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Young & Hungry is a 2014 sitcom comedy show airing on ABC Family, with Ashley Tisdale as the executive producer. It is partially based on the life of Gabi Moskowitz, a food blogger who runs BrokeAssGourmet.com.

It stars young food blogger and poor woman Gabi Diamond (Emily Osment) becoming the new personal chef for the young tech millionaire Josh Kaminski (Jonathan Sadowski). Alongside the two main characters are Gabi's best friend and ambitious banking intern Sofia Rodriguez (Aimee Carrero), Josh's gay personal publicist Elliot Park (Rex Lee) and housekeeper Yolanda (Kym Whitley).

The premise of the story is about food blogger Gabi finding a job as the personal chef for Josh in order to get out of poverty with her friend Sofia. Using some incredible skills that allow her to tell what people around her would like to eat the most, she proves herself to Josh (with a simple grilled cheese sandwich he found exquisite). Unfortunately, Josh's aide Elliot would rather prefer Josh to have a famous chef instead of an unheard of blonde girl like Gabi, so she decides to truly prove herself to Josh, while also avoiding any personal feelings and advances she develops for him with their ridiculously high chemistry. Played for Laughs.

The series was a moderate success and ran for five seasons before being cancelled. A Poorly Disguised Pilot for a Sofia-centric spin-off aired in season four, but was not picked up. A series finale move was announced shortly after the show as cancelled, but that also never panned out.


Young & Hungry provides examples of:

  • The Alleged Car: Gabi's car in "Young and Carless" is revealed to be this.
  • Alpha Bitch: Caroline. She has a jerkish attitude that isn't Played for Laughs like Elliot and is quick to blame Gabi about anything shady that happens to her.
    • Logan is a corporate-boss version, especially after she hires Sofia to work for her. She makes her do numerous insane tasks that include waking her up at 4:00am to make her deliver a bottle of Kompucha.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Gabi and Josh are very much attracted to each other but have a lot of issues in their relationship that's keeping them from becoming a steady couple. Sofia actually calls them out on it during the season 4 finale Young & Screwed.
    Sofia: Gabi, you're with him, you're without him, you love him, you hate him, you're over him, you're under him!I just can't, I can't take it anymore!
  • Benevolent Boss: Josh is this big time.
    • This gets him into trouble in "Young and Carless" when he trades in Gabi's broken down car for a newer used one with him paying the difference out of pocket. He ends up not realizing that Gabi's mother gave the car to her shortly before she died. He's even willing to pay up to $30,000 to fix his mistake but Gabi won't let him.
  • Betty and Veronica: Gabi is the Betty to Caroline's Veronica for Josh's Archie. An interesting twist is that Caroline is the wealthy, sophisticated brunette but she has known Josh longer than Gabi and he was already thinking of proposing to her when he met Gabi. Gabi is the poor, sweet blonde chef that had a one-night stand with Josh after he got dumped by Caroline.
    • She basically sums up the situation in the pilot:
    Gabi: I'm like an Expired Twinkie, and the girl he loves is a fancy Chocolate Eclair.
    • Josh was the Betty to Cooper's Veronica to Gabi's Archie in season 1 and 2.
    • He was also the Betty to his brother Jake's Veronica to (again) Gabi's Archie in the season 2 finale and the beginning of season 3.
  • Big Beautiful Woman: Yolanda in spades!
  • Big Fun: Again, Yolanda.
  • Birds of a Feather: Josh and Gabi share so much in common that they'd make the perfect couple. The man is in love with another woman, unfortunately.
  • Bolivian Army Ending: In the series finale Gabi is offered a job by famous chef Alex Guarnaschelli in Seattle, she proposes to Josh and asked him to move with her after he dropped his proposal. A follow-up movie was planned but was cancelled.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Gabi is an impulsive Genki Girl and Motor Mouth but she IS a very skilled chef, which is universally acknowledged by the rest of the cast.
  • Camp Gay: Elliot.
    • His husband Alan is this as well.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Josh has a hard time telling Gabi his true feelings for her, a character flaw that fuels much of the drama and comedy on the show.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Gabi gets very jealous whenever Josh expresses interest in another woman, especially in later seasons. And even after they got together.
  • Crazy Jealous Guy: Josh is also very jealous and possessive towards Gabi when she dates other guys, especially his brother Jake, Cooper and several other one-shot love interests.
