CHOPPED! A TRUE TALE
I'm in my truck, having just dropped a young boar off to be castrated (that's another story altogether).
Cell phone rings. Woman's voice.
She: "Hi, this is Susie from the Food Channel. Are you Stefan?"
Me: "Ah.. yes. Who is this?"
She: I'm calling from the Food Channel, I'm calling from Chopped."
Me: "What? Chops? Like 'lamb chops?'"
She: "CHOPPED. We're the top-rated cooking show on the ..."
Me: "OK. What can I do for you?"
She: We were wondering if you'd be interested in being on our show. We're doing an episode about baking. Bread. You know, we're going to have proof-boxes and baskets and linen and all that stuff.
Me: "Uh?"
She: "There's prize money! 10 thousand dollars. You compete against other bakers. You have to use the ingredients in our mystery basket to create an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. And if you don't get 'chopped' you win."
Me: "OK. But I don't see how you're going to do that. Baking takes time."
She: "We're working on that. We really want to do this show on bread and bakers."
Me: "Uh huh. But when I make bread I ferment the dough for 30 HOURS. How do you do that for a one-hour show?"
She: "Well.. can't you make some.. ah.. bread-thing.. that you don't have to ferment.. to make an appetizer maybe?
Me: "Bread-thing?... ah... Thanks for calling."
-Stefan Senders
