Bradley Carpenter (00:05)
Hey there and welcome to The Unscripted Files. My name is Madeline Cunningham. I'm a development producer in the unscripted entertainment industry, bringing you candid conversations with the minds behind your favorite form of entertainment. Today, we have a guest with an iconic show that is in its 61st season, which is kind of unbelievable this day and age, it's a show we all know and love. She is the executive producer and showrunner, has been on since the early days and talks

all things Chopped, what it's like on set, how they create the baskets, answers some burning questions from listeners. And then we get into all things sort of her career, how she runs her sets, how she problem solves, a really, really inspiring conversation. So without further ado, here is my conversation with Amy Stanford.

Madelyn Cunningham (00:54)
Amy Stanford welcome to Unscripted Files. You are the showrunner and executive producer of the iconic Chopped show, which is now on its 61st season, which feels kind of unreal. I feel like shows just don't get that kind of longevity anymore. So I'm so happy that I'm getting to chat with you. Chopped is such a beloved show for people who love...

Amy Stanford (01:05)
See

Madelyn Cunningham (01:16)
competition, culinary, it's just one of those icons that stands the test of time. So I'm so excited that you're here and I'm really looking forward to kind of hearing more about how you got on the show, how you found yourself there.

Amy Stanford (01:28)
Thank you. Yes, Chopped is my baby. It has given me so many things in life. It is a TV show, but it definitely is in sort of the pop culture zeitgeist. I take a lot of pride in that. And I think Chopped, is, we completed our 61st season, 62nd season actually. 61st is airing right now. And the crew.

is like, it sounds really cheesy because everybody sort of says this, but the crew really is family. know, they've been like, our director has been on since the very first show and he will say, Chopped is older than the iPhone. You know, it's like whenever they were doing that first season, the iPhone was sort of coming out. So that sort of gives you an idea of like how much the crew has gone together and grown together. And a lot of the people that are on our show now have been on it for 15 years. I have almost been on it for 14 years in some capacity, not in the same capacity.

I am now, the show wouldn't be anything without the people who work on it and the talent too. I think some of our judges and of course Ted have really created sort of an iconic vibe about it. They created a family, they created something that everybody was really excited to watch. And I think Linda who made the decision to have the rotating judge panel in the beginning, because for the first 10 years.

It was really just like those seven or eight judges and they were rotating through and I think the audience really got familiar with that and it helped sort of solidify what the show became. So thank you, I'm really, listen, I could talk about Chopped all day long so I'm happy to be

Madelyn Cunningham (02:46)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I'm super excited. So you've been on since what 2010. So you said about 14 years. So when did you come on and how has your role changed sort of in, you know, from season or those early seasons to now season 62. How has your role evolved?

Amy Stanford (03:13)
I, so I came on the show in 2009, right out of college. I was really lucky. A family, sort of a distant family member introduced me to the creator and executive producer, Linda Lee. And I was like, I'm just fresh out of college. I, you know, came from Texas tech, a really small town in Texas. I didn't know what I was doing. I just knew that I was willing to work really hard. I had done some theater and you know, high school. I was always sort of interested in the entertainment industry. And she was like, I think you'd, I think you'd be good in casting.

But the show wasn't picked up yet. And so she was like, well, until we get the show picked up and you get on the casting team, come and be my assistant. So I started in August of 2009 as Linda Lee's assistant. And to this day, it's still the hardest job I've ever had because she's a tough woman. She knows what she wants. She has a really keen eye.

She's very smart and you know, I think she's the reason why Chopped is what Chopped is. So, you know, there's a lot of respect for her in the industry and I learned a lot from her. So I started 2009 as her assistant and then went on to set and did like story logging, essentially. like just a PA, a story PA. was trying, I was saying like, you know, Madeline used the durian in her, you know, ice cream in the dessert round. Like, and I was giving those notes to the producers and sort of learned from all of them.

Madelyn Cunningham (04:31)
Okay. Yeah.

Amy Stanford (04:34)
and then I was on Chopped as an assistant, assistant to Linda and sort of assistant to the show. You know, I was working with Vivian Sorensen, who was the co-EP at the time and Kate Kinney, who's a supervising producer and just helping them build the judge calendar. And I was sort of all of their executive assistants in a way. So from the time I started in TV, I was learning how to make TV by learning from the Chopped producers and

Madelyn Cunningham (04:51)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (05:00)
What was so good about that is Chopped is so, it's so repetitive, but it's not, it doesn't get boring. know, every show is so different and the makeup of the cast is really what adds to the magic. You know, it's like making sure that the chefs are, the stories are being told and that the judges have something to say about the specific foods. And I was really just sort of learning how magic was made. Vivian was very,

She comes from a theatrical background. And so she always had these like big ideas and wanted to tell these really big stories with the chefs. And especially early on in Chopped, really, I think that's one of the biggest things that sort of catapulted it to a different echelon of just from being a regular cooking competition show to really being a show that tells the journey of a chef, you know? So I really credit her for that in a huge way. She really helped sort of.

create the show and what it is today. you know, I just, really learned like, and I think that helped me so much in my career. I was on top for like, let's say four years as an assistant. And then throughout that time, Linda had partnered with Donna McCleche and they started a company called Jane's for Entertainment. So for a while it was Lindley, Donna McCleche and myself at Jane's for Entertainment and

sort of while we were producing Choff, we were also creating these new ideas. So, you I helped to write the treatment for a show called 24 Hour Catwalk, which was the first show that we had at Jane Street. And I was just an assistant, you know, I was just like really, we were a small little scrappy company, women owned, and I was really proud of that. And I was still young and was like, give me anything. I will work so hard, like just, just let me try, know, and so they did, of course.

Madelyn Cunningham (06:28)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Amy Stanford (06:43)
They edited it and adjusted and I learned from them. And so then we started, they started Jane Street and I was sort of along with them for the ride. They called me Amy the army for a long time. And that was back when we were in the office. So I'd be at the office at nine o'clock and would leave till nine o'clock and still be doing stuff on the side. was really, I was really in my like super grinding era. Like I said, it's still the hardest job I've ever had. I run a very successful TV show and.

Madelyn Cunningham (06:54)
Love that.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (07:12)
being an assistant was hard, it was hard work. But it taught, you like I said, it taught me a lot. So I did that. And then eventually, you know, I was like, okay, I've sort of conquered this assistant role. And throughout that, I was doing some associate producing on the shows that we would get picked up. I helped develop a show called Sweet Genius, which was a really fun, like dessert sort of format. And basically in the format of Chopped, right, it was three rounds with a host, Ron Ben Israel, who was wild and wacky and super fun.

Madelyn Cunningham (07:33)
Mm-hmm

Amy Stanford (07:42)
24 hour catwalk, we did Rocco's Dinner Party, we did a show called Rachel vs Guy. So I was producing on that and helping to put it together and I was talking to agents and really getting the, figuring out how to package talent in shows and how to sell things. I was really just, I was just learning. I was soaking up everything I possibly could and I think it had come to a point where both Linda and I were like, you've soaked up everything you can here and now.

go and fly, go and do the freelance thing and see what happens. I'm always here, we're always here. You go spread your wings a little. So I did and then went, throughout the time I had met different showrunners who had come onto those shows. This woman, Kirstie Nordl, who now helps run Bobby Flay's company, she immediately was like, I'm hiring you. So I went and worked on a show with Bobby Flay called Three Days to Open and then.

You know, I started field producing and did a show called Food Court Wars, went out to LA, did a show called Skin Wars, Love, or Run. I sort of like tried my hand at some different genres and people. And it was always so interesting to see how teams came together. You know, I really, like I learned so much from my time originally with Linda at Jane Street and Donna. And then I learned a lot from my time in the freelance world. You know, it was just like, you never sort of knew who was going to be on your team. I figured out what teams worked best together, what didn't work well together.

when you're, you know, when you're putting teams together, who is what kind of personalities you need, you know, not only skill sets, but also attitudes and work ethic and how to like recognize those things. and just good content, you know, really learning from people who are nice and good at their jobs. I had a really good time doing it too. So I did that for about, about four years, I would say, I don't know, I might have all my years mixed up three, four years, something like that. And.

Then Linda called one day and said, Hey, we just got a second, second, third and fourth or something season of Chopped Junior. They developed a new iteration of Chopped and they were producing so many episodes of Chopped at the time. This was back in like season, I think in the twenties, maybe mid thirties. They're like, we need help. can't like the team that we have right now. We can't produce fast enough. We need somebody to come and produce Chopped Junior while we're producing Chopped.

And Linda was like, there's nobody that knows my brand and my ideas and I have like more trust in than you, right? Like I was her assistant. Not only was I her assistant in business, you know, in Chopped and in TV, but I just knew her. really knew what she liked, what she didn't like. I knew I just had her brain and she knew that, you know, and she Chopped is, you know, her baby. So I was really honored that she wanted me to come back and work for Chopped. So Chopped Jr. So then I came on.

as a supervising producer in Chopped Junior and I was really the person who was working with the casting director and helping to get all the baskets together and putting the lineups together and sort of presenting to the co-EP and Linda the EP at the time saying, hey, here's what I think would make a great show. And did that for, I was on for nine seasons. Chopped Junior eventually ended and then we started, I started just working on Chopped and sort of doing the same thing and.

