Top Chef: All-Stars L.A. | Season 17, Episode 13 Recap: "Parma"

Please unpack your knives and stay! The Top Chef Judges' Table is back on Reality TV RHAP-Ups to cover season 17, Episode 13 Recap: "Parma".

Episode Transcript

(00:15):
Please unpack your dives and stay.Yes, stay, welcome everybody to the
top Chef Judge's Table here on RealityTV for halp ups. I'm not Haley
strong, as you can tell becauseI got through the intro without struggling.
Hey, shot bired, Haley shotcompletely un did not see this coming.

(00:40):
Haley's not here, Haley's died here. I love you, Haley. It
just it was there, and soI just picked it up. I'm just
regular and now it's a train wreckas it normally is. The podcast hurts
here, Mike's here, em weboxes here. What's up everybody? I
mean, it makes sense as tothe person who went home that you ended
up creating the shadiest intro of alltime? Aren't you so glad they got
we did that? Shady bitch,Mike, I don't want Kevin send there,

(01:04):
being like, well, actually Idon't believe that Brian Voltageo deserves to
be there, and like, whendid Kevin become a Southern bell? Yeah?
Always, she's always saw his restaurantdecor, right, exactly true?
All right, So it's just thefour of us chickens here in the podcast
house this week, uh, Haileyand Antonio are both missed this week.

(01:27):
Um, but we've got uh shouldone of us leave, it could be
me for committing the sin of stabbingthe back of a fellow Top Chef podcaster,
so that we can go down fromfour to three next week. That's
three three three next week, Yeah, three next three next week. But
there are but they are. Thereare sux chefs returning, so maybe we

(01:47):
can get all six. Yeah,we got gotta have some questions about the
sus chefs were returning. Well,it's no, I mean's it's it was
the last three people eliminated, Sam'sGregory because Gregory is probably laid up in
a hotel at this point with horribleback spasms. Oh well, actually know,
Leanne went before Karen, so Idon't know why Karen couldn't make it.
But it's basically that. It's basicallythat, But I mean, like

(02:08):
now there's two exceptions to it,so I don't know if I want to
just call it that now I feellike they just didn't call Karen. I
don't know. I don't want tolive in that world. I don't want
to live in that world either,But we are going to live in a
world where Leanne's going to return forone last strike at my anxiety guts.

(02:29):
They knew you were starting to mentallyrecover Wiggler. Well here you go.
Well, putting her with Melissa towho I don't want to speak on behalf
of you, Josh, but Ican imagine, I can assume is the
person that you have the most vestedinterest in from the top three, and
so that pairing a load is gonnalike just cause so much heightened tension for
you next week. I mean,I love that we're talking more about next

(02:50):
week than this week, because liketo today was this week's was pretty straightforward.
But yeah, looking at the threesous shifts for returning Malarkey, Leanne,
and Kevin right, Kevin was yeah, yeah, like this does not
seem to be the most level playingfield. Yes, they've been relative,
it's not like they're bringing him back. Uh you're Jen Carroll or what someone

(03:12):
who went really early. Not tono shate on Jen, but yeah,
it's it's it just seems a littleunbalanced in terms of the especially well,
I was also thinking that maybe interms of like jet lag and they probably
they've they flown them here. They'vebeen here. We know they've been here.
They have to be here. Doyou think Gregory's still in Italy?
Like, is he in a hotel? Didn't I send? I read something
where he kind of broke down howit actually played out in real life versus

(03:36):
what we saw on camera. Andmore or less he had you know,
X amount of injections in his backjust to make sure he could be vertical
for parts of the challenges. Buthe was more or less you know,
bedridden and then flown directly back tothe US. To quote Gregory's post from
Instagram, I was then in bedfor three days after my elimination, unable

(03:59):
to move, but then finally flewhome. Wow. Yeah, So Lea
may have been like a last minutemaybe maybe because the between Lean and Karen,
it was a last minute thing andKaren had already kind of counted on
not meeting. They're like, youknow, like, oh, wait,
I was gonna say Lea and you'recloser to Italy, But it's the opposite
way. No, it's a realadventure to get Lean to Italy. I
think I heard a tribute to Christionrecently that actually said that Maine is actually

(04:25):
closer to Africa than Florida. SoI don't know anymore that. Yeah,
Emily, what do you say assomeone who has roots in Maine and no
concept of the distinction between the difference. Maybe it's just much further east.
It's much more east than Florida issouth. I don't, I don't,
I don't know. I have tolook at a map, but that just
blew my mind. I know,not top chef relative. So I haven't

(04:46):
looked at a map since then.Yeah, I'd like to fact check this.
I'm going to do that. What'sthe point of looking at maps anyway?
You know? Ye? Are youbeing that old lady who like made
the internet this past week by talkingabout why maps were designed the way they
are? I didn't know that.I've been mostly off the internet this week,
so well, I'll send it toyou offline, all right, But
think I guess you get gonna getpast the stuff that's on the map in

(05:09):
this episode, because I agree withKurt, like I think that it was
a fairly standard episode. I think, you know, if you looked at
the dishes, I think it madesense personally for Kevin to go over Brian
Voltagio. Could it seemed like hewhipped on both dishes in a major capacity.
Whereas Brian got like a single inone and whipped on the other one.
And I think it also makes senseif it's like, you know,

(05:30):
his his journey and his edit too. I know we talked about this last
week, but again, I feellike Kevin is sort of the person in
this episode who's like, I feelconfident in this, I know I can
do this. I don't know whatthese other people are doing. And suffice
it to say, at least whenit comes to this challenge, he did
not necessarily know what he was doing. Yeah, for Maine in Florida real
quick, Yeah, of course themap it actually makes sense because Maine is

(05:54):
sort of angled out further into theocean than Florida's. Okay, there we
go, Yeah, you got.I can't remember it's Millie. It depends
on where in Africa you're flying too, but if it's the continent in general,
it's shorter. It was that newgame show, don't that that Ryan
Reynolds production that started this week.That was one of the trivia questions.
They're not wrong when there are triviaquestions in it. Yeah, oh,

(06:17):
I thought as as well as theydon't. How does the advertisements just show
me? Adam Scott like slapping peopleor whatever they're doing. It's a series
of mini games, some that requirea stamina, some that require trivia,
like they don't be Tired game waswhat was people had to um Three members

(06:38):
of a team were given a triviaquestion that had a multiple choice ABC or
D. They chose what they thoughtwas the correct answer. That person had
a stand at the spot ABC orD at the bottom of a ramp,
and then these tires don't get tired. These tires would roll down the ramp,
don't Yeah, so they so let'ssay you thought the answer is really
like, don't get tired by atire, like don't get by a tire?

(07:00):
Aren't they big tire? Yeah,big inflatable like like tish not act
not. Yeah, So they wouldthey with max truck tires. So they
had to hope they were Yeah,they had to they had to hope they
were standing in the correct spots sothe tire that came down the ramp did
not hit them. It was itwas fun, there was uh, yeah,
it was. It was enjoyable anyway. That's where the TRIBUTA question was
this is gonna be a quick firechallenge next season. Don't get quick tired,

(07:25):
like they just w They're like,all right, we can't go anywhere
internationals this year. We're staying anduh, I don't know. We'll go
to Daytona and we'll go take allthose those tires from the nastar. An
interesting idea if they had to doa quick fire while they just had like
things being thrown at them and it'slike sort of like Dodgeball meets Top Chef,
or like a quick fire where you'reon like a parade float and you're

(07:47):
constantly moving. Yeah, I likethis is turned into cutthrow kitchen. This
this sounds I mean not being said. I thought this episode of Top even
though the outcome was a bit cutand dry, much like maybe Kevin's Pork,
I think the like challenge itself,I was awesome. Like I really
enjoyed their time Italy this season becauseit really has not been like I think

(08:09):
the one we always go back tois when they went to Mexico and it
was like you must cook like theancient Mayans by using this flat top surface
like this here they're highlighting Italian ingredients, but they're saying like do something with
it, but we're not forcing youto cook like Leonardo di Vinci or whatever.
And I think Melanie Chappara in thePatron group Farad as a podcast said,

(08:31):
is this the best dummiest two ingredients? And the challenge ever, I
might have to say, so thiswas. I love the fact that we
had the parmesan sorry parmesiano reggianoo forshoot a to parma. Yeah, there
you go, Emily, Um,what would your father think if he if
he knew how excited you were aboutthese ingredients, specifically the parmesan and reggiano.

