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Testing the Cutthroat Sabotages: Can You Muffin It?

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From makeshift potato-masher arms and aluminum foil utensils to flavored jelly beans acting as seasonings, Cutthroat Kitchen sabotages are notoriously trying, so much so that many fans have asked if they’re indeed possible to pull off successfully. After more than two seasons of competition, the word is finally out, and the answer is yes: All Cutthroat challenges have been tested by Food Network’s culinary team and deemed doable within the rounds’ 30 minutes of cooking. Beginning with tonight’s all-new episode, you’ll be able to see how some of those assessments are made in a series of Testing the Sabotage videos, which showcase the decision-making process.

Click the play button on the video above to watch the first video and find out what it took for the Round 2 muffin tin challenge to make it on air.

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Testing the Cutthroat Sabotages: When a Standard Whisk Won’t Do

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Just last week FN Dish introduced fans to the first in a series of Testing the Sabotage videos that highlight exactly how Cutthroat Kitchen sabotages come to be. So many have questioned whether or not the challenges are indeed possible for competitors to conquer within their time constraints, and with these all-new videos, it’s now clear that the answer is yes; every sabotage Alton auctions off has been vetted by Food Network’s culinary team, and now you have the chance to watch those tests unfold.

Click the play button on the video above to check out how the giant-whisk sabotage featured on tonight’s brand-new episode was approved for air, and learn what kind of experimenting had to be done in order to arrive at that conclusion.

Related Reading:

Watch: Can You Muffin It?
On-Set Photos of Cutthroat Kitchen
14 Things You Didn’t Know About Alton

Testing the Cutthroat Sabotages: From Cooking Station to Shopping Cart

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With one swift auction and a bit of bad luck, Cutthroat Kitchen competitors could have all of their seemingly necessary tools and food products taken away from them and replaced with inferior items. From salt and knives to the stove and pans, nothing is safe in Cutthroat Kitchen, including the chefs’ workstations. On tonight’s all-new episode, contestants bid on a game-changing sabotage in Round 2′s enchilada challenge that forces one person to abandon his or her standard setup and fashion another one using a stocked toolbox. The catch? The workspace, heat source and cooktop must be built in and confined to a shopping cart. Was this challenge taking the competition too far and asking too much of one person during a 30-minute challenge? It turns out that the answer is no, as Food Network’s culinary team vetted and approved this sabotage prior to air.

Click the play button on the video above to watch the test unfold and see how one grocery store staple became a fully equipped cook space.

Related Reading

Watch Past Sabotage Tests
Catch Up on Alton’s After-Show
Photos: On the Set of Cutthroat Kitchen

Playing with Fire — Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

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No matter what recipe you’re cooking, when it comes to being prepared in the kitchen, few things are more important than a quality heat source. From live flames from a gas stove to the warmth of an oven or the power from a microwave, heat is needed to make critical things happen, and without it, or with an inferior heat supply, cooking anything well can be nearly impossible. On tonight’s all-new episode of Cutthroat Kitchen, host Alton Brown auctioned off a sabotage that would seem to spell doom for one competitor: Instead of being able to prepare a clambake on a conventional stove, one chef would have to use tiny flame cubes set within a miniature prop. Was this too much to ask of a contestant in a 30-minute round? No, the sabotage was indeed fair, as the culinary team had tested the obstacle beforehand.

Click the play button on the video above to watch how this test unfolded, and learn which elements of the sabotage were approved and why some parts weren’t successful.

Tune in to a new episode of Cutthroat Kitchen on Sunday, June 1 at 9|8c.

Turning Up the Heat — Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

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 On this week’s episode of Cutthroat Kitchen, competitors had to cook the perfect breakfast sandwich — a standard dish that involves toast, eggs and meat. It may seem easy enough, but not on this show, where the competitors are sabotaged in every way, from ingredient swaps to the removal of cooking utensils. While some of these sabotages may seem completely outlandish, they are indeed possible; Food Network’s culinary team tests each ingredient, heat source and kitchen appliance to make sure that the contestants will be able to create a dish with the sabotage within 30 minutes. In this round, one competitor had to give up all of his or her heat sources and use a paint-dryer to cook all of the ingredients.

