Top Chef: All-Stars L.A. | Season 17 Finale Recap: "Finito!"

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

Episode Transcript

(00:15):
Bones. I don't know. TheTop Chef podcast I'm Healing Welcome Josh is
laughing at my poultry attempt at Italian. No, I just like that.
It's it's one last time here,right, and like, let's not even
go for it, let's just doinat it. As you pointed out at

(00:37):
the top of last week, itwas right there, it was just right
there, and I just felt likeI had to go for it. I
hurt. It's fine, Emily,Hi, I know you would never hurt
me. No, never, neversurprised, be surprised what I'm linkedn do.

(00:58):
Not to me though, not tome. Now that's why you would
be surprised. Well, I don'tthink I would be surprised. That makes
sense to me, actually, ButI just know she would never do anything
to hurt me. So because Ilove you exactly, we love each other.
Someone else I love Hi, MikeBlue, I love you too,
Haley. I'm glad to feel thelove as opposed to Josh is on the

(01:19):
polar opposite of the scale. Apparently, am I have a polar opposite of
Love's sure you should podcast about him? Yeah, that's that's coming to like
HBO Max next year. The bolaropposite of love. I'm not saying for
HBO Max. So somebody sent metheir log in detail. Oh that's I
was. I was even confused,as someone who like covers entertainment to learn

(01:40):
that it was not like it's affiliatedwith HBO, but it was not HBO
stemmed like even that. It's it'svery strange that, like it's mainly WB
but because they have HBO shows onit, they're calling it HBO Max,
which just confuses the crap out ofeverybody. I do believe there's some Bachelor
and Bachelor and Paradise, not BachelorParis Bachelor Pad seasons on HBO Max.
Really you said Bachelor Patsy's like fallguys for the Bachelor. They're all Bachelor

(02:05):
Patch because I don't know how ifyou've seen these people's lives get completely ruined
over the last twenty years, Ithink Patsy is probably the nicest thing you
could call them. Yeah, Ireally, Kurt Clark, I also love
you, Hi Finale. Don't cry, Kurt, Kurt. It's okay,
it's all right. We'll find away to keep going. Oh that was

(02:27):
me showing That was me showing thatall my glasses are empty. Yeah,
just like he was showing that's forthe tempt those who don't have to,
who don't have a Kurtess like MaryWay aggressively turned a bottle of liquid over
and I got a little nervous thatyou were about to pour water on your
microphone. I thought you were symbolizingthe tears before I realized that. Yet
Dario, Dario was being like thehuman mime at the final table. Look

(02:50):
at all the plates I have cleaned, me, Dario. Anyone ever been
filled with so much joy during afinal meal as him? No? Yeah,
yeah, maybe Kevin during tasting thepresciuto last week. Emily's like enough
of that, Yeah, But Dariawas much sexualized by his reaction to than
Kevin was. It's there was there'sa brief underreported. There was a brief

(03:14):
time in college where I worked withan Italian film crew on a documentary about
elder care services in the US.This is incredibly to the point that I
don't think it's been reported. There'sno There's no report exists called Kirk Clark's
time working like an Italian film crewon a documentary about elder care service and

(03:35):
and the large part of how wecommunicated was the same way that he was
indicating his joy with the meal,so I could relate to that attempts to
cross the language barrier. I justsee you holding up like elderly little old
ladies and being like, right,this one's like how they went shopping throughout
these entire finals. Right, It'slike they'd be like, Okay, this
one is this one good? Yeah? Uh boy? It was one.

