One evening I served up spiral noodles covered in mushroom marinara for supper. Before I sat down to eat with my guys, I looked around and said, "Oh. I forgot the parmesan cheese." Eli shook his head and said, "Sorry, Mama. You've been chopped."
For those of you who don't watch the Food Network, Chopped is a show where four chefs compete for $10,000. There are three rounds -- appetizer, entree, and dessert. The chefs have a limited amount of time to come up with a good dish and there are mystery ingredients in a basket that they must include. (Don't forget an ingredient!) Expert judges critique the dishes based on taste, appearance, and creativity. At the end of each round, a chef is eliminated. The show's host lifts up a cloche (handled cover) to reveal the least appetizing dish of the round and announces to the person who created it, "Chef _______, you've been chopped."
Eli gets 20 to 30 minutes of screen time a day, mostly from DVDs but occasionally from preschooler computer games. Because of commercials, we've steered clear of television during Eli's waking hours for most of his life. This summer, however, the only way I've been able to consistently exercise with Eli out of school is to use an elliptical machine. And to keep inside exercise from being deadly dull, I watch an episode of Chopped. It is a family-friendly program with commercials pitched to adults, so it fit the bill. To my surprise, Eli quickly became a huge fan. The toy kitchen that had been largely gathering dust for several months is once again a hot commodity as he battles the clock to create a culinary masterpiece.
To play Chopped, Eli begs Mama, Papa, or a visiting cousin to create a mystery basket for him. We place three or four toy foods in a wicker basket and cover them with a tea towel. Once the ingredients are revealed, Eli jumps into "cooking."
In the final round, the competition is down to two chefs. Chef Eli almost always manages a well-composed dish while Chef Francesco usually has glaring errors. (Perhaps this is partially due to the fact that Chef Francesco is a tiny toy car without even the advantage of fingers.)
The judges carefully consider all aspects of each dessert. On the show, chefs get a chance to explain what they've made and receive feedback from the judges. Eli absorbs everything he hears. He quickly began to describe his plastic creations in terms of "visual appeal" or "moisture balance." He can't always pronounce culinary or descriptive terms plus they are often applied incorrectly, so we have to work at being poker-faced judges.
And then comes the big reveal. "Chef Francesco, you've been chopped! Chef Eli, you are the Chopped Champion!"
One day I decided to be funny and put Eli's dish on the chopping block. Yeah, it was a little mean. He did his usual victory bounce when the cloche was lifted but then his huge grin collapsed into a look of utter bafflement when he saw his dish underneath. Thankfully, a minute later he was laughing with us at the surprise.
Our home version of Chopped is all in good fun, but there are actually some great things about it that I didn't realize at first. It gave Eli and I a chance to talk about the fact that these are professional chefs yet they still make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. We talked about educating yourself, practicing, trying hard, and taking risks. We also discussed that the judges offer critiques and suggestions even if they love a dish. Eli didn't like it at first that I offered both good and bad things about his pretend dish just like a real judge, but after a while he became more at peace with it. At least on some level he is getting a glimpse of setbacks and feedback being part of life. Maybe it won't soak in since Eli is only four, but I love that he is getting a taste of the creative process.
We had everything we needed to play Chopped except for a cloche. That didn't stop us. We simply pretended we had one. But then I ran across a domed pot lid at Goodwill for .99 cents. Who knew a pot lid could be the summer's favorite toy for a four year-old boy?!
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