The new ABC cooking competition show “The Taste” that premiered last Tuesday was a bit bland.

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ABC’s “The Taste” was as bland as that spoon.  Photo by coreanscribe and courtesy of ABC.

The hour-long program showcased four celebrity chefs  — Ludo Lefebvre, Nigella Lawson, Brian Malarkey (who?) and Anthony Bourdain (not really a chef anymore) — who blindly judged large spoonfuls of cooking from contestants and determined their culinary fates on the show.

ABC is promoting the blind judging aspect of the contest as its unique hook, but isn’t this just a rip-off of NBC’s “The Voice”? I confess I don’t watch a lot of competitive “reality shows,” but that’s what it seemed like to me.

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Spoonful of mediocrity. Photo by coreanscribe and courtesy of ABC.

Even though I’m not a great fan of this kind of television, I watched the entire episode. I’ll probably watch it again this week because I’m such a sucker for Nigella Lawson and Anthony Bourdain. I’m big fans of both for their culinary knowledge and their approaches to cooking.

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Judge Nigella. Hubba hubba. Photo by coreanscribe and courtesy of ABC.

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Judge Tony tells it like it is. Photo by coreanscribe and courtesy of ABC.

I know. I should be writing on Tuesdays nights, but it looks like I’ll be losing an hour to this nonsense.

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So judgmental. Photo by coreanscribe and courtesy of ABC.

A part of me is kind of hoping the show maintains its blandness so I can abandon it and re-focus my attention back on the computer screen and on writing. But, I’ll admit, a part of me is also hoping the show gets better, so I can be entertained by Bourdain’s brutally honest insights and Lawson’s bewitching charms. And for the bland food, of course.

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