(04:00):
And I loved when they when theyintroduced him that I mean when they said
that he was gonna be at thetable Tom, which is kind of like
like subtly said Cardney. It's likehe listens to the podcast and now he
knows we love it. It's likethey knew. They're like this will be
iconic of crying. How many timesdid you cry during this episode? Because
I was at a minimum five timescrying a few times, yeah, times,

(04:23):
Like there were there were a fewmoments where I was really pushed to
the brink, even even like evenlike when Voltagia was talking about some of
his stuff, I was like,I didn't think that you'd be able to
make me emotional, but like himtalking about like his whole top chef journey,
him retiring was like it was actuallya little bit of a pang,
you know for me, like,yeah, I'm done with it because I

(04:45):
don't think we've ever had unlike Survivor, which we experienced the pastor I don't
think we really had like a TopChef contestant ever say on camera like I'm
done after this. There's my hat. There's an iconic Marvel Comics comic book
cover that features the character Vision playedby Paul Bettany in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,
where he is basically a superhero robotand he's crying, and the comic

(05:08):
book cover says even an android cancry, and I firm, Josh that
yeah, that's not the case,I as an android myself. Yeah I've
I didn't. I didn't. Maybeit's that this week my heart has been
encased in a cold chocolate shell.But I did not cry it once a

(05:28):
little too thick, a little justpowder on the inside, no liquid.
Um. I know I cried morelast week, I think than this week.
I didn't saying yeah, yeah,yeah, I was really When when
when last week, when Brian wasaccused of having no heart and soul in
his food? That actually got meto tear up? A bit um,
But oh no, this this Iwas more. I was this was a
celebration for me. It was aIt was a celebration of what a what

(05:53):
a oh I cry at all emotionslike happy, I am very much.
I also felt like it was acelebration. It felt so wonderful and so
warm and so happy. It likeit almost didn't feel like a competition in
this episode. It just felt likethree wonderful people cooking three wonderful meals,

(06:15):
and at the end, they justhappened to give away two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. Like even at theend when Badmo was like Melissa, don't
forget about the money, and Melissa'slike, I forgot about the money honestly,
because I think that we talked aboutthis a bit last week as well,
right, And this is comparable againto Winners at War, is that
it did feel like a lot ofpeople had like unfinished business, not in
like I need to win Top Chef, and more so like I need to

(06:38):
emotionally resolve this, Like Stephanie admittedshe wanted to come on to basically show
that she was okay, that shecan move beyond, not move beyond,
but sort of, you know,not be completely succumbed to the absolute tragedy
that occurred in her life. Youknow, Melissa wanted to show like who
she became as a chef, youknow, as a result of her first

(06:59):
season, and so there almost likesecondary goals of these people were able to
accomplish. I mean, I'll openthis up, Haley, I know you're
going to agree best season of TopChef ever, please at me, like,
because I think bar none my favorite, And like I was thinking about
it, and I was trying toI was trying to almost separate the show
from the podcast we've been doing.It's no surprise that this this podcast for

(07:28):
me has been such a just awonderful, joyous experience and something I've looked
forward to every single week, especiallyin these weird times where a lot feels
dark and sad. It just beingable to talk to talk about it with
you guys every single week because mademe so happy. And I wasn't sure

(07:49):
if that was kind of getting intomy views about the season. But if
I really think on any rewatch,I would I would go back to the
season feels just as much joy watchingagain as they did the first time.
I thought there is many one ortwo episodes that we were like kind of

(08:09):
like mild on, like, Iwouldn't even say weld anything. Yeah,
they can't. The restaurant wars inthe camp back to back for the low
points of the season in my opinion, and that's saying something. It's like,
if that's the low ball and wehaven't had like any ghastly ugly incidents,
that to me is the mark ofa really good season. It's almost
like the podcast is that rising tidethat raises everything in terms of it's a

(08:31):
really great episode, we have areally good time talking about it. If
it's a really crappy episode, itelevates what we think about the show because
we still have a good time talkingabout it. Yeah. Like Mike mentioned,
I added the season into my TopChef season rankings, which is on
my box strong fig Steps. Yeah, and I put this is number one.
This is this was my favorite season. I loved it. I thought

(08:52):
the cast was phenomenal. I thinkwe lost the people we weren't super involved
in pretty early on. I thinkthe we had a final three which we
hadn't had in a while, whichI thought was really wonderful. In the
final three, we had. Wewere all so happy with it, and
I think we would have been satisfiedwith any of the winners. I know,

(09:16):
I'm personally over the moon that Melissawon. I Queen King. We
are happy, right, Yeah,and we get the Honey Baked Ham,
which means I also get a ham. No no, I feel like what
we talked about last week where Emilyhas to eat the ham while in the
other room into Yeah. We watchedthe episode on Thursday night and I would

(09:43):
wake at three am. I wokeup randomly, and then I was like,
oh my god, I'm gonna getthe ham. I completely in our
group text for the for the podcast, I completely forgot about that part of
the bets. I was confused forall this Honey Baked Ham chat was going
on. So I'm like, well, I haven't had And then and then
Emily told like confessed to me,like darkly confessed to me last nights.

