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When The Idea Of 'chopped' Surfaced, It Was Originally Meant To Be Taped At Some Guy's Mansion With Him And His Crazy Chihuahua. A Stuffy Fellow In A Tuxedo Was To Host, And The Losing Chef's Dish Was Then Fed To The Dog! I Am Not Kidding, I Saw It! I Think It Is Genius! Twisted, But Genius!

-Ted Allen

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When The Idea Of

Ted Allen

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When The Idea Of 'chopped' Surfaced, It Was Originally Meant To Be Taped At Some Guy's Mansion With Him And His Crazy Chihuahua. A Stuffy Fellow In A Tuxedo Was To Host, And The Losing Chef's Dish Was Then Fed To The Dog! I Am Not Kidding, I Saw It! I Think It Is Genius! Twisted, But Genius!

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One Of The Smartest Things You Can Do On 'chopped' Is To Take One Of Those Ingredients And Make A Pickle Out Of It, Because Almost Every Dish Benefits From That. I'm Feeling Like Those Intuitions Are Becoming More Natural.

I Went In Saying I Wanted To Be The Food Guy.

I'm In A Loft And The Kitchen Is In The Very Center Of The Apartment. The Whole Place Revolves Around It.

Cooking For People Is An Enormously Significant Expression Of Generosity And Soulfulness.

Not To Sound Too Much Like Christopher Guest In 'waiting For Guffman,' But On Thanksgiving You're Putting On A Show!

I'm A Home Cook And Love To Read About Food, But I'm Not Trained As A Chef. I'm Just Really Into Cooking And Passionate About It.

People Who Hardly Ever Cook At All, Suddenly At The Holidays, Feel Like It's Their Responsibility To Not Only Cook Dinner For Large Groups Of People Suddenly, But To Serve Things That Are Fussy Or Fancy Or Formal. And I Don't Think That's What Anybody Really Wants, Especially If You're Not Good At It.

I Had A Little Epiphany When I Was A Writer At 'chicago' Magazine. I Sat Down To Dinner At The Ritz-carlton. Somebody Poured A White Dessert Wine With Chocolate Cake. It Was A Wine I Would Never Have Expected To Make Sense. The Idea Of Any Wine Tasting Fabulous With Chocolate Cake Was Fascinating To Me.

My Place In Chicago Is A 105 Year Old House, But I Really Like Contemporary Spaces Too, So It's Refreshing And Fun To Be In A Space Where You Can Do Contemporary Things.

I Am Much More Interested In The Process Than Results.

It's Very Important To Me That People Who Are Actual Chefs And Other Professionals In The Culinary World, Understand That I'm Not, And Have Never Held Myself Out As Being, Like A Cia Trained Chef.

Two Words To Improve Any Dish. Ba, Con

For Each Episode The Five Of Us Are All Wearing Clothes By The Same Designer. It's A Different Designer For Each Episode, But For Each One We're All Wearing Their Clothes.

It's Okay If You Finish Cooking Something Easy After Your Guests Arrive - Some Dishes Must Be Prepared A La Minute, As Chefs Say. Just Remember To Keep Talking.

The Funny Thing About Thanksgiving ,or Any Big Meal, Is That You Spend 12 Hours Shopping For It Then Go Home And Cook,chop,braise And Blanch. Then It's Gone In 20 Minutes And Everybody Lies Around Sortof In A Sugar Coma And Then It Takes 4 Hours To Clean It Up.

Planning A Dinner Party In A Way That You're Actually Capable Of Getting It Done Without Panicking Is Important. It's Bad Hospitality For The Host To Be Freaked Out.

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My Whole Problem Is That All Of My Favorite Things At Thanksgiving Are The Starches, And Everyone Is Trying To Go Low-carb This Year, Even A Green Vegetable Has Carbs In It.

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Cooking Allows You To Have Travels, Adventures And Journeys Without Going Anywhere. The Running Joke Between My Partner And Me Is That I'm Not Really Concerned About How Long It Takes, Or How Much I Destroy The Kitchen, Because I Just Have Such A Good Time Doing It.

I Cook Everything. I Love Mediterranean Cooking, I Love Asian Cooking. I Do Lots Of Japanese Noodles.

In Recent Years, I've Been Writing Because I'm Fortunate Enough To Work In The World Of Food Television, To Travel And Taste And Learn About Cooking From The Best Chefs In The Business.

I've Leased The Apartment; My Partner Is Going To Come Out Here. But We're Keeping Our House In Chicago Because Real Estate Is A Really Good Investment And Also Because It Is Just Crammed With Full Of Stuff!

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Thom Is One Of Those Wonderful People To Cook For Because He Absolutely Loves It, Just Loves It. He Loves To Eat And Drink And He'd Be A Great Guest At Any Dinner Party.

I'm Really Trying To Respond To The Foods That Are In The Stores And Just Pulling The Things That Are The Very Best And Cook What Looks Beautiful And Is Seasonal. That's The Way To Go. I Love Going To The Grocery Store And The Market. None Of It's Drudgery For Me. Washing Dishes Is The Drudgery.

Well, We Don't Take Money From People And Then Show The Product. It Has To Be A Product That We Like Anyway, And That's True For All Five Of Us, Which Is One Of The Really Nice Things About The Way We Make The Show.

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When The Idea Of 'chopped' Surfaced, It Was Originally Meant To Be Taped At Some Guy's Mansion With Him And His Crazy Chihuahua. A Stuffy Fellow In A Tuxedo Was To Host, And The Losing Chef's Dish Was Then Fed To The Dog! I Am Not Kidding, I Saw It! I Think It Is Genius! Twisted, But Genius!

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You Know The Great Irony Is That People Think You Have To Have Money To Enjoy Fine Food, Which Is A Shame.

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Atrocities Committed

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