(08:54):
On the record, he has toldme that I am a traitor for
liking parmesan che Why Dave Box thumbsdown on parmesan cheese? Growing up?
I didn't like the smell of itbecause you know, we didn't have like
really fresh stuff, right, wehave this big wheel that you would roll
in and them exactly. He wasn'tlike taking He wasn't cutting cheese. I'll

(09:16):
be the first thing that breaks thatjoke. He wasn't cutting good work.
It's a hard joke to pry open. But you know, it's got a
very pungent flavor, no smell toit, especially when you're buying the grated
stuff that like isn't really I don'tknow, it's very processed. Yeah,
they talked about in the in thisepisode, right, the americanized version is
like very salty. It's clear thatit's it's done as they talked about to

(09:39):
like preserve it. Yeah, probablylonger than it's worth. I mean a
few years ago they found wood shavingsand some of these brands true. What
yeah, wait, well they're allowedprobably point zero two parts per I don't
know, Wait, why are thewood shavings and parmesan? No, because
someone wanted to get away with fraudanyway, So m more or less,

(10:01):
I grew up not liking it,and it was always a thing in the
family where my mom loved it,put it on everything, and my dad
and I would turn our noses upat her and say, grow get rid
of that. Then I grew upand what's it like? And help me?
And started eating really good parm andsuddenly had a change of heart.

(10:22):
And a lot of my friends,even from high school, we were like,
whoa, whoa, what happened toyou? And you're like a known
You're like known as like the nonparmesan. Yeah, so I now use
it liberally on much of the Italianfood that we eat at home, and
every once in a while I bringit up with my dad and she's very

(10:43):
disappointed. I'm very disappointed that you'sbecause you like ruined your own childhood by
hating it and by proxy like thePoettrician of Emily, like moving away from
her father, Like they're like therewere a couple of it was soccer,
Yeah, it was soccer. I'llnever forget the day that Michael Jackson died
because I was I was, allright, I'm treat to see where this

(11:07):
sentence goes, Michon. But itwas like one of those things you know
how you have like the state dependentmemory of like you you remember where you
were when like a major thing happened. And I remember where I was when
Michael Jackson died because Emily and Iwere on vacation with Emily's parents in Cape
Cod like the one and only timewe went to the Cape with them,

(11:28):
or that I went to the Capewith you guys, and we were there
with like a couple of your familyfriends and you and your mother had like
gone off, and I was likehanging out with your father plus some of
his friends. As I was likethe Doughey, you know jew from Long
Island who's never done a thing withhis hands before, surrounded by manly men,

(11:50):
and they were all talking about theirexperiences as fathers, and Dave Fox
said, when I started picking herup from from school, her soccer practice,
and she didn't want anything to dowith me, that's when I lost
her. Uh and I and I'llnever forget that. And then Michael,
and then he would say, speakingof lostnone read about Michael jacks And then

(12:11):
you're just like the perfect segue.Yeah, And then like a couple hours
later, Michael Jackson was announced tohave been deceased. Anyway, So see
you were still a hot mass.Haley's the grounding for Yeah, she is
um. But parba joan and uhprejudo are both delicious ingredients, and I'm
psyched about them having been you know, bolstered in this in this challenge,

(12:35):
and I'm sure all of you wereexcited to see how they were used too.
I loved seeing the cheese uh youknow manufacturer. I love the cheese
factory for so many reasons. First, so this this guy, their tour
guy, Lorenzo Cogo, just seemslike, listen, I don't want to
like conflate all Italians. He doesseem very Fabio asked to me, like
he seems like this young, spry, energetic Italian man. But I loved

(12:56):
him as a tour guy because likehe was, he was like you know,
he was their guide through Parma,and I just I love the quote.
Well, was it that the ladysaid, like, we are the
city of gastronomy, not the cityof fashion, as she hands the off
the hair nets and the smocks thatare way too real at this time of
the of where we all right nowin history. Yeah, definitely, I'm

(13:16):
not. I'm not. I haven'tbeen wearing a hair net. Is that
a mistake? No, You're fine. You just want to show everyone.
You want to show everyone the greathaircuts I've been giving you. Yeah,
that's what it is. What doyou think is harder to cut Josh's hair
or a big Josh is there haveto cut the cheese before you get it
right. There's there's four messed upcut cheeses on the floor, and we've

(13:43):
cut my hair four times and quarantineis the joke, and we're looking at
haircut number five. Well, yesterday, are super sauce very quickly and He
looked at Josh and he goes,oh, did you just wake up?
And Josh was like, oh,this is what my hair looks like when
I got my haircut last week.And the stylist was like, like a
good eighty percent of her appointments arefixing quarantine haircut. Yeah I believe that.

(14:03):
Yeah, I believe. Yeah,I believe. It was a time
of experimentation still is for us.All uh, you know, much like
these chefs are experimenting, so arewe. It's just that there are people
aren't eating hair at least I hopenot at this point. This makes me
want to go to Parma. Imean, well, this makes me want
to travel just in JOm. Yes, yeah, not just but this was
this is great advertisement for Parma,I would say, like touring these places

(14:24):
and also them sort of talking aboutlike to the point where any they said
didn't they say like with this pursiudoor it was one of the ingredients,
They said that, like it's alaw that all of that ingredient has to
come from this area. Yeah,I mean that's a certification and that's right.
Yeah, I know a lot oflike that's that's the case of like
a lot of wines and stuff.It doesn't like champagne or anything else.
Yeah, I think, I think, um uh, there's there's a lot
of that found throughout Europe. Letalone, let alone in Italy. Um,

(14:48):
I'm surprised no one went for aham and cheese sandwich. I will
also say, I am, I'mnot like I I like pork products.
I'm not a fan of ham,but I do really like presciutto. I
didn't realize I guess how closely thetwo are related. Does that pretend to
like the part of the pig itcomes from, or and how it's cured?

(15:09):
Um? Have you ever had ahoney baked ham, Mike, I've
had some honey baked cam before,but just for some reason, like the
taste of it. Maybe it's like, I don't know, there's something about
like the texture of it to methat maybe it's because purcutto is sliced so
thin that like I don't necessarily haveto deal with that or that to your
point, like it's usually or toJosh's point, it's usually like compounded in
a different type of with a mixtureof ingredients and not make it be like

(15:31):
all right, just eat raw handfulsof presciutto and then see how you feel
after that. That was my Thursday. If you if you ever feel like
you want to try to cross overthe ham you know, Bridge and and
and try to get you ever beento the Hambridge thoor four? Right?
Like that sounds like a British,British town or something. Hambridge. There's

(15:56):
wheels of cheese rolling down the hillsin the distance. All right. As
we're trying to figure out what's ourfollow up podcast to the Top Chef po
Hambridge is a leading contender for aname or the first episode, at least
for the first episode exactly why Yeah, get a honey baked tam from the
Honey Baked Tam store. Do notcook it, just eat it with all
the crystallized sugar topping and everything likethat pit that melts off and some people

(16:21):
might like it. I think it'sbetter when it's cold and crunchy. Yeah,
so you have a really good texturaldifference, and it's ham but there's
like a sweetness on the edge,so so good. Interesting, that's my
recommendation for everyone. Really, Butis there there's a honey Baked Tam store?
Yeah? Well yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah, it's literally called
the Honey Baked Ham store. Iknow they were all over Chicago. I'm

(16:41):
actually just seeing if there's there arein New England. Yeah. Yeah,
Bake Cam if you're listening, HoneyBaked Ham definitely has to deliver, Kurt,
if you want to verify that.I got to imagine that they're going
to be able, especially during theage of COVID nineteen. I think that
Honey Big Cam delivery has to be, if not a booming service, then

(17:02):
a service I'm fine doing, likestore curbside pick plus, like restaurants are
actually even like more and more isopening up now. It turns out there
is one that is only eight pointthree miles from me. Go get a
Honey Big Ham. Yeah, tocelebrate the I think we will finally be
talking about the final cook by thetime you get back. Yeah, exactly.

