by josie
Nigella Lawson is one of four judges and mentors on ABC’s new cooking competition, “The Taste.”
My cooking expertise goes no further than omelets and zucchini pancakes, but I love a good cooking competition, so ABC’s The Taste, a new show with an interesting twist, already has me hooked. Think Top Chef meets The Voice: It’s a blind taste test. Contestants prepare a single spoonful for the four judges — chefs Nigella Lawson, Anthony Bourdain, Ludovic Lefebvre and Brian Malarkey — who must choose who stays in the competition without knowing what’s in it or who made it.
The judges then assemble teams of four and switch to mentor mode to coach them through elimination challenges. But they’ll still sample everything blind, so they risk sending home one of their own. The fun begins in a two-hour premiere Jan. 22 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Lawson, noted author and the veteran of cooking shows on Food Network, E! and Style, came aboard because Bourdain was also involved and both were made producers on the show. “I was frightened because this is so not me, but I was more frightened of turning down the opportunity,” she says.
Some contestants are from professional backgrounds while others are home cooks. As one of the latter, Lawson tends to champion the amateurs. “I don’t like fancy-schmancy food, so obviously I’m going to go for people who have a simpler approach,” she explains, adding that she “would not have the nerve” to enter a competition like this. Not that she’s immune to being judged. “My children are pretty harsh critics,” she says of teenagers Cosima and Bruno.
The author of nine bestselling books that have sold more than 6 million copies, Lawson is about to publish her first Italian cookbook, Nigellissima: Easy Italian-Inspired Recipes (Clarkson Potter, 2013), which hits shelves Feb. 12 and contains 120 new recipes. “It’s being translated into Italian and is being published in Italy. And if you know about Italian food, it’s about the greatest honor you can have, so I was thrilled,” she says. In addition to Italian, she mentions Thai and Scandinavian as favorite cuisines, but adds, “There’s no food I don’t like.”
Now 53, she makes no secret of her age, although she admits, “Forty-nine was very hard for me because my mother died at 48. I’ve never lied about my age and I never will. I think that if you lie it’s because you think it’s shameful. Most women on television are very thin and very young, so I’m here to be the alternative!”
Her secret to looking and feeling good? Not surprisingly, it’s food. “It’s all about what you put in,” she says, “My friend, a skin doctor, said to me, ‘You use the best filler that nature provides: food. Never stop eating.’ ”
What do you think of this new twist on food reality TV?
Photo credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin
