Top Chef: All-Stars L.A. | Season 17, Episode 10 Recap: "Colossal Coliseum Kaiseki" - Reality TV RHAP-ups

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:15):
Unpack your knives and stay, yes, stay, Welcome everybody to another wonderful
edition of the Top Chef ra hapUp Judges Rehound Table here on the hap
Up Network. I am joined hereas always Wait did I say my name?
It's Hiley Strong. I enjoyed hereas allwise by just some great pangs.

(00:39):
If you're ever looking to invite somebodyto a party after all this is
over and we can actually have parties, they'd be at the top of my
list. Jehosh Wiggler. I reallywanted to like just be like, yes,
oh my god, this is theparty group, but I really wanted
to stop myself from interrupting your introfor once, and I knew that's exactly

(00:59):
how you're feeling. So that's whyI went to you first, just like
pop off. Yeah, yeah,I get three so you can just really
get into things, you know.Yeah. Absolutely. I am joined here
by Oh wait, no, that'sHaley's roll. That's my job. I'm
joined here today by what I cantell is Lily Bloom. In the background

(01:21):
of Mike Bloom's recording, I'm merelyby prompting to introduce my dog the Judge's
round table. I had to see. I served her a nice Kaiseki seven
course meal, so she's still kindof recovering afterwards. Yeah, it puts
on well, we we've had somesnuggles. Yeah. The very first time
that Haley Strong ever watched The GreatBritish Baking Show was when she snuggled on

(01:42):
my couch after Alive No at Allswith my dog. And it's funny.
I actually met Lily Bloom before Imet Mike Bloom technically because Mike was still
at work and I had to letmyself into their apartment. Well, they
were not a huge symbol of trustthat were like, yeah, just go
into our apartment. That's random Canadiangirl online. Yeah, but I don't

(02:02):
think things have resulted how they arehow they are, and I'm happy about
it. We're doing well. Verifiedthat because you I thought you were just
gonna leave it. Things resulted asthey are. It's like ominous. No,
we're friends. We're good. Okay, we're good'd be good. Yeah,
Kurt Kaisecky Clark, Hey, there, glasses. I like your glasses

(02:23):
today. I really like these thingson you. Kurt, Well, thank
you so much. Really putting withClark and Clark, Kent have fifty thousand
dollar patrons loving the look on KurtClark today. Yeah, they get to
see me also transform, I'm gonnatake them off. So oh that's Superman.
Oh I'm so dumb. I hadno idea joke is that? Yeah,

(02:46):
he takes his glasses off and he'sSuperman? Yeah? No, we
we we got it. Yeah,okay, okay, yeah yeah, um
to to bring this ship back toshore. Emily Fox, Hey, Hey,
how you doing? Hey, what'sup? Missed ya? Do you
see that there is the thread inthe Facebook group the patron group of like

(03:07):
favorite podcast duos and Hailey Strong andEmily Fox got some representatives. It made
me really happy. I didn't wantto like say it in our group chat
and really like make it clear toeveryone else. Been off show? Yeah
when does this show end? Sowe just went waiting out the clock with
the rest of us until you canreally break off and do what you want

(03:28):
to. I mean, baby,I'm playing the long con. That's good
work. It's like only phase likefive. Yeah, I'm I'm working on
a forty five phase plan okay,which ends in Emily getting a Canadian visa.
Oh my god, I'm so honored. I would totally you're not and
this isn't even a joke. You'renot the only person in our lives who

(03:50):
has like a like a double digitphase plan to steal Emily Fox away.
She's that great. Yeah, wedo head in line in our orbit.
We also have something as well asa third person who is on the line.
We also have somebody else great heretoday. Um, we're excited to
be joined by another fun guest,and that is Zeke Smith from what I

(04:12):
assume is Survivor. No, I'mjust kidding. I know it's Survivor.
I'd say two or three seasons ofSurvivor. Yeah, I think too.
I think that's that's Are we notcounting Survivor Brooklyn cut I've never watched it?
I'm sorry. Oh man, howhow a day in a park can

(04:33):
really follow you the rest here?That's your first season, right, that's
what you're most known for, iswell, technically I played a game of
Big Brother Brooklyn before I played SurvivorBrooklyn that never made it to made it
to air. And actually I wentto the end of that one and lost
by one vote because in the BigBrother House, which was just sold with

(04:57):
gay guys, I kept winning hand in the h H room. I
would just make out with everybody andthen I would post them out and then
they all talk to each other anddidn't had a nickel. That happened that
time. That happened with every Survivorrunner up. Like now, just going
to the voting good and just makeout with Urine. Yeah, pick every

(05:21):
piece of parchment. Yeah, doyou say earn or something else? I
said earn? What did you think? I said, Urine? Oh,
no, you don't make out withyou want? I don't want to.
If it's consensual, do what yougotta do, you know? Anyways,
So where are going to talk aboutTop Chef? The Showy award winning television

(05:44):
show Top Chef it superze you've you'veyou've watched every episode this season. I've
watched every episode this season. Ihaven't watched the most recent Last Chance of
Kitchen. Okay, okay, let'ssay you guys said, is that like
some sort of like just like safewords just appeared in the mirror behind me?

(06:09):
Is that candy Man? It's importantto say though, because yeah,
I mean, we just like startedoff talking about Survivor and Big Brother.
But Zeke, you are a hugeTop Chef fan, huge stop chef fan
seeing every season. I love tocook. I consider going to culinary school.
I still might go to culinary schoolwith all my dreams crashing berg Uh,

(06:30):
yeah, I love me some foodTV. You're the right place,
though, Yeah, exactly. Iwant to eat your cooking, Ze.
I would love for you to eatmy cooking. You know I make a
good pizza wiggler. I know Ihave been perfecting it for a decade at
this point, And yeah, we'vebeen doing some good cooking. I've been.
I finally figured out how to makefresh pots though, which has sort

(06:51):
of like been my wight whale culinarilyfor fifteen years. I have made it
and failed. But then I gotthe I got the master class, and
I watched the Thomas Keller making thefresh fasta and I used no lie eighteen
egg yolks to get yeah, becauseyou just you just keep adding egg yolks

(07:11):
um, and it felt like awaist. And then I had to make
myself an egg white omelet, whichfelt like a nice balance like fasta bolognas
and an egg white omelet rant tobe healthy. So yeah, whenever Ethan
makes whiskey sours with the egg white, I try and make myself an egg
yolklet just like Mega orange. It'sgreat. I love it. I hate
the one. I hate the eggwhites, so I like just the yolks.

(07:35):
We talked about this before because Iremember that I hate the egg yolks,
but I like the whites. Well, you guys out, Yeah,
I'm really good at separating them.So I'm terrible at separating them. And
I had to do it so muchat work and everyone was like, you
really don't cook with eggs, andI was like, yes, it's pretty
I wonder why it's right, becauseyou're legendarily allergic to you to eg How

(07:58):
when a year ago, which wasI think the last family we all hung
out in prison, you were exploringduck eggs as an egg substitute. Yeah,
and how is that going? Isthat still an experiment? So from
what I could tell, I mademyself a breakfast sandwich and I didn't like
keel over. I was away,So that's usually a pretty good that's good,

(08:20):
God don't die. But it reallywhere I was like, if I'm
not allergic to eggs, like justthe word eggs, who am I think?
In my time and sort of dabbledhere and there, but like after
the initial sort of like half dozenthat I experimented with, I was very

(08:41):
hesitant to buying Emily's being very kind. I my father and I went out
on an excursion to pick up duckeggs from a duck farm on Long Island.
And when and it was a veryit was like very dirty at the
duck farm. And it was likevery notably dirty at the duck farm.
Many, Okay, maybe this isjust like the garden where garden that's where

(09:05):
I bought my duck eggs. Oh, it's a follow up trip that I
didn't ask for the duck farms.Great, it was just dirt and the
Father's day. It was Father's Dayand you and your dad were like,
We're gonna go buy some duck eggsfrom a filthy duck farm. It's like
cool, I thought what we said, that's what we reported that that was
the name of it, though filthyduck farm. That it was a filthy

(09:26):
duck farm. And Stephen, theducks were really filthy. You guys know
that I raised poultry, like Iget it. Ducks, I didn't know.
I had no idea that duck farmsexisted. Is that me being like
very blinded city boy, I thoughtlike, yeah, so Long Island used
to be a very big duck farmingcommunity. But um, I did some

(09:50):
research on this about a year anda half ago, because you used to
be able to get like a LongIsland duck breast at like a restaurant,
and that was sort of a thingto say, right, how many shots
of alcohol are exactly like north Shoreor South Shore? Yeah, we just
pull a long glass with a duckbreast in it. You just take bites
of it. I can always tellwhen people are American in the restaurant because

(10:11):
if they order a Long Island icedtea and they asked me, are you
sure this is made right, Iknow they're American. Yeah, yeah,
because it has every alcoholic because we'reonly legally allowed to serve one shot in
a Long Island iced teas like wowin the American version. Yeah. Right.
So, duck farms used to existon Long Island and then they literally
mucked up most of the waterways thereand that's the reason there aren't really there's

(10:37):
like two duck farms left. Theyruined a lot of the wetlands, a
lot of natural water source and damnedup by the duck feces and detritus that
sort of spread from natural duck farming. You will find duck farms in the
Midwest now, and that's just becauseobviously ducks naturally exists in nature. But

(11:01):
the fact that they're so concentrated ata farm in one location. Okay,
okay, I got it. Imean, if we really wanted to go
down that road. Salmonella is aman made problem. Why is there always
about what the men do? Well, I tell female poultry farmers and maybe

(11:22):
we can that's kidding, It's it'sclearly all yeah. I don't let's not
get into a feminism debate this earlyon a Saturday morning. I usually I
usually save my feminism for like lateMondays, Late Mondays? Is that what
you said? I schedule feminism?The Bachelor is on, So I really

(11:43):
have to like amp up the feminismto like make myself okay with what I'm
doing. Yeah, you know,you're keeping your weekends feminism free. There
is one thing about exhausting. There'sone last thing about Dux is that they
are good with Kaiseki talking about topChef and we maybe ten minutes to not

(12:05):
talk about it, but now weall well so so Zeke. Uh,
you know, as a big fanof Top Chef, because we are like
nearing the corner. We have onemore week until the finals. Yes,
obviously it's been like a big yearfull of huge returning reality seasons. What
has been your thought on this AllStars too of Top Chef, especially compared
to like how iconic Season one wasof All Stars. Yeah, I'm loving

(12:30):
this All Star season of Top Chef. I feel like they're sort of embracing
what Survivor embraced with its most recentAll Star season, which is like the
personal stories because I feel very investedin, like like Gregory. I'm rooting
so hard for Gregory, so Ilove Gregory as a human. I feel
like he's my friend. Um Uh, I'm I'm having a great time with

(12:54):
it. It is a bit um. It's also a bit torturance as someone
who lives in LA to be watchingTop chelf La and then going to all
the restaurants that I love, uh, like going to Odium and being like
I had reservations from my anniversary andOdium and they work because we can't go
to restaurants anymore. Um. Sothere is that Georgiss element um. But

(13:20):
other than that, I am lovingit. I know we said we were
working to talk about feminism, butI feel like Padma is giving me glorious
signed him realness. Oh my god, I can't Hamra's so fucking gorgeous.
I don't know what she's doing beautiful. I love it. Um yeah,
I mean there have been a coupleof moments that work. This is not
a feminist free podcast. This isa feminist exclusive podcast. Yeah, every

(13:46):
day, every day is Yeah.Um. I thought it was like a
little weird that Eric was eliminated fora restaurant about like the arduousness of the
middle passage um, and Kevin wonthat challenge for like plantation food. Yeah.
Yeah, that kind of hit meweird. But yeah, it's it's

(14:09):
been a weird past few episodes.I don't know, I personally think that
like this episode to me like broughtthings back to the place where I was
really loving this season for like thefirst seven or so episodes, just because,
like your points seek, I feellike the past few challenges have just
been so strange, between like therestaurant pitch, the restaurant Wars, which
was like, okay, one ofthe two of you is going home,

(14:31):
and then the let's torture them bykeeping them up until three in the morning
and then cook for two hundred moms. Like this just felt Granted, I'm
assuming the Kaiseki stuff was like reallytough for them to do, but this
was like a really fun and goodepisode in my opinion. It also probably
helps that, you know, spoileralert, Kevin came back from Last Chance
Kitchen, and so that does helpsort of undo maybe some of the unjustness