And then we started another production company. know, was just like we, there's no, there's no limit to the ideas that we can have with Chopped and especially with food. We see so many chefs come through our doors. You know, we see so many chefs, we hear so many stories, we get so inspired by the people that we meet that we can't help but to think of, you know, other ways to tell their stories and food. So we started a company called Good Egg Entertainment probably in, I think 2018.

did some shows with them. And so for the past 10 years, I've been working on Chopped. I was supervising for about three years, four years maybe. And then eventually Linda thought that it would be a good idea if I took over Chopped Sweets. So we got picked up for Chopped Sweets and she was like, okay, this is gonna be your baby now. So then that was my baby. And I think...

I think the show and the crew and everybody really liked how that felt. You know, it felt sort of new and fresh and then eventually it moved into I became the show runner of Chopped. This was around COVID time, so a lot of things were changing. And I've been running the show for the past five years and when I say it's one of the joys of my life, really, I can't express that enough.

Madelyn Cunningham (11:58)
what a joy to love what you to be with a brand, be with something for so long. And then to have the trust from a creator to take it and run with it on sort of the spinoffs like Chopped Sweets, Chopped Junior and to...

innately know the intention, the brand so well that you have that trust to go in and do those things, and to be able to nurture something for so long, I'm sure is incredibly rewarding. then, you you mentioned bringing crews together, bringing talent together that feels good. I mean,

Chopped is such a machine. It's an episode a day, right? 12 hours a day. And fun, but not easy work. Like, it's a grind. And so it is so important to have people on set who are obviously technically talented. But a lot of that doesn't matter if you're not, like, positive and, bringing good energy

Amy Stanford (12:35)
Mm-hmm.

Madelyn Cunningham (12:50)
did you feel like early on when you first started, did you just fall in love with it immediately? Did you have that sort of moment where you were like, oh, this is what I wanna do. Like, this is totally for me.

Amy Stanford (13:04)
I did actually. Early on I always said it's the perfect combination of my skills and what I'm good at and what I like to do, which is I have a part of me that's incredibly type A and I want Excels and documents and lists and I'm ready to run through all of those things in a very organized way. And then the other side of me that's very creative and is like, I don't know, what do think we can do? And I have...

Madelyn Cunningham (13:10)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (13:31)
I sort of have both sides and usually, know, in college, like I said, you just don't hear a lot about jobs like this. You know, can be a nurse, you can be a doctor, you can be a teacher, you can be in public relations, you know, and that's sort of where I thought I was gonna go is maybe public relations. And in TV you're like, I can be an actor, you know, or a superstar, which is very unlikely, or basically I'm gonna be at a desk job forever. So when I found this, I was like, aha.

Madelyn Cunningham (13:52)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (13:59)
These are my people. And not only are they my people in the way that they're creative and also there's a problem to be solved, there's an event to have done, but people in the industry are fun. know, they sort of, Linda would always call us like carnies. We sort of go into a town, we set up a tent, we put on a show, we take it down and we move on to the next, you know? And those people always have such an interesting perspective on life and they always bring something new and.

You know, we're not accountants who are sitting at our desks and punching numbers. know, even the people who are in the production management side who do deal with numbers, they still want that creative energy. Like that is still something, a driving force in them that really brought them to the industry. So I love that. You know, I love the people, my best friends to this day.

Madelyn Cunningham (14:36)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (14:45)
are producers, you know, we're all like supervising producers, co-EPs, EPs, my group chats, the girls who will be in my wedding, like we are all producers, I met them in the industry. And I think it's just because those, you know, it's nice to be able to gravitate towards an industry where people are like-minded.

Madelyn Cunningham (15:03)
Yeah, totally.

Chopped is such a brilliant format because it never gets old. mean, at 62 seasons, it's like there's new chefs, new talent, new stories every time.

you're bringing in new judges, and then we just had the latest finale last night, right, of Name Your Price, which was such a fun format where it was an opportunity for them to get additional money or to bet on other ingredients. When it comes to creating those sort of new challenge themes and stuff, you just have endless options. What does it look like for you guys to sit down and plan these seasons, to come up with new themes, and to figure out how to

Amy Stanford (15:14)
every time.

We did!

Madelyn Cunningham (15:42)
keep the essence and ethos of what Chopped is, but ensure that you're incorporating sort of fresh themes and challenges.

Amy Stanford (15:49)
Right. You know, that's, would say since I started running Chopped in 2019, that's one of the biggest differences of the show over the past five years. You know, the TV landscape has just changed in general, right? It's like not as much people have cable. People are cutting the cord everywhere. So people are really trying to figure out, you know, our network exec was like, we want to turn on Chopped and if they see it, they don't want it just to look like another episode. Let's revamp the set. Let's have some something else going on.

to make them stop and watch, you know, because there are so many episodes. So, you know, that process is, it's really tough. I'm not gonna lie about that because it is such an iconic brand. And so there's a lot to take care of in that way, but it's also really fun, you know? But it doesn't happen overnight. It really doesn't. Like it will take me a month to brainstorm.

let's call it 75 ideas, and be that for themes, like a Thailand theme or a midnight snack theme, something like that, a big tournament, like name your price. This past season we had 26 episodes, but of those 26 episodes we were gonna do one tournament, and that ended up being name your price. But to get to that one tournament, I created seven. I created seven tournaments, I was like, okay, we could do this.

or we could do this, we call it this, we could change it this way, we could have this person judge, we could do this, we could cast these kinds of people, and that really has to be fully built out. So it's not really even just the one tournament that I created, it's the seven that now I'm like, okay, I'll put those in my back, that are left on the cutting room floor, so I'll put those in my back pocket and maybe an element of those.

Madelyn Cunningham (17:15)
Totally.

rate that are left on the cutting room floor. Yeah.

Amy Stanford (17:29)
something will inspire us in the coming years or something becomes more relevant, right? Pop culture changes a little bit and you wanna pull something in, something like the Traders is popular. So you're like, okay, what element of the strategy do we maybe put in? So it's a really, you know, it's really just about like taking a step back and having your eyes open and being aware of what's happening in the food world. You know, whenever I was learning how to ideate on development or chopped or whatever it may be.

Madelyn Cunningham (17:38)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (17:56)
Linda would always tell me, go take a walk around the block. Like you're never going to get inspired just sitting at your desk at your computer for eight hours a day. You're not going to do it. Go see a movie, go take a walk around the block. go to a museum, like see what, see what the world has to offer and what maybe you could pick and choose from that. And at the time, you know, I was an assistant and I was like, I don't like, what do you mean take a walk around the block? Like I take a walker. Yeah. Like.

Madelyn Cunningham (18:21)
She was like, touch grass. Like, yeah.

Amy Stanford (18:24)
I was like, I

take a walk around the block and I have 15 emails and you know, like how do I possibly do that? And then, you know, as you grow in your career, I realized how important that advice was because that's exactly what I have to do. Like for this, for this last tournament that we did, Name Your Price, you know, the set design is actually a big part of what helps those tournaments grab an audience and is a, is a really hard thing to do, right? You hire a set designer, but they need inspiration as well.

So I was like, okay, what is this gonna look like? I know it's gonna be an auction. We want it to be more Sotheby's style, not necessarily a farm auction in a barn. And so I went to the Met one day. Me and my boyfriend then, my fiance now, we went to the Met and we were walking around and I was looking at the arches and sort of the design of the Met and sort of getting inspired. I was like, you know what? That would actually be really great behind our judges. So now if you go to the Met.

Madelyn Cunningham (18:59)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (19:20)
or Google the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The arches that are above the doors when you enter is basically the design of what we had behind the judges. know, it's like trying to bring in that museum feel, right? Like an auction, something that is prized, is worthy. So it's just about looking in the world and seeing what can inspire you. And, you know, it's funny to think that like something at an art museum would inspire me.

Madelyn Cunningham (19:30)
I love that.

Totally.

Amy Stanford (19:46)
for something that's in a food competition reality show. inspiration really comes everywhere if you're looking for it.

Madelyn Cunningham (19:52)
It totally does. so what's the favorite sort of like theme that you've done thus far that you've really, really enjoyed?

Amy Stanford (20:01)
gosh, you know, I really liked, I really liked our casino theme to be honest.

Madelyn Cunningham (20:05)
I was gonna ask about

Casino. I thought that was so fun.

Amy Stanford (20:09)
Casino was really fun. was a challenge. That was the very first one where our network executive, Steven O'Leary, was like, let's do something crazy, something that Chopped has never done before. And my mind was like exploding. I had just sort of taken over this role. I had literally just taken over this role. We were in COVID. It was 2020. Everybody was wearing masks. We were moving the show to Knoxville just to try to keep everybody safe and give everybody a little bit more space.

I was doing two other shows at the time running them. So I was like really deep in my hustle era in 2020 in Chopped. And so I was just like, how am I gonna do this? Chopped is like, it's a 12 hour show on set and every single one of those little minutes is so perfectly curated. And so it took a lot of like finagling to figure out how we were gonna change the format in that way. The first one was good. That was our first, we did two casinos.

Madelyn Cunningham (20:54)
Yeah.

Amy Stanford (21:03)
Casino One, and I learned a lot from that show, set design being the biggest one. And then Casino Two was like razzle dazzle and special and wonderful. And the games were really fun. And I just loved it. It was really great. It was the first time we had ever given the chefs sort of agency over their own choices, right? For all of Chopped up until that point, it had really been, okay, you're a chef, welcome to Chopped. You get in front of that basket, you open it up, you have four ingredients, go.

