On ABC tonight THE TASTE returns another new episode called, “My Life on a Plate.” On tonight’s show its the first round of competitions for 16 culinary hopefuls who will share “Their Lives On A Plate,” to impress the mentors/judges. Did you watch last week’s premiere episode? We did and we recapped it for you.
On last week’s premiere episode the heat was on when contestants put their best culinary foot forward and created their best dish for Anthony, Nigella, Ludo and Marcus to taste. At the end of the night, 16 were given a place on one of the mentors’ teams. One single spoonful decided whether or not they make it past the audition phase and on to the competition.
On tonight’s show It’s the first round of competitions for the 16 culinary hopefuls who have secured a spot in “The Taste” kitchen. The teams will face both group and individual cooking challenges as they gear up for battle. First challenge: Each mentor joins their team in the kitchen for the first time, shares their own memories of the foods that remind them of home, and gives their team a specific dish to put a personal spin on. Second challenge: Without the help of their mentors, the competitors have to prepare the dish that most represents their own memories of home. From soup and roasted meats to a multicultural mash up, in the end, two competitors will be sent home.
Don’t forget to join us for our live recap tonight at 8:00pm when The Taste Season Two episode 2returns to ABC. While you wait for the recap, let us know what you think of The Taste?
RECAP: Edward Lee is choosing whose kitchen out of the four judges made the worse dish tonight, it seems that Nigella had the worst dish and her team are now up for elimination. Nigella needs to now choose someone to be eliminated on her team, she’s having a hard time with choosing who to eliminate from her team. She’s talking about the weaknesses and strengths of her team members, Nigella asks who Reina would vote off she would vote off Jacquelyn and Crystal also wants to throw out Jacquelyn, Jay agrees with eliminating Jacquelyn; Jacquelyn says that she would throw out Crystal from the kitchen. Nigella decides to send Reina home tonight in the competition, Reina starts getting all rude about it; saying that it’s because she’s far too beautiful and it’s threatening for her; some people get too delusional when they go through such situations of being thrown off a team.
Ludo won the team challenge and now his team will have the chance to work with Edward Lee who’ll teach them. Edward mentions that he liked the pork addition that Jeff added in the dish. Edward Lee starts showing them how to cook a dish; the entire team loves Edward’s dish. Nigella is now talking to the other judges about her decision, Jacquelyn is now asking her fellow teammates why they chose her to be eliminated from the team; Jay is honest about why he decided to. Jacquelyn tells Crystal that her dish was flat. Edward Lee talks to Marina alone to see what she’s going to cook, and then he goes to the other contestants and asks them what they’ll be making for the challenge. Now the judges enter the room to watch the contestants cook their dishes for the challenge.
The contestants have on hour to cook a dish for the judges, they need to each cook a single bite to be tasted by the mentors; whoever cooks the best dishes will get gold stars, but whoever has a bad dish will be given a red star meaning they’ll be up for elimination. Don is deciding to go with some Mexican cuisine in honor of his wife who passed away, Marcus want talks about how Audrey wants to be more healthy with her food, but Marcus doesn’t care he wants her to make something fatty and as tasty as possible to win. Shehu is going to be making a cream of garlic soup that looks like it tastes amazing. Sarah was given a taste from Audrey’s sauce and she doesn’t believe it’s going to be a winning dish. Shellie is going with beef short ribs with rice; Lee is making a Meatballs au pauvre. Dana is making tlayudas a Mexican pizza. Shellie says that she’s not worried about team Nigella. Jay says it’s hard losing a team member, but he needs to stay focused to win. Crystal is making meatloaf with mash potatoes and she’s confident in her dish tasting great. Nigella thinks Jay could become a better chef if he becomes more confident, Jay is making a southern cornbread dressing with a roasted chicken; he talks about being 400 pounds. The recipe he’s making is a recipe of his mother’s and it was his last dish he had before he got the surgery to help lose his weight. Jay goes more in depth how hard it was with being overweight and talks about how this dish is in honor of his mother. Jacquelyn talks about how it’s dangerous to put your hear in your dish like Jay is. Louise says it’s helpful to have Edward Lee in the kitchen; she’s going to be making a schnitzel. Ludo is worried about Cassandra in being a vegan; she’s going to making a dish that incorporates salmon. Jeff is making a blue buffalo wings and Marina is making egg dumplings. Lee is surprised how Marina purees pork in a blender, Jeff knows she’s craft in the kitchen, but she’s still kind of weird. The contestants are getting ready to get their dishes ready, because the time is almost up; there’s only five more minutes left. Cassandra is taking the skin off the salmon, Edward Lee mentions that it’s the best part of the salmon; for some reason Cassandra felt offended by it a bit. Shellie’s rice wasn’t cooking in the rice cooker, she had a backup pot of rice on the stove cooking in case; but she’s never cooked rice in a pot on a stove and is feeling worried about her dish. Crystal is a bit disappointed about her bacon on her meatloaf not being done crispy. Shehu is happy with his dish. Jeff wants to win the individual challenge, not just the group challenge alone.