(14:52):
that came from that type of restaurantwar stuff that you're speaking about. Seek
It might have been fun for you, but I right, at least three
times well, well no one Stephanie'sstory to the Olympians, because I love
the Olympics a lot. I cryevery Olympics. I'm very passionate. And

(15:15):
then three when spoiler alert Stephanie oneyeah yeah, but like, oh god,
what a bummer for Stephanie because finallyshe wins a challenge. She's like,
I'm gonna go to the Olympics,and then it's like, no,
sorry, no Olympics for you.Yeah, it's just the offer expir if
you know, I get to goto the Olympics when they hap. I
think I think they do because Isaw I saw an Instagram post from her

(15:35):
where she's dancing within around with anOlympic flag and she mentions like hashtag you
know Tokyo Olympics twenty twenty one orsomething. So I guess is that it's
still going to be your valid didn'tthink into the comments, but I had
the Tokyo Olympics anymore, they're goingto cancel. Yeah that's true. Yeah,

(15:58):
they show her a trip, theyowe her a premiere Trolls premiere with
with with Gregory Nini, Open Tablereservation. Uh yeah, between the Trolls
premiere, the open table stuff andthe Olympics like just bad in retrospect.
I guess the next episode when it'slike you've won a ticket to every major

(16:18):
concert happening in summer twenty twenty,it's just like everything or like Kevin's gonna
come back and she's gonna go outimmediately. It is. It kind of
funny like so to compare it touh, Emily and I's O our favorite
movie that we that we saw togethervery early on in our relationship, that
Departed The Departed Welcome to the Dollar, it feels like a very woof well

(16:41):
that happened, that was like anearly date movie for you guys. That
was the first date movie. Itwas Oh my god, we made out
for the first time after watch itwas Paul. It was after Mike Geez.
But The Departed, which is atwo thousand and six, two thousand
and seven movie, they're using flipphones and then like the like five months

(17:02):
later, iPhones are the thing.Yeah, So like The Departed is very
dated by like the existence of fliphones, but like just barely, in the
same way that Top Chef All Starstwo is dated by like a world that
doesn't quite exist anymore with the WorldTour and the Olympics are gone. Restaurant
and open table doesn't matter anymore?Did it ever matter? Oh wow,

(17:26):
just kidding. Open table if youwant to, if you want to sponsor
our podcast, please call us.I love you all right, I'll edit
out the part where you said tabledoesn't matter, and even the part where
you said open table. If yougoing to sponsor us, yeah, no,
just kick out, don't open table, yeah matters. Just get in

(17:47):
line behind Bush's Baked Beans and theAmerican Blackbirds. Don't get too far online,
don't get too next to Bush's Bakedbeans. That's true. Six ft
six six feet distance. I amloving that this for me, Top Chef
All Stars La is Top Chef AllStars Lesbians because we are lesbians, lesbian
lesbians, and we were peak lesbiantonight all last night whenever when we were

(18:12):
finding this lesbian god. Another wayyears, the factor yes time, um
is that you know we we werewe were peak peak lesbo with the Knocka
ladies. Yes, because they arepartners in business and partners in life.

(18:33):
Did not know this? Yeah,that's not a deep take. I'm wondering
that they when they had the samelast but one of them was hyphenated,
so I figured that there was somethinggoing on. But I mean I it
seemed like they were earlist. Gregorywas super impressed by them. That's always
one of my favorite parts of someonewho is admittedly not as in tune to
the culinary community in terms of facesand names, is to like have someone

(18:53):
walk in and have the chefs tellus how important they are. And clearly
those two were such a big dealto Gregory, especially makes sense given his
pedigree. Yeah, what's their backstory? Zee? Do you know? You
know, you know a lot moreabout them than I do. Yeah,
it's cool then and they like shehas um what's that series on Netflix where
they do a really uh chres table. Yes, there's a chef's table about

(19:15):
her in the first season as well. Um. So she um yeah,
like opened a sushi restaurant in umLa with the like backing of her family
and her family works in the umlike the fish shipping or the fish like
import industry. Um, and likeshe like almost wasn't gonna make it and

(19:37):
they were gonna have to close downtheir restaurant, but then she made it.
Um And then she took on likeyou know, a big tour to
Japan and like all about kaiseki andthen came back to La and wanted to
adapt kaiseki um for Los Angeles.So she grows her own a lot of
her own produce and like you know, sources a lot of her own food
locally and does yeah traditional Japanese kaisekibutt with local La flavors and her restaurant

(20:04):
and Naka is the probably the hardestreservation to get in all of Los Angeles.
Yeah, so they opened up reservationor they used to back a we
could go to restaurants, um,they open up reservations at today on Sunday
and half of Los Angeles has analarm on their phone at Tenaya on Sunday

(20:25):
to try to go to the websiteto try to get a reservation. But
it's like it's it's it's impossible.I've never been. But the cool thing
is is they keep like dossier's onall of their diners so that they know
what they've fed you. And they'llnever feed you the same thing twice unless
there's something like you really really lovedand like want to see again, but

(20:48):
you have to like crazy, yeahI love that. Yeah, it's awesome.
Yeah, would be on me asa diner. Only I don't actually
wonder because yeah, that is theanswer. It's pretty low horrible, it's
what they would say. Um.But Ali Wong is really close to the

(21:14):
Nanocolades, and my boyfriend is reallyclose to Ali Wong, and so we
keep trying to like be like,is this can when when can we call
this favor? And because it alwaysdepends on like when has Ali last called
a favor? And we always askher, she's like, oh, it
was my anniversary. I just calleda favorite for a table hilarious. Climbing

(21:36):
is everything, as you know,Yes, definitely it was how did Nickeo
feel about Ali's appearance and a quickfire earlier this season. I think he
was super jealous because that's his bigHe really really really wants to be a
top JEF judge. That's like,oh, really, Nico is a big
top jef guy. Oh yeah,Nico is a bigger foodie than I am.

(21:56):
Really, yeah I do. I'mlike, I'm the cooking guy,
but he uh, he knows allthe chefs and all the restaurants and all
the like niche techniques. In fact, food is what brought us together.
We met at the claud Awards andI was sort of like I had been
flirting earlier in the night with hisplus one and but the Nigo was like

(22:18):
a little bit more like you know, aggressive later in the evening, and
then we all ended up in Nico'stown car that NBC scent to like go
back to Nico's house, and soI had like a decision to make.
But then Nico and I started learningout about food together and I was like,
oh, like big brother Brooklyn allover again. Yeah, yeah,

(22:45):
that's great. Yeah, I wouldsay food is like the centerpiece of our
relationship. We're big, big foodguys, who is the centerpiece of all
great relationships, whether it's romantic orotherwise, such as this conglomerate relationship that
we had here on the Top Chefpodcast. Yeah, right, guys,
that's what I like best about myself. Yeah, to relationship with yourself is

(23:06):
founded in food exactly pretty much survival. But yeah, I guess speaking terms
of these gave it all because Ithink the uh I was really I really
liked this challenge, and not justbecause like it was a little constraint for
them right to be like it's literallyconstrained because kaiseki. I mean, I've
never had experience with it. I'msure those of us that I've been able
to go to Japan can can speaktowards it. But like this idea of
like super restraint, like Brian Malarkyuse the term tweets a fig about like

(23:30):
thirty different times, and it reallydoes seem like speaking of Ali Wong something
out of Always be My maybe whereit was like they go to that restaurant
and like there's the little pieces offood on the on the place. It's
like that's what kaiseki sort of feelslike to me. But I'm happy that
it was not so restraint of likelyyou can only use this ingredient. Like
it did allow them some some roomto create dishes. It just is more

(23:52):
of a display of technique than maybesome of these other challenges have been.
So it's not exactly putting them toomuch into a box. So we we've
talked previously about you know, youknow, cooking is obviously an art form,
but like this is like art formto the degree, and it's like
literally it's it's a cultural expression.It's an artistic expression and addition to actually
hyper for all of those reasons,right, Like it is so specific.

(24:15):
Um it like Malarkey speaks to howlike the editing process, which is always
difficult from Malarkey, was particularly difficultfrom Larky here because this really is where
like it's so about precision. It'sso about precision, um, you know,
simplicity to a certain degree, butalso like very complicated cookery that goes

(24:36):
into like an enormous amount of complicationthat goes into presenting something so so like
kind of like intimate feeling. Andnot surprisingly, Brian Botajo really respects Kaiseki
and he told us several times hadthis uh line earlier in the episode which

(24:56):
was like you know, you know, you know, I came to Top
Chef to cook. I'm here tocook, and then it was it was
just such a silly line, andI was like the leaks. I thought
you were just here to tell ourresident dad jokes. Yeah. Really,
I think that was drive Like Cractu, He's like, I'm here to cook.
It's like, yeah, some ofthe others chefs, Yeah, Brian

(25:19):
Baltajo is really like that. He'sreally like the rupert tweets of Top Chef
or like he'll just say something veryobviously like I'm here to light a fire
and put a pan on it.Though I did speak of Brian Boltacio low
Key. Funniest moment of the episodewhen Brian Malarkey accidentally calls him Michael for
various reasons, one of them beingit's his name he has. There are

(25:41):
many names he could choose to callhim, but the one name that he
has is the same as Brian Malarkey'sDavid. For some reason, he does
not think of it. It justsays Michael Voltago instead. I think one
of my favorite parts of this seasonis Brian Malarkey. Um, I mean,
I hate Brian Malarkey. He's suchan i rol but he's such like
a classic reality show villain that wehave really in a long time, because
he's not malicious. I mean,he's had a couple of like agroo moments,

(26:03):
but he's just he's just this narcissist, but he's also like really cares
about the competition, and I loveit. Nico is always like he needs
to get he needs to get kickedoff this time, and I'm like,
no, he's so yeah, No'sso. I called him the coach of
this season in the past, andI do feel like that that that's a
little bit of a comparison, especiallylike this episode when I know that,

(26:26):
like the contestants were rolling their eyesat the ice cream machine. But I
love how much of a runner thishas become that for some reason, his
eyes are always drifting to that damnice cream machine, and this time,
the one time when other people weregoing to make ice cream, he guns
up the works and prevents other peoplefrom making ice cream. I like Stephanie's
reactions, like I was going touse the ice cream maker, but whatever

(26:48):
it was that Brian Mularkey made init would contaminate whatever it is I'm making
is so I can't go anywhere nearit. It's hard. He made a
pink peppercorn ice cream, so literally, yeah, that's it would morph all
of the flavors that he put inthere, And I thought I thought that
that was I don't know, Ithink malarkey with with the ice cream.
He didn't he was in the top, but didn't they not even like in

(27:10):
the commentary regard his ice cream atall. Yeah, so like it's still
TVD as to whether the ice creamwas any good. It sounds like the
cake was great, but they didn'teven comment on the ice if he ever
had I think your Last Chance Kitchenobviously is retired now for this season.
I'm wondering if we never know,you would never know. But I'm wondering
if he had met to Last ChanceKitchen, I'm hoping I would have been
an ice cream challenge, just notbecause of necessarily why he went out that

(27:33):
episode, but just because of thattrack record, and I just want to
see him actually have to face thatdemon down on purpose versus just like I'm
going to decide to No, youhave to and you have to do it
right now. In retrospect, theyshould have done the brand challenge this episode,
so Brian Law could come up withlike his trademark ice cream and see
how people would absolutely hate it.Because yeah, it seems like the funniest
thing about this ice cream runner isthat he never hits it out of the

(27:56):
park any one at the times did. He keeps going back to the ice
cream machine, like I think timeit might actually work And the best you
could have hoped for was that itwas just not regarded whatsoever. So I
guess it wasn't a complete fail.Yeah, it seems like who was it
was? It was? It wasStephanie who was a Stephanie or Melissa who
used the liquid nitrogen to make theice cream at the last minute. Stephanie
and somebody else did? I think? I think both did? Both did,

(28:18):
And it's like it's funny. It'slike it seems a lot quicker and
a lot more successful than the icecream machine, like just dump dump the
liquid nitrogen in a bowl, begood with it, and it worked.
Trip. So I really like thequick Fire too, like I loved him.
I love the because usually with theblind taste tests, it's usually just
like hey, statically stand here andwhoever guess is the most ingredients wins.
I love the fact that like youcan only use guess. It was a

