Hello,
I spent one hour chasing the "bug", until I reread what you wrote. The important thing is that you took a long time to click on the start button. Then when you started you had only a few seconds to play your move. Your opponent took about 10 seconds to play his first move. So I would guess that you clicked on the start button 2'05" late. If you had been the first player, you would have lost before even clicking the button.
All in all, what I want you to understand is that the game actually starts before the players click the "Vamos" button. The game starts as soon as both players have correctly loaded the page and connected to the game server. The timer for the first player starts at the same time. And we take the food at that moment too.
Regarding the opening screen, I understand it has a relatively modest interest and maybe we could change something. This said, the opening screen serves two small purposes: 1) show an animation for the food being take, 2) show the physical game box and artwork.
Thanks for taking the time to report.
NB: without start button, you would have lost the match in the same way.