'Chopped' and the Chihuahua

I confess to a guilty pleasure of watching a couple of the cooking shows. It wasn't by choice; it was because wifey watches it in bed, and well, I like my bed and when she turns off the television. It sounds like there's a pretty interesting book out about the Food Network. Not that I'm going to buy it, but I liked some of the excerpts.

Yahoo says:

In his new book, From Scratch: Inside the Food Network, writer Allen Salkin takes a deep dive into the world of Food Network, from before it was a kernel of an idea all the way up to the latest Paula Deen scandal. For anyone who has an interest in the network, or television in general, it's a fascinating read.

'Chopped' was originally a really bizarre, wacky show

From da book:

The original idea for Chopped was a whole lot more nutty than the no-frills show that ended up making it to air. In the original pitch, inspired by Deal or No Deal, a silhouetted tycoon would plan a dinner party, and his butler, "a snooty John Cleese type," would pit four chefs against each other for the privilege of cooking the dinner. After each round a chef would be eliminated by a panel of judges (including Rocco DiSpirito), and their dish would be fed to a Chihuahua named Pico. The crew didn't realize just how passionate the chefs would be about winning the competition, so after the initial idea was rejected by programming head Bob Tuschman, they reformulated the show to focus on the chefs instead of the wacky setup. And Chopped was born.