With marijuana slowly being legalized in a lot of states in America, the rules of using marijuana are slowly bending. With popular food television network the Food Network, they’re taking it to the next level of including marijuana on their network. With the popularity of their infamous cooking competition show Chopped, Food Network will be adding another cooking television show to their catalog. That cooking show will involve marijuana. Food Network will be planning to introduce Chopped 420 to its viewers.
With the original Chopped series having 45 seasons and over 500 episodes airing on Food Network, Chopped challenges four promising chefs to turn a selection of everyday ingredients into an extraordinary three-course meal. The show is divided into three rounds; in each round, the chefs are given a basket with four unrelated ingredients, and the dish each competitor prepares must contain all of these ingredients.
In a press statement, Food Network president Courtney White stated that the new series will mark the “first time in Chopped history”: that chefs will “utilize cannabis to enhance their dishes”. White also thinks that Chopped viewers will be in for a wild ride for the upcoming cannabis cooking competition show.
Hosting the competition show will be comedian Ron Funches, and judges include chefs Esther Choi, Luke Reyes, and Sam Talbot; drag performer and cannabis activist Laganja Estranja, and comedian Tacarra Williams. Contestants who go on the show will be competing for a $10,000 grand prize.
Chopped 420 won’t be the first cooking show involving marijuana. There are multiple series on YouTube like Bong Appetit and Netflix has a popular cooking show titled Cooked with Cannabis.
The rise of marijuana-based cooking competition shows is seen as one of the huge steps of the decriminalization of marijuana with now Chopped 420 being added to the list of shows. Chopped 420 will start streaming on Discovery+ on April 20th (what a coincidence).