Chopping the bully judges from Chopped - Geoffrey Zakarian

Chopped, seen weekly on Food Network, is energetic and entertaining and a Tuesday habit in this house.  However, Chopped dropped the ball of responsibility and the entire  ‘Anti Bully push’ that this nation has embraced, went out the window with Judge Geoffrey Zakarian.  

Chopped demonstrated that it’s ok for men to push women around and get away with it. Tonight I saw a rerun from a couple years back, had I saw this on first run … I probably never would have watched another episode.

Honestly? What were the producer’s thinking? It’s bad enough that every judge comes on the show in a bad mood or extremely pre menstrual. But Geoffrey Zakarian epitomized the worst of the worst giving every chef a bad name.

The episode was Flower Power, the victim,  Lola Garand. First round, Lola is having fun. Apparently having fun is a no-no, because judge Marc Murphy stated, “If she was in my kitchen I’d have to tell her to shut up.”

It was apparent from the get go, these two male judges did not like Lola. But Geoffrey took that a step further acting like a school yard bully and humiliating her like I have never seen … on national TV. Fire him. He spoke about how he thought her house was probably a mess and he wanted no part of it. Hey, uh, Geoffrey, its not your place to judge her home. Judge her food.

I searched for over an hour on the net for the clip. I couldn’t find it.

“You’re disrespectful,” He told her.

“I’m sorry, I was having fun with this game.” Lola is from the UK.
“Game? Game? You think this is a game.”
(Well, yeah, Geoffrey, it is a game, they are competing)
But when Lola tried to defend herself, he held up a hand, told her to be quiet he wasn’t finished and bashed her further. Not her food. He bashed Lola.

I’m a writer and I can’t even begin to describe how unacceptable this was.

It was apparent that the other judges were embarrassed by his behavior, but Lola remained classy.

Fire him.

Somewhere in the whole scheme of things, someone forgot to tell Geoffrey that he is there to judge the food not tear up, tear apart and humiliate a contestant.

My God, it was a complete demonstration of a mentally abusive spouse. Seriously. He humiliates Lola, she cries, and when she returns, she aims to please, Then SHE apologizes to HIM, and he gets away with it. Sound familiar to anyone whose been in an abusive relationship? I waited for an apology. Maybe he apologized off camera, but the damage was done to the viewer, at least to me.

I worked in restaurants my entire life, and know the temperaments of cooks.  Bash her cooking, I have no problem with the judges being harsh on cooking, but leave the personalities out of it.

Food Network producers allowed this man to degrade a human being on national TV without any repercussion. They all but said it is ok to treat another human being like that. He scolded her like a child, degraded her as if she were beneath him. I don’t give a rat’s ass who he is, what he is or has accomplished, he had no right to get away with that. Fire him.

Hey Food Network, it’s not entertainment. You sent a message to every bully, mentally abusive spouse. Not only the message that you can unwarrantedly chastise someone, but you can do so and not have to atone.

Why don’t you show the episode a few more times so the newbie abusers can learn how to get it right?

Time for the producers to put Geoffrey Zakarian in a basket and CHOP him.

It won’t do much, but it’s my stand and my petition. Feel free to be one of the few who sign in. By signing it you stating that bullying behavior on national television will not be tolerated no matter who the bully should be.

 

PLEASE SIGN MY PETITION TO FOOD NETWORK