(10:07):
Like I woke up in the middleof the night last night thinking because I
had Melissa on my team, thatI won the Honey Baked Ham, and
I wanted to wake you up atsay, Josh, we're getting that ham.
I think that's I think that's beautiful. How would you have reacted if
you were woken up in the middleof the night you buy your spouse and
just reminded that you'll get a hamI would have cracked up. Yeah,

(10:31):
But I think for me because Ithink I don't know, you know,
what the pushback will be from otherpeople, because I think on a season
that a lot of people will goback to it is like, well,
the First All Stars was the bestseason of all time. But you know
what, for me, with thereality television, my enjoyment always comes back
to two things. It's characters andit's storylines. And I think what this
season had above the First All Starswas the stories. Like we were talking

(10:52):
about the like psychological motivators that alot of these contestants had vastly outweighed fifteen
episodes of Richard as being like,everyone remembers I'm the guy that should have
won Chicago, so here's my chanceto do it again. Like there was
so everyone sort of had their momentsat least like from like the final six
or seven onward, and that wasreally cool to watch because admittedly I'm not

(11:13):
a huge fan of returning players seasonsbecause part of me sometimes feels like it's
watching reruns, it's watching people comeback and do the exact same thing.
And a lot of these people,even if they were cooking the same stuff,
brought different parts of their personality outor different like sides of themselves that
we didn't really experience before. Theyhad different goals in mind, and to
see them accomplish those goals made fora really new experience that I thought was

(11:37):
just sublime from top to bottom.Haley, I think to your point,
even like taking the podcast out ofit, although like I don't want to,
because that has been a tremendous pieceof my enjoyment of this season.
I would say it is the sourceof my enjoyment of all things Top Chef
right now. Like Fox and Ihave like our Saturday morning rich of like

(12:00):
getting this room like like squared awayto like have like two people sit at
this desk and podcast Like there's likethere's literally physical sense memory that's involved in
like the Saturday morning ritual of sittingaround and doing this podcast with all of
you. UM that has made thistime that has been an obscenely difficult time,
UM feel more palatable, feel uhlike at least have like one beacon

(12:22):
of light that every week we canwe can count on UM And I would
apply that same idea to Top Chefgenerally the show UM that this is a
season that I think is actually maybeelevated by the time that we're living in
UM that I think that this isa season of a very familiar product of

(12:46):
television. You know, this isa show that if you watch Top Chef,
you know what you're getting into generally, and you you know what to
expect, and it's comfort food ina lot of ways. And it's,
uh, you know, one ofthose it's like it's one of those rare
reality shows that's not hinge on dramaso much as it's hinging on like process
and and you know, sort oflike the shared love of food with great
characters and a very reliable array ofcharacters to to hang your hat on.

(13:11):
Uh that's somehow connected to Tom click. It is amazing. Yeah, exactly
why did I say, Beanie,what is raw yea? But how did
it stay on his head? Hesuper glue bobby pins bobby pins that he
just like threaded through the scalp umNo. I think I think it provides

(13:35):
some sort of sense of normalcy AndI and I think that UM it also
held up this season a sharp mirrorto the abnormalcy of our world right now,
UM where there would be episodes likethe Jonathan Gold stuff and like that
not really applying in the same traditionalway, Uh the Olympics, that's not

(13:56):
really the you know what they wantedit to be Starne Trolls World Tour.
And so there was there was sortof the sense of watching the show the
season that, like to me topChef, this season was not a pure
escape, but what it may,you know, because it was reflecting so
much of what was happening in theworld and is continuing to happen. And

