onelittlechef

Guy Fieri was the best and I’m actually surprised I felt that way because he comes off as such a gimmick but he was great. He pulled all the contestants aside before we even started filming to give us pep talks. He told us to remember to have fun with it at the end of the day and to use our time on the show as an hour long commercial for ourselves. So whatever we want to promote, advocate for, or celebrate to use the show as a platform for that. The entire production on his show also takes care of their chefs the best. We got our own trailers, snacks, signed swag after the show etc.

Dishes definitely get cold before they eat them. Once time is up they film "chef's looking at plates" for 3-4 minutes then we all walk off to sequester (the room with the table where all the chefs talk about the round) we're in there for around 15 minutes while being filmed as we go over how we all feel like we did and then they bring us back out for judging. Each dish takes around 15-20 minutes to be judged before going on to the next dish. The producers were always reassuring us that the judges don't take temperature into account when tasting (although obviously a warm dish is going to taste better than a cold one)

I viewed it as a way of promoting myself and my restaurant. I also felt like it was important as a Woman, Lesbian, and first-generation Cuban American to go on as a way of bringing visibility to minorities in the kitchen. I filmed my last episode of Chopped while 6 months pregnant and felt like it was important for me to go on to show that I can be a badass chef and a badass mom without compromising one or the other. The money was obviously nice but I never went on hell-bent on winning. I also found after the first competition that I actually enjoy competing so it definitely had a fun factor for me.

Honestly I’d rather eat it cold/room temp. Heat lamps keep food warm-ish but mostly just dry stuff out. I would also be worried that it would over cook/continue to cook any protein or sauces on the plate

honestly, my wife does most of the cooking at home since I work such long hours at the restaurant. But when I do get the chance to cook at home I love making breakfast for dinner lol I also tend to cook a lot of soups and stews because they feel more homey than the stuff I make at work.