England.

The champs opened up their mystery baskets to reveal the following ingredients for the appetizer round: pig ears, ramps, pine nuts and apple strudel.  What?  Gross.  I used to give my dog pig ears for treats.  The chefs were off and running.  Pig’s ear chicharones, apple strudel croutons, British bread sauce (courtesy of my favorite British chef, Chef Jun), candied pig ears, and even fresh pasta for ravioli were all flying around the stoves.  In the end, it was Chef Ken that was eliminated.  His candied pig ears were just not sweet enough.

The entrée round saw the chefs cooking with (live) abalone, curry leaves, Serrano ham, amaranth grain.  Brilliant Chef Jun decided to go back to his roots and cook a Japanese noodle soup with a poached egg.  But not just any poached egg.  A poached egg coated in amaranth grain and deep fried.  Genius.  Rob was working on an abalone and Serrano ham scallopini.  Chef Vinson created abalone two ways.  It seemed like they couldn’t choose a winner.  The judges liked all of the creations.  It was a difficult decision, but the judges said goodbye to Chef Vinson and his double dose of abalone. 

In the end, it was my favorite, Chef Jun (and his lovely British accent), and Chef Rob, a formidable competitor, to be sure, battling it out over dessert made with carrot juice, almond flour, candied ginger, honeycomb.  Wow, doesn’t seem that confusing.  Chef Jun made frangiapane, with a caramelized carrot sauce.  He used the honey from the honeycomb for the caramelization of fresh carrots and he used some of the carrot juice, of course, to fortify the sauce. 

Chef Rob made the proverbial French toast, which seems to be the “go to” desert for chefs on Chopped who don’t know what to make with the crazy ingredients presented to them.  I kind of look at it as a cop out.  His finished dish just looked strange.  A few fried bread cubes on a plate . . . so what?  I don’t even know what he did with the ginger and honeycomb . . . but I do know that he used the carrot juice to make a gelee.  Well, in my opinion, Chef Rob’s dessert just did not gel.  (See what I did there?) And he added some sort of foam (he called it a cream, but it looked foamy, not creamy), which is one of my pet peeves.  It just looked like spit on a plate. 

The judges agreed with me!  In fact, Judge Geoffrey Zakarian basically told Chef Rob he was a little tired of French toast as a dessert.  So stop it with the French toast, people! 

Chef Jun Tanaka was crowned the new Chopped Champions Grand Champion!  He’s going  invest the $50,000 prize in his own restaurant back home in London.  Sounds like a vacation to England will be in order once that restaurant is open!  Chef June is definitely a deserving champion—Congratulations, Chef Jun!

A new season of Chopped starts next Sunday.  I can’t wait!  Stay tuned and I’ll keep you up-to-date with each episode!