Madelyn Cunningham (21:20)
Mm.

Amy Stanford (21:31)
And then with the introduction of casino, we said, okay, you have four ingredients. Which one do you not want? Like, what are you willing to gamble on? What kind of person are you? Right? And so that really gave us an insight into not only what they like to cook and what their POV is, but are they a risk taker? You know, are they going to go really, really big and try to make a name for themselves? Are they going to play it really safe? Are they going to try to sabotage their, you know, their other competitors? do they care about what their other competitors are doing?

Madelyn Cunningham (21:37)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (21:59)
So it was really interesting and it was interesting for our judges too, I think, to get that different sort of insight on their choices. Because used to it was sort of apples to apples choices, right? You have these four ingredients, what are you gonna do with them? And that was the first time we sort of broke that mold. And I think it opened up a lot of opportunity for the show. And it showed us that the audience was willing to sort of take that road with us and go just a little, you know, just slightly off the beaten path.

Madelyn Cunningham (22:10)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. So fun. Yeah, 100%. So when you have these ideas and you're bringing your seven, like you said, you're taking it to the executive producers, you're taking it to the creators, and you're working together with them to really hone in on what your choices are going to be. And then you said you watch the mat. You're creating mood boards for set design, and you're going to each of your department heads and executing the theme with each of them, right? Yeah.

Amy Stanford (22:26)
So was nice and really that opened up some doors for creativity with us for sure.

That's right, that's exactly

right. Yeah, we do, I do a lot of mood boards. I have a lot of really smart, great people.

Madelyn Cunningham (22:56)
Love a mood board. Are

you Canva? you like Photoshop? Where are you mood boarding?

Amy Stanford (23:04)
Personally, I'm mood-board on Pinterest. Professionally, even whenever now that I've gone through a bunch of different things. Used to it was like a PowerPoint, or then it became Google Slides, and then it depended on who was sort of assisting me at the time. Then I would sort of send them photos and they'd put it together for me. But recently, like two years ago, I was like, use Pinterest in my personal life. Why don't I use it for my professional life?

Madelyn Cunningham (23:06)
Okay, yes.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

It's easy. Love that. Boom.

Amy Stanford (23:29)
So I started doing that and then I just sent everybody the link. I was like, I don't have to do anything, it's already done.

So yeah, a lot of Pinterest boards and a lot of, there are sort of three main things with any Chopped theme that makes it successful is like the overall theme, right? What's the theme and who are the judges gonna be? What judges from the repertoire of Food Network judges that everybody knows and loves and also people that people don't know yet. Who has something to say over this?

Madelyn Cunningham (23:56)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (23:56)
the

specific content that sort of goes together. The casting is a big thing, you know? And those casting decisions have to come so early. So while, you know, the audience right now is seeing shows on the air, I was making those decisions about the cast and the creative back in March of 2024, you know? It's a long process. So the casting...

Madelyn Cunningham (24:00)
Huge.

Amy Stanford (24:20)
the theme creative and the judges and the food. know, it's like, you can't forget what goes in the baskets. Our culinary director, Sarah Hormy has been with the show since day one, since the very beginning of Chopped. And she's so good about listening to my like crazy ideas of a theme that I have and pitching me, what about this? What about this? And we, you know, we have a basket document that we created. Like it's all very organized now. She'll usually pitch me ideas.

Madelyn Cunningham (24:24)
Exactly.

Amy Stanford (24:45)
and then I'll go in and be like, I don't know, maybe not like wow enough, you know, it's like I want something to shock or I want something, you know, you have to have something green. yeah, the cheeseburger in a tube was a big hit. we, she found that and I was like, yes, that is a tournament ingredient, that's a good one. And it's actually not even a bad ingredient, I usually try to try them all. it really is, yeah, well, you know, I try. I'm not as adventurous as some people are on set are.

Madelyn Cunningham (24:50)
Yeah, add in more canned cheeseburger. Yeah. Yeah, a tube, yeah.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Really?

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (25:14)
our second AD, or our first AD, our assistant director, Sean King, I think he's tried every single basket ingredient that we've ever had. Like it doesn't matter if it's cow eyeballs, he'll take a little bite of it. And I'm like, you know what? I'm all good.

Madelyn Cunningham (25:22)
That's cool.

Yeah, I couldn't

go there. Like I'll eat most things that I couldn't go there. Okay, you work, so you're executing, you're working on the chopped baskets. And I mean, they're, the chopped baskets are random, but they're not. Like, there is a science to those, you you've got an acid, you've got this, like they're not just random, like they have an end sort of in mind. And every ingredient sort of has its...

Amy Stanford (25:31)
I'm all good.

They do.

Madelyn Cunningham (25:54)
role in terms of the flavor, the salt, fat, sugar, whatever. But I mean, trying to populate those keep it fresh, I'm sure there's an incredible amount of research involved, trying to find new things, trying to cheeseburger in a tube, I'm sure that's a monumental process as well.

Amy Stanford (26:17)
It is. mean, it really is, especially, you know, when you're talking about 26 episodes, there's four ingredients in every basket. There's 12 ingredients in an episode. That's hundreds of ingredients, you know, not to mention the backup ingredients that we have and, you know, whatever else. So, yeah, Sarah does a great job. She does a great job researching and helping to pitch and find new ideas. You know, she'll always go to little markets in Queens and be like, I saw this random thing on the shelf. I've never seen it before. What do you think about it?

Madelyn Cunningham (26:28)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (26:46)
So it really does, it does take a village in terms of figuring out how to keep it fresh and how to keep it relevant. there's always a really fine balance between the shock factor, the cow eyeball factor and the eatability factor. there's, every now and then you have to throw in a cow eyeball just to keep people guessing, like what are they gonna do with that? I remember in a casino episode, I think it was a casino episode.

Madelyn Cunningham (26:49)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (27:12)
This woman Kat got, she like bid big, she like went, she double or nothinged in the dessert round and she got a terrible ingredient instead of a good one. She got a cow eyeball and she made a cow eyeball ice cream and the judges were like, I don't know what you did to this thing, but it's so good. And I even had to taste that one. I was like, I have to taste this cow eyeball ice cream and I'll just never forget it. Like I've seen so many chefs cook so many dishes, but that one was really, really impressive. So, you know, it really does go to show like if you're...

Like you said, the baskets are created with something in mind, right? So every time Sarah creates a basket, I'll usually ask her, what would you make? And she's like, okay, well, this protein, these things are really good friends. This protein goes well with this. You could use this to make a sauce. This isn't a classic dish. A lot of the times, we'll back out of something that's classic and do little twists on it and throw in something here or there. It's like, we won't put cheese, we'll put Cheetos. We won't put pork, we'll put like...

Madelyn Cunningham (27:41)
Mm-hmm.

Exactly.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (28:07)
trotters in, know, just little twists and turns to make the chefs really think. And you can tell when there's a chef who really knows ingredients, you know, when they really know about ingredients and how ingredients function in their flavor profiles and what goes well with them and shortcuts that you can take in 30 minutes because they don't have all day, you know, they have 30 minutes. It's really quick and...

Madelyn Cunningham (28:16)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (28:30)
It's a big challenge. So it's really fun to see when we have great chefs in the kitchen. It's so fun to see them succeed at these baskets. I will say still even still after all of the rounds that I've had, there's still nothing more exhilarating than being on set for around the job.

Madelyn Cunningham (28:37)
Totally.

casting, like you said, is so critical because you're looking for, you have to have story. That's important. It's like, I don't watch the Olympics because I love the sport. I watch the Olympics for the people. Like I watch it for pommel horse guy and for like the stories. Like you want to root for somebody. It's very similar. Like you can love cooking, sure. But it's really where the stories come in. So when it comes to cast, then you need, but then they got to perform too.

Amy Stanford (28:49)
Huge.

Yeah.

Madelyn Cunningham (29:10)
Like, it's like, they have to be able to perform. So when it comes to the casting process, I can't imagine how many submissions you get. And then how do you really go through, how can I validate your technical skills so that when you're out there, you're gonna perform? Because we don't have time for hangups in our 12 hour day. Like, this is a fine science. How can I make sure you're not gonna choke? And then, but also at the same time, how can I make sure that you're gonna bring some like versatile personality as well?

Amy Stanford (29:11)
That's right.

Right, it's a challenge. It's a challenge every year, it really is. And we work with a great casting director, Jen Sullivan, who's been doing our casting for years. Before that it was Beth Schiff, who's an incredible casting director. And I think, you know, in the beginning it was Beth and Vivian. Beth Schiff and Vivian Sorsen that really sort of set the tone for what the casting was going to be. So they created a blueprint that really I'm following, right?

I learned from them and I've taken what I've learned and I've sort of applied it to now. you know, once you learn about a chef and you have seen what an average chef can do versus a great chef versus somebody who maybe shouldn't have been on the show, you start to understand, right? It really is just one of those like practice makes perfect. We get, you know, to cast,

Madelyn Cunningham (30:22)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (30:27)
100 chefs, we see 200 chefs. So about one of every two makes it essentially. But that's just the chefs that come to me. The chefs that get to our casting director, it's probably really more like one out of every four. So it's really, it's tough. It's tough to make it on the show where there's really high standards. And the casting team has, they have their rigorous questions and a lot of them have been working on the show for a long time. So they can really just sort of assess a person's skill set by how they talk about food.