How is this possible? See for yourself by clicking play on the video above, in which the Food Network culinary team tested the sabotage beforehand. Also see which heat source didn’t make the cut.

Tune in for a new episode of Cutthroat Kitchen every Sunday at 10|9c.

Soup’s On — Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

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Many times on Cutthroat Kitchen, host Alton Brown demonstrates his truly evilicious side by taking away the contestants’ ingredients, their heating appliances and even all their knives. In this week’s episode, Alton takes evil to a whole new level — he takes away all pots, pans and mixing bowls, and replaces them with a bread bowl for one of the contestants and a soup ladle for the other. The two contestants have to make both a soup and a salad without all their mixing equipment. This challenge didn’t come without its share of difficulty — the soup ladle was extremely small and could heat up only a small amount at a time, and the bread bowl kept soaking up all the liquid for both the dressing and the soup. While sabotages on Cutthroat Kitchen have to slow the contestants down and make things difficult for them, they can’t make it impossible for them to make a dish.

How did these two sabotages get approved by Food Network’s culinary team for this episode? Click the play button on the video above to find out.

Tune in for a new episode of Cutthroat Kitchen on Sunday, June 29 at 10|9c.

Not Another Buttermilk Biscuit — Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

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On Cutthroat Kitchen, there is nothing worse than an ingredient swap. Ingredients can make or break a dish, and switching out quality ones for those that are inferior can completely ruin the elevated flavors the competitors are trying to accomplish. In this week’s episode, the contestants have to make biscuits with gravy, so the culinary team was experimenting with an ingredient swap where the butter was replaced by cooking spray. While the team realized that the cooking spray could be gathered and solidified to develop a butter-like consistency, the real test was whether the cooking spray could provide the same taste and texture that butter could in a buttermilk biscuit. The taste of the biscuit alone would determine whether the cooking spray swap would work for the episode.

Click play on the video above to see whether this sabotage was approved or rejected by the Food Network culinary team.

Tune in for a new episode of Cutthroat Kitchen every Sunday at 10|9c.

Look, No Hands — Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

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While Cutthroat Kitchen often involves sabotages that take away a contestant’s desired cooking utensils like knives or spatulas, most chefs would agree that the most valuable tool in the kitchen is one’s hands. That’s why this sabotage is especially diabolical: It makes sure that the contestants aren’t allowed to touch their food without using some kind of tool to pick it up. The chef is given a pair of white gloves and isn’t allowed to get them dirty under any cost, which causes major difficulty when trying to assemble a club sandwich, as it involves a plethora of ingredients: Chicken, salt, mayonnaise, lettuce, bacon and more. A lot of foods need to be handled, but is it possible to do so without using your hands?

Click play on the video above to see whether the Food Network culinary team could create a dish with this sabotage.

Tune in for new episodes of Cutthroat Kitchen every Sunday at 10|9c.


Just Desserts — Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

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Creating tiramisu can be time-consuming, as it involves soaking lady fingers in an espresso mixture and topping them with a sweet mascarpone cheese-based cream. This specifically requires the use of superior utensils, like whisks and mixing bowls, in order to make sure each layer has the perfect flavor profile. Host Alton Brown decided that the contestants on Cutthroat Kitchen needed to forgo these tools – one of the contestants had to replace all of his cooking tools with coffee strainers and stirrers. This made the dish especially difficult, because the coffee filter didn’t allow the mascarpone creation to be mixed properly, and it also starting soaking up all the espresso meant for the lady fingers. How could the Food Network team deem it an appropriate sabotage for the show?

Click play on the video above to see how the Food Network culinary team could create the tiramisu with this sabotage.

Tune in for new episodes of Cutthroat Kitchen every Sunday at 10|9c.

“The Cute Factor”— Testing the Sabotages

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The mini kitchen is no stranger to Cutthroat Kitchen, as chefs have been asked to work in kid-size constraints challenge after challenge. But on tonight’s all-new episode, Alton Brown unveiled a different tiny tool capable of doling out similar great trials during the Round 3 chocolate cake test: the toy stand mixer. Would this kid-friendly apparatus consisting of little more than a short, hand-powered wooden whisk and a shallow plastic bowl be enough to serve as a chef’s sole means of mixing? After all, to make chocolate cake, a competitor would need to be able to incorporate both wet and dry ingredients.