(17:25):
I probably have other stories eight pointthree miles in Los Angeles. I'll
be back in three Yeah. Oneof your more stories about celebrity deaths linked
with Josh finding out more stuff aboutEmily's childhood. I don't think I have
any others, but in terms ofparents, were here when Anthony Boordane was
dead? Is that true? Yeah? Wow? Why did you have to
bring that out? Sorry, ithappened a few days. I did have
a good friend from high school visitingwhen Michael jack when I when Michael Jackson

(17:48):
past. So anyway, I haveUh. The only other story that came
to mind was imagining what my fatherwould be like during this challenge, because
we went to Italy with my family, like twelve years ago, ten years
ago, and um my, myfather repeatedly ordered pursudo and melon because that's

(18:15):
the thing that Yeah, but hewould take the presudo off and justin and
it's usually like trash melon. It'susually cantle oupe. I'm sorry. Italy
is not known for its like ripemelon like fruit. It's known for it's
like prescuto and it's cheese. Yeah, And my dad would take the pressudo

(18:37):
off and just eat the melon.We'd like, Dad, why You're like,
I just want the melon. It'sthe most disappointing part of any fruit
cup is the cantle open the honeydew. Then your dad would have loved Kevin's
pork on pork dish, right becauseit great. This is off to the
side. I don't even need totouch it. Yeah, he would have
taken the pursudo off. Can wetalk about Kevin's dusting liberal dusting of Pard.

(19:03):
It was really uncomfortable watching, justlike just such a bad choice too,
like I'd be all of garden Manlike back of I meant that I
understand, right, because like hegot in trouble last episode for not highlighting
the truffle enough, so he's like, I'm gonna hit you in the mouth
with so much parmesan you won't evenknow what hit you. And so like
there was already parmesan in the raviolo, like there's I'm assuming there might have

(19:27):
been some in the beans as well, and then he just comes on this
big like uh schoozy, and therethere was no And I'm sure like they
were very because it seems like they'revery focused on how the chefs are reacting,
how the sorry, how the judgesare reacting to things, and you
think, like, assuming there wasn'tany trick of editing there, it seemed

(19:48):
very apparent that everybody the table wasvery surprised that this was going on.
I was also surprised if this wasthe approach he was gonna take, it
wasn't going to be like hand gradedversus spooned on. I mean, obviously
that cheese was hand graded, butI'm surprising there wasn't more of that.
I'm glad he need to come upwith all tho little plastic wheel things where
you kind of that would have beenvery bad. Would have been all of
garden right there exactly, like saywhen full server style of like, let

(20:12):
me know, he should have heshould have been like there's also a bottomless
bread baskets he brings in a bigplastic container of salad of tomato and then
like two peppuccinis, who pepper butautumna's salad and really revealing how well we
know the olive gardens. Oh no, no, I west. I grew

(20:33):
up in West Michigan. Olive gardenswhere you like went too before prom It
was like the fancy place to gobox about. Yeah, I was really
into it in college. Yeah,that's where you get too for a tree.
Yeah. Everyone's parents whenever they visited, We're like, I think we're
going to go to the alive Whatare the fancyo of garden that we used
to go to? Uh, CorrambasYeah was legit. Yeah, Buca de

(21:00):
Beeppo is like olive garden plus successcould you say that again. Buca de
beppo is uh, it's like afamily style in that still style of like
informal Italian dinery. I remember whenI was when I went to college,
we had a Corrabbas and a Bucoto beppo near us and olive gardens,
so like we were just into theBermuda trile Italian. But my first my

(21:23):
first job in Chicago, I waslaid off after two years and my going
away party was at a Bucca debeppo. And the only upside to it
was the fact that I'm now unemployedand have all this food I can.
I was gonna say, it's familystyle, so like we feel bad,
so you take this tray of lasagna. Exactly. I do think the move

(21:44):
like it felt like it was itlanded in the room with all of the
force of a fistful of grated parmership. Exactly when when Kevin went around from
table table literally as as Mike veryvery funnily says, like exclusive, like
everybody on their faces like oh yeah, Tom looked like he was going to
Kevin. That was tough. Thatthat was a very very very hard look

(22:07):
for for our guy Kevin. Ashe was going around from person to person
with big honking spoonfuls of grated cheese. And it's not like it's not like
the Gregory situation last week where itwas like, that's a lot of money
you're shaving onto our plates in theform of trouble. This was more like
what are you doing? What doyou? I mean they gave the wheel
as a gift, right. Ialso felt kind of bad they use the

(22:30):
entire wheel that was Kevin that theyhave to take time out of their cooks
seemingly to like break open this giantwheel of cheese by like sticking door knobs
in it and sawing at it.Yeah, I think that the that that
was all tough for for Kevin.But was there anything harsher in Oh?

(22:52):
Was there anything harsher? Certainly inthis episode and Kurt and I have to
have to pull ourselves out of this, But like, is there anything harsher
in Top Chef history than when atthe like you know, here in the
finals they're saying, Brian Voltagio,your food has no soul, so dark

(23:12):
it's really tough. And look,here's the thing like we all see as
an n and beyond have been makingfun of Brian Voltaggio as like he's a
robot, he is an alien.He has great respect for this. He
even talked about it earlier in thisepisode. He's a Soviet asset exactly.
So here's the thing. I thinkthough, that like that can be applied
to maybe Brian Voltagio, the character. I don't think any of us would

(23:34):
say that about like his cooking,and so I do feel I feel terrible
and like you could actually see BrianWaltajo is someone who does not get emotional,
but hit him like a ton ofbricks. I mean it makes sense,
like this is your craft, thisis your job to have some of
the most respectable Italian or international chefsin the world be like, hey,

(23:56):
Brian Voltaggio, by the way you'recooking is passionless. Then like he loves
to tell the tale, but likethat's got to be just a really hitting
piece of criticism, and especially likewhen it's framed around like you know,
the his heritage or at least likethe fact you know, you know part
of his family comes from Italy.And he was like, so he talks,

(24:18):
he and we joke about he talksso much about how he respects he
tries to my Christian and Brian's,he little legitimately tries to respect everything that
he touches and approaches and considers.And and it was one thing for it
to be said at the table.And I know some and apologies, I
don't have the Facebook group up now, but to me, the Facebook group
had even said you know, didn'tneed to be repeated by Padma at the

(24:41):
like was it necessary to let himknow that that was you know said And
it's like the kind of thing thatlike that'll hurt when he watches it on
TV. But he didn't need tolike repeat it to him to his face.
It's kind of mean, like goingto a children's party and to flay
balloons right in front of them,like at the start of the party where
you're like happy birthday, Yeah,are you like slip the balloon, animals

(25:03):
throw, the cloud comes down,you punch him in the face. Well
that's a callow that that's often warranted. But the but also unless I'm the
only way I can like rationalize.And if they already knew that Kevin was
going to be the one going home, and they wanted to say this to
Brian's a light of fire under him. But even then that's a stretch at
all. And I'll go back towhat our friend Eddie said a few several

(25:27):
weeks ago that like, I feellike some of the choices I make are
reality TV and like this like moment, like we want to close in on
the reaction to Brian Botage. Ithought you're gonna say who went home?
That was that? That's what you'regonna quote. I won't say, though,
you know again for it's interesting becauseagain I felt so bad that earlier

(25:47):
in the episode he's like, I'mreally excited for this because like this is
what I do, and so againto not only hear like that your profession
has this soul's aspect to it,but like also your aesthetic, like it's
it's like if you know, we'reall creators and perspective, if we put
out a podcast and someone's like,wow, that really lacked soul and passion
and emotion, like it does ithits you to a certain extent. He

(26:08):
mean something like Brian Waltaju, whois more some dude wants to put a
little bit of himself on the plateevery time, and he felt like he
did here and according to these likevery energetic Italian chefs plus Evan Funky,
who made his way over with Leanne. I'm assuming on the plane. Apparently
that's not the case if given thathe broke out the air rated Parmesiana Fonduda

(26:30):
spume this episode. I hope hedidn't. I hope he didn't put some
of himself on the God, ohmy god. Yeah that was so I
mean that's the thing as well,Like, as much as we might sympathize
with him, he did not hitit out of the park as a well
as was shown. You. Imean, this is why, like I
think foams went away for a while, because like they just aesthetically are not
very policing to the eye, theylike like a bit. Yeah, I

(26:52):
think doing the double double shot ofspume was probably a bad call. Bro.
Yeah, it's just like the onlypart of his personal chef kit that
made it through customs. He sobodyfeels obligated to, like you're to use
the spume maker. Everyone's spumeful.It was either that or the guitar.

