5 Cooking Shows Like Chopped

The cooking competition "Chopped" has been a mainstay on the Food Network since 2009. Every episode has four chefs competing in three rounds of cooking. Each challenge reveals a new set of disparate ingredients they need to use to make their dish. After every round, the losing chef is cut, and whoever can make it through all three wins $10,000. The show has many strict rules the competitors must follow, like tight time limits.

If you're one of its many fans who have watched all 63 seasons of "Chopped" and are looking for another show to tide you over until the 64th, you have plenty of options. In case throwing your own "Chopped"-themed cooking party isn't enough, we put together a list of some of our favorite cooking competition shows for you to check out. Whether you enjoy the stress, the creativity, or the personalities that arise from the challenges and limited time given to the competitors, there's something out there for you!

One of the most popular of its genre, "Top Chef" has the creative challenges of "Chopped" with a lot of moments in between for the chefs' personalities to shine. Each episode only has two cooking trials: Quickfire and elimination. The Quickfires are short, high-pressure cooking segments that feature restrictions or curveball ingredients comparable to "Chopped." The elimination round is often team-based and has a larger theme and more time. At the end of an episode, one chef is told to pack their knives and go home.

Instead of fresh faces every episode, we get to be with these contestants throughout the whole season. Whether they're learning about the food scene and history of the city the season is based in, shopping at a local market (or, more often, Whole Foods), or just hanging around the house, we get to know the chefs as people. Some will have an arc through the season where they grow as a cook, many times learning to embrace where they come from.

The cooking ability of the competitors on "Top Chef" is high, and the show has launched many cooks into stardom. Chefs such as Kwame Onwuachi, Gregory Gourdet, and Stephanie Izard have all won prestigious James Beard awards and opened up well-regarded restaurants.

You won't find "Gastronaughts" on any television networks. It's strictly on the online streaming platform Dropout. Formed out of the pieces of College Humor, a big name in YouTube comedy in the 2000s, the network is full of comedians improvising on shows like "Game Changer" and "Dimension 20." Last year, they brought their high-energy antics to the world of food competitions.

Don't worry, no comedian is trying to cook. They brought in real chefs to do that part. The fun comes from the wild and sometimes unhinged challenges the funny people give the chefs. Challenges have included food that can be played with, the blandest meal while still tasting good, and a dish that is also a puzzle to be solved. Stakes are low as the show is a lighthearted and friendly competition with the chefs doing their best with the big asks the comics give them. The cast watch the chefs cook from another room, presumably so they don't have to hold back on their big reactions to what's happening. It's wild and edgy, true to the internet, and a lot of fun.

If you wished "Chopped" was meaner, then "Cutthroat Kitchen" may be right up your alley. The format is similar. Each episode has four new competitors facing off through three rounds of cooking challenges. What forces them to get even more creative are the auctions that happen along the way. Host Alton Brown gives each player $25,000 at the start. The winner keeps the money, but they can spend it along the way on advantages or sabotages. Both before and during a challenge, auctions occur for such things as forcing another chef to use a less than ideal ingredient, cooking utensils and equipment, or even outright stealing ingredients from other players.

A guest judge comes in after everything is cooked and tastes each dish without any knowledge of any players' limitations or advantages. The result is a fun show that forces the contestants to be ruthless players as well as talented chefs. In an interview with The Daily Meal, Brown explained that he did the show because it was a chance to have fun. Brown says, "I get to be devilish, and I really have no idea who's going to win." His joy really comes through. The original series wrapped in 2017, but a new version, called "Cutthroat Kitchen: Knives Out," with host Brian Malarkey, premiered earlier this year.

If you wished "Chopped" was nicer, then you need to watch one of the kindest shows on television, "The Great British Bake Off." The series brings in amateur bakers to compete over the course of a season full of themed challenges. Every episode finds them completing a simple signature challenge, a technical with surprise ingredients and limited direction, and a showstopper meant to wow in not just flavor but appearance.

The contestants range from builders to nuclear scientists who have passions for baking. There are no fierce competitors here, as they often help each other when someone is in need. The atmosphere is pastoral; the kitchen is in an open-air tent out in a field. Soft, classical music plays with cutaways to idyllic scenes of bees, flowers, sheep, and birds, making this a true comfort watch. They may be amateurs, but some of the resulting creations coming out of their ovens can rival a professional's. There are moments of real stress where you root for people you quickly grow to love as time gets away from them or their grand ideas crumble around them in underbaked pastry, but, throughout it, the comic hosts are keeping the mood light with playful jabs and goofy bits.

This is the legendary Japanese show that first brought competition to food television in 1993. The original Japanese "Iron Chef" is a campy, over-the-top spectacle bringing WWE-style showmanship and sports broadcasting to cooking. It has since spawned "Iron Chef: America" as well as the latest version, "Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend."

In the show, a challenger goes head-to-head against an "Iron Chef," someone from the program's roster of highly skilled and intimidating culinary warriors. Both must highlight the same main ingredient and theme in a five-course meal. Play-by-play and color commentators narrate the frenetic cooking. A sideline reporter jumps in from time to time to give a closer look at the action. The contestants have an hour to make all their dishes, and judges score the results on taste, presentation, and creativity with the main ingredient. It's a pressure cooker whose winners have gone on to become household names in the world of food.