ABQ CHEF MAKES THE CUT FOR ‘CHOPPED’
Carrie Eagle from Farm & Table will appear on the Food Network’s cooking competition show in Tuesday’s episode.
Carrie Eagle is ready for her close-up. The executive chef at Farm & Table will appear on the Tuesday episode of the competition show “Chopped.”
The episode airs at 8 p.m. on Food Network.
“It was an amazing experience to travel to New York for the show,” Eagle said. “This is my first TV show competition. I’ve competed in many local competitions.”
“Chopped,” hosted by Ted Allen, is in its eighth season on Food Network.
The series pits four chefs against one another as they compete for a chance to win $10,000. The chefs have to create an appetizer, an entree and a dessert.
On her episode the theme is “game day party.” The four chefs competed by reinventing mac and cheese for the appetizer round; artichokes in the entree round; and a stadium starch in the dessert basket.
Though Eagle can’t talk about the outcomes, she says it was an opportunity that came across her table last summer.
“Initially, I didn’t follow through,” she says. “Being that we’re a seasonal restaurant, the timing had to be different. There was also this moral struggle that a lot of chefs have towards the various TV shows. I don’t want to be a media chef. But this show is real and legitimate.”
Eagle flew out to New York City in late August to film the episode.
And her first task was to make an appetizer within 20 minutes.
“Once you start, it’s the real deal,” she says. “I’m a natural competitor.”
Eagle has been at Farm & Table for close to two years.
In that time, her daily work helped prepare her for the intensity of “Chopped.”
“Oftentimes, as chefs we are in a regular position to always modify our food,” she says. “Clientele come in with specific requests or allergies and we accommodate. In that way it’s a natural practice for what is asked on the show.”
Eagle was born on Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis and then moved to Iowa, where she was raised, though she and her family often came back to New Mexico to visit her mother’s family.
“Taking these epic road trips gave me a real sense of travel and seeing the country,” she says. “Iowa and New Mexico, in terms of culture and food, are so dramatically different. But I draw from them all the time.”
For Eagle, she never imagined a career as a chef.
In fact, this is her second career.
“I used to teach kindergarten,” she says with a laugh. “I’ve always been creative. This opportunity gets me into a kitchen to express myself creatively.”