The Most Dramatic Clashes Between Food Network Chefs And Contestants

Food Network contestants pour their hearts and souls into dishes during a series of exhausting, adrenaline-fueled challenges. When they're finally done, the last thing they want to hear is a group of people criticizing their masterpieces. Most take it on the chin — especially when thousands of dollars and millions of viewers are involved — and accept that a little bit of free expert advice isn't so bad. Still, the free advice from the notoriously finicky judges can sometimes sting like raw onions in the eyes. A handful fight back, with everything from an eye roll to a sarcastic retort to even the middle finger. Or onions. More about that later.

Most of the time, these clashes happen on "Chopped," where contestants who know what they're doing are forced to endure criticism from judges who purport to know even better. But there are a few other network shows where contestants just don't want to hear it, and they make that crystal clear. We gathered up some of the top moments where Food Network contestants talk back to judges, and it's spicier than an unappreciated chili pepper — again, more about that later.

Scott Conant has been very vocal about the foods he refuses to eat. Feed him raw onions once, shame on you. Feed Conant raw onions twice, double shame on you. In one of the most iconic "Chopped" moments ever, chef Joshua Whigham created an elaborate salad that included a sprinkling of thinly chopped raw red onions. Strike one. "I have a real aversion to raw onions," Conant told Whigham, in no uncertain terms. "Don't go too far."

Perhaps Whigham thought Conant was using reverse psychology. In the subsequent challenge, he remembered at the last minute that he had "forgotten something." He ran toward the fridge to get the one item he'd been told not to include: raw red onions. "I know Chef Scott has an aversion to red onions, so I'm slicing as thin as I can get them, because I don't want to catch any flak," he said. Famous last words.

"I'm gonna talk about this raw onion thing," Conant said, putting his fork down mid-bite. "I don't understand why the onions are there ... and it kind of makes me angry." Whigham replied that while he listened, he wanted the "freshness" he believed raw onions bring. Conant gave him one final warning: please don't use onions in the dessert round, to which Whigham retorted, "I was thinking an onion jam." A bit later, Conant tweeted, "For the record. I love onions. I have no problem with them. It's bad technique and/or poorly cooking them that bothers me."

If "Chopped" is kind enough to bring you back for a second chance, don't blow it by using the one item the judges famously can't stand. Lauren Von Der Pool made her mark in Season 18 as a smirking villain who often clashed with other contestants. When Marcus Samuelsson told her that her meal needed more "care and precision," she was smiling broadly, but her eyes communicated the opposite. "You can tell how you're feeling by your facial expressions," judge Aaron Sanchez noted. "So you're just rolling your eyes," Samuelsson summarized, as Von Der Pool's smile grew wider.

At the start of the following season, she returned on the "Return and Redeem" episode featuring previously chopped contestants. At the start of the first judging, she said right off the bat that she shouldn't have been chopped, and that Samuelsson was "hating on her." Eyebrows arched and nervous laughter ensued. Scott Conant kept it short and sweet with a gripe we've all come to know and love: "There's just too many onions in here."

"Well I love onions!" she replied. Her fate was sealed. After she got chopped, Amanda Freitag told Von Der Pool that the raw red onion was "so aggressive." As Freitag spoke, Von Der Pool reacted as aggressively as her onions tasted, with her signature eye rolls. "Seriously, guys?" she said. "Well, I love red onions, so I'm not going to apologize for that." You could cut the tension with a knife. 

Contestants be advised: approach red produce with caution. "Chopped" contestant Barbara Sibley garnished her turkey torta with gooseberry salsa appetizer with some flaming red chili peppers, much to the distress of judge Geoffrey Zakarian. "What are we supposed to do with these?" he asked, sternly brandishing one of the peppers. Sibley shot back her first of many withering stares and instructed, "Nibble."

"Nibble? I don't think so," he replied. "Some people can't take that, so you should really be careful. If you eat these and you get a real hot one, you can't taste the rest of the dinner." Cue withering stare number two from Sibley. "But you know you're alive," she replied, with an uncomfortable level of eye contact that almost suggested that statement might not be true for much longer.

