A new season of those wacky cheftestants has started up again. A new judge has joined the panel. And the two hour opening took a page from Food Network’s Chopped.

*New judge Christina Tosi is a breath of fresh air. She’s snappy and able to judge the food very well.

*In the past they had aspiring aprons do all kinds of tasks or prepare a meal for them to judge. This year they made the aspiring aprons compete in pairs or in groups of three or four. The losers were chopped.

*A redemption round was added so that those chopped might be selected by one of the judges in a final challenge for the remaining two aprons.

*Like in the past they showed disagreements between the judges at this early stage. Hopefully they will show this more often.

*The criteria they used in determining who stayed and who got chopped was whether the person showed enough creativity and passion that could be developed. Which meant someone who perhaps had a slightly better dish than the other could be chopped.

*I like how the final challenge used Tosi’s must haves in her pantry.

*I thought it was a little weird to have all the people stand outside waiting to learn the fates. Likewise the staging when people came out was too obvious.

*The fashionista guy loves being the center of attention. Interesting to see how it turns out. Looks like from the promos he will be wearing some interesting outfits to the cooking theatre.

*Hey and there was no mention of Walmart at all during the show.

Next week the cheftestants face their first mystery box challenge, severe heartburn sure to follow, and to add more pressure a double elimination.