By Derrick Warren, News Correspondent
This winter, Tuesday nights on ABC are sizzling. The network introduced its new food competition show in January, which may soon rival other food shows such as “Top Chef” and “Chopped.”
“The Taste” is far different than many previous culinary competitions. The show allows its four judges – Anthony Bourdain, Nigella Lawson, Ludo Lefebvre and Brian Malarkey – the opportunity to serve as mentors during team cooking challenges. The mentors offer coaching in the kitchen, and give up their spots as judges to let a special guest judge fill in. From the amount of seasoning in a dish to how long something should be cooked, they have a say.
On “The Taste” there is no such thing as a complete dish. Judges are only allowed a spoonful of whatever the chef decides to create. Team challenges on “The Taste” are fierce, as each kitchen wants to be the one to send out the most delicious spoonful before proceeding to the individual challenge.
Once contestants have proceeded to the individual challenge, the show becomes more like NBC’s “The Voice,” but with food. On “The Voice” contestants sing for judges without them knowing whose voice belongs to the person, and on “The Taste” judges are presented a spoonful of food without knowing which chef cooked it.
In the individual challenge judges are no longer mentors. Now they must decide which spoon is the week’s best. The show heats up as judges could potentially be sending their chefs from their team kitchen to the bottom two once the worst dish has been revealed.
According to an interview with Nigella Lawson, who is a renowned British food writer and one of the judges, the spoonful concept isn’t the only thing setting “The Taste” apart.
In a recent YouTube video, Lawson told Pop Culture Passionistas that television today makes food competitions all about the presentation, but to her what really makes people love food is the way it tastes.
“When you have a spoonful and you don’t know what is there, and you’re just tasting it, you have nothing to go by except the taste, and that’s the truest way of judging food,” Lawson said.
Most cooking shows allow only executive chefs to enter the competition, but “The Taste” lets both home and professional cooks battle it out. Out of the 16 contestants, only half hold positions as executive chefs. The other contestants are home cooks who have daily jobs ranging from yoga instructor to mortgage consultant, and not to mention Erika Monroe Williams, who’s a news anchor in Arizona.
So far, the season is off to a great start as it just aired its fourth episode. The challenges on “The Taste” are exciting and the themes for the season range from comfort food to the art of the sandwich. Producers of “The Taste” are even doing a special seduction theme later in the season.
The four kitchens, each named for a judge, are quickly losing chefs. To date 12 people remain. Team Anthony appears the strongest as no one has been sent home yet, and Team Nigella is the weakest as only two chefs remain. Both Team Ludo and Team Brian have only sent one chef home so far.
“The Taste” is sure to inspire the audience to cook because it shows that not only executive chefs can capture the true essence of a dish. It shows that the presentation of food means absolutely nothing if it doesn’t taste like perfection.
There may be only four episodes left, but there’s still plenty of time to catch up on all the fun-filled cooking. “The Taste” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.