    • One episode had him try and spy on Gabi when he thought the guy he was about to make a huge business deal had taken an interest in her. The reality was that the guy had been interested in Adriana, the chef he replaced Gabi with and the guy cancels the deal in the end because of Josh's spying.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Logan, only in the way how she treats people at her company.
    • Josh thankfully averts this as he actually very nice to his employees and treats them with the same kind consideration you'd expect from friendship.
  • "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: In "Young & Pretty Woman", Gabi stupidly turns on the microphone at the audio room and inadvertently lets everyone and Cooper in the karaoke bar know to that she truly loves Josh more than Cooper. Utterly heartbroken, Cooper reveals to Gabi that Josh was sure she was the one the same day he broke up with Caroline three months ago and only made her dating with Cooper more miserable because he kept holding back, ending up with all three of them at odds with each other.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Elliot, and sometimes Yolanda or Sofia.
  • Deceased Parents Are the Best: Gabi's mother died prior to the series. She and her daughter were very close, she was the one who taught Gabi how to cook in the first place, and they used to watch Julia Child together when Gabi was a kid.
    • Gabi's anger at Josh for selling her brokedown car in "Young & Carless" is due to the fact that the car was handed down to her by her mother, and because that gesture to her was the last memory Gabi had of her mother before she died.
  • Determinator: Much of the humor and drama of the show is built around Gabi's determination to make a great impression on Josh, not let their embarrassing one-night fling become problematic in their relationship or professional lives, and her willingness to make it (or at least keep her job and income) in the field she has passion for and talent in, even as the odds are stacked against her (Eliot's meddling and Caroline's manipulating don't help matters). The fact that she and her roommate Sofia are close to poverty and barely scraping by adds to Gabi's desperation.
    • Almost every plot that has Gabi in it has her try to make people happy, only to make things worse until either she succeeds in her plans or Status Quo Is God happens.
  • Downer Ending: In the finale, just after Josh breaks up with Caroline, he runs towards Gabi's apartment, only to find Cooper got there first. And after they got back together, as well as Sofia and her new boyfriend Nick.
    • In "Young & Pretty Woman", when Gabi indirectly tells Cooper and a whole bar of people she loves Josh more than him. Cooper retaliates by telling her about Josh's withdrawal for his affections and causes Gabi to think Josh is a jerk.
  • Dumb Blonde: Elliot's treatment of Gabi can be described as this. He sees her as a dumb girl, probably because he wants her away ASAP.
    • Gabi does occasionally have some ditzy moments here and there, especially in later seasons but she's not as dumb as Elliot makes her out to be.
  • Easy Amnesia: Happens to Josh in season 5.
  • Eiffel Tower Effect: This mainly pertains to the pilot, but the view of the Golden Gate Bridge pretty much right next door from Josh's Penthouse is impossible. The bridge is located in the northern part of the city which mainly contains the Presidio National Park. No tall buildings exist there. Most of the tall buildings are in the west part of the city. The Bay Bridge however would be more realistic. The post pilot episodes put the bridge much farther away but it's still questionable.
  • Enemy Mine: A variation of the trope happens between Caroline and Sofia quickly becoming friends. Even after it's revealed that Sofia was just faking being Cooper's girlfriend to keep his relationship with Gabi a secret, Caroline forgives her just because she was super devious about the fake dating. Caroline then visits Gabi and Sofia's rundown apartment which disgusts her and says nothing else to her as she leaves.
  • Everybody Has Lots of Sex: Gabi and Cooper end up doing this three times in a single night and this was after both of them were about to stop being a couple.
    • Josh and Gabi when they formed their "punch card" friends-with-benefits relationship in season 5.
  • Everyone Loves Blondes: Gabi is a cute, blonde chef and has no trouble attracting guys.
    • One episode has Josh accusing that this is the only reason she manages to get dates at all.
  • Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Gabi briefly works as a fry cook at a diner when she stopped working for Josh.
  • Faux Yay: In "Young and Lesbian", Gabi pretends to be a lesbian by going on a fake date with Logan to make Logan's ex-girlfriend jealous and get them back together. She even kisses Logan to preserve her cover.
  • Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling : Josh is the responsible sibling to Jake's foolish.
  • Goofy Suit: One of Sofia's ex-boyfriends had a job where he wore a Sandwich costume to attract customers.
  • Geeky Turn-On: Caroline will pretty much forgive anything Josh does that looks heinous if he manages to turn her on, be it by cheating on her for a little while or forcibly being demanding and controlling to her.
    • Gabi herself had been attracted to Josh and Cooper, who are both computer geniuses.