Madelyn Cunningham (30:29)
Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Amy Stanford (30:55)
You know, it's like, you talking about flavor profiles? Are you really talking about richness? Are you talking about how spices bloom and bring things to life? you like, how, you just saying you put some salad, you know, some dressing on a salad and toss it and plate it?

Madelyn Cunningham (31:03)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, can you communicate

your inspiration, your idea, your process as well? Yeah.

Amy Stanford (31:11)
how do you communicate

it? And really that's a big part of the show because something funny about food TV is it became popular but nobody can eat the food, right? You just look at it. You're just looking at it. So there's really an element of food communication that you have to be successful at in order to be successful at Chopped. Because yes, the cooking is really hard, but you also have to be engaging when, you know, after the show is over, we sit.

Madelyn Cunningham (31:20)
Right. Right. Yes.

Amy Stanford (31:35)
We sit a chef down for however long, an hour or two hours, depending on what round they go out in. And they have to be able to tell us about their process. And what we don't want to hear is like, okay, well, I put the tomato paste in and then I stirred it and I made this sauce. Why did you do that? I did it because my grandma used to do this or I staged at this restaurant in Italy and I learned from this chef. And then I learned that I could do some X, Y, and Z and this is how I got my style. That's what makes an interesting storyteller.

Madelyn Cunningham (31:40)
Mm-hmm.

Totally.

Amy Stanford (32:05)
versus somebody who's just saying what they did, right? It's like, why you did it? The why, the why, the why is really what propels Chopped forward. And yeah, it's just, really is, it's really listening to chefs because we don't have, nobody has the budget to bring 100 chefs in and be like, cook for me. Let me see if you've got the stuff. So our casting team does a really like...

Madelyn Cunningham (32:14)
Yeah, 100%.

Amy Stanford (32:31)
intensive vetting process. And then once they go to the casting team, they come into our internal casting team. You I watch every single pitch. I get 15 pitches a week. I watch every single pitch and I'll usually say, I'm interested in these nine. These five I'm gonna put on the back burner because I don't think they have what it takes. So then those nine, let's say, go to our cast producer, who is Kat Tan. He was an incredible producer and so good with people.

Madelyn Cunningham (32:45)
Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Amy Stanford (32:56)
and she'll sort of start to then set up pre-interviews with them. So those are like, I those are two hour long interviews with our chefs, learning about who they are, why they are who they are, you know, what kind of food POV do they have? Are they able to speak eloquently about their background? Do they want to be on camera? You know, did somebody just pressure them into doing this? And yes, they're a good chef, but are they watchful? So there's just, there's a long line of things we really have to consider and...

Madelyn Cunningham (33:19)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (33:24)
And then not only like, okay, I like chef A, B and C, but then you have a hundred chefs and I have to figure out where to put them in the lineups because that.

Madelyn Cunningham (33:32)
Yeah, and what three

you're gonna cook together

Amy Stanford (33:34)
Yeah, and the magic of that lineup of those four chefs is sometimes it can really make or break a show. Sometimes it can make the show incredibly entertaining and all of a sudden you're like, I don't even care what they're cooking because these characters are so engaging or they have so much to say or they have such a heartfelt story.

So I've, you know, that magic, that is a magic that Vivian taught me. I will say I really had to like sit and watch and assess what she was doing and how she was putting those people together. So those are definitely learned skills for sure, but they've helped me in my career.

Madelyn Cunningham (34:10)
Yeah.

it's funny because I see a lot of people asking why there's not blind judging on Chopped. And it's like, okay, but the whole the whole magic of Chopped is the judges interacting with them while it's happening and looking at them making decisions. And if they just got the final product, I feel like all the magic of like

Who is this chef? How are they making decisions? how are they problem solving? Like is lost? As well as them getting to observe how these people work. And so I get why people ask why because they feel like it's the totally unbiased way. But the whole point is that there's story and there's personality. You always have some underdogs. You have some pretty cocky, overconfident chefs. Do you ever feel like those...

character traits play into judging at all? Like someone's kind of like persona or personality or do you, do you feel like it at the end of the day all comes down to like the dish?

Amy Stanford (35:07)
You know, I think 90 % of it is food, is really, is what people cooked and how well they cooked it. I really do, and I think our judges are so good at parsing out story from what they actually made it on the plate. But I do think that there are certain people, because sometimes palates are different, right? Food is subjective, and that's just the truth. And so sometimes a story,

Madelyn Cunningham (35:11)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (35:33)
or the way that somebody speaks about themselves or the way they carry themselves, the decisions that they made in the kitchen, the way they moved in the kitchen, the way they seared a steak. There are just these little things every now and then that can really give somebody, like a chef, edge. So I think 10 % of that is what you bring to the table as a person, as a person, as a chef, as a storyteller in presenting your food. And you know, I think...

Madelyn Cunningham (35:44)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (35:59)
I don't think that's a bad thing because I think that that's also the way the world works, right? If we go into a restaurant, our experience at that restaurant eating that food is not simply what came to us on a plate. It's what was the restaurant like? What was the lighting like? Were the servers good? Were the drinks good? Did I have to wait a long time? Did I feel good while I was there? That is all gonna be a part of the experience of eating. And I think...

Madelyn Cunningham (36:13)
Mm-hmm.

Totally.

Amy Stanford (36:22)
I think that's one of the things that does make Chopped unique, like you said, you know, the story plays into it.

Madelyn Cunningham (36:27)
The context matters. Food is more than a, it's a multi-sensory experience. It's like when you, peanut butter and jellies are fine, but eating them on the beach, they taste better. I'm sorry, right? Context, environment, story, all of that matters. And it influences the experience overall. And I think, yeah, a lot of...

Amy Stanford (36:29)
Context matters.

Yeah, exactly.

Madelyn Cunningham (36:50)
There's been just a lot of chatter about like, should be blind, especially when the judges compete. And I'm like, no, because it doesn't take into account the journey to get there, which is just so inter-golter-chopped, I feel like.

Amy Stanford (37:02)
It is, mean, and don't get us wrong, we've also discussed it, right? Having blind judges, especially when the judges compete, because it is so, like there's so much inside baseball that goes on, right? They've known each other for so long. But ultimately we give the power to our judges and we say, you guys have been doing this for a really long time and you're professionals. And so we're relying on you to be professional. And they do, they're great. Our judges are awesome.

Madelyn Cunningham (37:05)
Sure, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, they are. mean, they've got you have like your sort of, know, your your Scott Conant's, your your Alex Gornashele's, your Amanda Frye tag, your Geoffrey Zakarian's. then you'll bring in some Christian Petroni's and like, you know, just funny characters all around. it's always so interesting to see the judges dynamics and, you know, really where their sort of acumen is in regards to judging how they give feedback. And again, it adds to

Amy Stanford (37:38)
Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Madelyn Cunningham (37:52)
keeping the show really fresh. So when you're on set, again, it's about a 12 hour day per episode. It's a fine tune machine. Like it is well oiled. You guys know what it takes, what you have to do. You've got Ted doing his Ted thing. How many crew members are typically on your set? Walk us through sort of like you're on there under the lights. What's going on?

Amy Stanford (38:02)
It is.

gosh, I think on set, on set we typically have about 85 crew members and that's from PAs to myself and the director somewhere in between, lighting and gaffing and production management and that's every day and that's just what's happening on set, not to mention our post teams, to mention our biopac teams. So every day 85 people show up to work and they're like, we're gonna make this happen today.

Madelyn Cunningham (38:40)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (38:46)
Right? And we're like, yes, we are. We are going to make this happen. So it's, you know, it really is a big machine and every minute counts because, you know, we're always, trying to fight to get to lunch and we're trying to, you know, we always like to do two rounds before we go to lunch because while it's a television show and it's entertainment, it's also a business, right? We have a budget that we have to stick to. And so all of our creative decisions also have to fit within, you know, some budgetary restraints. And that's part of.

Madelyn Cunningham (39:05)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (39:12)
My job is to figure out where to push and where to give, It's like, what is important to continue pushing on? What does the show need today? And that's really, I ask myself that every single day because every show, every day is different. What does this show need today? What do these judges need today? What do these chefs need today? What does my team need today? Do they need encouragement? Do they need some more tough love? Like, do they need some more guidance? Do they need me to ask a couple more questions?

Madelyn Cunningham (39:16)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (39:40)
You know, do the judges need to be harsher? Do they need to go softer? Do they need to, you know, be more encouraging? Do they need to have a couple of, you little pep talks? Like, does Ted need to be more welcoming to a guest? Do I need to tell the other judges to be welcoming to a guest? So, every day is different. It really is.

Madelyn Cunningham (39:52)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, totally.

are some of the, again, you know exactly where you need to be by lunch, by this time, day to day, but what are, mean, cooking isn't always predictable. there's a lot of moving pieces. What are some of the biggest hangups that you've had on set or the typical things that are gonna hold your day up or that you guys have encountered?

Amy Stanford (40:17)
question. We have had just electrical issues. We've had ovens go out before, which is kind of crazy. We had an oven go out in like a second round of a big tournament. I think it was our Legends tournament, which was one of my favorite things that we've ever done. And, you know, we just kept going. We were like, okay, can't use the ovens, you know, and that's just what it was that day. Of course, we had to stop down

Madelyn Cunningham (40:22)
Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Yeah, an added challenge,

like, yeah.

