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Food Network uploaded a video to its YouTube channel on March 2, featuring Tournament of Champions chefs and judges sharing their most controversial food opinions. Chef Jonathon Sawyer took the opportunity to share his disdain for people putting tomatoes on their burgers.
He stated that, no matter how freshly sliced or ripe they are, tomatoes do not belong on burgers. The TOC contestant explained that the juice from tomatoes disrupts the "ratio of burger to bun to patty to cheese." Instead of dealing with the "liquid," he suggested using onions, pickles, lettuce, and other typical toppings instead.
"Do not put stinking tomatoes on your burger no matter how good they are. All that juice messes up the ratio of burger to bun to patty to cheese. All that liquid deserves to be nowhere near you. Just need onions, pickles, lettuce, if you're getting crazy, sauce, burger, cheese. That's it. Anything else is ridiculous," he said.
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Other Tournament of Champions season 6 chefs and judges share their controversial food opinions
For the uninitiated, Tournament of Champions season 6 premiered on Food Network on March 2, 2025. The reality cooking show returned with a batch of new and old chef contestants competing for the coveted title and a grand prize of $150,000. Guy Fieri returned as the host, joined by previous winners Tiffani Faison, Mei Lin, Maneet Chauhan, and Brooke Williamson on the judging panel.
The Food Network YouTube video, titled "MOST-Controversial Food Opinions," started with contestant Antonia Lofaso, who shared two hot takes. First, she admitted she prefers her burgers well done. She also stated that she always adds cheese to pasta with fish, defying the traditional culinary rule against mixing the two.
Antonia's fellow cast members, Tobias Dorzon and Claudette Zepeda, agreed with her second controversial opinion. Chef Claudette even mentioned that those who claim seafood and cheese cannot be paired need to open their minds a bit.
Further in the video, Tournament of Champions judge Maneet Chauhan highlighted the frequent use of the word "authenticity" while presenting cultural food.
"The word authenticity. I don't think that there is any authentic food on this planet. It's been migration of different flavors, different spices, different people who've gotten different techniques, ingredients to different parts of the world. So food is all about evolution, it evolves," she said.
Meanwhile, Judge Alex Guarnaschelli stated that yogurt should only be served at breakfast with granola on top, and not at any other meal.
"When I go to a restaurant like 'We're having yougut with beans and blah blah'. I'm like, 'We're not having that. You're having that,'" she added.
Contestant Carlos Anthony's controversial food opinion centred around the confusion surrounding how people order their eggs. He pointed out that terms like "over easy, over medium, well done, fried hard" can mean different things to different chefs around the world.
The Tournament of Champions chef believes that while everyone claims to be particular about how they want their eggs served, most people don't understand the technical differences involved in those cooking methods.
On the other hand, Chef Brittanny Anderson thinks that not all steaks need to be cooked medium rare. She argues that certain types of steaks, particularly those that are dry-aged or have a high level of marbling, may benefit from being cooked for a slightly longer period, depending on the duration of dry aging.
The Tournament of Champions season 6 contestant explained that dry-aged steaks have concentrated fat that requires a little more time to melt. Without allowing the concentrated fat to fully melt, she believes that the cook might miss out on its "full potential."
"When you have a fatty cut like a rib-eye steak, you want to really cook it to a medium to really get that fat melted. I really truly believe that's the best way to enjoy a ribeye steak," Kevin Lee later added.
Tournament of Champions season 6 episodes are available on Food Network.