  • Genki Girl: Gabi has elements of this at times.
  • Gold Digger: Gabi was accused of being this in one episode by Josh's mother Kathy. It's averted as Gabi does love Josh for who he is.
    • An unusual case as it's shown that Kathy might be a bit of a gold digger, not with the men she dates but with who her son dates. She favored Caroline over Gabi because Caroline came from a rich, high society family.
    Kathy: You're just not good enough for him.
    Gabi: Huh?!
    Kathy: Remember his ex-fiancé Caroline? She was rich, educated and from a good family. You're none of those things.
  • Good Luck Charm: Turns out that Steve Jobs' black turtleneck shirt gives Josh financial success for his then-unpopular app.
  • Gossip Evolution: The plot in "Young and Pregnant." Gabi's (messed up) pregnancy test winds up in the trash, which is found by Yolanda who thinks Caroline is pregnant with Josh's baby. Ironically, elsewhere, Josh winds up mishearing Caroline's talk over the phone with his father saying she has a baby for Josh, when in truth the baby she was talking about was a pony named Juju Jr. as a gift for Josh.
  • Gossipy Hens: Yolanda and Elliot (who's gay and fits with the trope's common gender) practically compete with each other to see who gets the most gossips.
  • Human Mail: In "Young and Couchy", Gabi steals Jim's desk and mails it with herself hiding in the box to where Yolanda's house is in San Francisco in order to patch up their relationship.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All the post-pilot episode titles begin with "Young and..."
  • Incompatible Orientation: There's been further and further hints in the first season that Elliot has a crush on Josh, wants him all to himself, and is coming on to him. Some Hilarity Ensues as Josh deflects and sidesteps all of Elliot's advances. May even explain Elliot's resentment over Gabi, along with his general territorialism.
    • Gabi is quite straight, but that doesn't stop Logan's affections.
    • Gabi briefly had a crush on Sofia's brother Benji and was disappointed to discover that he was gay.
  • Informed Attribute: Gabi has been stated to be a food blogger but her blog is rarely (if at all) mentioned in the series.
  • In Love with Love: A Discussed Trope in the season 1 finale of Young And Hungry, as Gabi, speaking to Sofia while preparing Josh's wedding to Caroline, discusses her ideal romantic relationship as being like the ending scenes in Pretty Woman. Cooper, similarly to Richard Gere's character in the movie, runs through the airport, comes back to Gabi's house to make it up to her, kisses her in the living room, too late for Josh, who comes to Gabi's window in the rain seconds too late to witness this, having realized Gabi is the true love of his life.
  • Jerkass: Elliot.
    • Josh when he tries to make Gabi leave after her return from her trip with Cooper to China. He hooks up with another girl that can cook just as good as Gabi, which he uses to make her stop working with them. In the end, his attempts to hide his feelings for Gabi make his then-crush Jilly feel disgusted for feeling like a runner up that she ditches him, letting Gabi recover her job (albeit with Josh lying that Jilly left him because she hated his music).
    • Gabi herself has had some jerkish moments, mostly over her relationship with Josh and/or Sofia. She forced Josh to get therapy in order to get over his commitment issues when in reality she spied in on his conversations and angrily confronted him over him feeling "smothered". It was really Jake who had been in the session as Josh gave him his appointment and Josh was rightly outrage by Gabi attempts to manipulate him. She also sold the ugly couch Sofia got from her boss even after she promised she wouldn't and she spends the rest of the episode trying to get it back to make amends.
  • Jerkass Ball: Sofia has held this on occasion, the crowning moment being when she accused a movie theater of being racist for kicking her out when she had actually been drunk and disruptive (along with Elliot and Yolanda). Not to mention, she's been called out for acting like she's better than Gabi at times.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: For all his bitterness, Elliot is devoted to Josh. In Young & Thirsty (And Getting Married), after Josh makes him his best man, Elliot tells him that his birthday gift from Caroline was actually from Gabi.
    • Also in Young & Amnesia He even put 'Closer" to play on Josh's phone to help him regain his memory of Gabi, showing that he truly has come to care for her.
  • Jewish Mother: Rabbi Shapiro's.
  • Just Friends: Gabi and Cooper's relationship ultimately falls into this when either can't keep their relationship afloat due to Josh's dislike for co-workers dating. Josh does allow her to keep dating Cooper, though it's already too late to mend things.
  • Lipstick Lesbian: Logan in the episode "Young and Lesbian."