"True, but we have to taste the rest of the dinner," Zakarian replied, as Sibley shot daggers and chili peppers through her eyes. She was chopped a few minutes later, though the judges told her that the real culprit was the dryness of her turkey. She wasn't convinced. "I didn't play it safe, like the other guys," she said as she walked out. "My cuisine is really serious, and what, just because there's a chili pepper on it, it's not serious? Give me a break! If these three judges didn't get it, hey, that's their loss."

Some of these clashes come close to all-out brawls, but in the case of Elise Kornack, it was more a case of a chef living inside her head who mistook a reality competition for a one-on-one session with her thesis advisor. With each new critique, her babble became increasingly acidic. Scott Conant could be seen shifting and clenching his jaw as Kornack explained in detail why she didn't put as much goan chawli on her dish as Geoffrey Zakarian might have liked. By the time it was Conant's turn to speak, he was ready to let her know what show she was on. "Let me speak – you don't have to talk," he said as Kornack was beginning her third monologue. "You're clearly confident. You may be getting ahead of yourself a little bit, not just in being so vocal, but also with some of the products."

Kornack was still vocal by the dessert round when Conant told her that her sorbet and tuile had the wrong textures. "Had I had two more minutes to let it set or had I been a little more patient, it probably would have been crispy, but I'm really happy with what I put in front of you guys," she said, defensive mode now fully activated.

"You're not here to just hear about the good stuff, right?" said Conant. "Because the bad stuff makes you better."

Most of the clashes on Food Network shows are between a contestant and a single judge, but Rory Philipson had an answer for each judge, all of whom had expressed lukewarm feelings about her tater tot hash with canned chicken chowder sauce and seared marinated skirt steak. To be fair, Philipson had to work with items selected by viewers, rather than judges, and she burned with righteous indignation. Geoffrey Zakarian told her the steak needed a marinade, salt, and/or pepper. "That's exactly what I put into it. That was the first thing I did," she clapped back. 

"I like rare, but this is super, super duper rare," Amanda Freitag commented. "We have 30 minutes and a very big challenge today," Philipson shot back, again, not missing a beat. Freitag stared back with a facial expression that could serve as a catchall meme for shock and contempt. "You could be defensive if you want," said a predictably annoyed Scott Conant. That seemed to be exactly what Phillipson wanted. "I think I speak for both of my new friends that if we were offered the opportunity for viewers to pick the ingredients versus a normal episode of 'Chopped,' we'd pick the normal episode. This is really, like, wow."

"But I feel like this was much better than the first round," Conant said. Philipson replied with thanks, but it turns out he was talking about the ingredient selection and not the dish itself. Talk about awkward. 

Rory Philipson was undoubtedly defensive, but we need a whole new word to describe "Chopped" contestant Malik Fall, who didn't seem to understand the overall concept of constructive criticism. He responded to every note with rapid-fire retorts, prompting Alex Guarnaschelli to tell him, "No one's arguing – we're here to offer you suggestions."

During the next judging round, Fall even went as far as to say he didn't care about their suggestions. After aggressively refuting every note given to him, Fall proclaimed what seems to be his worldview: "I don't think what you guys are thinking. I'm thinking what's gonna work for me." After Fall was chopped, Geoffrey Zakarian told him he needed to get a better handle on two ingredients: ginger, and humility. "We here welcome criticism because we know we get better and we learn," he advised.  "You guys can judge the way you want," Fall replied. "I think I'm a damn good cook."

Host Ted Allen loves being a part of "Chopped," but when he has to mediate a dispute, you know things have taken a turn. "No one's saying you're not a good cook at all," he attempted to reason. Fall took another tack, saying he was chopped for speaking back, not because of his food. Judge Josh Capon told him it was indeed due to the superior dishes of the other contestants, prompting another worldview statement: "I think it's bogus. And that's the way I see it, and I said it, and that's the bottom line."

The "Chopped" judges don't just judge contestants' dishes, they also watch the entire process of them being created. Geoffrey Zakarian was appalled as he watched Lola Garland drop pans and sweep food shavings onto the floor, "like the Tasmanian devil," as he'd later say. "I think I would like to see a bit more care to the food and a little less of you enjoying yourself, particularly when you're throwing garbage on the floor," Zakarian admonished. "It's really disrespectful to us and to the competitors."

