Although Brian Malarkey may be the mentor with the least amount of TV exposure on The Taste, the Season 3 Top Chef finalist is no slouch when it comes to food.
The chef owns six restaurants with partner James Brennan and will expand to 15 more nationally in the next five years. In fact, he's the only chef on the judging panel — which also includes Anthony Bourdain, Nigella Lawson and Ludo Lefebvre — who is working in an actively open restaurant on a day-to-day basis, although Lefebvre has a non-pop-up endeavor opening soon.
read more
"Trust me. It's game on!"
Chef Ludo Lefebvre is psyched for viewers to watch Tuesday's episode of The Taste (8/7c, ABC), when the culinary reality series shifts from the audition to competition rounds. Now that he and his fellow mentors -- Anthony Bourdain, Nigella Lawson and Brian Malarkey -- have chosen their four-person teams of home cooks and professional chefs, it's time to pit them against each other. Beyond the increased heat in the kitchen, the possibility of eliminating one of their own team members during the blind taste-test drove the mentors to drink.
read more
Nigella Lawson is proof that you can have it all, even if you are a just a home cook.
The British TV star, who herself is a home cook, can add ABC's culinary competition show The Taste, which airs Tuesdays at 8/7c, to her string of hit cooking shows. On the new series, she and three other chefs — Anthony Bourdain, Ludo Lefebvre and Brian Malarkey — select contestants to be on their team based on a one-bite, blind taste test. Therefore, professional chefs and home cooks alike have an equal chance to compete, but it's not an easy thing to impress four widely different palates and deal with their mentoring styles.
read more
What is the secret ingredient that Anthony Bourdain wants his team to use on The Taste? Tears.
When ABC's new cooking competition show kicks off Tuesday at 8/7c, Bourdain and three other judges — British TV cook Nigella Lawson, Ludo Bites America's Ludo Lefebvre and former Top Chef competitor Brian Malarkey — will taste-test one bite of food from each of 29 hopefuls competing for one of only 16 spots on the judges' teams. But the tastings will be conducted blind, which means the judges won't know if a professional chef or a self-taught home cook prepared the dish.
read more
Top Chef's Chris "CJ" Jacobson is on a seven-challenge win streak on Last Chance Kitchen, which should feel good right now... except for those pesky online comments.
On the weekly online series, in which ousted Top Chef contestants battle it out for a chance to re-enter the main competition, CJ recently trounced Micah in a head-to-head challenge over tartare. Chef Tom Colicchio, who is the sole judge on Last Chance Kitchen, deemed CJ's beef heart tartare with pickled duck skin and tomato water the winning dish. Some of the comments online, however, have called for blind tasting to remove the perception that Tom may be favoring CJ because of a supposed "bromance" between the two chefs.
read more