We’ve been watching a ton of Chopped lately. Now I’m no chef, but I think these themes could make for pretty good episodes, at least to change things up a bit:

  • children’s birthday party (all dishes must be palatable to typical, picky kids)
  • holiday-specific, but less obvious than Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.
    • Juneteenth
  • Icelandic and/or Nordic
  • more “zero waste”
    • use an entire fish
  • less traditional (French) dishes, most episodes end up with a fair amount of fancy-sounding French dishes or at least ideas/techniques
  • “ban” making types of food that the chefs have a background in (EX: if the chef worked in a Mexican restaurant for years, they aren’t allowed to make Mexican or adjacent food)
  • signature dish of each judge, but that judge can’t judge it