Ace This Cooking Quiz And Win The Title Of Master Chef!
- by Joshua Laurent
- – on
- in Lifestyle
There's an old saying about whether or not we eat to live or live to eat and in this day of the celebrity chef, that saying has never been more true. Sure, there are straight-ahead cooking shows on TV, but it seems like you can't change the channel without running into some kind of cooking competition.
Cooking shows have been a staple on TV since it started to pop up in people's homes in the early 1950s because they are inexpensive to produce an fun to watch. But when did the whole chefs competing thing really start?
We think this must have started with Iron Chef. The original show came from Japan and started filming in the mid-1990s. With a shoestring budget and high on dramatics, not to mention the cheesy overdubbing when it made its way to the US, it was watched by many and introduced the concept of cooking as a contest...even if they occasionally killed a live octopus or two.
With this quiz, we're going to quiz you on basic (and not so basic) culinary skills, and we're also going to see if you really know your celebrity chefs from one another. So, soup's on, come and get it, and bon appetit. Let's just hope this quiz doesn't make you too hungry.
Who is this celebrity chef?
She's probably the only celebrity chef who also has a line of dog food named after her, and no, her name is not "Kibbles and Bits". She was actually a news reporter for a small station when she was discovered and started writing cookbooks. Today, she's hosted a syndicated show for many years and while it doesn't rise to Oprah or Ellen levels in the ratings, she holds her own. The show features lifestyle tips, but cooking is still the centerpiece.
What restaurant serves The Whopper?
In fact, this restaurant boasts on most of its signs that it's "The Home of the Whopper". We'd tell you about its sort of freaky mascot, but that would give away the name of the restaurant, although when we think about the mascots of just about every restaurant, there's something a little creepy about all of them. You can see what is basically on a Whopper in the photo, but their "special sauce" is ketchup and mayo. You have to ask for it without sauce if you want it that way.
What is the name for this kind of food preparation?
So if you're ever going to made food this way, you have two options. There is the visually appealing way, which you see in this photo. It's usually the way that it comes in restaurants. But, when you think about it, chicken doesn't cook at the same rate as onions, which don't cook at the same rate as peppers or tomatoes. So why put all on the same stick? The smart way to cook this to perfection is to put all of the same food on a single stick.
How many calories are in a vanilla frosted doughnut with sprinkles from Dunkin Donuts?
One of the largest doughnut chains in the world, Dunkin Donuts, is so popular, people actually think you're supposed to spell doughnut the way the store spells it's last name. For this question, let's see if you know what's in a doughnut as far as calories go. Maybe it will encourage you to eat only one or two instead of a half dozen next time. The calories here come half from fat and half from carbohydrates, but how many overall calories are there?
Who is this celebrity chef?
This celebrity chef has probably been in the news lately more than all of the others combined because he passed away (unfortunately, by his own hand) at the beginning of the summer. He was known for his outrageous tastes in food, and hosted several shows where he would feast on animals you'd never think to try or parts of the animals you do eat that you'd never want to try. His final show was called Parts Unknown and appeared on CNN.
What style of food is this?
Yes, we know it's dessert, and that's most often how this treat is served. If you watched Pee-Wee's Playhouse back in the late 80s, there was an episode where he actually taught people how to make this treat. You start with one layer of something, and then you put another layer of something else. On top of that, you put another layer of something, and then on top of that...you get where we're going with this. What is this kind of food called?
What kind of food is this?
If your exposure to real food from Mexico starts and ends with Taco Bell, we urge you to find a high quality restaurant somewhere around where you live or learn to cook, because it's one of the real treats you'll ever have. The only criticism we have of this cuisine is that it kind of all seems the same. It's always meat and vegetables, with melted cheese, served on or in some kind of tortilla. We're not complaining, we just wonder if anybody else noticed.
How much lemon juice vs. water goes into lemonade?
We will be the first to say that there are plenty of different recipes for lemonade out there. We're going to go by the one that our college girlfriend taught us. Wonder whatever happened to her and if she's making lemonade for her family wherever they ended up. Anyway, we digress. While there are recipes that lean heavy toward the tartness, or sweetness and others are watered down, we're going to go with the ratio that seems to be in most recipes.
How much "milk" is in a coconut?
You've seen enough survival TV shows or movies, from Gilligan's Island to Castaway with Tom Hanks to know that if you end up on a deserted island, the first thing you need to do is find a coconut tree because it has a nutrient rich "milk" inside. Technically, it's juice, but you're stranded, so why quibble. While the average coconut produces nearly a full pound of "meat", do you know how much of this milky liquid it can usually produce?
What kind of fish is this?
There are a lot of kinds of fish that we wouldn't present because even the best chef wouldn't be able to tell this difference, but this is probably the easiest fish to spot because of its rich pink hue, even when it's cooked. It also almost always comes in a filet similar to the one you see in the photo. One of the more popular ways to serve it is on a cedar plank, although we still don't know how that helps.