(28:42):
good way to like actually practically useyour palette being tested. Absolutely. I
love the Taste Test challenge anyway,Like I think it's really fun to see
like who's really good at it andlike seeing all these like top shafts being
like I don't know egg and it'slike not egg, but you're right.
I love that they actually like hadto use what it was that they knew

(29:03):
it was and then you know,and it's timing and yeah, and I
like that it's not that you know. Brian mallarkey finished last, and he
but he still had like eight ingredientsto make a dessert with, which is
a plenty of ingredients. If anything, you could say that doing poorly in
this challenge would potentially help you becauseyou wouldn't have to edit yourself as much.
But I'm glad that they threw inthe added twist of well, if

(29:23):
you get last place or your lasttwo, you haven't less time to cook,
So there is that incentive obviously todo well, because I think still
you can make a great dessert withjust eight out of twenty ingredients, but
the time crunch then becomes an issue. So I really like the adjustice they
made too. I'm glad it cameback. This is a perennial favorite for
me. I know that she wins, so you know, there's really no

(29:44):
use crying over spilled sweet milk.But Melissa gets thirteen correct, Gregory gets
thirteen correct, and she loses fifteenminutes because she didn't go through all of
the things. It's only kind ofpetty to me, so just give I
wonder if that was like a wonderof the same amount of things, right,
Yeah, just an audible of like, oh, I guess they're tied.
So it comes down to time,and I guess Gregory got through thirteen

(30:07):
more time five minutes they got thesame thing. Yeah. Yeah, I
was wanting to because like technics,like, well, if she she could
have gotten a higher score because thereare more ingredients for her to guess,
but she ran out of time,so Gregory was quicker, so I was
like, be careful. Yeah,Emily, what do you think about Melissa's
olive oil pistachio cake considering the SIyou had? I mean, I love
alive oil cake. I'm trying tofigure out if I'm gonna make it again,

(30:29):
probably like the next day or two. I'm you're gonna have to roll
me out of the house when quarantineis over. Do you do you play
along? Do you like you're youthink like, okay, this is what
I would make. I sat therebeing really upset that Karen chose a panicotta
because it's just not going to setin time. I was like, there's
no way you can't get a panicottato set that quickly. Um, I've

(30:52):
been in so many classes where I'mtaing and we do the dessert demo of
panicotta first and let that sit andchill in the first for three hours while
we cook the rest of the meal, and that's that's by that time.
So like it was just I understand, like the panic and obviously not having
as many ingredients as you want andnot having the amount of time that you

(31:12):
want to really try to throw thatall together. But like, oh,
they're really stressed me out. Panicpanicottas that sounds like your specialty. That's
the escape room artist could deal withsome panta under cont But on the on
the flip side, we see Stephanietackle the panicota for the for the actual

(31:36):
elimination show that was just a matterof time then, right, Yeah,
yeah, that's a matter of timeand Panicotta Actually, as a Kasseki offering
is a really great decision just becauseit can be so delicate and really um
be such a setting for really beautifulflavors if you do it right. So
I think that that was a reallygreat call on her part, um,

(31:57):
I think, and serving it inthe lemon, in the lemon itself,
that was so kaiseki. That wasYeah, that's so kaiseki. I would
have loved to have seen Kurt dothe the identify the twenty ingredients as they
pass and salt passed, they pass, some keeper passed, they passed,
some blackberries, kerries. Think youmay not know this, it's an underreported

(32:22):
fact of a park. He lovesblackberries and fennel. Yeah, luckily there
was. And I'm a fan ofblackberries, but not like Krazy Kurt.
Kurt's a big BlackBerry guy. Yeah. Luckily there was no fennel in the
dessert challenge that I remember, butthere was plenty in the elimination challenge.
I think we've popped up in acouple of places, popped up in the
quick in the Last Chance Kitchen,it's like they have it on like its

(32:44):
surplus of funnel this season. Ican deal with, like the fennel bowld
uh in like small amounts fennel seedabsolutely not not your thing, which is
a bummer. You know, youget it in Italian sausage. You're like,
oh, this is great, thisis the solid, and then you
get a mouthful of fennel seeds.Oh, I hear you, I hear

(33:07):
you can relate, relate. I'dliterally just ordered a fennel pollen on my
phone while we were talking earlier,along with pink peppercorns, because I was
like, right, I want areyou making that ice cream? Yeah,
I'm gonna are you gonna are yougonna put it? Put it on your
wood fire oven? Oh? Reallyconvenient wood fired oven in our apartment.
Yeah. So so can you explainthe bakers in this little chat about like

(33:31):
the concept of using a wood firedoven to bake things? Is it just
that it like the only side effectis that it tastes smokier just through the
method of cooking, Like, howdoes it compare to actually using out an
oven? It's probably faster. Imean when you think about like a wood
fired pizza, right, Like it'sthe same concept of like, would you
put it in a regular oven,sure, it's gonna take a little bit
longer. When you put it inthe wood fire, it's faster, it's

(33:52):
a higher temperature, it's you know, it probably gives up a smoky flavor
kind of kind of wood. Butwe're not like slow smoking a cake here.
It's pretty quickly. It's not aslow fire about a slow steam of
a cake. How does how wouldthat go? I don't know. That
was basically steamed cake. Yeah,um, yeah, that's my understanding of

(34:15):
it from a very pi and Malarkeyturned to the wood fire oven for his
quick fire just because that that's kindof one of the deals with with his
line of restaurant, right, Iwould have I would have you know,
it looked good to meet, didn'tit look pretty burnt? I like burnt
stuff, So that's fine. Well, his cake when they've like trotted it
out, looked like dark, likea very dark cake from Brian Malarkey block.

(34:40):
Yeah, it just seemed like avery dark burnt cake. But they
talked about that, and they didn'ttalk about his ice cream, Like,
I like his dish had burnt peachesin it. I was like, that's
just like the the adjective because theentire dish was actually burnt nuke nuked peaches.
I mean, listen, this isgonna be the best Brian Malarkey does

(35:01):
this episode. So I guess thewood fire oven was was where it was
that I gave him a hard timefor the ice cream. But if he
actually was in the top two interms of being called out, you know,
Melissa ends up winning this, buthe did get acknowledgement as being one
of the favorites, so good onhim, and he was very excited about
it. Oh my Goddy his reaction. And that's the thing as well,

(35:22):
is that, like to Zeke's point, like he can be an asshole,
but like he does it in sucha jocular way that everyone's like, that's
Malarkey, Like what even last weekwhen he was like, why did no
one give me a spot? Butlike everyone knows it's the way he behaves,
so it just sort of like yeah, yeah, yeah, I know,
you're just sort of joking around.This happened here right when when Brian
Voltago was declared in the bottom andPama says the rest of you did pretty
well, and Malarky's like yeah,and he shakes Brian Voltagio's shoulders to be

(35:45):
like, screw you. I'm inthe top this time. Very assholy.
But because it's Brian Malarkey and it'salso before Brian Malarky called Brian Moltagio accidentally
his brother's name, so they wereon a relatively good status at that point.
I feel like it's kind of nonewith them now. Yeah. I
think she is, oh, yeah, must start with him. No,
I feel like she's been over itsince he walked on set. Great,

(36:08):
I can't. I think I thinkshe forgot how extra he was in season
three, or the taste might havejust done that to him. As the
chefs are approaching Griffith Park Observatory atthe beginning, that's when Tom turns to
her says, Okay, we weren'tgoing to tell you until now, but
Brian Malarkey is on this season.That was when she found out, just
because she would have like walked offset. No, No, it was

(36:28):
it was. It was fun.I'm loving the Brian and uh in Podma
dynamic. I think the thing aboutBrian is I was review it like he's
kind of got this diffused assholary versusa focused assholery, like in terms of
he's he doesn't like takes like heis like fairly thinned out as opposed to
like a very dense assholary. Yes, and he doesn't like turn on an

(36:49):
individual as much as it's just kindof there and you might walk into it,
but it's never something that he's likeactively focusing on you into a thin
asshole. Don't bring don't bring zekeback to tread lightly in butd hole territory.

(37:14):
No. I think what also makesMalarchy such a great villain is that
he has a very understandable want,Like, we get it. He's had
um, it's sold a million restaurants, he's been on the taste, but
he's like, no, I wantto have it all. I still want
to be thought of as a greatchef, not just a restaurant tour.
And you're like, I think it'svery understandable. We like, we get

(37:36):
it. That's that's a very clearwant, and so everything else you're like
a but like, yeah, Ikind of get where you're coming from.
I don't know. My favorite Malarchymoment was I think it was last episode
in the quick Fire where he wasin the middle like he wasn't in the
bottom, he wasn't in the top, but they were gonna they had it
was between him and someone else andthey were like all right, and the

(37:58):
other person in the top is andMalarchy's face just lights off and he follows
Padma's finger like thinking it's gonna bemean, it's gonna be And if you're
reading to Gregory and he's like youjust see his hopes boil and then be
told, yeah for Malarkey, ButI think, like, good for Malarkey,

(38:20):
for like he's still here. Ithink that's a real surprise. Like
every single week I've come into theepisode being like, this is the one
where Malarkey gets off, and ithasn't happened yet. I'm underreported. It's
time for a message from our sponsor, and we're back. I am a
question to the group about uh producerinfluence in Top Chef because this seems like

(38:45):
the prime show where you can justreally pick and choose. So you want
to send home because none of uscan taste the food, right right?
Uh? Like what are they gonnawhat are they gonna say? No,
that dish was pericly seasons When they'resaying it's undersalted, do you think that
there is they do try to keepgood characters in as opposed to like keep

(39:09):
the best chefs in. We've talkedabout this a lot over the seasons,
and while Kurt and I are famousfor having Swiss cheese brains, where it
comes to like Top Chef history,where a season passes and like frankly,
when we had any money on lastweek, I had to like remind us
he was on last season's right,Like I just like I don't have the
recall for this show, but Ido have the recall for us having this

(39:30):
type of a conversation like at leastonce a year where we're like, it
does seem like often like story bedamned, character be damned. They really
do seem to go for food first. Like I think that we have seen
a lot of moments where people whoare better characters who had like maybe like
a slightly worse dish than someone whowas a worse character, if they really

(39:53):
did feel like that was the worstdish, they tend to go that route,
Like I think, um, Ithink like there are a lot of
examples of that along the way,like versus the she shoot who shall not
be named from the season that ChristenOne, Like I think is A is
A is a really good example ofthat, Like they let her go off

(40:15):
into the night when like everybody elsewould have like and it wasn't that,
like Josie didn't make a mistake.Um, So yeah, by by and
large, they do tend to playthis book or or maybe I'm being very
nice. No, No, whatI always say is just to prove that,
look at who's one top chef mostof the time, you know,
like, do you think that theywould want to give a win to Kevin

(40:37):
over Angela? Do you think theywould want to give a win to Nicholas
over Nina if they was waiting?Do you think they would want to have
the final two of Colorado be Adrianand Joe Flam you have like Cherry and
Bo Sasto's. It's one of thosethings where like one of the reasons why
it's a bit of a weird showis because, like Zeke you spoke about

(40:57):
Nani, I think her last seasonis a great indicator. We're like all
these people were going out super earlyon because while they were front runners,
they just had like one bad day. The one part of producer effery that
I think could happen. Actually,we'll tie into Last Chance Kitchen later on.
I feel like when they have thechallenges that are like best of three,
best of five, there's a littlebit of manipulation there where, you

(41:17):
know, they want to get downto that final matchup, and so I
could imagine they might skew like matchupnumber two in the other ways favored to
make sure that they get to theimportant round at the end, right.
And I was going to say thatI completely I don't think there is producer
manipulation. But then I'm thinking,but I do think that the structure for

(41:38):
part two of this most recent LastChance Kitchen was kind of stupid. I
mean, I didn't I failed onthe adjective, but I think when we
get the Last Chance Kitchen we cantalk more about it. But I thought,
you know, in short, there'sno way they're not letting a contestants
get back into the game by losingat this web only. Yeah. Yeah,

(42:01):
So it's it's you know, likeso that was the only thing where
I thought there might be something andthey could just you know, tip things
in their favor. But it's notlike somebody's going home because of that decision
to decide to say regardless Kevin's gonnaget back in or the contestants going to
get back in. But I thinkin the in the show proper, like
we've we've listened to you know,we've we've read articles and listen to podcasts
where you know, PADM has beentalked at length about like the importance of

(42:24):
their role as host because they acknowledgeexactly what you had said, Zeke,
that the home audience can't taste whatwe're tasting, So we as hosts kind
of make sure that we're describing asbest we can what that experience is like
because we understand that otherwise there's noweight or understanding behind the decisions. We
make another question, Last Chance KissKitchen versus Edge of Extation. Oh god,

(42:50):
Zeke, why. I mean,here's the thing. L c K
from a production standpoint, has beenlike the strongest it's ever been. And
I guess if you have to bringsomebody back, well again, we'll get
into it. I like bringing somebodyback before the finals. In the past,
it's usually been like they go tothis secondary location and then they bring
the person. You never want togo to the second location. That's where

(43:13):
they take you to the second location, you're done, you're gone for Yeah.
I think though the worst implementation ofit by far was in the aforementioned
Seattle season where where Kristin came backand had to get through one challenge and
that's all it took to get tothe finale. Now, at least they're
realizing, Okay, this person hasto get through like three or four challenges
to make it into the finals.So I and I think the challenges themselves

(43:34):
have been more entertaining, and soI would say, like I'd say,
you know, this is more likea redemption Island than an Edge of Distinction,
right, because like, you havea different thing every episode. It's
not just Okay, we're gonna putall the eliminated chefs in the in the
steam room for like seven episodes andthen we'll have a big cook cook free
for all and one person will comeback. Yeah, you're still seeing them
try and struggle and persevere and winrepeatedly to get back into the competition.

