Disturbing yet enthralling

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

(I have only seen season 2 & 3) This show is great for several reasons: First, the judges do not know who cooked the meal they are tasting so no favoritism. I was reading a review on here where an idiot was wondering how the judges are supposed to know who cooked the meal if the names of the contestants are not on the buttons...really?! That is what makes this show unique and food tastings impartial. Secondly, this show is as real as it gets. Well, at least compared to other shows. I cannot sit through another episode of Hells Kitchen, it is sooooo fake and scripted. The only drama here is, "damn Bourdain just politely refused a second bite of my meal on TV." No fluffy, fake, baby-mama drama here. No bleeping out foul words. Hate that garbage. This is reason alone to watch this show.Finally, the judges are solid and respected chefs. Oh besides Nigella. She is just a rich, spoiled brat with an opinion. I have no idea why her opinion even matters. People seem to dislike Ludo...I can understand why. However, the man is an excellent chef. Passionate and animated. He is not doing it for the "Wow" factor. That is just how success flows from him. Him and Bourdain are two chefs that started from the bottom and earned their success. They both command respect. I'm not going to expound on how great Bourdain is, it is a given. The guy gets famous chefs from around the world to guest-"star". These chefs are good at what they do, but the average viewer will not recognize them: they are not chefs that cook for Hollywood hotshots.Everything considered, this show is what a cooking contest should be. It is not perfect but it is infinitely better than junk like Hells Kitchen (no knock on Ramsay, he is just collecting fat checks.)

Am I the only person who has watched this show and realized that NOTHING about this show makes sense? We have contestants who claim to be executive chefs but who cannot chop an onion or a beet with confidence. You never really see them actually cooking, tasting or seriously prepping anything, they're just mulling around getting into pissing matches over what appears to be nothing, really. Everything appears to be pre-fab, even the appliances never really seem to be hot to the touch...just pay attention to the details folks! It appears to me that this show is a front for people who are in acting school and just want to have some television credit to their names. I'm surprised that Anthony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson actually have their names and their reputations attached to this show. I would NOT be surprised if at some point in the future someone finds out that this entire show was a set up, the dishes were never prepared by the so-called contestants and "the Taste" was never anything more than reality flotsam that streamed its way into our lives!

Did not like (only one episode in). The show is just a gimmick where supposedly formidable cooking talents sit around humiliating people i.e. bullying for (what are bound to be) "low" ratings! And also mugging painfully to the cameras. The 'awesome' foursome Ludo, Malarkey, Nigella and Anthony spend a lot of time speaking to the camera telling how wonderful and noble there fellow judges are (filler?) And then there's the question of "blind tasting" which has become standard since Masterchef and presumably a sign of fairness. Except in this show the votes are not actually locked in until after the contestants appear and there does appear to be low levels at least of homophobia given the responses to some of the contestants. No this show is ugly (not fun) and bound to get worse. Everything feels contrived, but may have been improved if the conversation surrounding the bite size portion of dishes had have been extended for a few minutes rather than the standard 10 seconds. Hopefully this will have a low shelf life. This show is Malarkey (no pun intended) i.e rubbish indeed. Opium for the masses.

I like the idea of the show, however, the production was terrible. There was too much yelling/trash talk between the mentors. A good part of the show was taken up with that. There was very little talk about the food! I didn't know much about what the contestants were preparing a lot of the time or about the contestants themselves. Way too much non-food talk, overall. I didn't see much mentoring, either. The mentors did not seem to be teaching the contestants anything; either the mentors yelled at them to do something besides what the contestants wanted to do (which was undermining, most of the time) or went over to other kitchens to hassle people. I was disappointed that the final decision for the four finalists was not made based on "The Taste". The judges even stated they were not going to go with the "stars" given out and were going to choose how they wanted things to go. So much for blind tasting. Also, the scantily-clad servers were a distraction and a turn-off. Nigella's outfits were terrific...that was my favorite part of the show.