The infamous words, “You’ve been chopped!” strike terror
into the hearts of chefs and viewers alike. “Chopped” is a cooking championship
TV show in which chef contestants are given “mandatory mysterious ingredients”
and judged based on their end-products. Each Chopped show starts with four chefs
with three rounds: appetizer, entrée and dessert. One chef is eliminated or chopped
from the competition in each of the first two rounds. The last two remaining
chefs go head to head in the dessert round. Then the judges determine a Chopped
Champion based on the cumulative efforts throughout the entire competition. In
addition to mysterious ingredients, such as worm salt (with real worms), rocky
mountain oysters (bull testicles) or a root beer float (for an entrée dish),
there is a time constraint. There are 20 minutes for the appetizer round, and
30 minutes each for the other rounds.
I’ve viewed many Chopped episodes and there are some common
elements. Shock at the ingredients in the basket. Chaos. Frustration. Even
heartbreak when things don’t turn out as planned or initially hoped. Then there’s
the assessment by judges and uncomfortable waiting to find out the results and
await further testing. Shock by contestants as they are chopped or dropped from
the competition. Even shock by the victor that they are still standing.
In my stay with my family in Georgia, I regularly watch
Chopped with my mom. Today’s episode struck a different chord with me and I
watched Chopped from a different perspective. I almost had my head half-cocked in
my contemplation. While my analogy isn’t perfect, here’s what I came up with: Chopped is like life in several ways. We come to this competition
or life and are given mandatory mystery ingredients with which to work at
various stages in our lives. These could be anything from a birth defect to a physical
or mental illness, loss of a loved one, unemployment, divorce, a wayward child,
addiction…
We are given these ingredients in our lives and we must do something
with them. It is often uncomfortable dealing with these mystery ingredients. Some
ingredients are so mysterious that we can’t even make sense of them. Who can
make sense of cancer or Alzheimer’s or the death of a child? How are we
supposed to combine the mystery ingredients together into something worthwhile
that makes sense in our lives? There can
even be heartbreak when things don’t turn out as planned or initially hoped in
the kitchen or in our lives.
In life as in Chopped, we are up against the clock. Time
waits for no man (or woman.) In Chopped, there seems to never be enough time to
adequately respond to the constraints of the competition or test. I think some
of the chefs would like time to grieve over the mystery ingredients they
received but time marches on. Many people have a bucket list, but few people
accomplish all of it in their lifetime. The chefs, just like us, always want to
do more. Every key mystery ingredient must be utilized. The dish (or we as
people) must end up balanced in flavor. Some chefs and people find out they
spent too much time on one ingredient and not enough on another. Some people
spend too much time working and not enough time living. “Nobody on their deathbed
has ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time at the office,’” heard from Rabbi
Harold Kushner (attributed by some to Senator Paul Tsongas.)
Then there are the judges. During the phases of the
competition, the judges give helpful commentary on the sidelines for those
chefs with a listening ear. In the end, the judges do what they must do: judge.
The judges give praise for what they can and constructive criticism for missed
opportunities or ways to improve in the future. Wise are the contestants who
listen to the judges and give heed to their words.
In my analogy, the judges are God and Jesus. God or life
gives us mystery ingredients and sees what we do with them. Ralph Waldo Emerson
said, “What you are is God’s gift to you. What you do with yourself is your
gift to God.” In Chopped as in life, we are given the test first before we can
learn from it. Vernon Law stated, “Experience is a hard teacher because she
gives the test first, the lesson afterward.” The one difference from the show
Chopped is that the only way we’re eliminated from the competition is to die.
Richard Bach, stated, “Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth
is finished. If you’re alive, it isn’t.” So, if you’re still breathing, your life
test isn’t over or complete. We continue to get more rounds in life with more
mystery ingredients and life lessons.
Throughout the competition of life, the judges or God clap
for our efforts and cheer us on to keep going. I believe, at the end, each of
us is a Chopped Champion for having made it with our own mystery ingredients in
this life. The end-product or creation is ourselves. In the midst of our chaos
in the kitchen of life, if we listen and give heed to God on the sidelines, we’ll
become as well-seasoned as the dishes on Chopped.