(43:59):
And obviously, unlike survivors like you'renot you haven't been out of the game
since week one and are responsible forvoting for someone you've never sat on a
tribe with, this is something whichit's a you know, the final rubric
by which you win is definitely obviously. I've I've come around on the Last
Chance Kitchen. I've been I've beena big l c K hater for a
while. And the episodes that I'veseen this season, I don't watch them
all. I've really really enjoyed.I think that the hill that I will

(44:22):
continue to I don't want to dieon a hill, so I'm going to
live on the hill. I chooseto live on the hill. People have
to come up, they have toget my body, they have to bring
it down convenient. I just wantto live on the hill off That's all
right. The hill that I willchoose to live on is I don't like
when the lc K, the lc K winner wins top Chet, Like

(44:42):
I think that's sun and that's wherethe producer manipulation should come in where they
should really be looking for an excuseas soon as that lc K winner comes
back into the competition. They becauseit's like, all right, how're not
time Kristen one, and you're nothappy that Brook one? No? I
am Joe, I am I amultimately um. But what I would have
loved is if Brooke won that firstseason and then Kristen came back into Brooks.

(45:07):
It's a little bit of a slidingdoors moment, right, Like,
had Kristen not come back, Brookporthad probably beaten Sheldon and therefore wouldn't have
come back for season fourteen ultimately,And I'm thrilled that both of them are
Top Chef winners. And I'm notsuch like a Top Chef purist or a
Top Chef historian to be like,oh, well, how how dare they
come back from Last Chance Kitchen?Like I'm just happy that they are Top

(45:30):
Chef ambassadors, but as far aslike my preference, like Adrian should have
beaten Joe Flinn for sure, justbecause Joe Wlinmen was the Last Chance Kitchen
in the Night of the Arid thatwhat do you think that? What do
you think about like a penalizing Likewhen when the Last Chance Kitchen contestant gets
back, they're penalized in some wayand their success it's like, not only
are you back eighteen they cut offone hand, Yes, they cut off

(45:54):
one hand. Yeah. I likeI feel like they've on it in the
past where it's like they'll bring toI think this was before lc K they'd
bring two or three people back,but they and they compete against everyone.
They have to make the best dishin order to stay. That's what happened

(46:14):
almost like in season five, That'swhat happened. If you guys remember Sure
for dude, Jeff got eliminated andthen came back at like the final five,
but he had to win the eliminationchallenge or he got sent out.
It was like an all or nothingtype of thing. Yeah, I'd rather
have like rather well, it's like, maybe you get rid of the successive
series of redemption Island type of eliminations. You have one massive sort of edge

(46:35):
of extinction type elimination, but whenthat person comes back into the game,
they have to win the elimination challengeor they're back out again. I think
it interesting. I mean, Ithink, not to get too far into
LCK, I think the LCK winnerspoiler alert, Kevin is a little disadvantage
because apparently they jump into their nextquick fire for next episode right after Kevin
comes back into the competition. SoI guess he's a little disadvantage in that
he's like exhausted at this point.But we also saw like that took a

(47:00):
lot of present oppressionists in Brother Luck, who apparently last season had to cook
back to back to back to back. Did Elsie k all in one day,
then came back into the competition andwas just so burnt out that he
naturally got eliminated again. So maybethey're just trying to like reduce that revolving
door effect, whereas maybe we're tryingto promote it almost Zeke as a as
a reality competition series veteran, howdo you feel about Last Chance of Kitchen

(47:25):
and its role within well, becauseI'm not like a game purist for Top
Chap. I just enjoy it.I like it when we get people I
like back into the competition. LikeI was really excited to see Karen come
back into the competition. I amvery excited to see Kevin come back into

(47:46):
the competition because I like looking atKevin's body. I'm not gonna lie.
So you're happy about that, Yeah, I maybe there's something I hated.
I might have different feelings, butI like to objectify Kevin and to think
about and you know what's apron right. I do think it's helpful that both

(48:09):
of the l c K winners thisyear have been people that buy in large.
I think are are beloved by theaudience, and certainly in the case
of Karen, when Karen went outand then Karen came right back, you
know, you don't miss Like there'snot a single episode that she made things
more palatable. I think in thatregard, right Ahead, go Ahead,

(48:30):
I was Karen does not seem tolike lc K at all, Like in
terms of when she was you know, even when she won, she seemed
just like frustrated and I know shewas exhausted, and that was like a
big part of it. It's like, oh, we have to cook right
now to get back in the game. It seemed like she was just not
all of her just touch points,battling Kevin again just she could just I

(48:52):
think she's just over Last Chance Kitchen. I'm glad she finally gets arrest just
to spoiler my upcoming exit interview withKaren, just because I got just got
answered for her back. Yesh,she was. I think she was.
Also she was pretty shocked that hernine got eliminated that first time out,
and so I do think like thereprobably is this weird idea, right that
like she ends up going out ofthis season both times on Good Dishes maybe

(49:13):
that lessons to blow up it,but it also might confuse you a bit
more, you know, going toLast Chance Kitchen of like, Okay,
I'm not entirely sure what I didwrong if they liked the dish, and
maybe that sort of clouds your focus. But yeah, Kurt, when she
ends up losing Last Chance Kitchen,she has a pretty bitter look on her
face that she took a big biteout of Stephanie's lemon husky. You know,
And I think Top Chef and Survivorare different games in the sense that

(49:37):
the point of Survivor is, youknow, don't get voted out, and
the person doesn't get voted out wins, like that's that's that's the entirety of
the game. And I'm run abig believer in like, you got voted
out, you get another chance.But Top Chef, you know, it's
about is the best chef, Andas we talked about in last week's episode,

(49:57):
oh, you know, a lotof it is like men told mistakes,
or like you're trying to share ovenswith people and they put it on
steam and you need it on something, and it seems like a lot of
those are sort of like fluky thingsthat are not necessarily commentary on like how
good a cooks people are? So, I don't know. I like the
safety hash, I think, Ithink, I think also get a second

(50:20):
chance. That's a good point.Yeah, should we as a so I
can't help, but notice Haley thatthere's six of us on this podcast?
Should we great math? Should weprepare a six course progressive kaiseki meal?
I don't see why the heck notright? Who wants to take saisuke?
Yeah? Can we break down whata kaiseck e meal involves? Sure?

(50:43):
Can you tell us that because outof any of us, you're probably the
most likely to have ever had one? Yea, Emily, you've had a
kaisek e meal. I meant likeyou as a collective in that screen and
just like you personally, Josh,Emily, why don't you tell us what's
in the kaiseki mean in? Basically, it's a multi course meal. The

(51:05):
courses are in the spreadsheet. Yeah, of courses are in the spreadsheet.
Let's take a look. Spread Frenchis spreadsheet. Right. Here is the
appetizer, oh on, which issoup. Yeah, kimono which is flame
grilled mushimono, which is steamed shakujiwhich is rice, and muzamona, which
is dessert. And I should notethat our friend Owen is the other person

(51:28):
who has a multi tiered plan tosteal Emily from me. So, so
the soup is the soup is conspiringto Yeah. So I think, you
know, we get a pretty decentexplanation of what kasseki means based on the
guest judges kind of coming in anddiscussing. You know, you're you're trying
to elevate very simple flavors, todo it in a very respectful way towards

(51:51):
the ingredients themselves. You want itto be harmonious, you want it to
blow really well. And like fromour experience in the few kasseki meals we've
had in Japan, yeah, it'sit's a very sort of sacred take on
a meal where you're nourishing your bodyand you're respecting the ingredients and you're sitting
there and there's a certain way inwhich they're served to you. You're supposed

(52:12):
to even in the way you eatthe meal, um, sort of be
respectful of how to pick up thedishware, how to how to handle the
chopsticks. Um. It can bevery nerve wracking as a Westerner where you
barely even fit underneath the table letalone know how to like handle the dishware
and that's put in front of you, Like I over feel like I weigh
a thousand pounds more than any typicalJapanese woman, Like I'm just not delicate.

(52:36):
I don't know how to sit safalling over, Like it's every single
time we're ever put in a situationlike this. We both just left well
so so so Fox and I.Fox and I were in Japan at the
start of the year and it wasan amazing trip ten years It really doesn't
like we were We were very greatfulfor it at the time, but like
even more so now, like Ican't like it was just really perfect timing.

(52:57):
Um. And we stayed a rioCon, which is like you know,
it's sort of like a bed andbreakfast basically um, and they cook
kaiseki meals there and you wear alike traditional car and so you were a
traditional carb and you have like likea traditional time that you have to go
and they have like the full kaisekilike uh, you know, timing on
all the food and every time likethe food would come out and Fox and

(53:19):
I would just like you didn't reallylike fatly and quick, and I love
this idea. Like they were talkingabout the soup, like, oh,
it's supposed to start, you knowunderseason soul builds salted o kaiseki is a
six course amuse boush and then where'sthe rest of the meal? Yeah.

(53:42):
It also like I had to likewear like a robe, like a like
a robe to dinner, and likeI couldn't tie it right, so I
got I like I was like floppingout of my road, like oh god,
like half naked robe out which sloppingfood down. He would be like,
I don't know what to do withmy like like the sweet the sweetest,

(54:04):
the sweetest, sweetest human being onthe planet was was like bringing the
kaise to us. She seemed likeso elegant and dedicated waitress, and she
she she seemed like she was gettinga kick out of us, but also
like vaguely horrified, like the beatenall of that already, and like the
sixth chorus is like one Wafian,Yeah exactly. It was always so delicate

(54:30):
and understanding and laughed a lot withus. But I think also, you
know, mildly horror. But theywere they were they were hilarious, delicious
meals like they were just they wereso funny, meant to be hilarious.
No, but we had we hadwe had a hilarious sign together. But
they were they were delicious and likeimmaculately made and it clean. It just

(54:51):
feels very personal. It is greatA big recommend from the Wiglar Foxes.
So like in the idea of talkingabout you know, malarkey having restraints,
that's really ultimately what everyone needed todo is like you're trying to look for
the purest, cleanest flavors, butdoing so in a way that's not too
over the top, not too crazy, because it's supposed to be harmonious.
So I think in that regard,everyone was pretty successful. I think if

(55:15):
anything, you know, when we'retalking about like Gregory for instance, like
it wasn't salted enough, And thatcompletely makes sense to me, because there
are moments where you don't want somethingto be too salty because you're going to
have like a pickle with the boksto it, and you want to make
sure that that's the salt that's highlightedrather than the broth itself. But like
you know, it's it's super hardto execute. And when we talk about

(55:37):
malarkey, the you know, thebroth not being hot enough and that being
a big deal. Like everything,attention to detail is just like paramount when
it comes to that. The lobstershell that was. Yeah, I thought
I thought for sure that was goingto be I almost expected Melissa to go

(55:59):
out on that. It was.It was super interesting though because yet to
that point, like you had theguest judge make a note of that,
But it did seem to a certainrespect, like the judges were not necessarily
as concerned about that, like withMelissa's for example, They're like, yeah,
that happened, but it was stillgood, you know. And I
do wonder how much the judges wereincorporating, like sticking to the kaiseki elements

(56:19):
of the challenge versus just like makinga good dish, where I was like,
yeah, you did not fulfill thevery specific criteria of kaiseki, but
you also didn't make something tasty,so like I can't begrudge you too much
for it. Yeah, So ifit was Leanne is getting ahead of herself
by week, was her kloufoudie actuallymeant to be the mushimono steamed course for
this episode unintentional Kaisuki Kaiseki from fromLeanne speaking Melissa, So Pondma brings up

(56:45):
the same way you get a hugeadvantage and the challenge if you win the
quick fire and Melissa's huge advantage whereshe got to pick the courses like,
so that really did not pan outright quite literally for Melissa. She ends
up at the bottom of the shop. She chooses to point like above,
sort of like we are all friends, let's do this like friends, and
so she like gives everybody like theirpreferences before she takes her own. Yeah.

