One thing that makes all those cooking competition shows so much fun is the thrill of never knowing exactly how far the chefs might be willing to go to impress the judges. Food Networks “Cutthroat Kitchen,” which is literally premised on that very question, raises the tension further by encouraging its competitors to undermine one another via trash talk, bidding wars, and carefully plotted (albeit often quite silly) acts of sabotage. In that sense, “Cutthroat Kitchen” could be viewed as a kind of humorous cross between Food Networks “Chopped” and ABCs “Survivor.”
Most of the time, Antonia Lofaso and her fellow “Cutthroat Kitchen” judges are thinking like, well, judges, not competitors; though there is one notable exception which Lofaso shared with Mashed during an exclusive interview.
In the end, Antonia’s tart proved to be well-balanced, and she scored the win and was able to donate $22,000 to charity. Read on below to hear from Antonia in an exclusive interview, and learn all about her thoughts on the battle and how this experience will impact her judging of future Cutthroat Kitchen episodes.
Judging Cutthroat Kitchen isn’t as “cutthroat” as you might think
One truth about judging “Cutthroat Kitchen,” according to Antonia Lofaso, is that its virtually impossible to separate what youre doing as a judge from what you recall feeling as a competitor — but thats a good thing. A cooking competition show veteran herself, Lofaso has competed on programs like “Top Chef,” “Tournament of Champions,” “Guys Grocery Games,” and “Chopped,” among others (via IMDb). Having that experience as a competitor has afforded Lofaso “a great amount of sympathy and empathy for everything [the competitors] do.”
Though you might expect food competition judges — especially those on “Cutthroat Kitchen” — to focus on “just the dish,” Lofaso sometimes finds herself also considering other things that make up the bigger picture. “Im more inclined to put myself in their shoes because Ive been in their shoes. And Ive had great mistakes and Ive had great failures and incredible successes. And so, to be able to also tell them that.”
For that reason, Lofaso recommends that before a chef even thinks about getting into judging, it would be a good idea to get into competing first. “I think that you become so much more of a dynamic judge when youve been in their shoes,” Lofaso told Mashed during an exclusive interview. “And you can be like, God, I know what you were going for. I saw it. I knew the determination. Time got away from you.”
Cutthroat After-Show: Lasagna | Cutthroat Kitchen | Food Network
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