Before Alton auctioned off this doozy of a sabotage, Cutthroat Kitchen’s culinary team tested on the mixer to make sure it was indeed possible to execute within the contest, and Chelsea, a food stylist on set, wondered, “Does the cute factor, you think, count as extra points for this challenge?”

Click the play button on the video above to see the test in action, and learn how the mixer earned an “approved” rating.

Tune in to a brand-new episode of Cutthroat Kitchen on Sunday at 10|9c.

Not-So-Crispy Rice Treats — Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

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Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

For the Cutthroat Kitchen judges to be wowed by a dish in front of them, the offering must be not only appealing to the eyes and tastes, but it must be at least somewhere reminiscent of the classic rendition of the challenge dish. When it comes to crispy rice treats — those gooey, marshmallow-laced desserts mixed with rice cereal — the need for a crispy element is baked right into the name, so it’s no surprise that when Alton Brown auctioned off a sabotage that would threaten that crunchy texture, chefs had every reason to be concerned.

Instead of cooking with true crisp rice cereal, one competitor would be forced to work with soggy, milk-soaked cereal. How could he or she resurrect the crispy texture from such a limp state? Is it even fair to ask a chef to make crispy rice treats with mushy cereal? It turns out that it is indeed possible to turn out a solid finished dish, as the Cutthroat Kitchen culinary team tested this sabotage before Alton opened it up for auction.

Click the play button on the video above to watch the test and see how this sabotage came to be approved.

Don’t miss a new episode of Cutthroat Kitchen every Sunday at 10|9c.

Can You Mix It? — Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

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Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

In true evilicious fashion, Cutthroat Kitchen host Alton Brown has been known to not only sabotage chefs’ ingredients, but also to disrupt their means and methods of preparing and cooking them so as to guarantee the most hilariously challenging situation possible. And during tonight’s second preliminary heat of the Superstar Sabotage tournament, he proved he wasn’t about to forgo those unfavorable trials simply because of the all-stars’ celebrity status when he auctioned off mandatory — and inferior — mixing and cooking vessels during the Round 1 pancake test.

A colander and a Bundt pan took the place of two chefs’ bowls and skillets, as the chefs were doomed with sabotages that forced them to both combine all of their ingredients and cook their pancakes in those sole vessels. Given that pancakes ought to come together with both dry and liquid ingredients, would it be possible to prepare a batter in a colander, and what would happen when they tried to cook round pancakes in a fluted pan? It turns out that the Cutthroat Kitchen culinary team had similar questions before these items were sold at auction, and they tested the sabotage ahead of the battle to make sure the challenge was feasible.

Click the play button on the video above to watch their attempts unfold, and hear more from the culinary crew about what it takes to approve this sabotage.

Don’t miss the next heat of Superstar Sabotage on Wednesday at 9|8c, and tune in for an all-new episode of Cutthroat Kitchen on Sunday at 10|9c.

From Leaves to Loaves — Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

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Testing the Sabotages

Ingredients, utensils and heat — that’s all that is needed to create most of the dishes on Cutthroat Kitchen, but as fans know, those three elements aren’t always available to the contestants, at least not in their expected and desired forms. On tonight’s all-new episode of Superstar Sabotage, host Alton Brown doled out a dooming challenge that seemed nearly insurmountable: a mandate forcing Chef Elizabeth Falkner, a famed pastry chef, to prepare and bake her banana bread in banana leaves. While most classic recipes would recommend that she mix the dry and wet ingredients in several sturdy bowls, then cook the batter in traditional loaf pans, she had to do all of that with and in the leaves.

Before Alton could auction off that sabotage, however, the Cutthroat Kitchen culinary crew first had to attempt the challenge. After all, would such a sabotage be feasible, and would it be fair to ask a contestant to attempt it given the time constraints? The team testing the sabotage approached the banana bread in two ways before ultimately finding the challenge possible for future contestants.

Click the play button on the video above to see these tests unfold and learn what methods the crew took to make banana bread using banana leaves.