(57:07):
I kind of wanted to be likeyawned at that, because I'd like,
dude, you got stuck with acragged like what do you do?
It's fine to do that, buttake yours first. If actually did take
her take hers first, yeah,act she went I want this one,
and then I know Greg wants therice. Yeah, I thought, sorry,

(57:27):
I'm so sorry it wasn't vocalized first. She probably had selected which you
want first? Everything out. Ithink actually this one kind of pairs with
the previous challenge and that I thinkand from what I've been talking about with
Karen, apparently this might have comedown to once again like what was in
the kitchen at the stadium. That'sthe time um like Karen ends up going
because of what happened with the duck. Apparently she told me that she was

(57:51):
initially told she was going to havea grill for the duck, then was
told that she wouldn't have a grill, and then was told at the last
minute that she would have a grill, but not have like the stewers.
The problem with Melissa is that youknow when the chawan mushi, like the
steamer that she used was not somethingthat she was used to using, and
as a result, like the cookgot really screwed up there as well.
So I think for the second weekin a row, it sort of came
down to like the machinery that theyhappen to be using in this miscellaneous location.

(58:14):
There's a strange pairing the the Imean, I get the pairing of
the the La Cosduume and the Olympics, and that makes sense, But for
the style of food that they hadto cook, you would have thought that
you might have wanted to have amore specialized or robust kitchen in terms of
what was available to them from anappliance perspective, So that's it's also not
the sort of I'm guessing that akaisek emo is not the sort of thing

(58:37):
where you can prep the night beforeand then you know, ship it over
in these large racks to the placewhere you're actually going to be serving.
It's like it all kind of seemedlike it had to be done bespoke on
site. So there are some decorativeelements that could have been done ahead of
time, but like the cooking itselfprobably needed to be done on site.
But yeah, like there's always likeone of the things they talked about with

(58:59):
like her butchering of the duck bite, you know, is how it's sort
of very clumsily cut. That's somethingthat for me would be like the first
thing you would notice in is likeis it perfectly done? Does it look
like it's expert night work? Um, you know, did you take the

(59:19):
time to do that? Like?And that I think because the nature of
her being caught off guard and notbeing able to prep properly probably probably has
a lot to do with it.But yeah, that I mean, I
don't know, I'm surprised that theydidn't have more time to kind of execute
just based on the fact that they'resupposed to be so much mindfulness behind okay
and go. And it's funny thatthe and also just the diners, like

(59:43):
the people when I say DIAC theOlympians. It's a strange mix because you've
got the you've got the two guestjudges who are very focused on this style
of meal, and then you've gotlike a set of Olympians who are probably
where like I would be, orlike you guys who were in Japan in
terms of like okay, this iswhere's the rest of it, Like like

(01:00:04):
they were like dumping thousands of caloriesinto their body a day while they're training.
And then you've got those delicates thirtyseconds and we were done with the
plate. Yeah, so it wasit was an interesting mix having the for
me just mentioned mentally processing, Okay, you've got these Olympians, they're probably
used to like high calorie counts,eating this very delicate meal, and like
their their commentary was like less aroundI think the presentation and more around like

(01:00:28):
how to taste. So I know, if that was just an interesting nix
of perspectives that had to be weighedin terms of like, well, what's
actually being judged? Yeah, Iwas gonna say, going back to the
cooking space at the time. Havey'all listened to the Planet Money podcast where
they have a they have a topChef challenge producer. Uh yeah, yeah,

(01:00:52):
it's really cool. Um and Ithink it's called like the episodes called
food Stories. I'll look it upand send it to y'all. Um,
But they have a top Chef challenge. Producer talks about like the three elements
of Top Chef challenges in the wholeideas, you have to restrict them in
some way and you do it witheither time, location, or ingredients.
Um and yeah, so I thinkthat like kaiseki is not Kaiseki is difficult,

(01:01:16):
right, it's the challenge, Butthen doing it in an unusual location
under a compressed amount of time islike what the drama of the show comes
from. That's like where the realitycomes from. Anyway. That's a I
love Planet Money as a podcast noton the r happ network, it's an
NPR thing. Sorry, m Butit's fun because they do three stories about

(01:01:37):
food under the different challenge constraints likethey do. It's radio stories as challenges
anyway. But but that's a Imean, Eddie actually talked to us about
that last week too, right,because I feel like the camp challenge was
a very similar like two those threecomponents. It was well, I guess
I think time time maybe less so, but it was more so location.
It was early. I feel likethat's time challenge. It was like,

(01:02:00):
yeah, I was thinking like theygot up at three in the morning.
I almost looked at as a differenttwist on the time country just a lack
of steak that they had. Nowour West Coast boys, right now,
you can tell us about some timeconstraints having seven o'clock to do this.
Look at Saturday to be here.Um, Haley, as our Olympics expert,
what did you think about the talkingheads from these various Olympians who ended

(01:02:21):
up getting to to attend this meal. I was obviously just very excited to
see them. Um, we've doneWe've done this the four and top Chef
with the Winter Olympics during Charleston.Yeah, Gus Kenworthy was one of the
judges, I think, yeah,and the really Meryl David Merrill Davis,
Merril Davis, Mary, I believeit's Merrit Weaver. Sorry, I just

(01:02:45):
love Merit. It's not Meryl isnot Merritt Weaver, this is time on
this podcast. No, no,it is we cut we cut out the
other nine mentions. I think wemay have left this one in and the
final Merril Weaver's to now eleven total. Um, I no, I'm really

(01:03:06):
really offended. So that's cool.I love I love Nacia Leu Leucan,
so I was so excited to herto see her. Carrie Walsh is obviously
like I feel like a huge namein American sport. Um, I felt
a huge person. She seemed tolike tower over everybody. There is nothing
I love more than looking at tallpeople standing beside short people. So seeing

(01:03:30):
Carrie and seeing the basketball player nextto Nacia Leucan, who's like one of
the tallest gymnasts you'll find out likefive four. Just like seeing those two
like beautiful Amazonian women standing next tolike tiny and gymnasts. Nastia, I
was like, this is exactly whatI wanted. Have you ever loved Sure
of the Rock standing next to Shackand Charles Barkley. No, that's a

(01:03:54):
great picture. I need it,like I love, like I just I
just want to stand next to anNBA player and like take a picture with
them in which like it's just myhead and like not their head, like
that that's what I want. Ohmy god, he's so small next to
them. Yeah, I mean,will you text it to me? Yeah,

(01:04:15):
of course. Um, I'm I'msidetracked. I felt really bad for
the track and field guy who umwas just like a world champion and not
yet an Olympian, and it justmean to be like, oh, you're
not going in the Olympics. Thisyou're my dear. Yeah. That that
was. That was a little kindof gut wrenching in terms of the fact
that they all are talking about excitedabout the Olympics, and then we all

(01:04:39):
know, obviously this is a backstory, but you know it's not happening.
Yeah, not to mention it wasprobably the I would say, listen,
they're not meant to be TV stars, but I would. I was also
probably like the he was. Hewas definitely like I think it was all
in all our spots of like theyeah, this was good, Yeah,
this is all right. I enjoyedit. Like he was not the one

(01:05:00):
to go to. He was sortof like the opposite of Nilu, where
Nilu arguably tries too hard to likepaint a word picture This guy was completely
stone faced the entire time, givingus like five words at a time his
description, Nilu is here this week, She's not here every week. Now,
m zek you do you like Nilu? Wait? Nil Nilu was the
Gail last season was in the roleof Gail Simmons last year. I like

(01:05:27):
her. I feel like she hasn'tum popped for me, Like I feel
like she did a good job forstanding up for Gail. I'm glad that
she is back. Um, butI love me some Gail. I feel
like Gail has a really she's reallysharp with her words, and she also
has such a cutting wit, Likeshe's just such like a classic Top Chef

(01:05:48):
character that I think contents his favoriteon the podcast. Yeah agreed, Um
Yeah, Haley, how did youfeel about Stephanie having such a strong episode
from like the lie down at thestart to like being Queen of the Hill
with the with the yuzu pancatta Itwas it just really felt to me,

(01:06:10):
like this whole episode felt to melike the reason I love Stephanie so much,
if that makes sense. We startedthe episode off with her her talking
about her brother and her you know, family struggle with addiction, um and
that hit that hits close to home. UM. You know, I'm lucky
to have never lost anyone to addiction. Um, but it runs in my

(01:06:33):
family and it fundamentally changes who youare, even if you're not the one.
UM. So hearing that it mademe just a scooch nervous that she
was going to be the one goinghome this episode. M but it could
have either gone this was like herepisode or like her episode to go,
and I'm so glad it turned outto be her episode. She killed it

(01:06:54):
in the taste test challenge and thenshe just like honed in on perfection for
the main challenge and it made meso so so happy. I love her
so much. She was so charmingand funny and right and wonderful and I
just I just I can't talk enoughabout how much I love her. And
it's great that she's secluded in thischallenge considering like all of the mental health

(01:07:16):
struggles that she's had of like perfection, right, yes, And she even
talks about at the beginning of theepisode, right, this idea of like,
I get so in my head thatyou know, it causes me to
suffer in challenges, and so she'sreally able to overcome the hurdle here just
in time. I know that Kevincoming back makes a bit of a step
back. We're going from five backto six. But like this happened with
Adrian a couple of seasons ago,like there's a time to peak, peek

(01:07:39):
right at the end, because that'swhen it's most important. I didn't notice,
Hayley, you tweeted about this isthe fan Favorite poll starting to open
for this season, and if so, do you think that this might be
like a good late push for Stephaniein that regard, I think I'm so
clouded with bias and I love Stephanieso much, but I have a hard
time believing that's that. You pointof the general top chef audience uma who

(01:08:03):
they're gonna pick go based on amom's last week. I almost feel like
they're gonna pick Voltagio. Yeah,people love a bolt Mom's coming out for
Voltage Yeah. But I respect mombsgreatly. I have a mom, I
know moms. Well. Here's thething though he was beaten though by Kevin

(01:08:30):
in his original season for fan Favorite. That's the other thing as well,
is that we do have like afan favorite former recipient in Kevin. This
season who now just made his wayback into the competition. I know it's
been a different trajectory, but wecould see him sort of make a killing
as well. And Gregory or Melissaor like, I just feel like every
single sorry, every single person onthis cast I could make a case for,

(01:08:53):
except like Jamie and Lisa m Iwas like, whoo yeah Gregory.
Well it's tough either Gregory or Melissa. Yeah, I love them both.
Um. I was kind of youryour conversation was bombing mat because they're like,
oh, it's gonna be either Voltagioor uh Kevin. And I was

(01:09:15):
like, we have all these greatwomen, all these great queer people,
like all these great people's color andlike to like straight white like old straight
white guys are like, h umthat sounds familiar, were like so familiar.
Um yeah, I would probably umuh lean more towards Gregory because he's