Who is this celebrity chef?
If you're judging the most famous celebrity chef based on the amount of shows he's hosted, this guy wins and it's not even a close race for second. Counting both his UK-based and US-based shows, some of his programs have included: MasterChef, MasterChef Junior, Hell's Kitchen, The F Word, Kitchen Nightmares, 24 Hours to Hell and Back, and Hotel Hell. Those are just the ones that don't have his name in the title or we could name another half-dozen programs.
What style of cooking is this?
This style of cooking was originally made popular in Asia, and if you go to one of these restaurants, there's a good chance there will be one or two hibachi tables where a chef will perform a show and cook a version of this food for you. It's really less about the ingredients, usually a specific kind of meat and vegetables, than it is about how it is cooked. At your home, odds are you'd cook it in a standard wok.
What two crustaceans look like this?
There are two types of crustaceans that look remarkably similar. Unless you're an expert on shellfish or really, really know your food, naming which of the two this image shows would be pretty tough. One of them is best known for being purchased in Louisiana, and is a staple in Cajun food while the bigger version of this animal comes in several varieties but the most well-known is "Maine". Both are considered delicacies although the bigger version is much easier to find across the world than its smaller cousin.
What key ingredient is missing from this Chef's Salad?
What you see here in this photograph is almost a complete Chef's Salad, but one key ingredient has been left out. These days, even fast-food restaurants like Wendy's and McDonald's are serving this variety of salad. We're not hard-boiled egg fans and besides, why would we go to a fast-food place to get salad? They're probably trying to cater to the hungry parent watching their food who has a kid that just wants a meal that comes with a toy.
What is another word for shrimp?
So we did the research on this one and while there are a few chefs that are full of themselves and like to claim there is a difference, the food you see here is known as shrimp. But it's also known as another word. The only difference as an edible entity between shrimp and this word we're looking for is that this word tends to only apply to shrimp that are large. Apparently someone is against oxymorons. We love jumbo shrimp.
Who is this celebrity chef?
This celebrity chef had one of the longest-running shows of its type, although we can't tell you the name or it gives away the answer. Well just say that the final word in the title was "Live!" While most of the chefs in this quiz are discovered through their cookbooks, this chef was discovered through his actual cooking. He still enters contests with his biggest win probably coming in 2003 when his Turkey and Hot Sausage Chili recipe won National Best Recipe award.
Finish this phrase: A watched pot....
We just discovered that his well-known phrase we're asking you to complete was first ascribed to Poor Richard. That may mean very little on the surface unless you're currently in Eighth Grade US History. Poor Richard was the pseudonym for one of the most important people in history, Benjamin Franklin. Although he never served as a leader of the United States, he was one of the early shapers of America. Although it's these kinds of sayings that make us wonder how busy the founders really were.
What's being chopped here?
If you've ever worked in a restaurant, you know that food prep is about the least glamorous part of the job next to washing dishes or mopping the floor and the worst of the food prep is probably when you have to chop tiny little plants into even tinier pieces because they give the food a special zing. This is one of those kinds of plants, and some mistake it for a weed, but it's not. What are we chopping here?
What is pictured here?
One of the things that most people don't think about it how the food they eat got to their table. Think of that tonight when you sit down to dinner or tomorrow morning when you're looking at your breakfast. Some people will only eat organic, locally sourced food and while we think that's great, there are basics that come to us from all over the world. The photo you see here is from Vietnam. The style of farming is called terraces. What food does it yield?
Who is this celebrity chef?
The one we're asking about in this photograph is the male. He was kind of the 1960s and 70s answer to Julia Child with his show called "The Galloping Gourmet". He returned briefly in the 1990s with a show named after him that tried to cut out all of the fat and teach people how to cook more healthy. Unfortunately, this Hall of Fame chef was just a little ahead of his time. He could have been a staple on the Food Network 10 years later
What makes a pizza "Chicago Style"?
There are a plethora of pizza styles in this world: thin crust, New York style, flatbread, Neapolitan and just about another dozen city names. And that doesn't even begin to factor in some of the speciality toppings that come with some of the more obscure varieties. There must be some end to it, but that's for another question on another day. What we'd like to know right now is what it takes for a piece of pizza to be "Chicago Style"
What are the oranges called in this dish?
We're not sure exactly what this dish is, but we're going to guess it's orange chicken. Gordon Ramsay, on many of the shows he's hosted talks about presentation when it comes to the food he serves. He says it's important, but feels some chefs put too much emphasis on it, "The presentation will only last for a moment, but the flavor will last a lifetime" is the kind of thing he yells at the contestants of his shows. So what role to the oranges serve here?
Who are these celebrity chefs?
