Chopped has always been on of my favourite Food Network shows. I love the fast pace and the challenge of combining ingredients that oftentimes, you wouldn’t think go together. The fact that the winning chef wins money donated to their charity of choice makes it even better. If you haven’t watched Chopped, you’re missing out.

There are four rounds in each show. They get a mystery basket of items and have to make an appetizer. Round two is an entree and round three is a dessert. Someone is eliminated after each round.

I especially love the specialty episodes. For Halloween I remember they had themed and sometimes gross ingredients. For example the Appetizer had to be made out of canned pumpkin, malted chocolate balls, pie crust and lamb heart.

Chopped + Top Chefs = Chopped All Stars

Chopped All-Stars brings the show to another level by having famous or top chefs compete head to head for the title of All-Star Champion.

Chopped All-Stars Season 3

Season 3 of Food Network’s Chopped All-Stars is returning Sunday, April 7 at 9pm ET/PT. Sixteen chefs will battle it out in five rounds based on a theme. Tune in each week to see Food Network Chefs vs. Cooking Channel Chefs, a battle of the Mega Chefs, battle of the Chopped Judges and a showdown of four celebrities who love cooking.

Part of what makes the show interesting is the host Ted Allen and rotating judges including Maneet Chauhan, Marcus Samuelsson, Chris Santos, Geoffrey Zakarian and one of my favourites, Aarón Sánchez.

The winners of each episode will compete for the grand prize on May 5th.

I’ll be rooting for Alex Guarnaschelli, how about you?

*This post brought to you by Food Network in association with Emerse. See my disclosure policy for more.