(01:09:38):
a bit more emotive. And Melissa, Melissa seems to be struggling a little
bit later to down down the line. Um, she could have a lot
of that, right, Like,yeah, she talked, she talked about
it right at the beginning, rightthat like fast front ward, even though
she wasn't the head Chef. Shelike got thrown into a funk and that
sort of she finished. She wonthe quick fire, but she ends up
in the bottom where still the judgesliked her discs. I was she was

(01:10:00):
probably like third from the bottom,but it still has doesn't mean it's probably
not a good feeling, right tobe doing so well for so long and
then being the bottom exactly um andand they shoot everything like back to back.
They don't get days off, dothey. They get the tight shoot
so like there's no time, Imean there, I would imagine there's very
little sleep. They're running out avery tight schedule. There's just no time

(01:10:23):
to shake it off. Like yeah, if you like you have a bad
day, unless you're able to shakeit off quick like, it might be
t you know, talent you fora few days. I'm looking at the
list of previous Top Chef fan favoritesand they are surprisingly very skitty on white
guys. We have we have SamTalbot, which obviously begains the thing,

(01:10:45):
But then we have Casey from seasonhappened to Sam Talbot? Oh he was?
He was on a few seasons ago, didn't he Yeah, he was
on the fans versus favorite season.Yeah, anyone out super early on that,
but then Casey Stephanie i is ArdFabio, then Kevin, Tiffany Dairy,
then Carla God I'm so glad theydidn't bring Tiffany back again. And

(01:11:08):
then and then the super weird ChrisCraiy from Top Chef Texas, but then
Sheldon twice, Nina, Isaac Fatima, and most recently Kelsey. So I
think it also depends on like theBravo populace as well, considering what what
the Bravo audience is usually made upof, that also might be an influence

(01:11:28):
as to who might be. Yeah, I was just remembering. I think
Sam Talbot. Wasn't he on likean episode of Real Housewives of New York
or something like that. Oh Ron, he came on and one of the
one of the women was like,oh yeah, this is my friend Sam,
and like that's so long ago.I have to google it. Please
please do, and please send meall the details. It is interesting that

(01:11:54):
Top Chef lives on Bravo and it'ssuch like it's like a high class reality
show, so very serious. Everything'sgarbage? Is there is there another show
on Bravo that is like of thatTop Chef Colbert or is it just meet
project one way exactly? So Ithink it's did it come back to Bravo

(01:12:16):
or did go to Lifetime and thencame back to Bravo, went to Lifetime
and then Tim Gunn and Heidi aredoing the cut right on Amazon. But
yeah, it looks like Sam Talbottrue. Emily's point appeared in the fifth
episode of the second season of theReal Housewives of New York City as a
friend of one of the housewives,Kelly Killerin Ben Simon, Ben Si male,
Yeah, Ben Simon, my favoritefolk group. Let's go down to

(01:12:45):
Milon, New York. This ismy my new son, Ben Simon,
who I am presenting to the worldfor the first time at my brisk Ben
Simon. I'm like, I'm likeskimming through the Bravo site, like looking
like, yep, trash trash,trash, trash, wellow Deck vander Pump
Rules. Wow this he ever askedunported. No, no, no,

(01:13:08):
no, I'm like, I'm likelooking through their website. Yeah, here's
here's the thing. So obviously Voltagioand Stephanie we're in the top with Stephanie
winning. But this is Gregory's firsttime, like in the bottom in a
major capacity. I guess similar Gregory'sfirst time on the bottom. Yeah whoa

(01:13:32):
spicy But I guess in that capacity, do you expect to have like a
Melissa like type of rut here wherehe's like, maud, this is my
first time facing the judges in thatcapacity? Like, can he pull himself
out of this tailspin? As shortas it may be? I see,
you know, Gregory's a little bitolder, and you know he's he's a
you know, recovering at it.He's he states over for so long and

(01:13:54):
he's doubtless stuff. I feel likeGregory, um can can pull himself out
of it? You know. It'sjust like, really, no, let's
I think the thing about Gregory I'vebeen saying, Oh, well, I

(01:14:15):
think I think Gregory has he's hadthis air of like super confidence where I
think like he's he's very self aware, is what it is. And like
even even when he's like it's notconfidence on arrogance. It's just like I
think like he's he's self assured.He's lived a lot of life, he's
lived a lot of struggle, andhe recognizes a lot of things within himself
and a lot of things within thereality of a situation. And even here,

(01:14:38):
what I really appreciated was he wasn'tlike losing his cool that ship was
going off the rail for him asmuch as he was like remarking on the
reality of it. It's like,oh, I don't have enough salt in
this thing. So like I Idon't think that he's rattled by by the
by the poor showing here so muchas he acknowledges the poor show. Obviously
we'll see where it goes in thehe's ahead, um, but I don't

(01:15:01):
Gregory doesn't strike me as the kindof guy that, like, I think,
I think that he can kind ofshake that sort of thing off.
I don't think that this is somethingthat's going to stick deeply in his cross
well, especially because he's been doingso well up to this point, right
like, and he did have anotherlosses we'll get into a last chance kitchen,
like he lost the final bout tolet Kevin in. But you have
to imagine that he can look uponlike what he's been able to do and

(01:15:24):
he's like, Okay, when I'min my comfort zone, like I can
I can like slaughter the competition.Were we surprised that Karen went at the
end of all this, considering themistakes of other people made, it's another
uh get you got? Well,she was doing like insane deadlift you got
a duck episode, like, well, if it's not her, if it's
not Stephanie, it's her, rightyeah yeah, yeah, super impressive deadlifting

(01:15:46):
skills. A couple of uh itwas it was ducks that took out Eric,
duck that took out Karen. Anyoneelse get ducked this season? They
are filthy animals. So someone's gonnago up by Goose next rounds someone thank
you win with Gander because the Taleof the Okay, so in Last Chance

(01:16:13):
Kitchen, Kevin wins. This iswhat happened. Yeah, yeah, So
there's a two part finale. Thefirst part is Karen. Because Karen t
smoked her duck, Tom's like,all right, why don't you prepare something
that highlights tea uh, and soKevin and once again Karen makes like a
good dish, but Kevin's is betterbecause he highlights the team more. And

(01:16:36):
so she like puts the nice,you know, gritted teeth smile on her
face after she finds out that sheloses and goes to the the Peanut gallery.
But the more pressing and the biggerpiece, the one that lasts twenty
eight minutes in the last year HasKitchen episode combined. This last as long
as a real episode of Top Chef, which is crazy. But the finale
for Last Chance Kitchen is they bringin the final five and Tom says,

(01:16:59):
Okay, Kevin, you want inthis competition. These five are stating in
your way. So Kevin gets topick three chefs to face off against head
to head. If he wins atleast two out of the three matches,
he ends up going back to thecompetition. If he does not, he
is gone. And like he choosesthe competitors, the chef chooses like Tom

(01:17:19):
ruled out like four ingredients or somethingto choose between, and then Tom picked
what they needed to cook. ButKurt, I know you said before that
you felt like the fix was ina bit with the idea of this competition.
I just I just didn't see themcommitting to a season long Last Chance
Kitchen only to have the person notcome back into the competition. I mean

(01:17:42):
the fact I think you're setting itup one to one in a two out
of three you know match, it'sgoing and things are going to be close
to. These chefs at this pointare good enough where it's going. I
think that Tom is gonna be ableto spin it so that that Kevin wins
two out of three. I hadno doubt that Kevin was going to come
back in. Um it was youknow. He ends up beating Malarkey,

(01:18:05):
he loses to Voltagio, and thenin a twist, in the last round,
Kevin leaves it up to the thein game contestants to choose instead of
him selecting. He says, oh, you guys don't want me to come
back in and pick someone to keepme out, and Gregory volunteers. Um,
I just I just think, youknow, Kevin is obviously a great

(01:18:25):
chef, and I just think thatanything he puts on a plate is going
to be good enough that Tom's gonnabe able to spin it into a win
for that last for that last round, to give him a two out of
three. I just saw, inno world are they going to go through
all of this and somebody is notgoing to come back into the competition.
I just think I'd be crazy though. They're like, no one wins last,

(01:18:46):
Yeah, especially especially because then youhave to come They've been hyping Last
Chance Kitchen all season in the airedbroadcasted show on Bravo, and now they
have to come back with five peopleand be like okay, so someone actually
didn't come in. They're like,well, what was that all about?
Like I've not been watching Last ChanceKitchen. I'm expecting to someone to come
in. Well. Plus, youcan also imagine that they were planning out
the rounds for a certain number,right, like week next week is going

(01:19:10):
to be like their their trademark.Okay, this is your last challenge in
La so cook, like one finaloz to your experience type of thing.
You can imagine that they wouldn't wantto cut things around short or like maybe
do a non elimination episode or something. And once they got to Italy,
so yeah, could very easily imaginethey'll kurt to your point. I think
Kevin is such a good chef thatthey could easily be like, nope,
he won. He's just he's justreally that good, even though, you

(01:19:32):
know, even if if things werenot great. But yeah, so he
and Malarkey have to make risotto usingshellfish, and then Voltago beats him on
what's known as stinky soup, andthen he beats Gregory of using making something
with dough that has fruits and nutsin it. To be fair, Voltago

(01:19:54):
didn't name his dish stinky soup.Kevin picked Voltagio. Voltagio picked the stinky
category even edients, and then Tomto your point, said Okay, make
a soup out of this, andthat was actually I love I love me
some some some blue cheese, somearomatic ingredients. So actually, out of
the three, uh two out ofthree battles, that the one Kevin like,

(01:20:15):
you would think that voltage, youwould throw it for his buddy.
That's that's what That's what he wassaying. He's like, he felt really
conflicted because he's like, this ismy friend, but also this is putting
someone back into the competition. Sohe said he was just gonna like it,
basically compared to cooking against his brotherin the finale, which was like
I'm just gonna put everything to theside, like let me just cook head
down. And it appears that hedid this did better with the stinky Yeah.

(01:20:41):
Cool, Kevin's back, all right, Kevin back again. I think
he's I mean, do we thinkhe stands a good chance of making it
past some of these other people?Now? That he has officially back in
the competition. So it's Kevin,it's Malarchy, it's Voltage, Melissa,
Gregory, and Stephanie. I sure, but I mean he'd already been eliminated.
Is the one time there's a chancehe'll beat that? I mean,
but that was like a yeah,it was it was self eliminated. It

(01:21:06):
was a weird Restaurant Wars where youhad someone clearly in charge of everything,
not just the executive chef from previousseasons, but someone who was completely in
charge of the concept and calling allthe shots on everything. It was a
really weird situation, uh, structurallyin the competition that just kind of forced
him to be the one to goout. Um, so I can.

