18 Facts About Ted Allen

1.

Edward Reese Allen was born on May 20,1965 and is an American author and television personality.

2.

Ted Allen was the food and wine connoisseur on the Bravo network's television program Queer Eye, and has been the host of the TV cooking competition series Chopped since its launch in 2009, as well as Chopped Junior, which began in mid-2015.

3.

Ted Allen is a longtime contributing writer to Esquire magazine and is the author of two cookbooks, and regularly appears on the Food Network show Beat Bobby Flay and other television cooking shows.

4.

Ted Allen received a degree in psychology from Purdue University in 1987.

5.

Ted Allen later returned to graduate school, earning an MA in journalism from the Science and Environmental Reporting Program at New York University.

6.

Ted Allen then moved to Chicago, where he worked as a reporter for Lerner Newspapers, a chain of community weekly newspapers.

7.

Ted Allen then became a freelancer for Chicago magazine, eventually signing on as a senior editor and often writing about food, wine, and luminaries of the culinary world.

8.

Ted Allen joined Esquire in 1997 as a contributing editor, where he wrote features, food pieces, and profiles and co-authored the magazine's popular "Things a Man Should Know" series.

9.

Ted Allen gained great visibility in 2003 when he became a cast member of the television makeover series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, serving as its food and wine specialist.

10.

Ted Allen continued to make television appearances as a gourmet, including as a frequent guest judge on Food Network's Iron Chef America.

11.

Since moving to the Food Network, Ted Allen has made appearances on many of that channel's programs, including Beat Bobby Flay, Best Ever, Cutthroat Kitchen, multiple episodes of The Best Thing I Ever Ate, Dear Food Network, and The Next Food Network Star.

12.

On November 16,2008, Ted Allen returned to Iron Chef America as a co-floor reporter for the show's Thanksgiving special.

13.

Ted Allen reprised the role as a co-floor reporter for the Thanksgiving special on November 20,2011.

14.

On December 2,2012, Ted Allen served as a sous chef to Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto and chef Robert Irvine in a special "Holiday Battle," pitting the Food Network stars against reps of the sister network Cooking Channel, Ben Sergeant, Nadia G, and Michael Symon.

15.

Ted Allen became engaged to Barry Rice in 2013 after being together for 20 years.

16.

In May 2012, Ted Allen received a James Beard Foundation Award for his work as the host of Chopped, and the show won for best in-studio television program.

17.

Ted Allen later contributed to an Esquire food series that was a finalist in the National Magazine Award in 2003.

18.

Ted Allen holds two awards from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for Queer Eye, presented in 2004 and 2005.