Anthony Bourdain mentors contestants in “The Taste”

The third time's the charm, right? That has to be what ABC is hoping with "The Taste," its own entrant in the highly competitive (and also highly popular) cooking competition genre. Fox has proven with "MasterChef" and "Hell's Kitchen" that prime-time audiences have an appetite for these kinds of shows and that they can find a home off of the Food Network -- unfortunately, other networks haven't been able to crack that nut open just yet.

It's not through lack of trying, though. "The Taste" premiered back in 2013 and received lackluster reception for its first season. Its second, which premiered in January of this year, shook things up a bit by switching out one of the judges and tweaking the format. It wound up receiving a much warmer reception from critics, but suffered through lower audience numbers than it pulled in for its first outing.

Despite the disappointing viewership numbers, ABC is giving "The Taste" a third course, starting on Thursday, Dec. 4, on the alphabet network. It's not hard to see why. It features four big culinary names that have a great screen presence, and the format is similar to NBC's hit singing competition "The Voice."

Much like Fox's "MasterChef," each season of "The Taste" begins with hopefuls presenting their signature dishes to a panel of judges who must decide whether they want each potential contestant on their team. The judges also act as mentors, with each judge assembling their own chosen team of cooks to guide through a series of culinary challenges.

True to its name, though, the judges of "The Taste" don't get to interact with the hopefuls at all at this stage -- they don't even know what ingredients went into the dish. It's a blind taste test, with one spoonful determining whether the hopefuls move on to the actual competition or go home with an empty stomach.

The judges themselves are culinary experts who know great food when they taste it. Anthony Bourdain ("Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown"), English gourmet and foodie Nigella Lawson ("Nigella Bites"), French chef Ludo Lefebvre ("Ludo Bites America") and "Top Chef Masters" winner Marcus Samuelsson.

"The Taste" is certainly one of the more interesting cooking competitions on television. With high-profile judges and a format that's unique in this genre, the only thing it's missing is a bigger audience. Season 3 kicks off on Thursday, Dec. 4, on ABC.