(27:12):
I'm so intrigued, obviously, Iam no k. Yeah, I love
that he also brought the Lionel andthe uh forget the other ThunderCats, but
the snarfo. I mean he getsthe credit for best pasta of today.
Yeah, that's good. That's good. I don't wonder if that helped as

(27:32):
well in especially among Italian chefs,Like it's sort of I mean, I
don't know. It didn't help Stephanielast episode too, right when she made
the best pasta and like there wasstill stuff that didn't work well. So
she also put like the Devil's Radicioin there, right, like, you
know, she put like thee andStephanie gets some recompense here, right,
you get some salvation for like thelettuce cabbage family with her own little cabbage

(27:56):
thing I liked when she was shoppingand she's like, you know, I
really want to combine the sweetness withthat funky cabbageness to it. And it's
like, all right, I'll believeit when I see it. But lo
and behold, we liked it alot. Yeah, he huge looked like
the lost member of Blues Traveler.I don't know why that's the impression.

(28:17):
I the what I don't I don'tknow, uh, mister funky um a
few k. I don't know whatI'd like to but it was like I
was like, okay, here's thisman sit like terms of like first like
expected first impression and received first impression. The gap was so wide, Like
he seems like so like just gentleand thoughtful and poetic, which is like

(28:37):
completely not what I was expecting.Actually, I loved having him. I
would I would love having him thereevery week to be great. He was
great. Yeah, I think hejust he he read like a great TV
character. Well, no, hebrought a great depth of perception into everything
he was. You know, sometimeswe don't always get with guest judges who
are like I thought it was good, and you're like, why did we
book this? I don't think infuture seasons should we be lucky enough to

(29:00):
have future seasons of Top Chef.I think it would be good to rank
the guest judges as we go alongthe way, so we have like a
definitive ranking of the guest judges atthe end of progressive ranking. But is
it the people, like do wekind of guest judges like the one who
goes to judges table what the judgesor do we also count like the bajillion

(29:23):
Michelin star chefs that we're sitting thereat the dinner. Yeah? Maybe maybe
I think I think if their nameappears in the chiron, do we couple?
Yeah, I guess that's that's thething there. I mean, there
was a lot. To Melissa's point, there was so much freaking, like
I don't know, there was therewas so much success at that table.
I am very intrigued to see whatthey're going to bring next week, because

(29:45):
like if that was for the penultimatedinner, and I think Tom said in
the next week on like we gota big group here for you, You're
like, who are they going tobring? What's what's gonna one up?
What will say? Thirty five Michelinstars combined to the table, got an
ag Garne. Oh yeah he isthere, isn't he? Yeah, that's
that's why. Okay, that's whyI thought. That's why I remember his

(30:06):
name, So he's carnate that that'shonestly. I the moment I watched that,
I almost tweeted to every or youknow, texted everybody in our group
text asking if that was him.But it was before everyone had necessarily watched
it. So even though it wasjust a few for next weekend, it
was access to the group text forone hundred thousand dollars patrons yes, Um,

(30:26):
I'm so excited about I'm so excitedabout that. It's it's almost like
a best like I understand, OK, yeah, he is obviously Italian.
But part of me like, arethey picking like the best the best guests
from all like the fast umpteen seasons, because that would be awesome. That
would have been interesting if they pickedlike Ted Allen, you know, if
they picked that one, like snippyBritish critic who was a guest judge,

(30:48):
bringing Emerald, bringing Hugh Atchison,like all the guest judges from all the
previous years. Josh does a reallygood Ted Allen impression. I just say
food detectives. But that's it.That's the press. It would it would
be interesting if they had kind ofthe same gauntlet of judges for the final
every year. To be honest,um, something consistent. I mean,
not that they need the consistency.I'm just curious if that would add anything

(31:11):
to this and not that it needsit. Now I know that I'm bringing
I realized I'm bringing this up inthe penultimate episode. Have any of us
made mention of the fact that GrahamElliott is like no longer on the show?
Oh no, I remember, likethree or four weeks ago. I
took note of that in my inmy written notes online. I'm not on
the the excel sheet you guys seewith the food uh with food syrup.
But I took note of that,and I was like, wait a minute,

(31:33):
where I missed the glasses more thanI missed Graham the glasses of the
bowling shirts. Yeah, um,yeah, No, it's been like he's
he's been cousin Oliver and like he'snot there and no one's really brought it
up. Yeah. I forgotten.I had completely forgotten until you just said
the words Graham Elliot and then Ihad to do like a quick scan of

(31:56):
like Graham, Graham Melliot glasses.Yeah, he's gone gone. Is he
still on Master Chef? I don'tknow. Um. I watched the episode
in the first half of it,like yah, say Emily, and I
was watching the episode and I waslike, God, damn it. And
She's like what And I was like, well, we're getting all this emotional

(32:17):
Melissa content right now. Yeah,she is gonna go. And then we're
getting all this content from Stephanie beinglike today is a great day. I'm
just really feeling myself like oh God, they're both gonna go We haven't heard
anything we have. You both failedso badly, we're getting rid of both
of you. I was like,we both we haven't heard anything from Kevin

(32:39):
and Brian about how they are fromthe same season and all season long they've
been thirsting to get to the endtogether. So it's not going to be
either of them. They're both gonnabe safe. Melissa or is Stephanie are
going home. And then Emily andI were watching from that like declaration onward
just like an utter dread. Iknow, we're like the broo, oh

(33:02):
no, that's so saw illustrating.And so then they serve the PREMI and
it goes over like Gangbusters, andthen the dudes serve theirs and it goes
over like a you know, asack of shit, and then they do
the terrible. Then they do thesecond course and they knock it out of

(33:23):
the park again. And immediately,with like respect to Kevin and Brian,
Emily and I are just like somuch lighter watching the rest of the episode
because they're like, Okay, so, no matter what, Melissa and Stephanie
are making it through. And yeah, Melissa has just been in beast mode
for the last several rounds, asevidence by the fact that she's been winning
so much, and I think thatshe's got to be the chalk Pick front

(33:44):
runner to win the whole thing,and that's exciting and I like that a
lot um. But Stephanie, Ithink has has activated in a really fun
way over the last several episodes,and I'm really thrilled to see her in
and and We've been saying for likethe last few weeks, like I love
this top five. I'd be reallyhappy with anyone from this top five winning,
and I still feel that way aboutthis Top three. I'd be happy

(34:06):
for any one of them. Iwould have said that about this Top four,
even with Kevin. But I foundwhen the line was drawn in the
sand between the danger zone was Brianand Kevin and the safety zone was Melissa
and Stephanie, I was very happywith that. I don't know, I
don't know what that says, butI'm very much rooting for those two and
I was very happy for their successand very pleasantly surprised as well. I

(34:28):
feel like, again I don't wantto you know, project onto you.
I think part of it is apersonality thing, and I think it's just
the fact that, you know,I think that Stephanie has we've said this
timetime again, has become the mostrelatable person in this cast between like her
snark, her cat love. I'msure you know, definitely impressed on you.