"It's not something that I did on purpose," Garland replied. "I was trying to play the game, and do what was asked of me." "This is not a game," Zakarian said sternly. "This is a serious competition for $10,000. What I'd like to see you do is be a bit more respectful, a little less chaotic, and try to get some of these things corrected." "I've kind of lost it now," Garland said shortly after. "I don't want to continue, not the way he spoke to me."

But she stuck it out and ended up surviving the elimination round and quickly reversing her fortunes. For her dessert, Garland made an English custard that Zakarian called "right on the money." She still lost due to her first two rounds as the Tasmanian Devil, but noted she was proud she came back and apologized for "getting her knickers in a knot."

"Chopped" judges are typically calm, cool, and collected, even in the middle of an argument. Robert Irvine, who learned to cook aboard the ships of the British Royal Navy and operates a restaurant inside the Pentagon, brings more of a drill sergeant approach as he helps turn around struggling restaurants on "Restaurant: Impossible."

But even Irvine's years in the military couldn't have prepared him for Linda Johnsen, the owner of Filomena's Italian Kitchen. The restaurant and market were bleeding money, and Irvine immediately identified some problems: Johnsen was, in Irvine's words, "No chef. She is a cook with a hobby." Johnsen did not take to this kindly. "For somebody to come along and tell me that I'm not a chef is bull," she said in a confessional, not realizing that Irvine was behind her listening. "It's time to get some South Philly attitude. Cause I'm not gonna put up with it." Johnsen followed through on her threat when Irvine criticized some of her signature dishes. The fight quickly escalated, and she shrieked at him to get out. "You fail because you can't handle the truth!" Irvine shouted back. "If you don't want help, don't ask for help."

But she eventually calmed down, in no small part because Irvine realized what she really needed: a trip to a boxing studio where she could work out all her aggression on a punching bag with Irvine's face on it.

When Robert Irvine stepped into Soup to Nuts, a failing 1950s-themed diner, his first thought was that it hadn't been cleaned since the 1950s. That was one of the nicer remarks that he made. As Irvine looked around the grimy restaurant with garbage under the fridge, mold in the freezer, unrefrigerated meat sitting out, literal bugs crawling on the tables, and about a hundred other health code violations, he did what the state of Florida probably should have done a long time ago: he kicked all the patrons out until he could give the place a serious scrub.

The first step was to address the inexplicably large crowd of surly teenagers who were hired to cook and clean. "I have never seen such a p***-poor place in my life," he barked at them. "How many people clean in this place? Would you like to tell me where you clean? Because if that restaurant is clean, we have some serious issues ... when I open this place tomorrow, you either want to be here to help Sharon [Whitmore], or get out!"

The following day, he identified someone who definitely didn't want to help Sharon. A young dishwasher named Andrew cursed out another employee, and Irvine would have none of it. He told Andrew to get out, and Andrew replied with the infamous one-finger salute. "That's what little boys do," he told Andrew, who, ever the charmer, replied with another curse and another finger.

When you're up for elimination, every move counts, including the way you move your facial muscles. The judges of "Food Network Star" were trying to decide which three contestants would get sent home. In a competition where culinary skills and charisma are equally important, they were stumped: contestant Sita Lewis had a warm, inviting personality, but her food wasn't measuring up. Matthew Grunwald, on the other hand, had had a few successful dishes, and he knew it a little too well, loudly proclaiming himself "the best chef here" at every opportunity. That arrogance eventually rubbed the judges the wrong way.

"It's like riding a bull at a rodeo," Alex Guarnaschelli said. "We're over here, we're over there, I don't know what's going on." Perhaps Guarnaschelli likes a bit of rodeo, however, because she voted to keep Grunwald in. Bobby Flay voted to eliminate him, leaving Giada De Laurentiis as the swing vote.

As the three contestants arrived, De Laurentiis was ready to send Lewis home. "You've struggled with the food aspect of this, and that's obviously an issue if you want to be on Food Network," she said. "And so..." The camera panned to Grunwald's expanding smirk, which stopped De Laurentiis mid-sentence. "Can I change my mind? I changed my mind," she told the other judges. "That reaction is the determination of who should go home." "Like a dagger," Grunwald said, still smirking. "I'm still gonna be successful in this business."