(14:18):
we don't know where the tunnel ends. We don't know if there is an
end to the tunnel, where thetunnel is going to collapse, Like,
we don't know. We're in it. We're still in it. We're still
in the thing. But what Ithink that this season of the show,
Illustrated and Illuminated is a way forward, is like a way to move through
UM and I am going to morenot having that every single week moving forward,

(14:45):
because it has been such a reliablenorth star these past few weeks.
But if there is a lesson thatI want to take away from um the
joy of watching this season married withsome of like the difficult aspects of watching
this season is that those two thingsand exists simultaneously. Things can be incredibly
incredibly hard, but there can alsobe things to delight in during the difficulty.

(15:07):
And I think that Top Chef beingone of like the only great new
shows like with new episodes that's beencoming out in this time, for me
at least, has really reflected thatidea and has been incredibly meaningful. And
I think that that makes this forme, the best season of the show.

(15:28):
All of the other factors as well, whether it's like the most dominating
performance of all time by a winnerwith Melissa King, and it didn't feel
it didn't feel like like feel thatway like some dominating seasons you look at
and you're just like, like TopChef Texas when I Paul won, it
just felt like such like I don'tknow, it just didn't have any joy
to it. Where this season,like Melissa kept dominating, but it never

(15:50):
felt like overwhelming or like anti climacticor a finalists were on a journey and
all the journeys were really satisfying,like Stephanie was there to like really surprise
herself, and she did and likeshe like uh. And I think with
the surprise is the resolution of likeit should not be a surprise at all,
that I'm a badass chef. AndVoltagio his whole arc of Top Chef,

(16:18):
it's the tin man, you know, the heart metal on him at
the end. It's like, youknow what your food isn't soulless and heartless,
which I mean, it's it's good. We I think we gained between
our conversation. I don't know ifthere was last week or a couple of
weeks ago and what we saw here, I think we can confirm that like
Brian Maltago isn't data human being.He's great, but I and I think
that his journey was truly to takethe tin man men, for it was

(16:41):
a yellow brick road towards the plateof lasagna. How great? Who would
have the balls to pull out lasagnaout of final Top Chef dinner? It's
Brian. Not only that, butit looks so good, like I don't
know, Garfield's looking like Kevin a, you know, looking at that stuff.
And so I I think that that'swhy, you know, separating out

(17:02):
the podcast piece of it, thecontemporary nightmare that we are in, and
how this interacted with that, whichI think are crucial contexts for my enjoyment
of the season. I think whenyou look at when you cut down the
parts of the season as just likea season of Top Chef, it is
immensely satisfying because the stories of thethree finalists are all very, very compelling.

(17:26):
It did not feel in your facedominating on Melissa's behalf, as you
say, Haley, because I thinkeverybody, everybody, it's so cliche,
but everybody won. In a way, I feel like this is we could
just expand the os metaphor. Wehave Melissa as Dorothy. We have steph

(17:48):
as the cowardly lion right friends atthe end and she knows that she can
do this. We have Voltagio asthe tin man, who's scarecrow. Malarchy's
good. Well, then I thinkjury's Kevin is whether he got that diploma

(18:10):
at the end of Kevin was kindof toto ish. Well, yeah,
he like escapes from the basket fora little while. Oh my god,
well, I actually know no one. Maybe the scarecrow is Kevin because like
it's this idea of like he wantedto. I don't know, like he
came out there to prove that,like he was still alive in a manner

(18:30):
of speaking, right, that likeafter this big experience with cancer, that
like he can still do this andhe can still sort of have a brain
as a matter as manner of speakingfor cooking. And so he was able
to prove that and then some too, so Malarkey's oz, Oh my god,
Yes, he's the me is theman behind the curtain. You're like,
hey, guys, Kurt, Iknow that you know you're mister Goldfrish

(18:55):
brain, but at least from likethe recent seasons, you remember how does
this compare for you? When Iwas thinking about that in terms of like,
yeah, like the things like thestory and the characters are things that
do slip through my mind. ButI have a really strong emotional memory,
and I can't remember any time I'vefelt this positive about a finale in the
closing weeks of a season. Especially, We've all talked about we'd be happy
with any of these people having one, and I think pretty much every season