(34:50):
But I think the fact that shealmost has like imposter syndrome and is
a bit of an audience analog,and that she's like, I don't know
why that how the hell I'm here, but I'm going to keep cooking.
It was awesome for someone who Iouted herself so much to like actually vocalize
her positivity, Like you could tellthat that must have been a really really
If Stephanie samar Is being like Ihad a really good day, you know
it must have been an excellent dayfrom anyone's capacity. And yeah, the

(35:13):
Melissa content the timing was super interesting, right because like you wonder when did
she talk about this? The backdropsobviously change, but we have no idea
when this was filmed, but whythey chose to bring this up now as
opposed to any other time, Likeit wasn't linked to family. There was
nothing really in the dishes that linkedback to her relationship with her father.
I think it was a great followup from one of our first podcasts we

(35:36):
did here on the Network for TopChef, which was like a family visit
that ended up being a little moreawkward than usual because not only did that
stuff happen with Melissa, remember that'swhen May's brother visited and I was like,
yeah, both of our parents reallydon't like the fact that you cook.
So I'm grateful to hear that afterthe show, you know, her
father this was sort of an afterthought, But I really love this as well,

(35:57):
Like started approving of not only heroccupational aspirations but also her queer lifestyle
as well, and I love seeingpictures of them. I'm not entirely sure
what this is going to mean.I don't know if this means we're going
to get like a Shirley style finalewhere her dad comes and says these super
tear jerking comments to her. ButI will agree that, you know,
as edit Hunters as we are lookingat, like, okay, what personal

(36:21):
content is everybody getting? It wascertainly a red flag, especially as opposed
to the guys who were more soconcerned about the dishes they were making them,
like the Okay, I need toyou know, I want to think
about what's waiting back home for meafter after all this. Yeah, we
had a lot of personal content fromBrian other than like reflections upon soul.

(36:43):
That's what's right. So this isthe personal Well, I mean we're gonna
see next week he's gonna FaceTime withMichael Voltaggio. Yeah, yes, yes,
unless it was like, oh,you know, the factory where this
cheese is being made as much likethe factory where I was fabricating exactly,
Like there's a little laughing back thereby creator Inspector number three two seven.

(37:04):
I mean, he did handle thatentire wheel of cheese. So I've been
informed that I was as difficult toopen as this wheel of cheese. Oh
my god, let me call mybrother. Yeah, I would be very
surprised to see Brian Voltagia win thisthing at this point, Like I think,

(37:25):
like for me, like it islike in order of likelihood for me
right now, it's it's it's Melissa, Stephanie, Bryan. And a lot
of that I think is track recordtoo, just in terms of who's been
at the top and versus the bottom. So that I agree with that,
and like I agree to and Iwould love for Brian to win, just
because as much as a joke abouthim being an emotionless robot, I can

(37:50):
reflect, I can like, uhrelate to that a lot. Sure.
Um and and plus because he wasmy number one picking my draft team.
Because I just I just think he'sawesome. Um well, I think he's
formed, like he's made it thisfar, but he's performed worse than any
of us expected. I would say, yeah, exactly. My heart would
love for him to win, butI think that it's Melissa's game to lose.

(38:12):
Well, that's the thing is again, I will sort of speak out
against people that are like, well, Top Chef is fixed. I feel
like if the fix was really infor Top Chef, they would not give
Melissa three wins in a row goingto the finale, like they would want
to build up a competition by LikeI even wrote in my notes, I'm
like, can you'll give like onewin to Stephanie please? Like I'm sure
Melissa's cookery was incredible and she yetagain succeeds unbridging these Chinese and Italian ingredients

(38:35):
when on paper you wouldn't think so, but I almoso, like, I
want Stephanie to get something. AndI also wanted to look like, you
know, a two horse race atthat point, aside from just one.
I mean, Melissa has won sixelimination challenges this season, and let's see
three quick fires like undisputed MVP ofthis season. No matter what happens here,
I mean to be fair. Thepeople who wake up in the morning

(38:57):
and say Top Chef is fixed,They're waking up everywhere and saying blank is
fixed? And which one of athousand things am I going to put in
that blank? So how many peopleon the planet Earth they're waking up in
the mornings right now, especially beinglike dub shift is fixed, Like that's
your first thought at least eight eightpeople? Yeah, numbers are bad,
um, but yeah, I thinkthat's where we're going. Like I think

(39:17):
like it doesn't feel and I'm settingmyself up for disappointment as a result.
It's just it feels like Melissa's gotthis right, and it feels like I'm
knocking on the is she on yourteam box? Yeah? Oh wow,
Foxes is some skin in the game, Stephanie. Does Haley have Stephanie?
Oh? Yeah, yeah, Iknow. I'm kind of sad that Haley's

(39:39):
not here to talk about it.Because Stephanie really ased this. It was
it was so fun to watch Stephaniehave such a great day. Yeah she
good. Yeah, even when shewhen she literally says like I don't want
to like brag, but like Ijust feel it today. Um. I
think like the arc of somebody whohas a really hard time either earnestly feeling

(40:01):
that or at least expressing it,and then like ease, like just with
such ease expressing, I think Ikilled it today was really enjoyable for me
to watch that being said, itfeels very indicative of like we just experienced
this with the winners of war,right the I didn't win, but I
wanted a certain regard away, LikeI could very easily imagine a situation next

(40:23):
week where Stephanie comes a second andshe's like, that's fine. I did
so much more than I thought Icould, Like I was able to overcome
all this stuff, like I feellike I'm a true winner here even if
I don't have confetti rating down onme, and she's and she's expressed it.
There was a scene where they werelooking at the peacock I think outside
the window, and I think that'swhere she had vocalized the fact, that's
like I never thought of make itthis far. You so, like right

(40:45):
now it's like, you know,it's just I'm fine with whatever happens like
that, I've kind of whether Iwin, whether I lose. I'm so
excited that I made it this farthat I'm playing with money. That's that's
the phrase. I was precisely thatI was looking for, UM, And
like we saw several weeks ago,she kind of came to this realization that
no, anytime I'm not cooking inthe top chef kitchen, I struggle.

(41:08):
It was almost like by discovering thatand vocalizing that and then having the great
you know, showing that she didat the coliseum for the Olympic prep and
cook where she came in first.UM, It's almost like by coming to
that realization she was able to letit go and she's been doing for the
most amazing since then. So likeI'm expecting Melissa when I would be like

(41:31):
there was there was a picture onthe Voltagio's instagram of just the picture like
a picture of just Tim, Alissaand Stephanie, just like a selfie of
just them just smiling. It wasactually probably the most positively emotive. I've
seen Brian just in this picture.Um, this is the most delightful Final
three that I can remember, likein terms of just pleasant, yeah,

(41:52):
positive people. I think Brooke ShirleySheldon is another one that I love.
Yeah, but this is like inleague with that. I feel, Yeah,
I'm just like people that I reallylike. All Right, Well,
in the spirit of Top Chef,we can't do anything around here without being
corporate shields for something. So takea break and listen to this ad and
we'll be right back. Hopefully Brooke, isn't it at least well, it

(42:12):
didn't sound like Brooke, but we'reback anyway. Hopefully we'll be able to
get Brook on one of these onetime. So I even outside of like
the Stephanie, I'm having a reallygood day stuff. I was fearful of
her when she's like, I'm gonnamake I'm gonna make presutto ragua. It's
like the one thing we saw whenthey were sitting down thinking that purscuto was
like, oh, don't cook thepurscutto. Please, whatever you do,
it will be a sin if youcook the purscutto. But apparently like a

(42:34):
little Sinfule wins well, What's interestingtoo, right, is Melissa Cook's prescutto
as well, she puts in theExo sauce and Stephanie Cook's presuto and they're
on the top and the two guyswho just like leave the presuto as like
a thin ribbon of meat bottom.They even talk about it with Voltagio's dish,
where they're like, if he hadjust crisped this pursuto up, it

(42:59):
would have changed the entire texture andreally made this dish sink. And You're
like, they told you not tocook it, Like yeah, though,
I though, I wonder if it'smore like in cooking it you have a
use for it, Like I wonderif that was the main I mean the
main feedback for Bold, Brian andKevin, particularly Kevin, and that last
dish was like the purshutto was justsort of there, and so maybe in

(43:21):
not doing anything to it, youare making it a passive part of the
dish, whereas cooking it you're makingit much more, much more active,
and therefore people can say, oh, you really use this ingredient. Well,
but yeah, between between that betweenthe Exo sauce with the raft the
raft breaking for poor Melissa, likeLoft Josh, Yeah, I got it.

