Chopped Contestant (Well Sort of)

Lights, camera, action! I can finally share this remarkably fun experience I had as a contestant in a commercial for the Food Network show Chopped and the food company Hillshire Farm where we re-created what it would be like to be a contestant on the actual show Chopped. I was one of four food passionate people — a chef, caterer, waiter/opera singer. From the hair and makeup artist to my fellow foodies, we started our day apprehensive and shivering (there was no heat!) and ending with warm embraces.

A full day’s work gets boiled down to a 60 second spot, but here’s the gist — we were actually contestants, given four mystery ingredients, with the pressure of having to create and plate four meals in exactly 30 minutes. My heart started pumping, adrenaline got going as I had to think quickly (very quickly!) and make an appealing dish using Hillshire farm sausage, Swiss Chard, Marscapone Cheese and corn meal. Mine is the farm fresh frittata with an herbed corn meal crust. Apparently the judges were impressed with my topping. This gets filed away as a culinary highlight for me. What fun!