  • Lethal Chef: Gabi, surprisingly, when she accidentally set a whole kitchen on fire in Europe during her internship because apparently she used a wine bottle that was highly flammable on the frying pan.
  • Love-Obstructing Parents: Gabi's father didn't make it a secret that he didn't like the relationship between Josh and Gabi because he thought Josh (who is Gabi's employer) was taking advantage of her.
  • Mama Bear: Yolanda is very protective of her eldest son Dereck and is implied to be close to her other children as well.
    • She also is very close to Josh, Gabi and Sofia and sees them as her own surrogate children.
  • Mean Boss: Logan.
  • Meaningful Name: Gabi likes to talk a lot.
  • Mistaken for Gay: In "Young and Lesbian", Elliot tricks Gabi into going on a date with Logan at a lesbian restaurant by lying to Logan that Gabi is a lesbian in order to get on the list. It gets awkward when Logan starts flirting with Gabi and trying to sexually harrass her.
  • Money Fetish: Sofia. Cooper ends up regretting giving her his 5-star hotel room to have a night alone with Gabi after he sees the outrageous hotel bill show up in his phone.
  • Mushroom Samba: In "Young & Munchies", Gabi, trying to hit it big, tries to convince Logan to hire her to make it to food editor for her prestigious magazine. Logan suggests her to make new food with marijuana. Gabi does this, and anyone who tries her food out is treated to having wild unrealistic dreams out of them.
  • Nerds Are Sexy: Gabi to Cooper.
  • Never My Fault: Both Josh and Gabi have a huge problem admitting whether either of them are wrong about something, especially when it concerns their relationship.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In "Young & Old", Gabi repeatedly makes Elliot's 40th birthday worse. She reveals to his crush Andre that he's 40 when he thought he was 32, leading him to dump Elliot; reveals to his parents that he's gay which they don't like, and finally picks Elliot's long-lost crush from school which she confuses with another one with a different last name. She does manage to make the wrong person reconnect with Elliot.
  • Not with Them for the Money: Josh is a tech self-made millionaire and Gabi is his personal chef. Gabi's affection for Josh is genuine and she even spends an episode trying to prove to Josh's picky mother that she truly only cares about Josh, not his money.
  • Once an Episode: Gabi will usually make a joke about how she's poor, probably more than once an episode.
  • One Dialogue, Two Conversations: When a very wealthy entrepreneur named Kal tells Josh that she's hot on his cook, Josh starts to really lose it with his bottled-up emotions and tries to spy on him using a drone with a camera. However, Kal was actually hot for Josh's then-current cook Adriana, not Gabi.
  • One-Hour Work Week: Yolanda occasionally walks past carrying a small pile of laundry, or holds a feather duster, but Elliot hardly ever does anything except stand around in Josh's apartment. Averted with Gabi, who cooks something in most episodes.
  • Overly Long Name: Sofia's full name is "Sofia Maria Consuela Rafaella Rodriguez "
  • Papa Wolf: Josh disguises his insecurity for seeing Gabi with other men by acting like the trope.
  • Parental Abandonment: Josh's father Matt Dannon ran off before Josh was born. He tried to reconnect with Josh as an adult but Josh was understandably upset and it took a lot of (unwanted) meddling from Gabi to finally get them to talk things over.
  • Parental Favoritism : It's hinted that Josh and Jake's mother Kathy favors Josh over her youngest son. Gabi accidentally called Jake "Josh" during their road trip to Coachella and Jakes only response is: Mom does that too.
  • Poorly Disguised Pilot: "Young and Sofia" from Season 4 was about Sofia working for Logan Rawlings, with new characters (including a love interest) and Gabi relegated to the background. Unfortunately, Freeform did not pick up the series.
  • Precision F-Strike: The fortune teller in "Young & Earthquake" is prone to calling her clients "bitch!" when they greatly offend her spot-on fortune telling predictions.
  • Pregnancy Scare: Episode 4 has Gabi worried that she might have gotten pregnant from her one-night stand with Josh and she secretly tries to take a test to be sure. Hilarity Ensues when people start to think that Caroline is the one who was pregnant after Josh overheard her on the phone with her parents. Neither of them were pregnant thankfully.
  • Put on a Bus: Yolanda's ex-boyfriend disappears from the story after being rejected off-screen.
    • The hot fireman whose name started with a J whom Gabi fell for also disappears immediately after being seen for half a minute.
