My newest guilty pleasure: The Taste, Tuesday at 8|7c on ABC

I have found a new guilty pleasure reality show to watch.  It's called The Taste and can be seen on Tuesday nights on ABC.  It began with chefs, professional and amateur, competing for 16 spots.  They all had to make a dish they felt would "wow" the 4 judges and get them on one of the teams of 4 and they had to do it with one spoonful....one taste.  The judges, Nigella Lawson, Anthony Bourdain, Brian Malarkey and Ludo Lefebvre, get to leave any preconceived notions and expectations they might have about a person's experience, or lack thereof, because they know nothing about the contestants except for the food put in front of them.

It was fun to watch them in the audition episodes as they tried to guess whether it was a professional chef or an amateur that just cooks really well.  They would then cast a yes or no vote based only on what they tasted.  More often than not they could pick the professionals from the amateurs, but that didn't mean the professionals had it easy and were an automatic shoe-in.  In fact in the first audition episode I think more amateurs went through than professionals.  Often times the judges would regret the "no" vote that they cast, realizing that the more they thought about the taste the more they liked it.  Unfortunately, that isn't much of a consolation if you weren't chosen for a team.  When all the auditions were done, they were left with 16 chefs.....4 for each judge.

As the competition goes on they will compete, both as teams and individuals, in different challenges.  As always the tastes are blind tastes.  As the viewer, we know who is making what dish, but the judges never do and it is fun to watch the judges banter back and forth with each other over why they like or don't like a dish and hoping that the dish they don't like, and ultimately send home, doesn't belong to one of their own team members.  So it's not only a competition among the 16 contestants, it's also a competition between the judges.

Another part I find funny, and this is probably just me, is watching them doing the taste.  All the dishes are served on the same size spoon, which looks about the size of a tablespoon, a fancy looking one.  Sometimes those "tastes" are quite the mouthful not only for the guys, but also for the only woman judge, Nigella.  But you can always tell when Nigella likes a dish because she will lick the spoon, like she is wanting more.

If you haven't had a chance to catch an episode go to http://abc.tv/Z3jimp to catch the latest episode and I'll think you'll find you will make it one of your guilty pleasures as well.  Don't forget to tune in every Tuesday night on ABC at 8/7c pm.