(43:43):
It was not lost on me.Oh wow. It was a lost
joke from the podcast that Mike andI do every week called Lost Down the
Hatch Lost Rewatched podcast where you gothrough every episode in spoiler film detail.
I also loved Stephanie like almost shufflingthe deck between the cabbage and the presciutto
like a like a basically like doingcabbage prestidio, cabbage presto. I've been
funky love that one. Didn't weDid we not see something like that either

(44:05):
this season or recently? I don'tthink so. What am I remembering that
from? Did he reference? It? Was almost like did he say it
was almost kind of like described itas almost kind of like a lasagna of
pscudo? And yeah, it wasa lagnia made of cabbage, which sounds
disgusting. They're not something like wherewe've seen something like this, I mean
like in our in our lives recently. It's not familiar to you. No.

(44:31):
I thought that this was a reallygood idea. I was like,
wow, why haven't I thought ofthis so that that might just be on
you. I had a premonition,Yeah, That's what I've been having me.
I mean for your dreams. Yeah, recently you have like my yet
yeah, very having. You're having, like you know, zone flashes of
future chef dishes. I don't.I don't know what's going on with my

(44:53):
brain. But some strange assina melotoninat night and weird that'll do it happening.
By the way, I can,I like it. I can get
a three to four pound honey bakedminiham, green bean casserole and sweet potatoes
to play forty five literally, justlike filling in the basket while we're talking.

(45:14):
Yeah, it's a good deal.Slowly honey baked ham harder in the
background if you can see you,if you can fold the green beans into
the slices of ham, much likea ham lasagna. Hey, so should
the winner of the Top Chef asin Emily, Kurt and Haley, whoever
has the winning Top ship's honey bakeda honey baked ham from the green I

(45:37):
like that idea, and I areputting our our wallets on the line.
We're just already agreeing that we're goingto chip in for a honey baked ham
for the winner. Do they havethose slash deliver those to Canada. That's
a good question. I'll look itup. If if not, we will
find there an aquizer a Canadian equivalentto honey baked ham. We could we

(45:57):
could put this up sim Horton's ham. Oh well, that's gets the sweetness
that you wanted, Emily. Yeah, it's like a little doughnut crumbles.
So they call aren't the munchkins calledtimbits? They are? Yeah, yeah,
a little like crumbles of timbits onthe ham. I mean that actually
doesn't sound bad. Timbits. Yeah, I think like little bits of timbits
on the ham. I just Ijust I'm on because I'm on their site.

(46:21):
It's like find a store near you, and it's like enter state and
city and I just like Canada,there are no stores near you. But
well we'll figure something out. Wecan come up with some sort of Canadian
honey baked ham equivalent Canadian ham.Yeah, we're exactly where. We surprised
that Melissa won over Stephanie because itdid seem like they were like back and

(46:43):
forth. But mister Evan funky playthat funky music. Evan said that the
Pursuito based brace cabbage was his favoritedish of the entire thing. So I
was a little surprised that they didn'tgive it to Stephanie over over must have
been close. Must have been closemaybe like the inventiveness of like using pre
judo in an exo sauce. Thatis a really cool idea. Yeah,

(47:04):
but sup like it was fairly slight, right, Like it felt like the
scalp didn't have a ton of iton there. Well, it looked like
was because of scalops only what likesize of a half dollar, so she
should put like a little spoonful onit. When I saw that come out,
one of my thoughts was like,oh man, she's gonna get blasted
for giving them no food, Likeit felt like a very slight dish.
But instead I think it just endedup being something that was like supremely delightful.

(47:27):
Okay, So there's a company calledHoney Glazed hamid all right, Haley
get Haley gets a honey glazed hamif if Stephanie wins, Oh, I'm
rooting for Melissa should but I canget a honey baked ham because I would
be the benefactor. That's Emily wins. You're essentially pulling money for your own

(47:50):
honey bom. Unless is the stipulationhere that I can't have any of the
honey baked ham and Emily has toeat all of it, the whole thing,
although I do. I was justlistening to the Robin nikeevan a podcast,
the Pointless episode where Ethan and Haleywere on there, and I think
I remember Haley something something about howshe like can't stand sandwiches, so maybe

(48:12):
we should check with her on likewhether I mean, obviously you don't have
to be involved in sandwiches that Emilyand Haley have in common. Yeah,
it's not that I can't stand them. I just choose other filn't prefer them.
Yeah, you don't prefer the sandwiches, all right, Well, so
that's top chef, right, Like, is there anything else that we need
to talk about from this week?It's striking how much we like, I'm

(48:35):
not trying to throw shade on ashady bitch, but it's amazing how much
we like mourned the loss of Gregory, and we kind of brushed aside the
loss of Kevin Well here's had beeneliminated earlier, and we memorialize the crap
out of him because of what happened. That being said, I am very
glad he came back because I stillwill bristle against what they did with the

(48:55):
restaurant Wars this season, and Ifeel like he got Dalton unfair hand,
and so I think him coming backwas deserved and also like the person I
wanted to get a second chance,the interest, I guess the thing is
is that, like I think oneof the reasons why we're like shrugging our
shoulders at it is because when hecame back, he was fine, like
like his track record was. Hecame back, Lissa won the quick fire,

(49:17):
he landed in the middle during theelimination challenge, he won the final
quick fire, but then finished wasabout was close to going home last time
and then went home this time.It's one of those things where like he
did not necessarily take off from gettingthat second reprieve in the competition. I
would also say that, like heturned me off this episode, but all

(49:37):
of like the unctuous faces he wasmaking while I don't know, I was
like, can you stop it?And then like we all we all love
certain foods to a certain extent,like that, I will admit there are
times than like I've eaten some seafoodfor instance, and like I mean,
my wife will speak to this aslike I have had those types of reactions

(49:59):
inappropriate, so I personally enjoyed.I also loved his quote about like how
his aesthetic is, Like what beingin the middle of nowhere and dealing with
pig products is, Like that's theKevin Gillespie manner speaking. No, Yeah,
what kind of seafood are you?Like, yeah, I am curious.
You can't just I mean I thinkJosh when we were in Fiji and

(50:20):
like we were having some of theseafood there, like I remember really really
enjoying that. Yeah, you hada book of constant Ecstasy on your face
a time when you were dancing withthe Fijians and it looked like you were
literally rolling on ecstasy. I'm tryingto figure out, like what Josh's reactions
are with food, Like which thingsreally blow your mind like that. I

(50:40):
don't know. I made pesto lastnight, you were really at all It's
very good pesto. Was it enoughsoft on soft? Yeah? So here
was an interesting thing. So theywere talking about Brian Voltaggio's pesto and they
were marked on a lack of enoughgarlic, right, wasn't that? Like?
Yeah said they said that Evan Funkysaid that it should be a battle

(51:02):
between like basil and garlic. Okay, So, so this is a good
segue into talking about like what wemade this week and what we ate this
week. And I and I soEmily made pesto last night. We made
it with um with spaghetti that wehad ordered from Sylvia here in the so
homemade pasta that Emily is able toeat um. And Emily made her pesto

(51:22):
sauce that goes with it. AndEmily's pesto sauce does not include even a
little tiny bit of garlic. Emilyhas no garlic in her pesto. And
how do you make your pesto?So I watched Salt Fat, Acid Heat
like a bajillion other people did onNetflix when it first came out with samine

(51:43):
nose roth and she goes to likea coastal part of Italy at some point
in one of the episodes, don'tremember which taste it was, but either
way, she learns how to makepesto from like this old Italian grandmother and
she does it in mortar and pestle, with a mortar and pestle where she
pounds the pine nuts first, thenstarts adding a little bit of salt,

(52:08):
adds the fresh basil to it,and then adds parmesan, and you don't
see her add any garlic. Andit's just I don't know if it's like
a it's like a cut where theyjust didn't think to put it in there
or what. But she doesn't addgarlic in the way it's shown to the
audience interesting, and a lot ofher taste delicious. It's it's ridiculous.

