ABC Airs Two-Hour Premiere of New Series THE TASTE Tonight

One blind spoonful could change everything, on the all new alternative series, THE TASTE, premiering with a two-hour show TONIGHT, JANUARY 22 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET; the show moves to its regular 8:00-9:00 p.m. time period on January 29), on The ABC Television Network.

An exhilarating new one-hour cooking competition, "The Taste" puts 16 culinary competitors -- pro chefs to home cooks -- to the fire when four of the world's most notable masters of the food world judge their creations based on a blind taste test.

In this pressure-packed contest, The Taste in a single spoonful can catapult a contender to the top or send him packing. "The Taste" features no-holds barred chef Anthony Bourdain, British food star Nigella Lawson, expert chef/author Ludo Lefebvre and chef/restaurateur Brian Malarkey. Each of the four culinary superstars and "Taste" mentors - Bourdain, Lawson, Lefebvre and Malarkey - will coach a team of four competing pro and amateur cooks chosen from a nationwide casting call, as they vie to create the best tasting dish in a state of the art kitchen. In each episode, the groups will face team and individual challenges with a variety of culinary themes through several elimination rounds.

At the end of each episode, the mentors will have to judge the competitors' dishes blind, with no knowledge of whose creation they're sampling, what they're eating, how it was prepared or whom they could be sending home.

"The Taste" is from Kinetic Content and is executive-produced by Chris Coelen, Matilda Zoltowski, Emma Conway, Anthony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson. BrIan Smith is the director.

Photo credit: Craig Sjodin/ABC