So the premise of the show is that a random chef, who is a master at a certain kind of cooking in brought to this "Kitchen Stadium" somewhere in Japan (though it looks oddly like a TV studio) and they do battle against another chef. The rules are they have to have one main ingredient in every dish, so it forces them to get creative and work fast. All the while, the show is commentated like it's a sporting event.
What food is this?
This is one of those that if you get it wrong, you should probably just close the refrigerator, empty your pantry and buy enough microwavable dinners to last a lifetime because you don't deserve to eat good food. This is obviously a fruit and it's named after a large bird that is only found in New Zealand, for the most part. And that bird also appears on the cover of the most widely sold shoe polish, so there's a good hint.
Who is this celebrity chef?
This lady was probably the first celebrity chef that ever existed. She was assumed to not originally be from the United States, but she was born, was raised, lived and died in California. It was probably because she was a master of French cooking and spoke with a high-pitched voice and drawl that just didn't seem to be from America. Since nobody had seen cooking shows before hers, she won a ton of awards over the years including several Emmys and the Peabody Award.
Who is this celebrity chef?
While she's been a staple on the Food Network for nearly two decades and you could build a great fort to play in using just her cookbooks, this silver-haired celebrity chef will probably go down in history more for her use of a racial slur than for anything to do with her Southern cooking. She got a pretty rough beating in the media and then when things died down, she quietly returned to television where she's managed to shun controversy since.
What's this kind of cake called?
What you're viewing in this photo is a piece of chocolate cake, although it's not your typical kind of cake. This kind is usually served in smaller piece because of the differences in ingredients. For instance, your typical piece of cake is made of four main ingredients: flour, butter, sugar and eggs. This kind of cake doesn't use any flour (or very little) which makes it more dense and ground nuts or breadcrumbs are also part of this particular recipe.
What is this style of food called?
This food comes in almost as many varieties as there are flavors of ice cream in the world. The most famous is probably Tuna Noodle. Essentially to make this, you just take anything you've got in your fridge that is leftover, toss a can of cream of mushroom soup into it, put some breadcrumbs on top for a crunchy finish, bake and serve. This was also a running joke on the 1970s TV show Welcome Back Kotter, but you're probably too young to remember that.
What are the sharp things on a fork called?
This is also one of those questions that you really should know the answer to, but it also seems like one of those things, like riding a bike, you can go your whole life without knowing unless some takes the time to teach. Never fear, that's what we're here for. Did you know the fork's use is dated back to the 4th Century and it's thought that it came out of Ancient Greece? There's a cool fact to share at dinner tonight.
What are these called?
You're in one of two camps of people. You think that these multi-colored treats looking amazingly tasty because they are so bright with color or you're the kind of person who sees this and immediately recognizes those colors don't exist in food naturally, so you're going to stay away. While food coloring is obviously a key ingredient, this dessert is also made with a base that is usually almonds or coconut and a lot of sugar. In between the layers is usually jam, cherry filling or even chocolate.
Who is this celebrity chef?
This celebrity chef has had nearly a dozen shows on the Food Network over the years and really broke out into mainstream culture after he had an Iron Chef battle with the Japanese specialist, Masahiro Morimoto. At the end of that battle, this chef jumped on his cooking station, which Morimoto said was showing no respect. Morimoto won. This chef also lost on a special episode of Iron Chef America when he teamed with Giada De Laurentiis against Rachael Ray and Mario Batali.
What is the finest cut of meat called?
Now, we're not asking the finest kind of meat. Most would agree that it is Kobe beef and it costs a lot of money. It's not the kind of thing you can pick up at the corner market. You can, however find this at most grocery stores. We recently read a tip that if you want the finest, freshest meat, request that the butcher trim the fat on a piece of beef for you. Odds are, he's going to use what came in most recently.
Where is sushi from?
Technically, what you're looking at in this photo is not sushi since it does not feature raw fish, which is as much as a staple of this dish as the rice. Also, it's not really this kind of food if the fish is cooked or if they deep-fry it with a crunchy coating. There are different kinds of this food as well. There are traditional rolls, as you see pictured, and sashimi usually doesn't involve the seaweed wrapping of the rolls.
Who is this celebrity chef?
While this chef certainly has celebrity status, he first earned it by catering to celebrities. He opened his first restaurant, Spago, on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood back in the early 1980s and later moved it to Beverly Hills. Through the late 90s, he opened several more versions of Spago throughout the world and he was able to parlay feeding TV executives with impressing upon them that he should have a show. Despite his fame, he continues to open restaurant, although most are now branded with his name.
What is a hot dog's official name?
While doing research for this question, we learned way too much about hot dogs, including the fact that they are not officially known as hotdogs and that they are classified as a type of "sausage sandwich." If you thought mustard was the most popular hot dog topping, you're wrong, because it's ketchup. The world's most expensive hot dog was sold a few years back at a Seattle restaurant for $169 and on the Fourth of July, on average, the US will consume 150 million hot dogs.