Chefs tasting the food?

They show that it tastes good because they want to show you how you’re going to react when you try to make it yourself.

Also, chefs do taste what they prepare as a mater of routine. You wouldn’t want it any other way, would you?

What about the talking with their mouth full?

if they taste it and say good things about it, it encourages the viewer to make it themselves. many lazy people watch tv who don’t mind spending hours watching food channel but when it comes time to EAT, they will probably just go grab some fast food. the chefs are using all types of motivational strategies possible (audio/video/special effects) to get the viewer to get off their ass and go COOK for themselves!

I spent over 20 years in kitchens of various sorts, all of them connected to establishments of the highest caliber. The guys working behind the scenes of even the classiest dining rooms may be damn good cooks, but in terms of social polish they’re just a tiny notch above Jabba the Hutt. There are, of course, exceptions, but most of these guys aren’t from the “upper crust” to begin with, and they work 60–80 hour weeks in a high-stress, high-testosterone, quasi-military environment. It ain’t finishing school.

This is changing slowly because more and more cooks are coming out of very high-priced cooking schools (so they tend to be from more privileged backgrounds). But most of the guys who are currently at the top learned on the job.

I’ll resist trotting out my horror stories, but everyone who eats in restaurants owes it to themselves to read “Kitchen Confidential”. It’s a very faithful representation of the restaurant world

@Harp No way. I want to be able to eat in restaurants again. Some things one just doesn’t want to know!

I don’t really mind if the chef tastes my food before I get it, as long as he doesn’t double-dip. My palate is tuned more toward soy sauce and salsa anyway.

“Give me a double bacon cheeseburger.”
“Double Bacon Cheesburger. It’s for a cop.”
“What the hell’s that all about? You gonna spit in it now?”
“No, I just told him that so he makes it good. Don’t spit in that cop’s burger…”
“Roger. Holding the spit.”

@Marina
Kitchen Confidential isn’t “gross-out” stuff; it just documents the kitchen culture.

@Harp OK, thanks. I’ll look into it. I once dated a chef who had some real skills, but would come in late at night and rummage in my frig and make himself the strangest concoctions to eat! Do you think Bravo’s Top Chef accurately portrays kitchen culture at all?

Believe it or not, I never watch any cooking shows; smacks too much of work for my taste.

Just watch “chowder” on cartoon network

Chefs should taste food. I was always amazed by a chef i worked with who happened to be vegetarian but ran the kitchen in a steak house. He would still taste every meat (and then spit it out) just to make sure the flavors were right.

Unfortunately there are only two chefs i’ve seen on tv that actually give you the real deal. I have seen Alton Brown and Anthony Bourdain (author of Kitchen Confidential) both spit food out and/or tell the viewer how awful a dish was trhat they ate. I appreciate the honesty so much more than the fake Stepford Wive smile of many cooking show hosts.

To be totally fair though… i have never seen Alton or Anthony spit out something they made themselves.

There is something about a response to food that makes the watcher want more. If you ever watch the Today show they always taste to food because then the viewer will want to taste it. When I cater I taste the food and I’m not scared of anyone seeing me. if the chef doesn’t taste it it also seems a little bit odd.