{"id":774857,"date":"2026-05-05T12:16:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T12:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/774857\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T12:16:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T12:16:21","slug":"new-york-city-chef-joins-cast-of-new-food-network-competition-chopped-castaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/774857\/","title":{"rendered":"New York City chef joins cast of new Food Network competition \u2018Chopped Castaways\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New York City-based private chef is taking on the challenge of \u201cChopped Castaways,\u201d a new take on the Food Network classic competition show \u201cChopped.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hosted by Ted Allen, \u201cChopped Castaways\u201d puts twelve chefs on a remote island to have them battle it out, where their cooking skills and their survival skills will be put to the test.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each week, while battling the elements, competitors will go head-to-head in challenges, starting in round one with survival-driven challenges, such as archery, ocean diving and spearfishing, to secure ingredients. Then, while working with limited supplies, competitors will square off in a \u201cChopped\u201d-style cooking competition with a mystery basket of ingredients.<\/p>\n

The winner will go home with $100,000. The competition will be judged by Gabe Bertaccini, Maneet Chauhan and Marcus Samuelsson.
\n\"Marcus<\/a>Marcus Samuelsson, Maneet Chauhan, and Gabe Bertaccini (from L to R) judges from Chopped Castaways.Photo courtesy of Food Network\n<\/p>\n

Among this season\u2019s competitors is Paulette Tejada, a private chef who has been renowned worldwide for her modern twists on Caribbean flavors. Having grown up in a Dominican family, Tejada says that food and cooking is deeply ingrained in who she is, and she was very excited to showcase some of that upbringing in the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like our family dynamic in general was always revolving around food, and I always felt the power of cooking and how it brought my family together and no matter what was going on outside, every time we would share a meal on the table, it was like the happiest times for us,\u201d said Tejada. \u201cSo I think since I was very, very small, I just always felt that and I knew that I wanted other people to feel that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tejada told amNewYork that competing on \u201cChopped Castaways\u201d was \u201cthe craziest experience\u201d of her life, noting that you never really know how difficult these cooking competition shows are when you are watching from home. Having worked in restaurants before working as a private chef, Tejada said that though she had cooked out in the elements before, nothing could have prepared her for this show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did a lot of pop-ups and beaches and mountains, and I even did a pop-up in the middle of a hurricane once here in the Dominican Republic, so I was kind of used to working with the elements, working on an island and working outside,\u201d said Tejada. \u201cI feel like I was kind of ready for anything, but I have to say I was not ready for this, actually. It was a huge challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tejada says that her fellow competitors were pretty resilient, considering the challenges that the show was throwing at them.
\n\"Chef<\/a>Chef Paulette Tejada, as seen on \u201cChopped Castaways\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were working against the elements. We were cooking with rain falling on us, it felt like a storm was kind of brewing in the island while we were there. It was raining almost every day, so it was really hard to keep our cooking utensils safe,\u201d said Tejada. \u201cIt was really hard to build a fire with the rain every day. We really had to work, not only against the elements, but with the elements, and I feel like that was probably the hardest part of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tejada hopes that those who tune in will enjoy the different facets that the chefs competing have.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really interesting to see chefs in this type of environment because I don\u2019t think it\u2019s ever been done before and I think it\u2019s also really interesting to shine a light on chefs that have different skills. Not only can I cook, but hey, I can also fish. I can also make a fire. I can also build a kitchen from scratch. I can also swim in the ocean and there are other types of skills that you will see us chefs do,\u201d said Tejada. \u201cSo I feel like most cooking shows, they really focus only on, can you put up a dish, but this also shows like another side to us that I feel is a lot more vulnerable, and I think that\u2019s really exciting for the audience to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChopped Castaways\u201d premieres on May 12 at 9 p.m. ET\/8 p.m. CT on Food Network and will stream the next day on HBO Max.
\n\"The<\/a>The Castaways pose with host Ted Allen, as seen on \u201cChopped Castaways\u201dPhoto courtesy of Food Network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New York City-based private chef is taking on the challenge of \u201cChopped Castaways,\u201d a new take on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":774858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,168959,317541,116639,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,317542,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-774857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-chopped","10":"tag-chopped-castaways","11":"tag-food-network","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-paulette-tejada","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116521926215843754","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}