Amy Stanford (40:42)
And you know, the judges,

like some of the chefs would be, you know, I think Scott was on that day and one of the chefs said, well, you know, my oven went down and I sort of had to adjust my plan. And he said, how many times have you been in a restaurant and something like on the line, something happened and you had to adjust. You still have paying customers out there. It's the same premise. We're chefs. do this all the time. So while in my, you know, in my head and my heart, I'm freaking out, right? I'm just like, shit. Because then everybody's also looking to me is like,

Madelyn Cunningham (40:59)
Exactly.

your...

Amy Stanford (41:09)
Okay, Amy, what are we gonna do? And so, you know, a lot of that is just figuring out, okay, what's the problem? Like, is this a workable problem? Is this a not workable problem? Can we fix it? Can we not fix it? And really just making decisions. Like lot of my job is making decisions based on what's in front of me, right? I try to set everything up. I have an incredible team who is so good at their job from literally every little...

Madelyn Cunningham (41:10)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Amy Stanford (41:35)
goes so well and so smooth because people are so invested in what they're doing. Problems will arise, I'll assess them and try to figure out the best solution. And really, I mean, it sounds simple, but that's it. You know, have to really trust in, I trust that I have studied CHOPPED and I love CHOPPED and I know what's best for CHOPPED and I know what the network wants out of CHOPPED. I think I know what the audience wants out of CHOPPED and how do I get to the ultimate end goal? And it's just about...

just assessing those problems and trying to make the decision you can. And you know what, sometimes I probably made the wrong decision. I'm not a perfect person. Yes, I'm the person who makes the decisions on set, but you know, sometimes I probably could have done something differently and maybe it would have changed the outcome. And sometimes, you know, I didn't. So I just have to have grace with myself, have grace with the people around me. We're just human beings all trying to get to an end goal. But yeah, it can be wild on set. So let's see.

Madelyn Cunningham (42:16)
Yeah.

Amy Stanford (42:26)
The ovens going out was a crazy one. know, sometimes the judges will go on for a while. Like we have basically, like it's funny in the show when you see like Scott Conan talking to a chef, you'll see maybe 15 seconds of what he said. But in reality, they talk for four minutes to each chef. You know, it's like all three judges, we have like a 10 minute like J &T window, right? Which is what we call judging and tasting.

Madelyn Cunningham (42:32)
Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (42:51)
And so they'll really talk to a chef about their dish for 10 minutes. But sometimes, you know, the judges are also chefs, so they get so invested. And they're just like, why didn't you do this? Or why didn't you do that? Or let's talk about this. Or this is a teaching moment. And I'm sitting there patiently being like, I can't use this and we've got to go. So sometimes that will hold us up a little bit. You know, sometimes there's camera issues that we have to stop down for. We've had weather issues, snow storms, wind storms. I mean, you name it.

Madelyn Cunningham (43:00)
Right. Mm-hmm.

Right.

what I love about the problem solving with the oven is like, this happens every day. The skillset that we're testing with these chefs is being nimble, being able to pivot. You know, the lights go out and like, obviously that's an issue for cameras, but like, could that happen in a restaurant?

Amy Stanford (43:31)
Exactly right.

Yeah.

Madelyn Cunningham (43:36)
Could that happen in a commercial kitchen? 100%. So I love that you ultimately know the DNA of Chopped so well that it is innate in you to maintain the integrity of the show and problem solve and get to the solution. that that's a talent I'm sure that you've honed it on for many, many years. And when everyone's looking at you to make the decision to stay on time to like...

Amy Stanford (43:38)
Mm-hmm.

Madelyn Cunningham (44:00)
Keep network happy, keep all the parties happy. I'm sure it feels like a lot of pressure, you have a confidence of knowing the essence and integrity of the show that you can just do what needs to be done. And it's so impressive. It's really, really cool to just be able to know that we can solve anything. Everything is fixable.

Amy Stanford (44:02)
Mm-hmm.

Thank

Madelyn Cunningham (44:21)
I know the judges, they've worked together for forever. but was there sort of a judge trio that you were like, the chemistry's here. I love this. This worked for the theme. And you were like, it was just kind of magic on set.

Amy Stanford (44:31)
Yes, there was a show that we did back in 2020. It was actually the like one of the very first productions to get out back into the world of production, like after COVID. And Linda had worked all of her magic and we had decided that we were going to go outdoors. You know, it's like really wasn't nobody knew what was going on. Everybody was really, you know, like scared about COVID and we just didn't know. And, you know, we just didn't know enough. So it was August of 2020 and we had

Madelyn Cunningham (44:51)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (44:59)
We pitched two shows, one called The Comfort Food Feud and another called Martha's Rules. And Linda had a couple of connections in Maine and we traveled to Maine and shot those shows there. And for The Comfort Food Feud, we had Chris Santos, Manit and Tiffany Faison as a trio. And there was just something so magical about what they brought to the literal table.

Madelyn Cunningham (45:15)
Mm-hmm. Ugh.

Amy Stanford (45:26)
And I've never like I've never been able to shake it. So anytime I'm like trying to put together trios There was just something about those three together. They had such good chemistry. He had so much fun We had we were doing something new we were doing something was really hard and they had great attitudes about it and were so generous with their time and with you know with us too because These these people have been on TV sets

Madelyn Cunningham (45:29)
Mmm.

Amy Stanford (45:50)
for many, many years. They know what professionalism looks like and they know what it's like trying to solve problems. And they were really generous with us trying to figure out how to make it work in COVID and gracious. And I really appreciated that. And they were gracious with the chefs too. I just think that their sensibility in that time was magical and special. And it was fun. One day, it was literally a rainstorm. We were shooting outside. We didn't really have

Madelyn Cunningham (45:50)
Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Amy Stanford (46:17)
rain plan. was like, Oh, I hope it doesn't rain. That was a rain plan. And all of sudden, you know, we hear this like big crack in the sky and everybody like, sort of looks up and then all of a sudden it just starts downpouring, you know, and everybody's like, you know, the AD is calling is like run to your cabins and everybody gets inside. I was just like, my supervising producer at the time had like gone with the judges because that's like her role on set is to, you know, to talk to the judges. And they had like all went into a cabin together and I was like, let's

Madelyn Cunningham (46:24)
course.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (46:46)
let's film them. We didn't have an actual camera. just had iPhones. And I was like, put a camera on them. Just let's talk about this. And they did. And it was really fun. It made the show. was just something a little different than what we had done before. And it was great. It was great. The other thing about Chopped that people might not know that I think makes it really special, and this is a little tidbit. I don't know if anybody's ever really even said this on camera. Our judges don't use any earwigs, nor Ted. Like our judges and Ted are

Madelyn Cunningham (46:48)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (47:13)
They are fully on their own out on the floor. So Ted, like Ted will memorize his lines on the script, but when they're talking amongst each other, they're just talking. They're just being chefs. They're being people. They're being curious. You know, I try to give them the analogy of like they're sports announcers, right? Their job is to help the audience try to understand what's going on in the kitchen, right? Why might they be doing that? Are they?

Madelyn Cunningham (47:16)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (47:36)
Are they making a bad decision by putting that ingredient with the other ingredient? Do they have enough time? Like they're really sort of explaining, but you know, lot of the, a lot of other shows predominantly, actually, I would say the majority of other shows use some sort of earwig from a producer, somebody like me, the show runner into the talent's ear, even just to say something like, Hey, can you talk a little bit more about the tomato? Right. or something to say like, Hey, you know, Amy Burt, her toast, like yell to her.

Madelyn Cunningham (48:04)
Hmm. Okay.

Amy Stanford (48:04)
We just don't have that. So

I think what that does to our judges also, just gives them a little power. It gives them their own identity. It gives them the freedom to be a chef first, right? They're a chef first and they're on TV second. And I think that's one of the things that is really nice about Chopped. It's like we let them fly out there on their own. And if they need some guidance, our supervising producer.

Madelyn Cunningham (48:13)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Amy Stanford (48:27)
is on the floor and she'll sometimes pop in and say, you know, hey, can you talk about this or like ask these things, right? Give them updates on the story as we see it so that they can help us tell that story. But they're really their own people and I love that about CHOP. Sometimes it makes our job a little harder. know, it makes our job a little bit harder sometimes because we can't navigate the story, but I think it also helps keep CHOP very authentic.

Madelyn Cunningham (48:41)
Yeah, sure.

Yeah, yeah, no, I didn't realize that. That's something that I don't know if any judge has told us that on the Food Network podcast yet. And I love that little tidbit of information because, the judges trying to ensure that feedback like

yes, I'm giving something that feels constructive, but I'm also ensuring that the audience can connect as well. Like it's a skill set to be able to like connect all of those dots. And then the judges are communicating what they're tasting, why they're judging the way they're judging, because obviously the audience is gonna potentially have a different idea of like who should have won based on what they saw, but they can't taste it. so being able to like check all those boxes is a total skill set. And the fact that they're not

Amy Stanford (49:08)
It is.

Mm-hmm. Right.

Madelyn Cunningham (49:27)
getting any guidance is like really, really impressive, like even more impressive. that's crazy.

