Thoughts watching the second season of The Taste (ABC)

Second season finale of The Taste is coming!

It was sad to hear that Malarkey wasn't continuing on the show and replaced by Marcus Samuelsson as fourth mentor and judge, but whatever it takes to make things exciting. 

• At least this year the judges are taking more time to decide instead of going by snap judgment followed by bitter regret after meeting the person who made the spoon. The double-edged sword that is blind tasting. 
• The mentor's personalised trailers where they meet their teams at the start of the day is a charming touch. Show got more money now. 
• Having the guest judge serve as mentor in the individual challenge for the winners of the team challenge is also not a bad idea. 
• They've tweaked things around a little bit: Losing mentor having to send their weakest link home right after the team challenge is pretty brutal, but also to great effect when Nigella loses half her team in one episode early on when they lost both team and solo challenges.
• At least the judges table is only on a slightly higher level than the cooking area than the first season, so there isn't any weird door and elevator footage like they did last season? 
• Of course they want the home cook to be in the finale. But also sad that Nigella and Marcus are already out of the competition before the finale.
• Who wants crazy dragon lady Marina to take the title? 

The Taste - Foodie version of The Voice?

A while ago, we all only know that Bourdain and Nigella were involved in some cooking competition show for ABC. It finally made its appearance, and it's called The Taste. Top Chef alum Brian Malarkey and Top Chef Masters veteran Ludo Lefebvre were announced later to round out the judging/mentor panel. 

Reading about the format, it reminded me of The Voice, but with food. I admit I don't watch The Voice, but I heard about how the auditions go.

Watching the audition stage, I found that it's interesting quite a number of professional chefs are getting passed over the home cooks for each mentor's kitchens. Not to mention the vegan/vegetarian cooks that try to slip the judges non-meat product unto the spoon, haha :D 

Am I the only one that thinks it a little weird that everyone else except (Brian) Malarkey go by first names? It's probably just me.

After watching the auditions, I don't quite understand how the judges "messed up" and didn't pick someone for their kitchen whose food they liked. What the...?! Maybe they had to vote so quickly, that's why they "screwed up" like that? I don't know...  Interesting that Bourdain picked the pretty ladies for his kitchen/team, but that's just a random observation. At least they have their 4 person teams and the competition begins!

Sucker that I am for food and cooking shows, I'll keep watching to see how the competition part plays out.

PS. Trust Bourdain to come up with these gems: "vomit in terror", "chute of terror".