Local Chef to Compete on 'Chopped'

Another Atlanta chef hits the television world!

On Tuesday, July 19, Suzanne Vizethann of The Hungry Peach catering will be on Food Network favorite, “Chopped.”

We caught up with the Midtown resident to chat about her television debut.

And don’t forget, you can catch Suzanne at the Midtown Market every Thursday from 11 a.m.-2 p.m., and she’ll be the featured “pop-up chef” on the 999 Peachtree Terrace this week. (And if you haven’t had her pimento cheese yet, get your hands on some immediately.)

Give us a brief overview of the show.
Each chef gets a basket of the same 3 or 4 ingredients and they make an appetizer using the ingredients in 20 minutes. After that, you go up to the chopping block and one chef is cut. The remaining three advance to the entrée round [with another set of mystery ingredients] and after that, another one is cut. Two people compete in the dessert round, then the winner is chosen and wins $10,000.

Intense! So how did you get selected?
Someone from the show found my website and they called me last July.

Were you surprised?
I was pretty shocked. You don’t really think you’re going to get on!

Other Atlanta chefs have been on the show, right?
Yes, Justin Burdett from Miller Union was on about a month ago and he actually won. Jeffrey Gardner from has been on. Sean Telo from Miller Union.

All Midtowners! So did you watch the show before?
I actually watched it a lot. It’s really the only show besides “Top Chef” that I feel is really “real.” Just training for it made me a better chef.

What do you mean by training?
I watched every episode I could, read different books, learned about unique ingredients. I spent a day at Inland Seafood where I broke down fish with the guys there, stuff like that.

Very cool! Were there any ingredients you were hoping you didn’t get?
Sometimes [the chefs] get a really tough cut of meat. I saw an episode where someone got eel in the appetizer round and it was still alive. I was hoping I didn’t get anything crazy like that.

Yikes. Are the ingredients really totally random?
Well what’s cool is that to the public eye and people not in “the industry,” it just looks like they’re a bunch of blindly picked ingredients. What I found out is that they’re picked by culinary pros and there is reason behind what goes into the baskets.

Is the drama we see “real”?
Yes, there’s lot of pressure for sure. They pick you up at 4 a.m. so you obviously you don’t sleep. You’re tired, out of your element. There are literally 30 camera people around. Once it gets started, you can definitely zone in and focus on your own thing, but Ted [Allen, the host] will ask you questions and the last thing you want to do is talk to anyone. Also, you get a full pantry and fridge of ingredients like eggs, milk, etc. But let’s say we're in the dessert round, and there are only two dozen eggs; a contestant can grab all of them and take them to their station and don’t have to share.

Oh wow! Definite drama there. So would you do another food show?
Yes, I’m really competitive, so I definitely love that aspect of it. It would depend on the show, but I’d do something like this again.

Catch “Chopped” featuring Suzanne Vizethann on Tuesday, July 19 at 10pm on The Food Network.