Review: "The Taste"

My favorite part of the show. No shame. I love me some Anthony Bourdain.

I watched an episode of "The Taste" for the first time this morning. I've been meaning to watch it for ages. In all honesty, anything that involves Anthony Bourdain, I am all for. I have watched every episode of "No Reservations" currently on Netflix. 

I love him because he is (in my words), "the 'House' of cooking and travel." He's sarcastic, often drunk, and brutally honest while being open-minded and willing to eat things that I wouldn't look twice at. He's like the rebellious son of the Food Network. Anthony Bourdain is my spirit animal.

The show is not all about Anthony Bourdain, but that's okay. From what I understood from the episode I watched, it's pretty complex and not for someone who: (a) doesn't like food shows, (b) can't keep up, and (c) doesn't have a liking for expensive food & wine.

But seriously, this is a pretty complex show. There are teams like in "The Voice." There are four team leader chefs (Anthony, this French guy, this English woman, and a slightly-annoying American guy who messes with the French guy the entire episode). Contestants are voted off at the end of the show like in "The Voice," so some team leaders have more or fewer people on their team.

What happens first is kind of like a "mini challenge," where each team member has to create a mouthful of their dish on a spoon. In this episode, they had to pair their food with a specific red wine. The chef team leaders helped them with this, one of the team members' spoons was picked to represent their team, and their dishes were tasted by two guys who talked out loud in front of the entire cast. The two guys chose the best, and the winner becomes immune from being eliminated that week.

After that, the contestants had to choose one of four wines and (again) make their own dish to compliment that. Some other chefs come out of the woodwork and the four team leaders leave so they don't see who cooked what. These new chefs assist the contestants.

When all is said and done, the team leaders come back and blindly taste the contestant's food. They each choose their favorite and least favorite, and the least favorites are up for elimination. The team leaders choose who they send home.

Phew! I told you it was complicated. I still liked the show a lot once I caught up. I think there are definitely ways the producers/creators could make it easier to understand (like only having three teams or not having the mini challenge even though it was hilarious because Anthony Bourdain drank like, an entire bottle of wine). 

They didn't spend a lot of time on the contenstant's thought process or preparation for each dish because there were so many, which is one of my favorite parts of watching food shows. I think this will improve once there are fewer contestants.

All-in-all, I thought the show was funny, dramatic, and interesting. I love wine and I really love food, so it was a good introduction episode for me. You should check it out for yourself and see what you think! There's a new episode coming out Tuesday at 8|7c on ABC, which I will definitely be watching now that I'm at J's mom's house and we have cable!

If you'd like to watch the wine episode I watched, here's the link to the full episode: http://abc.tv/Z3jimp

Have you ever watched, "The Taste?" Do you think you'll watch the episode or tune in on Tuesday for the new one? Do you like wine as much as Anthony Bourdain does? 

Love you all,

M