Don’t miss the finale of Superstar Sabotage next Wednesday at 9|8c, and tune in on Sunday to a new episode of Cutthroat Kitchen at 10|9c.

Can You Iron Waffles Without an Iron? — Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

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Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

Steak, lasagna, chicken, potatoes — these dishes and more can be made in nearly any pan you have in the kitchen and can even move from the stove to the oven seamlessly. But when it comes to waffles, there’s just one all-important tool available for making them — or so Cutthroat Kitchen chefs thought before tonight’s all-new episode. In a doozy of a sabotage, Alton Brown auctioned off exclusive rights to the lone waffle iron in the kitchen, while other competitors were forced to tackle the waffle challenge using an ice cube tray and a metal meat mallet as their only cooking vessels.

Before the contestants attempted their next-level waffles with these seemingly oddball gadgets, the Cutthroat Kitchen culinary crew got to work on the same sabotages to make sure they were indeed fair and possible given the tight time restraints in the competition. Click the play button on the video above to watch the tests unfold and see how the team turned out untraditional waffles with the ice cube tray and meat mallet.

Tune in to brand-new episodes of Cutthroat Kitchen every Sunday at 10|9c.

Conquering the Blueberry Carton — Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

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Alton Brown

The lights, cameras, fellow contestants and host Alton Brown pacing through the kitchen — the scene in the Cutthroat Kitchen arena is plenty fierce and demands much attention from the competitors, and that’s even before they’ve been sabotaged. Once evilicious challenges are added to the contest and they’re forced to adapt to the unexpected while the clock is ticking, the competition is taken nearly over the edge. It’s up to the Cutthroat Kitchen culinary crew to make sure that every sabotage Alton auctions off is indeed possible for a contestant to complete within the allotted time frame. To make sure the challenges remain feasible, the team attempts each one.

On tonight’s all-new episode of Cutthroat Kitchen, Alton’s simple blueberry muffin request turned downright diabolical when he mandated that one chef use blueberry cartons as the sole mixing and cooking vessels in his prep work. Given the potentially liquid muffin batter and the multiple holes in the carton, mixing in those tiny squares was indeed evilicious — but it wasn’t impossible, as the team found during its test.

Click the play button on the video above to watch the blueberry carton test unfold, and see how the culinary crew mastered this not-so-sweet sabotage.

Don’t miss an all-new episode of Cutthroat Kitchen on Sunday at 10|9c.


“Starting to Get Into a Cupcake Place”— Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

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Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

From giant whisks and ice cube trays to banana leaves and coffee filters, Cutthroat Kitchen contestants have faced their share of oddball trinkets that host Alton Brown eviliciously repurposed into mixing tools and vessels. But on tonight’s all-new episode, one chef was forced to use not a new tool to mix but something a bit more rustic — her hands — to make cupcakes.

Since the taste and texture of cupcakes depend upon a well-mixed batter, it’s important for the wet and dry ingredients to be thoroughly combined, and the limitations of people’s hands may indeed prevent that from happenings. After all, some people’s hands are smaller than others, and one of the chef’s two hands would likely be needed to add ingredients, so would this sabotage be fair to ask of the competitors? The Cutthroat Kitchen culinary crew got to work in testing the validity of the sabotage, and sure enough, after one somewhat slimy attempt, food stylist Jamie Peterson admitted that he was “starting to get into a cupcake place” with the batter forming within his hands.

Click the play button on the video above to watch Jamie’s test unfold, and see hand-made cupcakes up close.

Don’t miss an all-new episode of Cutthroat Kitchen on Sunday at 10|9c.

“Brown-Bag Brownie. Nailed It”— Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

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Testing the Sabotages

Cutthroat Kitchen is nothing if not punny, as Alton Brown is notorious for putting literal spins on the challenge dishes, all in an effort to create hilariously diabolical sabotages. When it came time for the competitors to make brownies for dessert on tonight’s all-new big-game episode, he reached for what else but brown bags to auction off as one contestant’s sole mixing and cooking vessel. These everyday bags are surely thin and weak, so would such a mandate be fair to ask of a chef, and is brown-bag baking even possible?

