The Truth About Idris Muhammad From Chopped: Alton's Maniacal Baskets
In December, Park Springs, a senior community in Atlanta' suburb Stone Mountain, announced that chef Idris Muhammad would be joining their staff as a homemaker. To some, this might seem a step down. After all, he began his culinary career as a private chef for P. Diddy and Jennifer Lopez and later as the executive chef of P. Diddy's restaurant. Such a position is no doubt a testament to his ability as a chef, but also pulls on the fact that he is the son of the great jazz drummer Idris Muhammad and Dolores "LaLa" Brooks, a member of the defining girl group The Crystals. In fact, even an advertisement he filmed for Blendtec features the connection between music and food.
In a post he shared on Facebook in 2016, the rest of his resume has a similar high class note. After earning his degree from the Culinary Institute of America, he worked at Mercer Kitchen and Bergdorf Goodman, before eventually becoming an executive chef at the Commerce Club in Atlanta. However, as he explained to The Champion, preparing food for the rich and famous failed to fill his soul.
Idris Muhammad has also faced Alton Brown's challenges before
The announcement that Alton Brown would host a new show called "Chopped: Alton's Maniacal Baskets," was intended to instill fear of what crazy spin he would hurl at the competitors. However, Muhammad is probably not overly concerned, as he's competed on television before. In 2016, he participated in "Cutthroat Kitchen," specifically the eleventh episode from season four titled "Superhero Sabotage." In that clash, as the Food Network recap blog bobbymgsk writes, he won. The chef managed to do this with a heavily damaged pan, holding onto a toy convertible, and have his rolls wrecked, as such things happen when Brown gets his way.
Muhammad has also had experience competing on a Food Network program in which antics were not aplenty, specifically "Beat Bobby Flay." In season 19, episode 4, he prepared a Mediterranean salad with dill yogurt in the first round, but lost. Now he returns to the screen to regain his honor as a Food Network winner.