Chopping away the competition

USD Chef competes on the TV Cooking Show Chopped

Dominic Urquidez / Asst. Feature Editor / The USD Vista

USD’s Chef de Cuisine John Miller spends most of his days in USD’s dining halls, but for one day, he competed in the “Chopped” kitchen. Chef Miller has been working with food for roughly 30 years, preparing meals all around the world. He started his career in Japan and traveled around the United States, the Virgin Islands, Canada, and France to acquire all of his culinary skills. Not only is Miller a culinary expert on USD’s campus, but he is also a professional outside of campus. He has competed several times with the American Culinary Association and has even participated in the International Culinary Olympics in Germany. 

His first cooking experience was during a homestay in his junior year of college. While studying in Japan, Miller ran out of money and needed funds to get to and from school. He asked his homestay mother for help and she offered him a job at a restaurant.

“It was hard, they weren’t appreciative of having an American in their kitchen, I couldn’t cook which made it worse,” Miller said. “But there was something about that experience that really grabbed me. I loved it. As hard as it was, I really, really loved it. I learned to cook pretty quick and they took me in.” 

Preparing to compete on “Chopped” was exciting for Chef Miller. Luckily, working in the USD Dining hall helped prepare him to take on the challenge. There are many students and faculty who have specific needs and requests he has to fulfill, which he viewed as good practice for the competition day. This made it so that when he was given the unfamiliar ingredients to put in his meals for “Chopped,” he was ready for anything. 

“Those kinds of opportunities, to have to, on the fly, change what your plan is, and even what your food is, really help you in ‘Chopped’ because you really don’t know what you’re walking into,” Miller said. 

In the show, the four chefs of the day are given a basket of random ingredients. They have to somehow create a delicious meal with the given food. After each course, a chef is eliminated until there is one standing. Some of the ingredients the judges gave the competing chefs included yellow hot pepper paste, booza ice cream, and pineapple cakes. 

Seeing himself on television was unexpected. He almost forgot about it, since the filming was over a year ago. Miller was nervous to see himself on TV as the uncertainty of how one will be edited and what will be included made him anxious. 

“When you’re on TV, you do things you wouldn’t normally do, and there are 25 cameras there that catch every single move you make,” Miller said.  

Competing on the show was an entertaining adventure from start to finish. He mentioned that he was picked up in an unmarked van next to a McDonald’s in New York. Miller and his fellow competitors walked into the studio and quickly learned that the environment was very controlled. The studio did not want the chefs to interact with the judges and were given handlers: people who were with them all the time. What caught the attention of Miller was the constant filming. 

“I think just having so many cameras around was different for me,” Miller said. “When you’re cooking, there are not only cameras on your station and everywhere else, but if you step away from your station to go to the pantry or get dishes, there is a person with a camera directly behind you. I ended up knocking that guy down by accident.”

Another unusual experience for Miller was acting. He was comfortable talking on camera because he was accustomed to conversing with people from all walks of life. As a result, the show gave him a great deal of airtime. While the easiest part for Miller was the cooking, the most challenging part was the time constraint, as the chefs were only given 20-30 minutes per meal. 

“Being on that show exposes you to something you’re never going to see any other way,” Miller said. “It is great marketing for you, I was kind of hoping that being on the show would reflect well, especially being a chef at USD, and now it’s getting some traction.”

If you want to know what obstacles USD Chef John Miller had to overcome and witness how far he made it in the competition, look for the “Chopped” episode titled “Booza Blues” (S46, Ep. 17) to watch him show off his culinary talent.