  • Raging Stiffie: In Young & Doppelganger, Josh gets stage fright from talking to an audience at a convention, until he calls Gabi who tells him to imagine the audience in their underwear. The plan works for him...a little too well, as he can't stop imagining some of the ladies in the front in their bras and panties. He tries his best to block his lower half until everyone sees it. The rest of the episode is spent on making fun of the word "hard" on him.
  • Really Gets Around: After Caroline's divorce, Josh is quick to shuffle girlfriends every episode after.
    • It doesn't really take much to get Gabi interested in guys in between her relationship with Josh: Cooper, Sofia's brother Benji, Jake, a fireman are to name a few. One episode had her consider dating a guy while she "waited" for Josh to be over his commitment issues.
    • Josh's mother Kathy is stated to go through many relationships and it's hinted that Josh and Jake might be half-brothers since Jake is younger and Josh's father Matt ran off when he was born.
  • Riches to Rags: Sophia finally obtains a job. The next episode, she's already unemployed for reasons unknown. And this happened during a 1-hour back-to-back episode.
  • Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Josh was the rich suitor to Cooper's poor suitor.
  • Sassy Black Woman: Yolanda. Thankfully, she supports Gabi, unlike Elliot.
  • Secret-Keeper: Sofia to Gabi about Josh running all the way to their apartment to confess his love for her, only to find Cooper kissing her. Sofia later tries to tell this to Gabi in "Young & First Time" to let it out of her chest after Gabi's outing with Cooper ends up badly. Not only does Gabi pass out from being tired and never hears the secret, but Cooper arrived there and heard everything Sofia said, which only causes him to reconsider his move to fix up his relationship with Gabi if she liked Josh better. The secret then passes over to Cooper when he tries to tell Gabi about it, until she wakes up and declares she loves him. He then changes what he was going to tell her and announces he's quitting his job at China to stay with her.
  • Sexiness Score: In "Young & Unemployed", Elliot's disapproving mother comes to visit, and accidentally assumes Josh is Elliot's fiance. When she discovers it's actually Alan, she's disappointed, saying Josh is a "10" while Alan is a "4". Alan tries to take it in stride, but she doesn't make it easy.
    Alan: After you taste my kugel, I'll shoot up to a 5!
    Ms. Park: What the hell's a kugel? Speak English, 4.
  • Sleeping with the Boss: It's what kicks starts all the drama and awkwardness between Josh and Gabi. In the pilot, Gabi and Josh had a one-night stand after Caroline broke up with him. They had been drunk at the time and agreed that it didn't mean anything but it still caused a lot of complications in their relationship.
  • Slut-Shaming: A corporate owner thinks Sofia is one (judging by her looks at the bar they went to) despite Gabi's many protests. He even gave her $500 in a letter.
  • Status Quo Is God: No matter how deep the issue, Gabi will always find herself back in square one by being Josh's cook.
  • Stealth Expert: Gabi is remarkably good at hiding and sneaking around when the situation arises.
  • Straight Gay: Sophia's hot brother is one, much to Gabi's huge dismay.
  • Supreme Chef: Gabi. If you're thinking about eating grilled cheese, she will guess correctly. She is also capable of making outstanding meals in relatively short periods of time.
  • Team Mom: Yolanda is motherly to both Josh and Gabi.
  • Three-Way Sex: Elliot, Alan and the yacht helper in the finale.
  • Through His Stomach: Gabi is Josh's personal chef and he makes it no secret that he adores her cooking.
    • Josh's one-time love interest Jilly tried to invoke this trope and got into a rivalry with Gabi over which girl was the better cook for him. Josh chose Jilly on purpose but he secretly loved Gabi's meal more.
  • Twofer Token Minority: Both Elliot (gay and Asian) and Yolanda (older and black) mention this when Josh buys Gabi a new car.
  • Ultimate Job Security: Gabi has muddied up both Josh's personal and professional life on numerous occasions, started a relationship with Cooper despite Josh not wanting it, tried to meddle with his family relationships despite being told not to and acting very unprofessional in general. Despite being a very talented chef, anyone else would have fired her by that point.
    • There have been times when Josh really considered letting her go or she quits for a while but she's always find herself back in Josh's employment in the end.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds. Yolanda and Elliot love to bicker with each other but love to also share gossip.
    • There's some hints that Elliot is warming up to Gabi.
  • Weight Woe: Josh piles on weight in one episode and spends the entire episode trying to hide it. He fails.
  • Zany Scheme: Gabi hatches a new one in virtually every episode.

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