(52:31):
It's ridiculous. It's just basil.It's basil. And especially if if you
have really good olive oil, ifyou have really good parmesan, yes,
yeah, it's bead about. II typically don't love pesto because and it's
weird because like I love garlic.I think garlic is the best. Uh.

(52:51):
And I never would have identified thatit was a garlic issue with pesto.
I think I probably would have thoughtit was like a pine nut issue
with pesto. But there was alwayssomething like sort of like darp and a
little grimy about pestos to me thatI just like almost like there's like a
granular quality and then you wake upthe next day and you can still taste
it because it's so garlic. It'sjust never really been my thing. And
then we watched that episode of SaltBat Acid Heat and you made it and

(53:15):
it was out of this world.It's just it's so oily and basil forward
and really really really really like kindof tastes like really cheesy. Uh.
It's very very very good, andit is the only way I want to
eat pesto from now on. Sowhen when the guy said, like,
it's supposed to be a battle betweenbasil and garlic, far be it from

(53:37):
me to like tell the Italian thatyou're wrong. But like I feel like,
yeah, if it's a battle betweenbasil and garlic, then the way
to settle that war is to removethe garlic. I'm just sitting here silently
fuming because I like, will putgarlic in everything that doesn't even ask for
it. Sure, I totally getit. I totally because garlic is one

(54:00):
of my all time favorite ingredients.I think that the more garlic, the
better for me. Um. Andit is like this odd thing that if
you remove it from the pesto situation, if you make it the way that
Emily described watch that episode of SaltFat, Acid Heat, I'm pretty sure
it's the fat episode, just onethat's in Italy. Um. Yeah,
because we're talking about olive oil.Yeah, like watch that, watch how

(54:21):
it's made. Transpose that into yourkitchen and you will do it with mortar
and pesta. Yeah you will.You will be in possession of like the
all time greatest. Yeah, justmake sure you see it. Well.
So that's why it's so interesting isbecause like save that common. I feel
like the criticism for the pest thepesto was that like between that and the
fish and the squash, it wasjust too much soft stuff yeah at once.

(54:45):
And so maybe they also feel likethe the the garlic, to your
point, Josh, is gonna belike make it a bit grainier, to
like differentiate it a bit instead ofit just being smooth on smooth on smoth.
Yeah. Yeah, we don't likesmooth on smooth on smooth. That
was my collagen, I know,under underreported. And if you have extra
basil, Emily, my recommendation isgetting the more you get the mortorn pestile

(55:06):
throws basil and sugar together, grindthat up. It's a good topping for
Vanila ice cream. Oh that's interesting. Wow, I love that. I
heard he just like really casually rippedopen the ice cream game. It's like
you get walked up to the tothe parmesan block and just like Captain America
didn't half. That's pretty impressive.I mean no, I think you just
like blew a hole open in thetoppings game. Yeah, I love that

(55:30):
idea. It was the first timeI lived in La. We went out
we did when I was work Canadadagents who we went out with our clients
to a group cooking class and oneof the things that one element those were
they have the thing up front withthe mirror and everyone takes per camp whatever.
One of the elements was that itwas like just the let's put herd
on this because it's simple. Uh, the the idea just yeah, the

(55:51):
basil sugar for ice cream topping.Interesting, that sounds delicious. What other
foods have we been eating this week? Curt? I saw that you had
a huge spread of charcouterie. Yes, we, uh, my team at
work, as a six or sevenof us, we've we've not seen each
other face to face since you know, March sixteenth, and we decide,

(56:12):
you know, we're gonna have aget together at one person's house and uh,
and she likes She's Italian. Shelikes to a host. She laid
out several everything from a couple ofcharcouterie boards to you saw the chicken cutlets.
It was just a bread. AndI actually brought a green onion pesto
that I store bought from Whole Foods, which which was like, there's probably

(56:37):
chacol and garlic it had. Ithink there's the red pepper hummus and that
and then this pesto side by side, and just in terms of like the
pesto almost vanished immediately in terms ofeverybody liking it. Um. Yeah,
So I was expecting to have tocome home from that get together and cook
dinners. Like I did not needto eat anything else. So a lot
of a lot of just stuff there. Um, Yesterday I had yesterday off.
I picked up some lunch from PlioProvisions, but Brooke Williamson Hey Joint

(57:00):
and I had a chicory and arugularsalad and they're a greyer Patti melt um
on pumpernickel. It looks really good. I like the bread in particular.
Yeah, both both very tasty.Um. It's been our apartment complex handed
out free pizzas. Yesterday. Ohyeah, I saw that I got back

(57:21):
from from Brooks at like twelve fifteen, and I checked my email as a
reminder. At twelve thirty, we'rehanding out free pizzas to residents. I'm
like, oh, I'll take it. Yeah, but in the French,
Yeah, free free Papa John's pizza. And then like around two thirty there's
another email. I came out,we have more pizzas if you want a
second one, And that happen.I would have taken the second pizza.
I don't know. I don't knowif it's if more people are away at

(57:44):
work now that things are starting toopen up. Um, we're still working
from home here in the Clark household. And by we I mean I it's
the Royal it's a Royal week.Other than that, yeah, I cameer
if. I talked about my pastramisandwich adventures last week, but I stepped
up a little bit this week.So I have some Deli pistrami. But
now I've bought Rye Swiss cheese,cole slaw and then I'm finally making use

(58:06):
of again of that that everything aoli. Um, it's the closest I'm getting
to land yeah, it's kind ofThousand Island e. Yeah, but that's
been that's been, like I justheat it slightly. That's been a good
solid pastrami sandwiches. Yeah, Russiandressing adjacent in honor of Brian Botagio exactly,

(58:27):
exactly. Um. Other than that, it's been a lot of of
of dining out. I got acouple of things of sushi earlier this week.
Um yeah nice. Um. Theone big thing that I I made
this week of out of Hello Freshis I made some firecracker meatballs that was
I was going to order, thoughI ended up canceling my order, but

(58:49):
that was in my list for whatI was so yeah, so it's it's
basically it's it's beef meatballs and somelike rosa green beans. But the big
kicker was that it was in thiswas known as firecracker sauce, which ended
up turning out out really great.It's mayonnaise, sour cream, honey,
saracha. Well, it like endedup mixing together surprisingly well until like something

(59:10):
creamy, not too spicy, butlike enough of a kick to it that
it turned out to be really reallygood. I actually have all of those
ingredients except for the sour cream.Could I throw in Greek yogurt instead?
Do you think? Yes? Sure? Making more Mediterranean? You definitely can
because it actually me now I haveis olive oil based so they Yeah.

(59:30):
So that was that was the bigthing. That was definitely something that blew
my mind. Uh. This week, so I'm cooking. She's not here,
but I am trolling Haley's Instagram whereshe's you were trolling her in the
intros. Well, I know,I love I love you, Haley.
It is all fun and games.She had a bunch of good stuff.
She has some incredible looking stuff upon Instagram, as as she always says,

(59:51):
she's Haley Strong, ridiculously good foodphotographers. I really seriously so she
has. She has banana pancakes thatshe that she made that I'm looking at
them right now. They look sogood. I feel like I can just
like taste them right now. Uh. And the bacon looks amazingly cooked,
like it's like that sweet spot betweenlike a little bit burnt, but like

(01:00:14):
not all the way there. Itlooks like. She also made a cauliflower
spagoots and by spagoots, I meansspaghetts, and by spaghett I means spaghetti,
and by spaghetti, I mean EvanFunky is just like having like a
fit right now and you're saying this, it's a cauliflower and and pea and
bread crumb and all the right things, all the right things looks like it's

(01:00:36):
it's in there. So it's greatstuff. Always worth checking out. Eh,
Strong underscore on the Instagram and Strongtakes that cea for all of that
good stuff. What else did wemake this week? Box? In addition
to the pesto, Um, wehad some really good mozzarella, like buffalo
mazzarella. Yeah. We well weso we we patronized uh Sylvia again and

(01:00:58):
so we got we got that thathomemade spugoots uh. And we also got
rigatoni which we applied to uh,some frozen bolgnes and we had made a
few weeks earlier and that was amazing. Um. And we got some cheeses
from her as well, uh anda big brick of focaccia uh that we

