Chopped

Four chefs get to the heart of Italian cuisine with ingredients from the robust Emilia-Romagna region. A slithery surprise challenges the chefs in the appetiser round, while the entrée round ends with very different takes on a veal and mushroom dish.

The chefs showcase what they know about making amazing Venetian dishes. A strange ingredient in the first basket threatens to throw them off their game, while using polenta to its best effect in a half-hour entrée round is a tremendous task.

Four winning chefs return for the Battle Italiano finale, where they'll represent their regions and fight for $25,000. Emotions run high in a dramatic entrée round, and unfamiliar ingredients in the dessert basket keep the finalists on their toes.

The chefs go overboard when it comes to making gluttonous food; they compete for time with the fryer in the appetiser round, struggle to pair ingredients with their steak entrées and pull out the stops with gummy cinnamon roll desserts.

Four chefs find a biggie piggy surprise in the appetiser basket and get a bit overzealous pounding pork for their entrée; the final two competitors are tickled pink by the discovery of pink pineapple in their dessert baskets.

Four competitors take the reins as a cactus product and casserole stand out in the appetiser basket; a spicy surprise brings the heat in the entrée round; a special flour for dessert could prove to be inspiring or intimidating.

Four chefs have the green light to go wild for avocados. The chefs struggle to figure out how to work with a secret meat in the entrée basket and must kick their creativity into high gear to make avocado work well in their superfood desserts.

Shell-shocked, the chefs crush open crustaceans in every round to make sensational seafood meals. Big ambitions in a tight time frame might mean trouble for one chef, and the judges wonder if a risky plan in the dessert round will pan out.

The competitors create appetisers that include a central Asian bread and a sweet and sour treat, make a packaged product sing with sole in the entrée round and take on a dessert round featuring an Indian snack and a plethora of pastries.