(19:19):
is tinged with I want I reallywanted this person to win, and if
somebody else wins, I'll kind ofbe a Okay, I guess so,
but this I wouldn't if I didn'tfeel that way with any of these three.
Yes, I was rooting for Brianbecause he was on my team.
Yes, I was reading for Stephaniebecause I think she just had such an
underdog at it. And yes,you know, wanted Melissa to win because

(19:41):
she was just slaying it in thekitchen. And it was interesting because I
think they they all did have thesedifferent story conclusions. I think Stephanie's like
we got mean, we got alittle bit early in terms of when they
first got to Italy and she wastalking about I feel like I've already wanted
I just want to get here.I never like it feels like she kind
of maybe wrapped up her story alittle it earlier in the season, still

(20:02):
had a lot to show in thelast couple episodes. But then I thought
Brian, like Padma telling Brian thatyou know, you showed us today that
you can cook with heart and souland spirit, that I was a good
rapp up for his story. Andthen it's funny, it's like we've been
a little bit, uh, youknow, incepted to think that Melissa wasn't
the obvious winner along like we'd sayit, but then we'd watch the episodes
and we'd forget it, and thenwe'd say it. And I don't know

(20:25):
if there's a combination just like skillfulcrafting of her confessionals and just like her
kind of her humility and when she'stalking to the camera, but it I
think her winning was her perfect likebow on her story. Well, I
think you bring up a good point, Kurt, because so speaking of Paul
from Top Chef Texas, I thinkTom for a long time said he was
the best ever contestant on Top Chefhistory. He has since supplanted that by

(20:48):
saying that Melissa is now. ButI know that Tom has said that,
like they had to edit the Texasseason in a way to like not show
how obvious it wasn't real life thatPaul was winning. Like apparently Paul was
just so out in front the entiretime that maybe that a couple of his
restaurants in Austin and during Hurricane Sandy, we were, yeah, we were

(21:10):
in Austin for Hurricane Sandy. WhenHurricane Sandy was here back home, and
we so we ended up having likean extra few days on our trip in
Austin. So we went back andlike like unloaded money into his business because
it's just so good, Like sothat's stupidly good. I still look at
those pictures. It's like early instagramdays and they're not great voting. There

(21:33):
are a lot of reasons to goto Austin if travel like truly becomes a
thing again, and like for us, like very top of the line would
be like to go to a PaulKey restaurant. Yeah, so Paul not's
a great person, but a greatrestaurantur But aside from that, so I
wonder could that have been the casewith Melissa, where like you said,
Kurt, their moments like oh mygod, my raft is breaking, or
even this episode, like I don'tknow if the I'm afraid that the squabs

(21:56):
might you know, get burnt orsomething. Do you think they sort of
threw those in to cast some doubten Melissa, because in real life,
like Brookie even told us a coupleof weeks ago, right, She's like,
yeah, Melissa was far and awaythe best dish on there that like,
the reality was Melissa was so outin front that they wanted to make
it seem at least a bit competitiveto us, that makes sense. You
know, it's really funny. Therewas a couple moments where I would feed

(22:21):
into the doubt that maybe she wasn'tgoing to win. Like, there was
a couple of moments throughout the seasonwhere I was like, no, this
is where Melissa goes and ended upjust being like, well, clarified by
Broth, everything's fine and it's justlike okay, cool. There was,
Yeah, there was surprising little dramain this episode in terms of I mean,
there was the like we were allworried about I think looking the previews,

(22:42):
like, okay, Stephanie's with Malarchy. She got first pick and she
picked Malarchy, you know, goodon her. And then we saw in
the previews like okay, is there'ssome sort of clash between that clash but
turbulence between Melissa and Leanne that lastedvery briefly during the shopping and it was
immediately quashed by Melissa. She's like, you know what, Leanna was gonna
want to have her input and Ijust have to know how to manage it.