Amy Stanford (49:31)
Yeah. Well,

yeah, I try to, you know, I try to tell the judges, the reason why they're, especially the new judges, the reason why they're there is because they're a chef and that they have something to say about food and I'll handle the TV part, right? So whenever I'm watching on my cameras, you know, I'll sit back in the control room and I, there's, you know, 10 cameras that I'm seeing from every different perspective. Everything that's always happening in my mind is, are we telling this story? Like,

Madelyn Cunningham (49:40)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (49:56)
At the end of the day, when this show goes into the edit and there's 30 days to edit this show into something that will air on television, does the audience understand what's going on? Did they say enough about the things that I saw that were important to tell a complete story? I'm not gonna pretend to go in and say, I think this person should win. I don't do that. Those judges make that decision. That's why there three of them. Majority wins. And if there's ever an issue, I'll go out and talk them through it.

Madelyn Cunningham (50:09)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (50:23)
and talk them through what I saw, but I've never gone out and say, I think that this person should win. That's always our judges.

Madelyn Cunningham (50:27)
interesting. do

you, but in your head, do you have like a feeling? Like, do you have sort of a hope based on like through the casting process, the contestant story, like is there sort of a, like you're rooting for someone every day or you just, you're like, I can't even think about that. I'm like purely trying to get it done.

Amy Stanford (50:47)
I have people that I'm excited to watch, right? People that I saw in the casting process that come up and I'm like, oh, I'm so excited about them. You know, there's somebody I built an episode around or something like that. And so I'm always curious about what they do, but really me so even more probably than the judges, I really don't care about their story. I mean, there's some people sometimes that they pull up your heartstrings and they're like, oh, I want them to win that $10,000, you know? But I just try to make sure it's fair, right? I listen and I always go down. One of the ways that I do that is

Madelyn Cunningham (50:50)
Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Amy Stanford (51:17)
I would say at least nine times out of 10 after every round, I'll go and get a tasting spoon and taste elements of people's dishes, of all the dishes, so that I have sort of my own understanding of what that is like, so that if a judge is saying like, oh, that was way too garlicky, and I'm like, are you sure about that? I have some reference point to what they're thinking.

Madelyn Cunningham (51:26)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, totally.

Amy Stanford (51:41)
Just because

if I do have to go down and have a conversation about something that nobody could make a decision on, have to be informed. So it's actually a perk. Everybody always asks, like, do you get to taste the food? And I do. And some things are delicious.

Madelyn Cunningham (51:55)
Yeah.

Yeah, I love that. So is there still a contestant chef story dish like moment that you were like, I'll never forget that.

Amy Stanford (52:07)
Yes, and it was very early on actually. I think it was season five of Chopped and it was the first Champions tournament that we had ever done. And I was an assistant, this was back in, I think it was literally winter of 2010 and it was February and it was so cold. I was in this like crazy weird like garage. had a Snuggie on because I was so cold that winter. And I just remember it being like, it was really tough, right? So was like, we'd all sort of gotten through something and tournaments just in general.

Madelyn Cunningham (52:26)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (52:33)
A lot more work has to go into them. have to do longer shooting hours, more thought, just more moving parts, even then as an assistant. And this chef named Madison Cowan was telling us all about his story and ended up winning. And at the time, our Co-EP Vivian had arranged that his daughter would be backstage. He was doing this all for his daughter.

Madelyn Cunningham (52:38)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (52:55)
that his daughter would be backstage and she walked out behind him and like tapped him on the shoulder after he won and he turned around and he was crying. it was just like, was the very first time that I felt the impact of what we were doing. You know, that it wasn't just a television show, it wasn't just, you know, four chefs cooking a meal and, you know, one of them wins. It was really, you know, like $50,000 prize can really change somebody's life when you're doing it for your kids and your family and

Madelyn Cunningham (53:03)
Wow.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (53:24)
It was just, it was a really impactful moment for me just in learning about TV and learning about how proud I was to be making it and how proud I was to be making Chopped because it is impactful. And it can really make a difference. And there's been several times on set where I'll cry. I really do get emotional because I'm going through these journeys, especially through the tournaments, because we see them more than just that one episode, the chefs.

Madelyn Cunningham (53:32)
Mm.

Totally.

Amy Stanford (53:54)
But that's just one, you know, that was, it was a really long time ago and I didn't even have that much influence on exactly what was happening. And the, you know, the chef, they were getting cast in the baskets and I was just, I was an assistant. I was just doing my job at that point. But I was so invested, you know, cause I was the one that was taking the story notes. I was looking at everything and trying to like figure out what was going on. So that was, that was probably the biggest one still for me. There's been a couple since then we did a nurses episode during COVID.

Madelyn Cunningham (53:56)
Mm.

Totally. Mm-hmm. wow. I love that.

Yep.

Amy Stanford (54:23)
And that was really, everybody on set was really emotional about that because it was something that was, you know, they were really helping the country. And it was just something that we couldn't quite understand. We couldn't wrap our heads around. We were all so appreciative. And just hearing their stories was really great. was really proud of that episode.

Madelyn Cunningham (54:41)
yeah, that's special. I mean, speaking of emotions, it is, there's some high stakes here. You've got chefs coming on who have careers, who are putting themselves out there on the line. And there's money on the line. Like I said, there's stakes. The judges are also invested. I'm sure for them, it's a little like when you watch a horror movie and you're like, what are you doing? Like, and so as far as emotions on set.

Amy Stanford (55:01)
Yeah.

Madelyn Cunningham (55:05)
Do you feel like it kind of stays in the middle or have you had moments where you have an elimination, someone's really in their feelings and you've got to take care of that? How are you keeping things even and steady when you've got high stakes, you've got eliminations, and you've got a lot of emotional investment in the process?

Amy Stanford (55:26)
You know, it is tricky, it really is. But as a leader, I have to rely on the team, right? Like first and foremost, I have to rely on the team and the people who are having immediate interactions with the chefs, you know, with the chefs and the judges. And so I think it really even goes back to hiring and creating that team and creating that atmosphere where you know people are going to be able to separate those two things, right? Have empathy.

for what people are going through so that we react and interact on a human level, because at the end of the day, we're all just 85 humans trying to put something together, right? We're 85 humans who are letting these chefs shine and is one of the biggest moments in their career. That's what we're doing. That's all we're doing there. And that's our job. And so I think a lot of it is really just relying on the team. Our producers are so good at...

So it's one of the things that I look for in a good producer for this show is making sure that they understand who a chef is and how different a chef can be from an accountant. How different a chef can be from somebody who's in PR. You know, they just want to cook. They found this industry for a certain reason. And funny enough, actually, chefs and producers have a lot in common.

Madelyn Cunningham (56:24)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (56:44)
in the way that they sort of find their people and that their people are a little off-kilter, right? Not your, you know, everyday, you know, nurse, lawyer, doctor job. So it's about relatability, it's about empathy. And, you know, I think the team is so good. They're really good. Our AD Sean, who handles everything on set is so good about helping to manage those emotions on set. He doesn't get emotional. He keeps things very black and white. And if, you know, if there's something that he can't quite handle, he'll come to me.

Madelyn Cunningham (56:46)
Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Amy Stanford (57:11)
And that's my job. My job is to keep a clear, calm head. That's my job. That's all my job is, keep a clear, calm head, think about the overall show, and make the best decision for it. a lot of it is training. That didn't happen overnight. I would never be able to jump into something at 24 years old and be able to have that sort of oversight. That took me 15 years to master.

Madelyn Cunningham (57:16)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (57:36)
and to figure out how to keep a calm head. Because I remember in some years when I was a supervising producer, I'd be like, my god, this is crazy. Like, how are they going to solve this? The fire alarm is going off and we have to go to lunch and somebody has a heart out and they have to get on an airplane. Like, what are we going to do? And being like crazy and anxiety about it. But when you know your role, you can find confidence in what you know. You just have to sort of dig deep and make the best decision that you can.

Madelyn Cunningham (57:36)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, absolutely. And also learning to, when you hire good people, you empower them. They feel empowered to like do what they need to do. You feel good about that delegation. Like it all works really well, but it's a skill that you have to learn to like understand where everyone's talents are, where you can put them, where they're gonna thrive.

Amy Stanford (58:13)
Absolutely.

it is.

Madelyn Cunningham (58:25)
And again, like that set environment is so crucial behind the camera as well, especially for a crew of like 85 plus. I mean, I know that because I, like I said, I had some friends who were on your set, like you guys would do some fun stuff. Like you did some, like you would wear fun t-shirts to set and you'd like, do you like fun little contests on Fridays I love that you, like, are you always trying to, you know, spearhead like and boost morale and sort of just ensure that like,

Amy Stanford (58:31)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Madelyn Cunningham (58:52)
everyone's feeling good and the vibes are high.

Amy Stanford (58:56)
Absolutely. think that is like that is one of my biggest jobs is to make sure that the team as a whole is happy, right? Happy people do better work period. That's just end of story and that I will I will go to the grave saying that happy people do better work Now it's not all about making people happy right? It's like we have to do work first So usually at the beginning of every season I'll say like we were happy here

Madelyn Cunningham (59:07)
period.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (59:22)
And whenever we do good work, we're even happier. Like that is our vibe. Michael Perlman is our director and him and I have a really, like we're very simpatico on our ethos, sort of of how to produce and how to run a team. And I learned a lot from him in terms of being a leader and inspiring people and wanting people to work hard for the greater good and to work hard for you and believe in you. So he taught me a lot about that. really took a lot from his book.

And we sort of do that together, know, and we like our production management team We actually have the best production management team right now than we've ever had in chopped in my opinion Simply because they're so happy. They're the happiest people on the planet. We are doing Christina who is our line producer, you know They we did a big like Halloween murder mystery party and so they picked like one person They picked one person in the crew that was gonna be murdered and then they all the week leading up to Halloween because we were on set filming

Madelyn Cunningham (1:00:10)
So fun.

