The one exception to my distaste for non-scripted TV is Chopped on The Food Network. I could easily watch a six-hour block of this show without thinking about how much time I've spent watching TV. You've got four professional chefs competing for a cash prize in each episode, and along the way they have to use mystery basket ingredients that most regular folks like myself have never heard of before, much less actually eaten. It's ridiculously addicting.
Getting back to my original point, the irony to disliking most non-scripted series is that they are completely built upon human interest stories, so you'd think I'd be all over them. For me, most non-scripted series tend to idolize the contestants in order for the American public to buy into them (see: American Idol, if you excuse the pun). That really ruins most stories for me.
Then I watched tonight's new episode of Chopped.
Tonight's episode featured a chef who had built his cooking career while he was serving time in the big house. For 35 years. For drug trafficking.
Talk about pulling a 180 on life.
By Chopped's very nature, it's impossible to get to know these chefs beyond the surface much. There have been chefs who have beaten cancer, been broke and homeless, fought addictions, and had kids fighting various illnesses. It's easy to root for people who have stories like those, and I love getting little flashes of what their lives are like outside the kitchen.
Tonight, however, I was particularly taken with this chef who had formerly been a drug trafficker. He said by the time he got out of prison, no one would give him a chance at all, so he had to build his career in cooking himself. Unfortunately the show didn't have the time to go into how he got himself to the point where he is now, but that's a story I'd love to have heard. I'm sure he had to take a lowly job in some small diner or fast foot joint and slowly work his way up. He still doesn't own his own restaurant yet, and I honestly don't know if he's been able to secure any kind of business loan for himself (he didn't talk about that during his private interviews in the show at all).
People with stories like this chef make for great inspirational stories to share with other people. Lots of them turn out to be motivational speakers. One of my girlfriend's favorite speakers is a guy named Eric Thomas, who has short videos of himself speaking on YouTube. He's a great story too, one that I would encourage anyone who likes this story of stuff to read more about him. I'll post one of his videos below for you to check out for yourself as well.
Coming back full circle, the chef on Chopped didn't ultimately win the cash prize, but he's already come so far that I'd have to believe that he will still be okay long term. He pushed himself to change his life, and for a long time I'm sure he was stuck in the bottom of the barrel. He probably even wondered if his life would ever change for the better, but he really has made his life for the better. I don't know if he has a family, but his story was clearly one that could affect people of all ages, including me.
Eric Thomas's video:
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