The Cutthroat Kitchen culinary crew set out to answer that very question as they attempted this sabotage before the contest in the latest installment of Testing the Sabotages. After a quick triple-ply maneuver to prevent batter seepage, food stylist Chelsea proclaimed, “Brown-bag brownie. Nailed it,” proving once and for all that brownies can indeed be made in brown bags.

Click the play button on the video above to watch Chelsea’s test unfold, and see how she attempted a two-fold approach to cooking.

Catch up on more Cutthroat Kitchen extras on FN Dish.

“It’s Real Weird”— Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

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Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

From canned whole chickens to dairy milked from a plastic cow, Cutthroat Kitchen is no stranger to strangeness. In fact, it welcomes such oddness. It’s a good thing that’s the case, because on tonight’s all-new episode, one chef was tasked with making a turkey burger out of not moist ground turkey meat, as would be expected, but processed deli turkey meat. But before the contestant could be saddled with such a sabotage, the Cutthroat culinary team had to try its hands at the challenge to make sure that whatever burger resulted — if any did — was edible, given the amount of time on the clock.

Food stylist Jamie took to the kitchen to attempt this next-level ingredient swap-out, and after making what he deemed “turkey dust,” mixing it with chopped bacon and cooking the patty, he realized he’d made something “real weird.” He explained, “It’s a funky-looking patty; there’s no two ways about it.” Nevertheless, despite its nontraditional appearance, Jamie added that the more important question would be whether or not the patty tasted fine. Much to his surprise, it did. “It’s that good. I’m voluntarily eating my own sabotage cooking,” he said.

Click the play button on the video above to see his test patty up close, and find out more about his technique in preparing it.

Check out more insider coverage of Testing the Sabotages on FN Dish.

“Boxed” Chocolate Cake — Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

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Click here to view the embedded video.

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, tonight’s all-new episode of Cutthroat Kitchen focused on perhaps the ultimate sweet treat — chocolate — and surely no chocolate showcase is complete without molten lava cake. Boasting a tender, moist cake on the outside and a warm, gooey center, this dressed-up dessert is tricky to master, even for the most-experienced chefs under optimal conditions. And inside the Cutthroat arena, the circumstances for preparing this cake turned even trickier when a sabotage forced one chef to mix all of the cake ingredients within the tiny compartments inside a now-empty box of chocolates.

As with all sabotages, the Cutthroat Kitchen culinary team tried its hands at this doozy of a test before Alton Brown sold it at auction, and within just minutes of starting, Food Stylist Codii realized, “The key to this is patience, which I think Cutthroat Kitchen lacks on a daily basis.” Despite her initial struggles, however, Codii managed to incorporate her ingredients as best as possible, and ultimately turned out cakes that, while “not pretty,” featured the signature lava river flowing from within.

Click the play button on the video above to watch Codii’s test unfold, then check out FN Dish for even more insider takes on Testing the Sabotages.

A Transformative Potato Chip Experience — Testing the Cutthroat Kitchen Sabotages

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A competition like Cutthroat Kitchen can surely be a transformative undertaking for the chef contestants, as they’re almost always pushed beyond their culinary comfort zones. But their ingredients, too, are often forced to become something they’re usually not in order to satisfy a challenge — that’s where Testing the Sabotages comes in. Before Alton Brown could auction off a test to, say, turn potato chip crumbs into gnocchi, as he did on tonight’s all-new episode, the Cutthroat culinary crew had to attempt the conversion firsthand to make sure it was both possible and fair within the time limits.

Just minutes into starting his test, food stylist Hugo Sanchez struggled to work with the gnocchi dough, and he admitted, “The chips in it are preventing it from binding as a normal dough would. It’s actually turning out to be a bigger deal than I expected.” Nevertheless, he soon managed to roll the dough into a log and lob off bite-size dumplings, and in the spirit of evilicious cooking, he said, “It may not taste like gnocchi, but it’s going to look like gnocchi.” Sure enough, after a quick boil and pan-fry, he served up a simple yet presentable gnocchi offering, though he wondered if chefs could use their imagination to create an even better rendition. “It’s definitely something you can play with,” Hugo noted. “Maybe some bacon, some sour cream — call it a baked potato gnocchi.”

Click the play button on the video above to watch Hugo’s test unfold, then catch up on the latest Testing the Sabotages commentary on FN Dish.

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