History Awesome / Chopped

** An episode of ''Junior'' saw ''both'' finalists forgetting ingredients in different rounds(One forgot in the appetizer and the other in entrée).

** Even better? A spin-off, dubbed ''Chopped Junior'' is based around this concept. Kids(some as young as seven or eight) cooking under almost the same(all rounds are 30 minutes) conditions as the adults and doing just as good, if not better.

** Chef Jessica Mogardo, known for having achieved victory despite being very nervous to the point of almost crying and throwing up, also competes and wins in ''Series/SweetGenius'', making her and Chef Natalia the only two chefs who've competed and won in both shows. [[spoiler: Former competitors Alinea Eisenhauer and Katie Rosenhouse also won Sweet Genius, but they didn't win this show, so it doesn't count.]]

** [[spoiler:Even better: he's a Chopped ''Grand'' Champion.]]

* In an episode called "Better Saffron than Sorry," one of the contestants was a chef who was totally deaf (they even brought on a sign language interpreter). The chef was a man named Kurt Ramborger, and he proved to be a really talented chef--he wanted to be an inspiration for the deaf community and for his family (both of his children are deaf like he is and his son wants to follow in his dad's footsteps and become a chef).[[spoiler: Sadly, Chef Kurt didn't win the episode--he got eliminated after the second round after he forgot to take the membrane off his lamb testicles, one of the basket ingredients. [[GracefulLoser However, although Chef Kurt was obviously bummed that he didn't win, he was glad to have inspired and raised awareness not only for deaf chefs, but for deaf people in general.]]]]
* Chef Emily's run is definitely this--she was relatively new to cooking, having fallen back on going to culinary school after a ''horribly'' abusive relationship cost her a college scholarship. She's so nervous that she barely raises her voice. Her hands are shaking while she's cooking. She still wins. And she's called back for ''Chopped: Impossible.'' [[spoiler: She is still clearly intimidated by the judges, especially [[Series/RestaurantImpossible Robert Irvine]], the guest judge who the winning chef would go up against, who makes it a point of getting in her face. There's also the fact that Irvine's considerably taller and bulkier than Emily is (seriously, he could probably bench-press twice Emily's overall body-weight, if not more). She still keeps cooking, winning the qualifier. Her cooking proves steadier than her hands; she fights her way through the finals, and actually manages ''to beat'' Irvine at the bonus round for the full $40,000]], proving that bravery and courage aren't about being fearless-- it's standing your ground and doing the job, even when your hands are shaking.
* In part five of the "Ultimate Chopped Champion" special, three amateur chefs go up against a professional chef--by the dessert round of that episode, it's just the pro and the remaining "Joe" (amateur chef). And guess who wins? [[spoiler:''The amateur chef''.]]

* Whenever amateur chefs (people who don't do cooking for a living) compete on the show, most of them prove to be just as good as professional chefs (or even better in some cases). When Laila Ali (one of the daughters of Muhammad Ali) competed on Chopped, she said that she wanted to prove that you don't have to go to culinary school to prove that you're good at cooking. [[spoiler: Even better? Laila Ali won her episode and later made it to the final heat of a Chopped Champions tournament.]]

* Whenever amateur chefs (people who don't do cooking for a living) compete on the show, most of them prove to be just as good as professional chefs (or even better in some cases). When Laila Ali (one of the daughters of Muhammad Ali) competed on Chopped, she said that she wanted to prove that you don't have to go to culinary school to prove that you're good at cooking.

* Yoanne Margis slips in the kitchen during the second round, spilling a pan full of boiling hot water over her legs, getting some pretty serious second degree burns. What does she do? She keeps going through not just the rest of the round, but all the way to the end, despite still being in pain. She even finished second in a very close match against [[SupremeChef Chef Lance]] of all people, who was so certain she did better than him. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Feeling that his opponent deserved the prize money more than he did, he told the judges to give the $10,000 to her, so she can fly home to France to see her ailing grandmother.]]

** Chef Jessica Mogardo, known for having achieved victory despite being very nervous to the point of almost crying and throwing up, also competes and wins in ''Series/SweetGenius'', making her and Chef Natalia the only two chefs who've competed and won in both shows.

* The contestants in the finale for the "Alton's Challenge" tournament doing so well that ''none of them'' were chopped after the entree round, making it the first 3-person dessert round in ''Chopped'' history.

* Chef Emily's run. She was relatively new to cooking, having fallen back on going to culinary school after a ''horribly'' abusive relationship cost her a college scholarship. She's so nervous that she barely raises her voice. Her hands are shaking while she's cooking. She still wins. And she's called back for ''Chopped: Impossible.'' [[spoiler: She is still clearly intimidated by the judges, especially [[Series/RestaurantImpossible Robert Irvine]], who makes it a point of getting in her face. There's also the fact she's rather petite and Irvine, who's easily two or three times her size (which Chef Emily says so herself), could probably bench press twice her body weight (if not more). She still keeps cooking, winning the qualifier. Her cooking proves steadier than her hands; she fights her way through the finals, and actually manages ''to beat'' Irvine at the bonus round for the full $40,000]], proving that bravery and courage aren't about being fearless-- it's standing your ground and doing the job, even when your hands are shaking.

* Chef Natalia Machado, who won the episode she competed in (and made it to the dessert round in the first heat of the first ''Chopped Champions'' tournament), goes on to compete in the show ''SweetGenius'', which has a similar premise to ''Chopped'', but it focuses entirely on desserts. She proceeds to win that one as well.
** Chef Jessica Mogardo, known for having achieved victory despite being very nervous to the point of almost crying and throwing up, also competes and wins in ''SweetGenius'', making her and Chef Natalia the only two chefs who've competed and won in both shows.

* Whenever amateur chefs (people who prefer to do cooking as a hobby than a career) compete on the show, most of them prove to be just as good as professional chefs (or even better in some cases). When Laila Ali (one of the daughters of Muhammad Ali) competed on Chopped, she said that she wanted to prove that you don't have to go to culinary school to prove that you're good at cooking.

* In the appetizer round of the Teen Chef Championship, one of the teens forgot an ingredient. While she was ultimately chopped, the judges explained (rather blatantly) that the ''only'' reason she was being chopped was because she forgot a basket ingredient--other than that, her appetizer was excellent. No adult chef has ever heard this on the way out.

* In the appetizer round of the Teen Chef Championship, one of the teens forgot an ingredient. In the end, she was chopped, but the judges blatantly stated that the ''only'' reason she was chopped was because she forgot a basket item. None of the adult chefs have ever heard this on the way out.