Fourth Grader is Our New Family Cooking Champion

We’ve been talking about doing this for a while so my daughter was ecstatic when I told her that the next day she would be taking the “Family Chopped Challenge.”

One of our favorite TV game shows is Chopped on the Food Network. If you haven’t seen the show, here’s the premise: Four experienced chefs are given a basket of mystery ingredients each round and must prepare a dish using all the ingredients. There are usually 3 or 4 items in the mystery basket and they are often bizarre or obscure items, some barely qualifying as food. They have a large pantry with basic items everyone can use. There is a time limit and at the end of each round, they are judged by a panel of 3 judges. One chef is eliminated each round (appetizer, entrée & dessert) until only one remains.

For our version, we have taken some liberties with the rules. First, she won’t be competing against anyone else; it will simply be a contest to make the best possible dish within the guidelines of the competition. Kate is 9 so for safety reasons she will be assigned a sous chef (me). But I can only do exactly what she asks of me, and I cannot give input unless it’s a safety issue. The judges will be my boyfriend Rick, my 19-year-old son Matt and yours truly. Yes, I agree there are some conflict of interest issues with me in the two roles, but we have a very limited pool of possible judges, and I feel I can be fair and impartial when the time comes.

We are giving her 60 minutes to prepare and plate her dish as opposed to the 20 minutes usually allotted on the show. She will also be allowed to use cookbooks for reference. 

On the show, the three judges observe the chaos and make snarky comments about the contestants as they work. We will allow our judges to watch the final 5 minutes of the preparation time, mostly because it was the only way I could get the them to agree to judge but also to reduce nervousness in our young chef. The panel will be strongly encouraged to give only positive and constructive comments.

I will be choosing the ingredients for her mystery basket. I find myself influenced by the knowledge that someday it will be my turn to be the contestant, and she will be choosing my ingredients. That, and the fact that as a judge I will have to eat this plate of food. So fish heads and pickled pigs feet are out.

We don’t have the dapper Ted Allen to host our show, and I find myself taking that role. I will be in charge of clean up and photography too. My responsibilities seem to be increasing by the minute. I am starting to feel like I should contact my agent and get my contract re-negotiated.

It’s time for the big reveal and the mystery basket items are: pork sausage, unsalted almonds, a jar of peaches and plain filone bread. 

She doesn’t seem intimidated and jumps right in. I can tell she has a direction in mind from the get go. The cookbooks go untouched, and she needs minimal assistance from me. She is pretty experienced in the kitchen but even I am impressed with her skills.

In spite of an apron malfunction and the defection of a judge (it was an urgent work matter so he was excused) she executes a wonderful meal of barbecue sausage sandwiches with an almond sausage bite and stewed spiced peaches.

The dish is judged on taste, creativity and appearance. Her sandwich sounded a little plain but with the fluffy bread, tangy barbecue flavors and a sausage patty cooked to a perfect crispiness, it was outstanding. I found myself sneaking some off the missing judges plate. 

Her creativity in using chopped almonds in the sausage bite didn’t go unnoticed as the almonds added some needed texture. And the delicately stewed peaches with cinnamon brightened up the plate with their color. She hit all the marks.

We didn’t have a $10,000 prize like on the TV show, but in our house, bragging rights are priceless.