When a chef sees something he likes, he inevitably wants to make it, but better and with his own twist. Perhaps that was the rationale behind culinary luminaries like L.A. favorite Ludo Lefebvre and Anthony Bourdain of Travel Channel fame, hitching their wagons to The Taste, a new reality competition cooking show on ABC that debuts tomorrow night at 8 p.m. PST.

Maybe the judges — Bourdain, Lefebvre, Nigella Lawson and Brian Malarkey — were all ready to show the world how a real cooking show should go down. We can imagine Bourdain thinking that. Since all of them had turns on the gold standards for the genre, Top Chef and Top Chef Masters, now it's their turn to amuse America and marvel at or spit out dishes they have to eat blindly. In this day and age there is simply no better way to build a brand.

The concept seems to be a hybrid of The Voice on NBC, and, well, every network competition show. Each week will see the judges acting as mentors and contestants offering up a single bite in hopes of advancing to the next cook-off.

Will this be any good? Will Ludo be subtitled? Will Nigella wear a bandage dress? Will America fall in love with Brian Malarkey? Why is there a recipe by David Kinch of Manresa on their website with the caption “Yum!”? And the most pressing question of all … if this turns out to less than awesome, is Anthony Bourdain so cool that he's transcended to Teflon and it won't matter?

Tune in for the answer to these and other pressing questions. And hopefully to watch a kick-ass show. We'll have a recap for you after it airs.

See also:

– Anthony Bourdain Is Not Selling Out, Even if The Taste Is a Little Cheesy

Want more Squid Ink? Follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook.

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.