(01:21:29):
I think we've been talking about himin Melissa and Gregory being final three for
a long time. I could stillsee that being the case. Yeah,
that's what I was gonna say,Like, I completely think it's going to
be the three of them, andI could see at this point Brian Voltaggio
having the best chance. I couldnow see like an end run from Stephanie
that might make her that fourth personin the final four. But I don't
know now that Kevin's officially back likeit's it's all I'm seeing right now,

(01:21:51):
and even to the point where itmight be a final three between Gregory,
Melissa and Kevin. Yeah, Ijust I just don't want another This would
be the four returnee from Last ChanceKitchen who's won, and I'm just kind
of don't want that, regardless ofif it's Kevin or not. But that's
just me. I agree. Yeah, I was trying to await this because

(01:22:11):
I'm like, well, to thepeople in Last Dance Kitchen, are they
better rested because they're not like gogo, go go go all the time,
like they're just like having their littleone offs here and there, But
then the finals happen months later inyou know, a whole other different locations.
So and he does, and hedoes have that added challenge that we
saw, like and you brought upwith with with Brother Luck from last season,

(01:22:33):
and we saw even with Karen thisseason the first returnee battles where Kevin
is not rested. It sounds likehe's going to be going into the next
quick fire with having just immediately facedKaren, have immediately faced Malarkey and Gregory
and Brian, and now he hasto go into a quick fire, so
he might be looking at a brotherluck situation where at least there is this
additional, one more handicap he hasto face in terms of not just he's

(01:22:57):
back in the competition, but hekind of has to make it through this
first this next top six round inorder to get that rest. Sure all,
yeah, but he's probably had threedays of sleep before she's been doing
all the other challenges. That's yeahpoint. Can I also just say,
as we like send off Karen here, just how awesome she was this season,
Like, I loved her personality,I loved her fight seness. I

(01:23:20):
think it does say something to theex point about like in such a male
dominated profession to see like a queerwoman do so well have like by far
the most commendations of the cast beinga James Beard Award winner is like,
it's freaking awesome. And she didend up finishing in the exact same place
that she did her first season,But I feel like she impressed more this

(01:23:41):
season. Maybe it's because you know, we see her come back from lc
K, we see here, weget him montage of like her doing really
well in the quick fires. LikeI think she felt better about her performance
this time, and I feel likethat reflected on what we saw of her
this season. Yeah, she definitelymade more of an impression on me this
season. She was sort of likea half I like kind of like half
remember her from original, but nowKaren is like seared in my top chap

(01:24:03):
memory. Um yeah, I'm rootfor Karen. I'll go eat at her
restaurant. Yeah it looks so good. I follow her on Instagram and all
I want to do is go thereand not be able to eat the fasta.
But let me tell you, Iwant to watch someone else do.
Where is she based against Austin?That's right, foxing the Glove? Oh

(01:24:27):
my god? Um, but yeah, she was on my my, my
team. So I only have Melissaleft, well at least you guys.
Oh yeah, what's the check in? What are what's like six again?
What are the statuses of those teams? I've got two of the six and
both of the Brians. Yeah,so Kurt's got the Brian's. Um,
I have Stephanie and Gregory. You'vegot Stephanie and Gregory. Antonio has Kevin,

(01:24:48):
and Antonio has Kevin. Emily hasMelissa. So Mike and Josh,
you guys are out well, Mikewas never in, but I am out.
Oh that's right, it, that'sstained. Sorry, Matt, I
am at. I am out,and like mercifully so like now I can
just enjoy the show because I wasgetting so I was getting so nervous.
Yeah, Zeke, we did adraft at the start of the season where

(01:25:11):
everybody except from Mike picked teams ofthree and I had Sasto, uh,
Jamie and Leanne and so like Leannelike constantly being on the bottom was a
frequent source, just like you youended up with You ended up with Jamie,

(01:25:33):
but you did proactively pick Sasto.And I don't think anybody saw him
going out that early, So no, I'm glad he did. I didn't
need look looking at looking at thiscast like something that I don't know that
I constantly had these flashes of it. And maybe it was this time watching
Last Chance Kitchen, like watching everyonestanding on the size. This is just
a really freaking good cast. Likeit's a great mixture of personalities and like

(01:25:57):
actual cooking skills, which again,when they're just that like make put them
at their wits end. It makesme feel really bad for them because I
genuinely like a lot of these people, and so I feel like Top Chef
is two for two and like organizingsome really good returning casts. Yeah,
and I feel like it was theopposite of Winners at War in the sense
that the people that you didn't reallycare about they early and the people you

(01:26:20):
wanted to see hanging out all theentire time actually made it deep. Yeah,
totally, totally. I mean nodisrespect to Tony and Sarah love love
them, you know what. Yeah, they are big fans of this Top
Chef podcast all the time. Um, is there anything else we're sending it?

(01:26:43):
We're finally leaving La next week.I would love to leave LA.
I don't love to be anywhere elsebut lay sorry man. You know what,
we usually get to the end ofthe podcast at time when we're making
the food what have you been eating? What have you been making or if

(01:27:05):
you've been getting if you've been gettingtakeout for many local alia restaurants that you
want to prop up. Oh yeah, well, since this is a kaiseki
Japanese food, Robota Gina on ThirdStreet is uh one of my favorite.
Um, Like, it's it's ourlike go to restaurant. Um and it's

(01:27:25):
great because it hits like Japanese grilledmeats. They have a great to qunate
the chicken mee ball. I can'tpronounce it. Um. They have good
sushi, grilled meets grilled okra uhand also there um their tongue called two
black ramen is like fucking ball.So uh that's good. Yeah. I
was cooking a lot. Now Ihave like I have big deadlines, um

(01:27:48):
at the end of the month thatI am behind on because you know,
quarantine and boyfriend's sick parents and outof the things. Um, So I
was doing a lot. I was, I was making for fast, I
was doing Bolgner's, I was cookingleft your right. But now so I'm
obsessed with the Bonappetite YouTube. Askyou about this because I was like,

(01:28:12):
have you been talking to them atall? Like, oh about being on
ba are Just like, hey,I made this because I've seen you and
Nico both tag them. Yeah.No one has responded to us, though
I did rude well one. Idid get one response, but it wasn't
related to food. So um.My boyfriend's mom and step dad both tested

(01:28:33):
positive. We're both both had coronavirus at the very beginning of quarantine.
Unfortunately we lost the step dad andit was a really stressful time and like
the like only parts of our daythat felt normal is when we would go
to bed and we will watch whateverthe newest Bonappetite video was, and it

(01:28:55):
was like a Chris Morocco video,and I DM Chris Morocco and like telling
him, like just because I alsolike I love Chris Rocco. I was
like, you know, like thankyou for providing us like a relief from
a really hard day. And hewrote back he was really sweet. That's
awesome. But back to cooking.I M so uh. Claire Staffitz has

(01:29:15):
released for recipes for pop tarts andfor hot pockets like Gourmet Pope so um
that once I get all my writingdone, I'm gonna spend like three days
making pop tarts and hopes. Ifeel like with pop tarts it'd probably be
like a filling question, right,because like it can't be too thick that
it can't fit in a toaster,but you don't want it to be like
all dough. Yes there is,there's there's a whole. I would highly

(01:29:41):
recommend watching the pop tart video ifyou've never watched the Cormet makes the pop
Tart video is a good I'm agood one to start. If you leave
someone on your doorstep, I willbe over to pick them up. Sure.
I got a vacuum dealer that I'mloving playing with. I'm like fermenting
things, and so I'll vacuum sealyou some pop parts. There's a there's
a there's a there's a it's achain restaurant Lazy Dog, and there's one

(01:30:03):
not too far from me in ThousandOak because that they actually they're selling cooking
kits as well, and they've gotlike a and one of the cook I
think I mentioned this people. They'reDoD they're selling popped parts cooking kits.
I think they give you the dope, but you're basically making everything else,
assembling it and you know, gettingit of and ready. Um. That's
something I've been looking at checking out. I'm not making my own dope by
any means at this point, butI love making. I'm not. I'm

(01:30:27):
just not there yet. They're correct. I believe in you. Thomas Keller
actually has a great Uh. It'sI mean basically, difference between the pie
dough and the like tart dough isum like a table spurt of two sugar.
Um. But he has this methodwhere you very very quickly cut your
cold butter into little cubes and youcan do it in your like your your

(01:30:50):
stand mixer, and you don't haveto like pinch it into pie size little
pieces by your hands, and italways turns into a beautiful degress because it
sounds going nice. Yeah, Kirk, have you cooked anything recently? I
think that Mike and I had theexact was the exact same meal kit this
this week, because I think weboth did the cherry balsamic chicken. We

(01:31:13):
both we both did the the Shuepork. Uh, what the heck was?
It was like such one pork dish, such one pork meatball, bimmy
bob basically um. And then Ialso did a pork rigatoni which was which
was which was pretty good. Um. Yeah. Otherwise I'm trying to think,
I you know, I hit theCode Kogi barbecue truck last night,

(01:31:35):
per usual for my Fridays. Um, this week, I have no meal
kit coming, so I am lookingforward to Memorial Day weekends. Uh,
in my short work week next weekdoing more local dining. I'm not sure
where that's going to take me.Yet, but yeah, planning on doing
no cooking and eating out a lot. Speaking of Bimmy Bob, shout out

(01:31:58):
to Bill at Conceiva Bill or tweetingthanks to the awesome people of the top
Chef for Halpus for inspiring my firstattempt at Bimmi Bop. I butchered the
egg, but it tastes great,looks pretty damn good, if I may
say so itself. That looks supergood. I get my eggs from the
look butcher, so that makes sense. You want to you as long as
you don't go to the filthy duckfarm, I think you're good. I

(01:32:19):
have. I'm chasing a white whalenow. After last week when I butchered
my first attempt at stir fry,so i've been I've made another stir fry
this week that was better. Butnow as I still get my Asian food
fix, I'm trying to find likebetter ways to make this stir fry so
I'll never make a mistake again.What are you're throwing together? I'm interested?
Maybe it's mostly like it's like youknow, it's like snap peas and

(01:32:43):
chicken and just like rice and alittle bit of egg in there. Just
like some super basic components. Ihave not become confident in my skills yet
to like branch out into throwing otherstuff in, But in retrospect that might
be like maybe something that might helpyou know, the overall are the flavor
is working together? Well, likethey're working okay. But that's the thing
is, like I have the basicsdown, so now it's like I want
to add some stuff, and Iwas thinking about like roasting some tomato slices

(01:33:06):
and putting them in there as well. So yeah, so it's like it's
just a basic soy sauce. LikeI'm not I'm not a huge like I'll
maybe put like some saratcha in afterwards, but I'm not huge on spice.
Uh So I'm like I'm not particularto like I'm always worried about like throwing

(01:33:27):
too much in and then having itlike completely ruined my tongue for hours afterwards.
But I guess since I completely oversaltedeverything last time, I don't want
to necessarily go too much in theother direction in terms of taste. Do
you have a microplane? Oh?Well, if you did, I always
like to at the very end microplanea clove of garlic in my shirt frines

(01:33:49):
sounds good? Yeah, or likeyou give do I do it with ginger
as well? That's the best wayto break ginger. Yeah, if we
we recently we um, we hada zester a while back we used in
abuse, and we just facially gota new one. So we've been using
a lot of like zested ginger andsome of our dishes. So I'm gonna
have to break that out again.Yeah nice, um. I would Also,

(01:34:11):
I'm a big I'm a sambalo letguy over serato, so yeah,
I think it's so much tastier.Have you learned how to make the sweet
chili dipping sauce that we get ata lot of time restaurants with that,
because it's super easy to do.Oh no, but I have very much
wanted to because we had ty foodthe other day and I was looking a
little plastic. I'm glad I'm notthe only person who does. Emily.

(01:34:35):
Emily made this. Nuns are incredibleto do it at work, and now
I'm really good. Why don't Ijust do this all the time. It's
like equal parts water, white vinegarand like sambaal like you do like a
huge like glof of it in thereand you whisk it up, and then
you put sugar in it too.I'll figure blacked mix of it, but
you make the sweet sauce and it'slike sort of watery. At that point

(01:34:57):
you use a little bit of arrowrootpowder to pick it up. It literally
becomes the sweet chili dipping sauce thatall of us know and love. And
you're like, interesting, that easyto make. I'm an idiot for having
bought it in a bottle or likewhatever way of getting it as take out.
Just keep a huge thing of it. It will last forever in your
fridge because it's all sugar. Itwas shelf stable originally from being like the

(01:35:21):
chili dipping sauce. It was beforeyou added all that stuff, so it's
um box. I'm also going tosend you'd garlic in the fermented garlican ginger
paste rast beings. I think you'dlike. I would love that. I
would love that. Hey, wellyou made a breakfast burrito that I wanted
to eat. Yes, you didit, look I did. Yeah.

(01:35:43):
I was inspired by your talk ofbreakfast tacos last weekend, and so on
one day this week, we hada couple extra tortillas and I made some
really wonderful breakfast burritos. Um.We made the bacon and then Ethan had
the idea to Friday onions and hashbrown in the bacon fat afterwards, and
it was wonderful. So you canfind the recipe for that burrito Marcas Burrito

(01:36:06):
up on my box Strong Kicks dotci. Um. We also made burgers
the other day. Um, theywere wonderful. Didn't do half pounders this
time, made a classic little quarterpound. They were wonderful. A quarter
pound. Let's not go back tothat for the last time. Oh wait,

(01:36:30):
and I have one email from alistener, So if you want to
email us your restaurant rec or whatever, you can do that at and Down
the Hatch at whatever your email isdot com or Bachelor rapp up at gmail
dot com. So this is fromKristen. She said, Hi, continue
to love the Top Chef podcast andBachelor podcast PS. Last episode of Listen

(01:36:51):
to Your Heart was plumbs Down.I emailed you a little bit ago,
thank you for shouting out tay Tie. We ordered from them recently. They
gave us free tie iced tea anda side of sticky rice. It's so
good. Generosity is incredible. Anotherrestaurant Luna in San Jose offers their delicious
and powerful powerful Margaritus to go inMason Jars. Also, they have a

(01:37:13):
donation program where you pay a certainamount and it covers your meal as well
as a meal for a family,So you can check that out at Luna
Mexican Kitchen dot com slash our vision. Amazing, cool, nice, All
right, Well, what did youguys make this week? And the Fox
Wiggler household? I'm looking at mypictures because I it all blends together after

(01:37:35):
a while. But honestly, whatis a week? Utures? Because I
forgot all the delicious things that Imade. I'm fun. We've had a
fun time this week, Josh.Yesterday literally it was like I need some
space. I needed some space yesterday. I really did. I really did.