Amy Stanford (1:00:18)
They did these little clues, you know, there'd be some of clue and beauties. It's like, you know, here's a t-shirt left and it was a Tennessee t-shirt. Turns out that the killer was from Tennessee or whatever. So we did something like that. We did like kids toy drive for Christmas whenever we were filming over Christmas and we've done coat drives and we do, you were saying on Fridays, we do something called $5 Friday where we have somebody go around the entire crew and everybody gives in $5 or however much you want to give in.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:00:27)
Yeah.

Yes.

Amy Stanford (1:00:46)
and then at the end of the day, we'll go out, somebody will pull a ticket from the bucket or whatever it is, and people will win like $2,000 sometimes. he did? Yeah, I mean, a lot like.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:00:52)
Mm-hmm.

No, my husband won one of them. Yes, he literally

came home and I was like, really? Like, it was so fun. It was such a fun idea.

Amy Stanford (1:01:02)
Yeah!

It's really fun. Everybody sort of looks forward to it. like, did you get a $5 Friday? And you know, I'll buy tickets and I'll give it out to my team. And I'll be like, thank you guys for a good week. Here's this and here's that. And recently, because we've been doing these tournaments, we've started to create games with our $5 Fridays, which was really fun. after the Name Your Price tournament that just aired, we had on each different pedestal underneath the cloche was a different dollar amount.

So I drew four tickets and I was like, okay, choose your cloche. And then they went to stand behind it and then they revealed like how much they won. So it was just, you know, just fun little things like that. just, know, Chop really is a family. So many people have been there for so long. And if we're not careful, it could get monotonous, right? Because it is repetitious. It really is. You come every day and you're like, okay, so formulaic. I'm gonna do this. Here's four new chefs. We don't care. Let's get to the end of our day. Blah, blah, blah.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:01:50)
Totally. Mm-hmm. Formulaic.

Amy Stanford (1:02:00)
you know, it's just a job. But for those four chefs who were there that day, that is one of the biggest moments of their lives. And so if we have good energy and we're giving to them, then, you know, they in turn give back to us. And it just, it gives them a better experience out in the world. And I just think it's so important. I really do. I will, you know, attitude and work ethic and just...

happiness amongst the crew is so big and people will tell me all the time and I don't mean to like even to my own horn that there's no crew like Chopped. There really isn't. There's no crew like Chopped. I even had a producer text me today she's working on another show right now and she's just like I miss Chopped. You know she likes yeah she likes the way we run she likes our like our vibe that we all have together and how much we all love the show and it's you know like it's not loss on me that is a privilege to be on Chopped.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:02:41)
It's not the same. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (1:02:53)
in my opinion, like I believe that it is a privilege to be on Chopped. I think Chopped is something that will be long lasting in the TV landscape. And I will be so proud in 30 years to tell my kids that that's what I did. You hopefully I'll still be doing it. I don't know. But I like to impart that too, you know, that it's not just a job. It's just not just another, you know, baking competition or something that I get two or three seasons. Like we've gotten to season 62 because of

Madelyn Cunningham (1:02:53)
Yeah, sure.

100%. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (1:03:20)
not only the talents of the people on screen, but the talents of the people off screen, and how much we care.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:03:25)
Yeah, 100%. Yeah, when you look at the future of Chopped, what do you see? What do you hope for?

Amy Stanford (1:03:32)
I I don't want it to change too much. I really don't. We kind of talk about Chopped like Jeopardy, truthfully. It's like Jeopardy. It's Wheel of Fortune. is a game and a staple in America that I hold so dear. And I think there's something so iconic about it. So I think what we're doing right now, which is coming up with tournaments.

having different sort of, you know, casting. Recently, we've really been, you know, focusing on some themes that we haven't really explored that much. We have a Native American show coming up where we had four Native American chefs really telling their story. We did a Thai episode. We've done a Korean episode. So we've really, because the audience has a stronger appetite for it now, we've tried to tell stories that we haven't told in the past. And I think that's what I hope for Chopped is that it continues to tell.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:04:16)
Yeah.

Amy Stanford (1:04:20)
the stories of chefs, the stories of food, the stories of food and culture. And as long as there are chefs cooking, I think we can have a show, right? Food will always be evolving. There will always be judges who I'm like, you have something new to say. You come on the panel for a little while. So I think we're doing just the right amount of tweaks. I don't ever want to jump the shark, right? I'm really cautious of like jumping the shark and being like, okay.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:04:28)
100%.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (1:04:44)
We get it, you ran out of ideas, now you're doing something crazy. So I think that I wanna keep it's timelessness as much as possible.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:04:50)
Absolutely.

Yeah. I think ultimately, very similar to the Jeopardy model, you're telling a story of where we are in culture and place and time through the chefs you're bringing in, through the ingredients that you have, through the new judges that you're of rotating in, the Eric Agipongs and sort of who you're bringing in to kind of give new perspectives. So I mean, I hope you grow for...

600 more episodes. Okay, I have some listener questions, there was like many, so it was a lot of fun. Okay, let's see. This is one, and I think I know the answer to this, but it's, I've noticed that the contestant intros, they stopped saying what restaurant they work at, which I miss. Was this a conscious decision and why?

Amy Stanford (1:05:15)
Thank you.

Sure.

Um, no, it's not. Honestly, it's up to the chef sometimes. Sometimes restaurants actually don't want the chefs to mention their name. sometimes that company or that PR company will be really cautious of having any bad press, right? So sometimes chefs are like, just call me an executive chef and I do Italian cuisine. And that's, you know, that's good enough.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:05:50)
Yeah.

Okay, got it. How much time is allowed between opening the baskets and starting the clock?

Amy Stanford (1:06:02)
Very good question, very most often asked question. I don't like for it to be any more than two minutes.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:06:05)
Okay.

Okay, 120 seconds of processing time, that's it.

Amy Stanford (1:06:13)
But that's actually not even because I wanna give the chefs time. If I could have them open up the basket and immediately go, that's what they would do. The only reason that there are those two minutes is for our cameras to get reset, right? So when they open up the baskets, you'll notice like when you watch the show, they're sort of from below, right? So they can see like the perspective of the chef's face when they're opening up the baskets. So the camera operators are actually on their knees looking up at the chefs.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:06:18)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Hmm.

Amy Stanford (1:06:41)
So

we see that whole process and then in order for them to get ready for the chefs to run and for them to sort of follow their, know, it's like man to man coverage, human to human coverage, they have to get reset. So as long as it takes the cameras, it's good, but once it hits past two minutes, I'm looking at the director and I'm like, uh-uh, get them done. You know, if anything happens, I'm like, nope, not right now. Like we'll go through the cooking rounds and then we can stop down. So I want it to be real, you know, it's like we're authentic. open up the basket and go.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:07:04)
Got it. Okay, fun. Yeah.

Okay, I often worry that it's a disadvantage to be the last contestant because I worry that their food, the food is less desirable and cold and they have a disadvantage. Is this true? Yeah.

Amy Stanford (1:07:22)
It's not true.

The judges have done so much of this work and that's one thing that they automatically know how to take temperature out of their judging critiques. And a lot of the times, honestly, after the chefs cook, they go and they do their ITMs, they go off to sequester to like rest for second, take some water, be like, what the hell just happened to me? And the judges will come through and they will taste a little bit, especially some of the elements that they know don't last well.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:07:32)
Mm.

Mm.

Amy Stanford (1:07:48)
you know, that they don't hold up well, they'll go and they'll taste, be like, okay, that's what I thought it was gonna, that's what I thought it was gonna taste like. So sometimes if there is something, you know, questionable like that, they will go just to make sure that they're doing their due diligence, but no, it's definitely not a disadvantage. And also sometimes the order that the chefs get critiqued in the show is not the order that they got critiqued on set. So in the edit, sometimes it'll be like, well, actually,

Madelyn Cunningham (1:07:51)
Okay, okay, yeah.

Mm, sure.

Amy Stanford (1:08:16)
this is maybe a more interesting way to start the judging and tasting process. it's no, it's, it's all fair.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:08:23)
Gotcha, okay. This one is hilarious. When will they finally explore the often dangled subplot about Scott having psychic powers to solve mysteries with Ted and Alex? And would they ever perform an exorcism mid round if an evil spirit suddenly possessed the chopped set? Thank you. This is a die hard fan. this is, anything is possible.

Amy Stanford (1:08:39)
god.

you know, if a child, if

an evil spirit suddenly possessed, yes, we would have an exorcism, whatever it takes to keep the show going, sure, maybe. Scott is, Scott, he does have special little powers. He is, I have a special relationship with Scott because he was the host of Chop Sweets.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:08:50)
Maybe they already did and they turned the oven off.

Okay.

Mm.

Amy Stanford (1:09:03)
And that

was sort of my first role leading Chopped. I was the show runner of Chop Sweets and he was the host of that. And so we were really trying to like, how are we gonna make this show work? And he's, you know, he just has his special little ways. He loves to flirt. He loves to like, he knows exactly what to say, especially with Alex. Him and Alex's like rapport is so magical. And Ted just knows how to jump in there too, right? It's just like going to a family reunion and being like, my God, these are my favorite cousins. And you can just, you could talk for days.