(01:01:20):
was gone in twelve hours, wow, in like two seconds flash. She
makes a great so such a goodficaca. So we had that and um
one night, two nights ago,two nights ago, I think we had
Emily roasted some eggplant and zucchini likereally crisped them up, um, and
put them on a plate with likecrouton versions of the remaining focacca or some

(01:01:44):
really creamy mazzarella that we got fromSylvia and like roasted garlic underneath. Really
really nice. It was just veryfresh and very very tasty. Uh.
That was That was awesome? Thatwas really awesome. Yeah, I'm thinking
I was. I heard that oneof the farmer's markus say is actually no
back open, and again they havelike very strict like one entrance wearing a
mask, you know, one wayI rose up the covernment and that I

(01:02:07):
might hit that tomorrow and see ifthere's something that's similar to that, because
that's making me wantsome Thatt's mak mewant some breads? Yeah? Seriously?
Yeah, are we surprised by theway as we're sort of like, I
mean, I can't imagine that thefinal challenge is going to have any sort
of twits to it. Are wesurprised there wasn't like a bread affiliated challenge
this season when they were in Italy? Um? Yeah, maybe maybe,

(01:02:28):
I mean I think that there wasonly one challenge this week was a surprise
to me. Yeah, I'm surprisedthere was no Final four quick Fire.
Yeah, I'm surprised by that too. Voltime was probably upset. It's like
that, but maybe I guess themlike the tour that they went on was
sort of like enough time and effortto fill up the episode I was.
I was an upset. I didn'tmiss the quick Fire, I should say
it was. It was like agood Travel Channel episode at the time.

(01:02:50):
It really was. Yeah, yeah, you know, I agreed. And
again that's one thing underreported is thatwhenever I um adition to trying whenever I
visit a new city, in additionto trying to find escape rooms to do
there, I also try to findsome sort of culinary tour. Like when
r HP went to Philadelphia last year, I organized for the patrons a walking

(01:03:12):
culinary tour of of Philly, whichwas a lot of fun. And the
last time I went to London,I got a food tour of the Borough
of the Borough Market and went ona pub crawl. And so that's that's
one of the things I'm looking forwardto do, is just like more food
exploration. So that that that's Ithink that's why I vibed with that the
visits to the cheese factory, andit felt very travel channeling. I love

(01:03:35):
doing stuff like that too. Ijust think it's such an interesting and unique
way of seeing places. And youknow when you when you go off of
the beaten path and find really coolhold the wall of spots, like I
remember we did. My friend usedto live in Madrid, and so me
and two other girlfriends went to visither for a couple of weeks um years
ago, and we went on atop us tour and like that was the

(01:03:58):
most fun and never something we wouldhave figured out how to do or understood
as a cultural thing unless we hadsomeone being like, now we're going to
leave and go here, and Iwas like, but I wanted to order
more off of this menu, andshe's like, no, no, one
dish year, one drink here,Let's go to another place. One dish
year, maybe two drink here.Then we're going to another place. And
like, you just don't understand placesas well, I think without really tapping

(01:04:20):
into the food culture. So Ijust think that that's always such a fun
way of seeing stuff, and doit early in the visit, so then
if you can go back and visitthe places you want to explore more in
depth. Absolutely a later days.Yeah. Can I just bring up as
we start finishing up here, speakingof the food tour, the creepy ass
place that they ate the night beforethey I know, we can't leave without

(01:04:41):
talking about Yeah, where they allthey all thought they would be murdered.
Well does it look like catacombs likethat French underground tunnel, right, I
mean just for pork instead of people. It was like the alternate cut to
the Blair Witch final scene. Itwas very the missing chef Testant just standing
in the corner corner, Yeah,like what's wrong. It was interesting because

(01:05:02):
they like they were underground and thenthey're like it almost felt a little like,
uh, I don't know, spook, like the haunting too, of
like you will now dine in thisliving room with the fire lit and the
cat randomly wandering around the dusty furniture, and I guess that's the aesthetic that
they're going for. I suppose didyou see everyone's faces drop when they were
like, and you'll be spending thenight there, and everyone was like great?

(01:05:26):
It was I think Brian said,there's there's nothing there's nothing more like
invigorating or respectful probably then spend spendingthe night in the place where you're going
to be cooking the next day.I'm like, remember your summer camp experience,
that's not Maybe the people like,what were your favorite experience? Like,
oh man, I love the summercamp thing, but specifically when we
went ziplining, not when we hadto get two hours asleep and cook brunch

(01:05:48):
for a bunch of mombs. Whatif all the moms showed up to this
Italian place too. By the way, the moms are in this spacement with
you. All of the moms arein the plundered by the spirits of two
hundred moms all doing karaoke. Allright, yeah, yeah, that's it.
That's it. That's it. I'mcutting in. There's a shorter podcast

(01:06:11):
this week. We said we woulddo it. We could probably go for
another hour talking about nothing. Thisguy, what do you got things to
day to day? I want toweave groceries to pick up we do a
grocery There is like a large windowof time to do it. Yeah,
but I'm hungry and I want tostart cooking. Okay, Also I want
to get back into my video.He wants to start cooking. I want
you. I want you to getback into your video game too. I'm

(01:06:32):
playing The Last of Us. Therewere drafts and they were beautiful. Yeah,
the Last of Us sounds like thelocation where they were at when they
were staying the night, the LastChance Kitchen of Us. Are the drafts
gonna be okay, Kurt? Wasit just a beautiful moment with the drafts
or are we going to see thedrafts again? The drafts of the drafts
are fine, Josh, Okay,good, it's fine. Good. One

(01:06:53):
thing we get one thing that's nice. All right. We're all on social
media and every single social media channelthat is possibly available to you. You'll
probably find us under the following usernames. Kurt is at Kurt Clark,
Mike is at a Mike Bloom type. Emily is at emilet like an omelet
but with an E instead of theOh, I'm at Ron. Howard Hailey

(01:07:14):
is at eight Strong Underscore. Youcan also hit up Uncle Tonio. Antonio
is on Twitter and all the stuffat ear with how many zse, how
many rs two and two and one. It was just like, it's just
like, don't do we have tofill in the trivia question? I was
asking you to help, and nobodydid. But this is a great time.
The shorter podcast is not as muchto talk about this week, and

(01:07:36):
there's viewer of us on that Andon that note, I did not talk
to Kevin because I talked to Kevinlike three weeks. Yeah, what were
you gonna say? Like, so, what's up? It's like, yeah,
you know, yeah, haven't beenthe past few weeks. Up.
But if you want to check outsomebody, I did a late interview with
Gregory that I highly recommend everybody tocheck out. He gives to Emily's point,
like he extrapolates a bit of histhoughts on like his time in the

(01:07:57):
game, as well as like theback stuff he was going through. And
he talked a little bit about,you know, had he won the ten
thousand Fan Favorite prize, who wouldhave donated it to food banks in the
areas that were affected by the recentpolice murders. Unfortunately, it's give a
bit of a fan favorite update.He is not in the running. It
is down to Melissa v Brian Boltaggiofor ten thousand dollars. Wow, I

(01:08:23):
don't know you. You brought usup a couple of weeks ago, Josh.
Let's just remember back to that summercamp moment when everyone was fawning over
Brian Boltaggio. I think he isa big favorite amongst the top Chef fandom
in general. I mean Gregory calledhim like top Chef Royalty. I think
his reputation precedes him certainly, hegets the last laugh on this. Yeah,
so yeah, we'll see he checkedout. And if you want to

(01:08:47):
check out my thoughts from Kevin,because I I will say maybe in spite
of like the stuff that we saidabout the way he went out this time,
I really enjoyed having Kevin around thistime. I think his message is
still super inspirational of like everything he'sgone through. I'm so happy we got
to see him this season. Wetalked after the Restaurant Wars fiasco and he
had a lot of great thoughts aboutthat as well. So be sure to
check all that out at pray dotcom. Ahl Right, sports fans,

(01:09:12):
any sports fans, at least foodfans. I think that's how we're gonna
call the thing. We're gonna dothe podcast now, and we're gonna tell
you to pack your dives and go