(01:37:57):
I was like literally at one pointwe were sitting at the counter for
her, and I looked at Emilyand I was like, I am so
sorry in advance, but can youjust move over once I made the delicious
dinner for him and sat down towatch like his like delight Aross the space,
I just one season between that's athat's a rule. And when we

(01:38:25):
eat in our counter is the yeah, because otherwise would sit on my lap
as. I mean, I know, I know, I know I'm not
alone on this, like I'm I'mlike I when I say, like,
you're gonna have to roll me outof the house after quarantine, I mean,
And I feel very fat these days. I feel extremely heavy and big

(01:38:47):
and out of shape. And yesterdayI felt very very fat and hot and
fat, and I just needed somespace, needed a seat between us.
Emily, I'm with your sister.You know. I felt like my shirts
are not fitting right, things arenot fitting well, and I feel big,

(01:39:09):
but I don't want to stop eating. And on that note, let's
talk about all the things you dideat this week. You made a por
She made a pork steak last night. It was razy good, like,
uh, caramelized apples personal so goodmeans together like he glazed that with a

(01:39:31):
little apple brandy we have, Yeah, and then some whole green mustard.
Was it a shoulder steak? Yeah, it was so good. We ate
frozen. We've unfrozen. We reheatedthe lasagna that you froze. Yeah,
that was good. It was sogood. I made a cherry pie.

(01:39:53):
Um. Uh oh, some shortribs this week oh gee or Korean inspired
short. So it's like it's notmy head, I'm blowing off. Yeah
no, no, when when Emily'slike third ticket item is I made a
cherry pie, Like this is agreat glimpse into the life in your household

(01:40:15):
right now perspective. And I don'tmean to complain because I'm very lucky.
I love Emily. We're having reallyfun times, we're laughing a lot,
We're eating really well thick, andI don't feel good. I also feel
great when I eat the food.It's a struggle. I'm gonna need I

(01:40:35):
gotta start working out again, andI'm like it's been three months since I
exercise last, so I really needto get back into it. I've really
had to like make sure every morning, like before, I find excuses not
to not do it, like doa twenty minuy yoga video, I go
for a walk, and like,yes, it's easy for me. I

(01:40:55):
live in a suburb, so likeI can easily go for a walk and
not really run into anyone. ButI just have to, like I have
to make myself like go for along walk and go for a short walk
each day, and like I haveto do it. H Like I've I've
I've been a big fan of justleisurely walking for a very long time,
but especially nowadays, I need andespecially Josh, like ill I'm with you,

(01:41:23):
I am sometimes like I need myspace. I love my partner very
much because sometimes I just need thathalf an hour just to go outside and
look at it. I need tolook at the neighborhood. I do that.
I do the short walk long walkthing too, like my my post
my post podcast ritual Saturday morning,just to go for the long walk.
I think with with my with myanxiety brain, and I already have some

(01:41:45):
semblance of acoraphobia. Beyond all ofthis, I already live. You know,
I work from home, and I'vebeen working from home for the vast
majority of my career. Um andI think it doesn't help that, like
you know, there's there's everything aboutum you know, COVID nineteen and we're
in New York. Yeah totally.And in the winter, I just walk

(01:42:08):
around my house. We're lucky thatlike we kind of have like not like
a circle, but a week Ican walk in a circle and do it
for half an hour and just Ilook like a crazy person. But I
just I need like I need thatlike thirty minutes of movement because my anxiety
manifest in a way that like Ilike, I'm like, I get jittery,
I need to move, like,so going for that walk is kind

(01:42:30):
of what like soothes me. AndHaley's point, I think, like there's
so many, especially in recent days, like so many fitness apps that like
do quick fifteen to twenty minute videosthat like can are are long enough to
make you feel like genuinely you gotsome your heart pumping, but also not
long, not too long that youfeel like you're doing crazy stuff for an

(01:42:51):
hour that I found has been verynice to like both start and end the
day to make you feel like,Okay, at least I'm waking up and
going to bed with like a senseof satisfaction rather than just sort of rolling
over and being like I feel disgusting. Yeah, and like I feel so
I just feel better like when i'mwhen I'm after I've moved, like because

(01:43:11):
I have I have like my backhurts, my niece hurt, like every
part hurts, and then I willnot do it because I hurt. But
when I do it, that's whenI feel better. I can move easier,
hurt less, I can sleep better. Um. I know that's not
like that's not really helpful to hearon it. That's not the end all
and be all for everyone's anxiety.But like I just know the way that

(01:43:33):
mine works, that is what helpsme. And sometimes it's so hard to
get over that hump just to evendo it. That's the thing I was
just gonna say, come June,you and I we will be accountability buddy
as far a little into that work. Yeah, I really am, because
I really need to get it goingon because everything Haley is saying, Haley,
you're like you're describing like the stuffthat does like feel my brain and

(01:43:54):
like literally heals my body. Andit's when you're a hump. But when
you're when you're in that, whenyou're in that mental space, it's so
hard to bring yourself to even doit, even though you know it's help.
Um, and I know personally,like the fact that it's sunny out
now, like I have felt likeexponentially better in the last two weeks than
I have in a long time,just because it's been nice out. I've

(01:44:15):
been able to like look at thesun and not look directly. Obviously I'm
not idiot. Well I am,but just to stand outside and get some
sun and make sure you wear yoursunscreen. And just like I have felt
better in the last two weeks thanI have in so long. I try

(01:44:39):
to go outside every single day.Yeah, and I know, like it's
I get that saying, like me, going for a walk is so much
easier. I live in a tinytown like in you know, like rural
Canada, Like it's not easy inNew York, where it's you know,
a bigger deal. It's crazier.But no, but it's doable. And
I'm I'm just looking for every excusein the book. I'm right. I'm

(01:45:00):
right there with you, and Ihope you all out there who are listening
are sort of I know that we'reall probably all in the same boat in
that regard. And you know,it's been it's a weird time. You
know, various states are starting liketheir own reopening processes, and that's going
to come with the restaurants as well. Uh. You know, I think
Kevin told me something in an interviewthat I did with them a couple of
weeks ago that I find very meaningful, especially in this day of like when

(01:45:23):
restaurants are opening up be patient justbecause they're going to be dealing with restrictions
and also trying to like still sortof get into this weird nebulous space of
okay, maybe not only allowing acertain number of people in or allowing certain
you know, safety guidelines and solike, don't think it's going to be
the flip of a switch. Youknow that you can go onto your open

(01:45:45):
table, and so like, ifyour reservation is not honored, to throw
a temper tantrum about it, justknow that they are. It's it's a
it's not a flip, it's adial. And it's going to take a
little bit to even get things upto the way that restaurants are are normally
running. So for those people thatare going to be having the luxury and
the privilege and the opportunity to go, you know, start eating out hopefully

(01:46:06):
a bit and support some of theseplaces, it's great for the industry.
But also like take into account that, yeah, and also and also tip
extremely well yeah, so well wecan be kind. Yeah, and that's
the biggest thing. As somebody wholike works front of house very often and
and I've been lucky to have startedkind of kind of going back to work

(01:46:28):
in that capacity. Um, benice. Respect people. You may not
believe all of this, Um,but the person you're dealing with my Like
somebody came in the restaurant was likestanding super close to me and be like
this is all bullshit, and it'slike great, don't don't come near me.
Then if you don't, if you'renot taking this seriously, like I
don't want you near me, that'sall. Yeah, tap tap your card

(01:46:51):
if you can. I don't knowif that's a thing in the States,
if I'm being honest. Yeah,Wow, what a great therapy session this
is at the end. I'm noteven kidding you guys, help me anytimetime,
like because I'm not. I'm notas as you guys are. This
is so great, but like feellike feel free, like I'm I'm here

(01:47:13):
for you. I'm here for allof you guys here and out there in
the world. Like if you needyou're amazing. I love you guys so
much and I mean that, Imean that so so deeply, and this
has been wonderful and I'm right therewith you. I'm I'm I try and
have like a weird exterior that Idon't get super deep with these things.
Sometimes so um. But if youever need a text or you're amazing picture

(01:47:33):
of my cat, I'm happy tosend them too. We got Jasper a
leash and a harness this week.So yeah, he's not there yet.
He hates it. We're working onit. So where can people find you
all over the internet? Zeke?Where we're on Twitter and or Instagram and
or untapped? Yeah? God,Twitter and Instagrams which a r C h

(01:48:00):
E. F uh if you haveto say yeah, you don't want to
email me, it's it's secret chiefat Gmail. Yeah, that's it.
Oh. I was on Ask MeAnother on an so freaking awesome. I
was so excited. I was suchan owner. Well that must have helped
you get some of the jitters outto get onto this podcast with a great

(01:48:24):
warm up for reality TV bread halfups. Yeah. Can people are people
watching this like the video? No? Right now? Not only only if
they pay fifty thousand dollars a month. Those are thousand dollars a month of
patrons watched the video version of thispodcast. Otherwise they just listened to it.
Well for those listening at home,I have not worn a shirt this
entire time. Yeah, bottoms poureda cup of coffee usually like the move

(01:48:50):
right now in video quarantine is nothingon the bottom and something on the top,
and you've gone the reverse. Youspared to Zeke, I'm barely wearing
our shirts so and I'm not wearingpants. I am buck naked. Emily's
looked down of just like confusion wasawesome right there. She's like wait,

(01:49:11):
She's like, let me makere hethought he slipped him off in the middle
of not in a good ship.I feel I feel like I just see
these pants to come off. Ineed the space now, all right?
Everyone else, Mike is at aMike bloom type. Kurt is at Kirk
Kark. I got something strong underscore. I'm at Rand Howard and we's at

(01:49:35):
Emwick. Kurt has something else,yeah, a little something to plug off
network sou This this Monday Memorial Day, I'm going to be playing in a
live stream Dungeons and Dragon's game asa guest character, adventuring a log side
a group that has dubbed themselves withwater deep mall rats. It's a great
called me in high school exactly.That was my high school nickname too.

(01:49:58):
Um, it's a great. Folksare based in the UK and one of
them actually met ironically when I wasin a London last summer um to play
D and D in a castle fora week your birthday, guys like someone
who's who is here? Yeah yeahyeah yeah yeah yeah. Um so with
your new to D and D oryou're curious about it a long time fan.
It's a good time all around.It's going to be eleven am Easternadium
Pacific on Monday. The live streamcan be viewed through the sabotage the DM,

(01:50:23):
Facebook, Twitch and YouTube channels.I'll be sharing out the links everywhere.
Ironically, I was just chatting withthe d M yesterday Joe, and
he brought up the Bonappetite YouTube channelto me. I was telling you about
this podcast and I had not beenaware of it, and that would come
up here as well. So I'vesent your is magical. It's great stuff.
It really Also Parade dot Com doingsome exit press for top chefs,

(01:50:47):
as I haven't been able to plugthat the past couple of weeks. I
talked with Leanne who was awesome,talked with Karen this week, so all
that is up on Parade dot com. Also, Josh and I did like
six hours of various podcasts this pastweek that have been incredibly silly. We
are recording this on the tenure anniversaryof the Lost finale, and we put

(01:51:08):
out a bunch of stuff for that, So if you are a Lost nerd,
we have plenty of stuff for you. Got you covered, all right,
King, I gotta go, Yeah, that's it, all right.
I'm pack your knives and no bite

All Episodes

Top Chef: All-Stars L.A. | Season 17, Episode 10 Recap: "Colossal Coliseum Kaiseki"

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Cardiac Cowboys

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Top Chef: All-Stars L.A. | Season 17, Episode 10 Recap: "Colossal Coliseum Kaiseki"