Yeah, Scott does sort of have the magical powers, I guess.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:09:32)
love that. That's so funny. Okay, now I'm going to ask you just a few questions before we wrap up. I mean, this is an unscripted podcast. So what, I mean, you're working on Chopped, but like what reality TV are you watching? What do you love to watch? What shows do you really sort of as a show runner really have a lot of appreciation for?

Amy Stanford (1:09:45)
Hmm

In terms of unscripted, you know, I can't watch that much because I work when I do it. I'm watching interviews and I'm like, I really like how did they get that? I wonder if that's a trans light or if like how they set their, you know, camera up. Is that a new camera? How did they get this location? You know, what was the release process for this? Like my brain will just go wild. I'm like, I turned to TV to try to relax a little bit, but

The one, there's two shows that I'll watch. One of them I really will sit and watch, which is Love is Blind. I can't help it, I love it. It's a great show. Even if nobody's getting married, I don't know what they're doing. It's a ridiculous experiment that I'm fascinated by. So that was, I really feel like that also broke the mold in formats for a while. was just like, well, of course. It's not like Blind Date, it's...

Madelyn Cunningham (1:10:25)
day.

Amy Stanford (1:10:43)
love is blind, you're getting married, I don't know. just, really thought that that was a smart format and I'm always engaged with what the people are doing. I also love that they decided that they were only gonna cast in a certain area because it made it real. You know, it was like, okay, I don't, I live in Dallas, I don't have to move to Minnesota. I live in Minnesota. These are people that live in Minnesota so are like naturally it's gonna be a little bit more organic for us to get together. So I really, I like love is blind. And you know, The Traders is a great,

Madelyn Cunningham (1:10:45)
Mm-hmm.

Yes. Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (1:11:10)
television show. I in as a developer and as a showrunner thinking about how you got that TV show across the line. It's like what there's just the right amount of camp and like humor and drama and nobody's taking themselves too seriously. But at the same time it's never been more serious. Right. There's just something about it that really works. It has a magical formula for drama and comedy.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:11:12)
Fabulous.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (1:11:38)
The host is great. Just everything about that show is so, so well done. I've read a couple articles about how it took a really long time to get it made, right? And so it just shows also the power of determination and believing in an idea. Because in TV, you know, I even have a call with somebody later that they're like, hey, do you have an idea for a show? You know, do you have some time to talk? And I was like, yes, but you have to have something written down because I've thought of so many things. I don't want you to think I'm stealing your idea, right?

Madelyn Cunningham (1:11:46)
Mm-hmm.

yeah, totally, yep.

Amy Stanford (1:12:09)
Like there are so many, there's so many ideas out there. And so it's like, yeah, well, this one's okay. And this one's okay. And this is okay. And this is okay. But to believe in one that much, to keep knocking on doors after you keep getting those no's like the traders did is really impressive. And so it's just a little inspiring as a producer to see something like that be so successful.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:12:23)
Yeah. Listen, it

takes years. It takes years. And timing is everything. Like he's packaging talent, sort of hitting the world at the right time. There's gotta be a buyer. Like, you know, there's so many different elements to it. It takes years. And Traders, you know, it's based on like a game we played as a kid. It's like what the werewolf game or the whatever. But they're sort of like 24 hour formula, super simple.

Amy Stanford (1:12:29)
It does.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:12:51)
repeatable, but incredibly smart. And the casting obviously plays a huge part of it, but it does. It takes a long time and it's a long game. You have to be dedicated. You have to believe in it and also be willing to change it and like kind of do like sticks to the ethos, but do what needs to be done to get it across the line, whether that's talent or changing it up. So what would you say, you you develop as well? What is your

Amy Stanford (1:12:57)
So great.

Absolutely.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:13:17)
sort of for someone who wants to get into development, what are the key sort of skills you feel like are required to really have success in that industry aside from like an incredible amount of patience?

Amy Stanford (1:13:30)
An incredible amount of patience. I also think knowing what the market is already like is really important. Knowing what is successful and being able to maybe figure out why, like what elements of the shows that you already like are successful. You know, I see so many people like, what if we did a cooking show on an island?

What else? Who is there? Why are they there? A lot of the questions you get asked as developers, like, this show? Why this show? And why now? Why now? And a lot of it is just topical. Something that wouldn't have worked three years ago now is going to work because things are a little different. So I think...

Madelyn Cunningham (1:13:52)
Mm-hmm.

Exactly.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (1:14:14)
I think knowing, just doing a little research on TV in general, and that doesn't mean like having a degree in TV. I don't have a degree in TV, but as a viewer, as an audience member, you can look at what's popular and try to dissect maybe why, or what those elements are, what it has. You know, it's like when we're developing, it's like what shows have done this before us? You know, and it's not like we're doing copycat work, but it's looking for inspiration. What has been done? There's no need to reinvent the wheel.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:14:27)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Stanford (1:14:41)
So, you know, how does something work? to, and honestly, the ability to just keep going, talking to people, knocking on doors, you know, looking for any sort of connection that you might have, meeting people, being open to people's opinions, and putting it down on paper. You know, there's a lot of people with a lot of ideas, just in general, right, from entrepreneurs.

to people who want to make TV shows, but until you're putting that down on paper and you're sitting down drinking your coffee and writing up exactly what it is that you think you have, you're not gonna get anywhere. So you gotta put it down on paper. You gotta put it down on paper and you gotta have a vision for it and a lot of stamina. And if you really believe in something just like the traders, you've gotta be able to stand behind it and answer questions. Your first pitch might go really badly.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:15:14)
Sure. Yeah.

Amy Stanford (1:15:30)
And you'd be like, I don't know. didn't even think of these things. But as long as you are willing to not let that deter you, that can just, it's just a learning experience, you know, to make you better for the next one.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:15:38)
Yeah, totally.

100%. Okay, last question. I'm sure I can't imagine the things you've learned being on the set of Chopped. So you get to take a Chopped basket to a deserted island, you're like, this is going to allow me to survive and be like the most versatile, like what is in your deserted island Chopped basket?

Amy Stanford (1:15:55)
such a great question. And I probably don't have many tools at my disposal either, do I?

No, I'm, okay. A knife and fire. I'm gonna take some sort, like a deckle of beef maybe, which is a really high-end ingredient, but there's a lot of meat there. There's a lot of meat there. takes a long time to cook in the kitchen. It looks like a gif, but it's actually a trap. So I'm taking a deckle of beef because that'll feed me for a while. I'm probably taking something like kale that's leafy and really good for me.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:16:02)
Let's imagine you've got like a knife and like fire.

Amy Stanford (1:16:27)
and something that'll keep me going, even though, you know, who wants to eat plain kale? Not really anybody, but you got to have it. And you got to have something that's a little fun too, right? So I'm a diet coke girl. So I'm, I'm taking a diet coke because listen, sometimes that's all you need is just a little sip. So I'm taking at least a six pack of diet coke. And of course, on Chopped, we can't call it diet coke. So we're calling it, you know, diet soda.

Of course, no brand names, so I'm taking diet soda. And what else am I taking? Maybe something to add a little spice, like...

Madelyn Cunningham (1:16:54)
Sure, sure.

Amy Stanford (1:17:05)
Paprika.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:17:06)
Mm, okay. was like, are we gonna go Bobby and go like full Calabrian chili, like his favorite ingredient ever?

Amy Stanford (1:17:12)
You know, I know he does love a clove of red chili. Just like a big thing of spice, you know? It's like whenever I'm looking for something, like you'll take maybe garlic or paprika, but I feel like paprika is pretty versatile. So yeah, I think that's what I'm taking. Nobody's ever asked me that question before. No, never.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:17:14)
Yes.

The Diet Coke, what? Are you joking?

that's so funny. The Diet Coke, yeah. Like if we're...

Amy Stanford (1:17:31)
Well, I also,

I was trying to think of like what, how we build a chalk basket, right? You sort of have a protein, you have something like green, you have something that like you don't really cook with, but like you kind of want, or maybe you don't want, and then something to surprise you. So, I don't know.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:17:43)
Mm-hmm.

I

love that. Perfect answer for, can't believe you've never been asked. I love that. Well, this has been an absolute delight. Thank you so much for sharing about CHOPPED and just your career specifically. your trajectory has just been incredibly admirable. The way that you work, your focus on people, I think is just like incredibly inspiring and so crucial in this industry. And so I appreciate you sharing so much and we look forward to, like I said.

Amy Stanford (1:17:53)
You

Madelyn Cunningham (1:18:13)
many, many more seasons and episodes of Chalked.

Amy Stanford (1:18:16)
Thank you, I appreciate that. It was so nice to come on your show and talk about CHOPPED. Like I said, it's my baby, I really love it. It fills the time of a lot of my life and I'm very proud of it. So it's nice to be able to talk about it and get so excited and sort of reignites my creativity because hopefully in the next couple of months we'll be thinking of ideas for new shows to keep it going for years to come.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:18:38)
Thanks, Amy.

Bradley Carpenter (1:18:44)
Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Amy and I. I hope you have a great rest of your weekend. I'll see you guys next Friday. It's gonna be Valentine's Day, so we're gonna have a lovely episode together. Thank you for liking, subscribing, following, rating, reviewing, all the good things, and we'll see you next week on The Inscripted Files.

Madelyn Cunningham (1:19:04)
The Unscripted Files is brought to you by Good Gravity Entertainment. Thank you to producer Bonnie Adams, Original Music by composer William Wright, Artwork by Lisa Schweikart, and Photography by Reid Schick.