Chefs and Restaurants

"Chopped" Host Ted Allen on Keeping Cool in Cooking Competitions

Liz Grossman

For more than 14 years, “Chopped” host Ted Allen has guided hundreds of chef-contestants on the somewhat (OK, very) sadistic journey of pulling off three delicious, composed dishes in a half hour or less. He’s lifted the silver cloche on finished plates with just three sad edamame and witnessed dishes so good the judges deemed them menu-worthy. But every contestant must survive the same intense gauntlet of cooking under the literal clock on...