Chopped All-Stars Season 2 Judges & Host Bios
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Chopped: All Stars Season 2 Contestants Announced
A few months ago a friend within the Food Network family hipped me to who the four Food Network Star participants in Chopped: All Stars would be. So I’ve known since last fall that we’d get to see the charms of Penny Davidi and Chris Nirschel on display once again and have managed to keep it to myself. Even better we also get to see Vic Moea and Justin Balmes cook again.
The talent in this group runs the gamut. Chris is the chef at what many consider a wannabe Olive Garden, Penny is a one trick pony but she does that one trick extremely well and then Vic and Justin are top notch chefs. But these guys make up just one night of Chopped: All Stars. Dig the rest.
Part 1, “Iron Chefs Do Battle” Premieres Sunday, April 8th at 9pm ET/PT Competitors: Iron Chefs Cat Cora, Marc Forgione, Jose Garces and Michael Symon. Judges: Scott Conant, Aaron Sanchez, Geoffrey Zakarian
Part 2, “Prime Time vs. Day Time” Premieres Sunday, April 15th at 9pm ET/PT Competitors: Show hosts Keegan Gerhard (Food Network Challenge), Jeffrey Saad (United Tastes of America, Cooking Channel), Aarti Sequeira (Aarti Party) and Marcela Valladolid (Mexican Made Easy). Judges: Amanda Freitag, Aaron Sanchez, Geoffrey Zakarian
Part 3, “Food Network Star Contestants” Premieres Sunday, April 22nd at 9pm ET/PT Competitors: Food Network Star Season Seven Finalists Justin Balmes, Penny Davidi, Vic “Vegas” Moea and Chris Nirschel. Judges: Scott Conant, Amanda Freitag, Aaron Sanchez
Part 4, “Judge Remix” Premieres Sunday, April 29th at 9pm ET/PT Competitors: Chopped judges Alex Guarnaschelli, Marc Murphy, Marcus Samuelsson and Chris Santos. Judges: Amanda Freitag, Aaron Sanchez, Geoffrey Zakarian
Part 5, “Grand Finale” Premieres Sunday, May 6th at 9pm ET/PT Competitors: Prior episode winners. Judges: Anne Burrell, Amanda Freitag and Aaron Sanchez.
Read full chef bios HERE. Read bios for judges and host Ted Allen HERE.
Read my exclusive interviews with Alex Guarnaschelli (HERE), Scott Conant (HERE), Justin Balmes, (HERE) Penny Davidi (HERE), Chris Nirschel (HERE), Marc Forgione (HERE), Michael Symon (HERE) and Ted Allen (HERE and HERE).
Chopped All-Stars Season 2 Chef Bios
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ICA: Flay/Vallodolid vs. Morimoto/Zimmern
Two Iron Chefs are teamed up with special guests in this All-Star Kitchen Stadium battle. Marcela Valladolid, who appears on Food Network’s ‘Mexican Made Easy’ is paired with Iron Chef Bobby Flay; and Andrew Zimmern, of Travel Channel’s ‘Bizarre Foods,’ joins Iron Chef Masuhara Morimoto. Judges are Penn Jillette, Donatella Arpaia Stewart and Simon Majumdar.
Growing up around expert and traditional cooks in Tijuana, Mexico, Marcela was raised to be passionate about food. She jumped straight into a culinary life by working her first job at her aunt’s cooking school in Baja, Mexico. She realized she too wanted to pursue this growing love for food full time and enrolled in the Los Angeles Culinary Institute, and later graduated from the Ritz Escoffier Cooking School in Paris as a classical French pastry chef.
Marcela went on to run a catering company and teach children about the culinary arts in Tijuana. She collected recipes and applied her knowledge and skills (of her family’s cooking traditions) to map out her dreams. Marcela eventually parlayed her classical training and ability to become a food editor at Bon Appétit magazine.
Andrew Zimmern is a James Beard Award-winning TV personality, chef, food writer, teacher and is regarded as one of the most versatile and knowledgeable personalities in the food world. As the creator, host and co-executive 
producer of Travel Channel’s hit series, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, he travels the globe, exploring food in its own terroir.
In May 2010, Zimmern won the prestigious James Beard Award for ‘Outstanding Television Food Personality.’ He is a three-time Beard Award nominee. Zimmern is a contributing editor at Food & Wine Magazine, an award-winning monthly columnist at Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine and a senior editor at Delta Sky Magazine. As a freelance journalist, his work has appeared in numerous national and international publications.
Bobby’s faithful (and scorching hot) sous chef Renee Forsberg joined him. Renee and Marcella on his team? Bobby Flay is one lucky man. Battle: Sea Whistle Salmon should be fun.
Check below for the outcome.
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Flay/Vallodolid Morimoto/Zimmern
Taste: 27 Taste: 25
Plating: 11 Plating: 14
Originality: 13 Originality: 11
Total: 51 Total: 50