Time is up and the judges will taste the food now. The mentors will now taste the dishes and decide which the worse dish is and best dish in their opinion; it’s all blind tasting so they have no idea whose dish they’ll taste until the end. The judges taste the Caribbean dish that Brad made and liked it, Crystal’s meatloaf is up next and there’s far too much food; they didn’t seem to like it. Jeff’s dish is up next and they look like they liked it. Sarah’s dish is up next the seared halibut and they find it a bit too spicy. Shellie’s dish is up now, Ludo doesn’t know what he’s eating, but Ludo loves the rice. Audrey’s Chorizo pasta with pesto is up, they seem to like it, but it’s very oily and too much chorizo. Shehu’s dish is up, the salmon was cooked well; but it lacked character. Ludo isn’t pleased with the other judge’s opinion on the dish. Cassandra’s dis his up, it they like the salmon a lot. Don’s dish is up and he’s nervous, the judges try it and they don’t know what they’re eating but they like it. Jacquelyn isn’t sure if her dish is the strongest in the kitchen, but the judges really liked it. Lee’s dish is up now, the judges find that the meat balls are salty except for Ludo. Marina’s dish is up now, they really like the won tong. Jay’s dish is up now, they don’t seem to like it the dish sadly. Louise dish is up now, they didn’t dislike it. Now the judges are now going to select their worse and best now, so the contestants need to leave the room. Everyone in the waiting room is very nervous while waiting. Jay doesn’t want to go home; well no one wants to in fact. Cassandra and Lee look like they’ve got something going on together, Lee admits that Cassandra is gorgeous and she thinks that Lee looks handsome too. Team Ludo looks like they’re reigning supreme as of now. Louise mentions how it’s hard with this competition, because their own mentor could choose for their dish to be the worst. Everyone is nervous, scared and worried. The judges are ready with their decisions, the contestants come out. Tony’s favorite dish was Lee, Marcus’s favorite dish was Jeff’s, Nigella’s favorite dish was Jeff’s, Ludo’s favorite dish was Lee’s dish; they now bring out Lee and Jeff’s dish and ask them about what they’re thought was when they decided to cook it. Ludo mentions how he was very impressed with Lee’s sauce. Marcus says that Jeff’s dish was executed perfectly; Nigella says that he’s very skilled for what he made with his dish. Now it’s time for the worst dishes of the night. Tony’s worst dish was Jay’s; Marcus’s least favorite was Audrey’s dish. Nigella’s worst dish was Jay’s dish. Ludo’s worst dish was Jay’s dish; three of the judges didn’t like Jay’s cooking.
Now Audrey and Jay are the worst cooks of the night, it’s down between Jay and Audrey for who’ll be going home tonight. Marcus asks what Audrey made for them, she explains it to them and the judges say that she over thought the dish far too much and it was unfocused. Nigella asks Jay what his dish is about and what he tried to do with it; Nigella is pained to see Jay as one of the worst cooks. Jay is fighting with the judges; Ludo isn’t too pleased with what he’s doing. Marcus mentions that the balance on the dish is completely off; Jay had to keep his mouth shut the entire time the judges were giving constructive criticism, he’s being far too rude to the judges. The judges ask both Audrey and Jay about why they should stay in the competition; they are going to discuss who they’ll be sending home tonight. Everyone is now in the break room, Lee is happy to have gold stars along with Jeff they’re confident now. Audrey is hoping that it’s her last red she’ll be getting in the competition; Jay is getting three red stars. Marcus and Nigella are going to have difficulties in voting for whom to leave the competition, since they voted for their own chefs as worse dish. Nigella believes in Jay as a cook and wants him in her kitchen; the three male judges weren’t please with Jay’s back talk with the constructive criticism. Marcus mentions how he likes how Audrey listened to the criticism. Jeff doesn’t care about Audrey disappointing her fans, she’s complaining how she doesn’t want to disappoint her fans of her blog; it’s a competition you need to win with as much of your skills as possible, there’s no place for her fans to be mentioned because they are irrelevant to the competition. Jay and Audrey stand out before the judges, Tony says that they are neither professionals, but should be proud getting as far as they got. In the end it looks like Jay is going home, Nigella is heartbroken to see Jay leave the competition. Jay isn’t too pleased about losing the competition, Marcus tells Audrey the only reason she stayed was because of her attitude towards the chefs. Tony wants all the contestants to learn from what they saw today, and congratulates them for still being here.
