I Got Chopped

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Last week, the episode of Chopped that I took part in back in January, aired on Food Network. And to be completely honest, the whole experience was different then I really expected it to be. I knew it was going to have a little more than just cooking. I mean it is TV and they need to make a show that has some drama and perhaps a little suspense to it. However I never really expected the producers to actually turn us all into characters acting out some type of culinary charade. Of the four contestants, everyone of us played our own little role, cause you had the "Tiny-Tim" character, the monkey that got chopped first, the underdog and then there was me: The "Glorified Douche bag". Now I'm not trying to say that I didn't say the things that i said. However, what I said came directly from what the producers wanted me to say. Not meaning that they told me what to say and I said it, however, during the interviews they were constantly egging you on to say something derogatory about the other contestants. And it's not as though, the entire act is played out over a couple of hours. The entire day lasted 16 hours. And there is just so much stress and pressure flying around you and through you that, you almost just say whatever they want to hear, just to make them go the hell away.

Nonetheless, I think overall I wasn't portrayed in the right way. Yes, a lot of what was shown, displayed me in a very stand-offish sort of way. However I feel at the end of the day I was fair to my competition, and that was not shown during the episode. For instance during the interview that followed Son's getting chopped, I told the interviewer that I would have preferred to get eliminated before him, out of respect for what he had been through health wise, and the fact that he was still pursuing his dream of cooking. Unfortunately, this was never put on air, and I was stuck with only the negative things that came out of my mouth. So i guess at the end of all of it, I am still not sure if the experience was really worth it at all.