Chopped: Season 2023, Episode 1

2023 - 1: Casino Royale XL: Battle One

Bet big, win big! Doubling down on culinary gambling thrills, Chopped hosts a second Casino Royale tournament with even more ways for the chefs to take their fate into their own hands. The competitors don't have to keep the basket they've been dealt, and they can take a risk on an unknown replacement ingredient. In this preliminary battle, the chefs open their first baskets to find some cookies that look good, but not as part of an appetizer. In the entrée basket, it seems like a no-brainer to ditch a particularly strange ingredient, so everyone is shocked when one chef stubbornly decides to keep it. In the dessert round, a wild turn of events leaves one competitor with an ingredient that nobody saw coming.