Member-only story
I’ve Been Chopped
During pandemic times, the Food Network’s Chopped has been making my reality much more palatable.
Friends, I’ve been chopped.
Allow me to explain. Something I didn’t anticipate during these quarantined times — besides, you know, the need to be quarantined because of a freakin’ pandemic in the first place — is my increased television consumption.
In my pre-COVID life, I watched very little TV. So embarrassingly little that I never knew what the hell my coworkers were talking about when they discussed the latest plot twist of whatever show they all watched. My entertainment was found in books and writing and blogging — “cerebral pursuits,” as noted by one of my former therapists.
That’s still true, but my television habits have changed in these strange times. I’ve been binge-watching old favorites from the early ’80s (St. Elsewhere) and discovering new ones from the millennium’s dawning (The West Wing). And now, I’ve gotten completely and hopelessly hooked on cooking competitions — specifically, Food Network’s Chopped.
I know. I know. What the hell took me so long, right? Apparently, Chopped has been on the air since January 2009 — that’s 11 years! — and here I am, just discovering this now. Better late than never, I suppose.
