Tournament Of Champions Had To Include A Safety Warning Because The Chefs Got Too Wild

I was watching the new season of Tournament Of Champions yesterday, and to my surprise in the middle of the episode, a big danger warning flashed across the screen. I’ve seen similar messages on Jackass for obvious reasons. I’ve seen them on Mythbusters once again for obvious reasons. I can’t remember ever seeing a similar don’t try this at home warning on a cooking show, but hilariously, this random episode of Tournament Of Champions actually featured the same warning twice concerning two different contestants who tried the exact same scheme.

The why behind this only makes sense if you understand the basic concept of Tournament Of Champions. In short, the cooking competition features famous chefs doing battle in a head-to-head format that requires them to cook specific ingredients and use specific pieces of equipment based on random spins of the wheel from host Guy Fieri. It sounds really hokey and dumb and actually is those things, but it’s also a ton of fun and features really high level competitors with James Beard awards, Michelin stars and high placements on other notable shows like Top Chef.

Anyway, this particular battle saw the so-called randomizer land on toaster. Sara Bradley and Dan Jacobs, both of Top Chef fame, each cooked more conventional items that are normally put in there, but independently, they also each decided to put spices and/ or nuts in foil wrap and drop them in the toaster too. It worked out perfectly for each, but it also seems to have given the producers a panic attack because they flashed this across the screen both times…

I did a little doublechecking after the warnings flashed to see if the producers were overreacting, and it turns out, they were not. I read like four different articles about using foil wrap in the microwave, and every single one strongly advised not to do it. Apparently the foil wrap itself can get heated up without issue, but if it physically presses against the heating coils inside the toaster, there’s a strong risk of fire. It’s also not an enjoyable process to get it out, as we saw with Dan who used his hand and didn’t seem to enjoy himself.

I can’t guarantee there hasn’t been a warning on a food show somewhere in the past. Maybe there’s one in a No Reservations episode I’m forgetting about or some culinary competition I haven’t watched yet. Regardless, I think we can all agree such a warning is very rare, but it’s oddly fitting that these two happened on Tournament Of Champions. The show is probably the wildest and most unhinged food competition going today, and that's high praise considering Gordon Ramsay has one people have to grab ingredients off a moving platform.

If you’ve never checked out TOC before, I’d highly recommend doing so. It airs on Food Network on Sunday evenings and is also available to stream on HBO Max. It’s a lot of fun and definitely worth your time.