(23:03):
And there Other than that, therewere no real like oh no moments
this this this episode, that biggest, my biggest oh no moment was when
Stephanie was like, my pork's readinga little dry. But then they like
fix it with the sauce, andthen the one guy was like, the
pork is way overcooked. I waslike, yeah, that was like that.

(23:26):
I know that. Uh. Obviously, I think Brian and Stephanie of
officially like tied for second place,but I think from the judge's perspective,
she was officially third, right,because that was the only dish out of
all twelve that they were like,this was a mess. That was.
That was the moment I knew Ilost the honey baked ham because the first
like two courses. I was like, Stephanie could win. I could get

(23:48):
the honey baked ham. And thenthat when the pork cooked, I was
like, that was my ham.Honey baked tam was out the window at
that point, all right. SoI literally threw a honey baked ham of
the one though also did a quickWikipedia deep dive into Paul Key I ever
sinned my I was like, oh, not a great person. I didn't
realize he said that. I waslike, well, what are you talking
about to Yeah, we want togo into it. People can do the

(24:14):
research offline. He is you know, a time cut, tuft of character,
great restaurant tour, not so goodperson. That happens. That's um,
It's a lot. Unfortunately, yeah, unfortunately, especially in the in
the culture. I will say thatI thought for a second in Brian Baltajio,
I did might lie in it.I thought it was a good chance
that he might. I wasn't like, oh, he's got an unlocked,
but I didn't. I didn't knowif it was going to be Melissa O
Brian. I did not think itwas going to be Stephanie. As much

(24:36):
as I would have enjoyed that,I thought that there was almost no question
that it would be Melissa by theend of all of it, By the
end of all of the dishes servedwell, I guess when you see over
her dessert, right, like that'sthe clincher. There's that. But there's
also literally only one critique about Melissathe entire way through, and it's that
the octopus charge you might be alittle sweet, and that's the point of

(24:59):
the dis and that was the onlymark against right. And it was very
very quick, whereas everybody else gotdinged in like all of them in minor
capacities, but at least in minorcapacities, and nary a word was was
lobbed at Melissa Well also speaking toMarcus Marcus Samuelson's point, um, no
one saw food best dressed. Ohmy god, I matched the beak dish.

(25:25):
I loved his outfit. I lovethe hat. I think Marcus Samuel
Samuelson is also just like a verybeautiful man. Yeah, I gotta say
Carney's outfit was my favorite. Ohyeah, I mean when its like beautiful
work, it's like when you thinkof stereotypical italianan. He just seeds like
a mustache and a chef's hat holdinga pizza right, Like that's but I'd

(25:45):
say Marcus wins the silver metal.I loved him freaking out over Melissa's use
of the Porcini, Like, yeah, that's what's so fun about the show,
as well as like watching people getgeeky over food. And to hear
Marcus Samuelson like his his maroon hatand nearly went through the roof when he
saw what she did with those mushrooms. It was really fun to watch.
Yeah, she had such a strongconcept, and I think that that might

(26:07):
have also nudged her forward that muchmore because not only can she execute perfectly,
but on top of it, meldingthose two cuisines together in a way
that no one has really seen andreally knocking it out of the park.
I mean, you can eat deliciousfood from the other two chefs any day
of the week. And I'm surethat you know it was highly competitive and
difficult for the judges to determine,but that concept. Wow. Like looking

(26:30):
at her Tira Massou, I waslike, holy, oh my god,
yeah, can you and the brilliantidea too, well, shit, this
is kind of directed at Mike asmy fellow food kit subscriber. Can you
imagine a Top Chef food kit whereevery week you get the top three dishes
like the either the either the ingredients, or even I would take reheated like

(26:52):
I was like, I would takeit, throw this in the oven.
Yeah, and just experience because Iwould love too. That's the one thing
I The one thing I don't likeabout Top Chef isn't the anything the show
can control itself, is the factthat I can't try this food. Well,
I think that some chef Testines havein the past, but like I
know, when Kelsey with that puppychow last season, right, like there's
how you make it, Like Ithink that, and Top Chef has partnered

(27:14):
with Blue Apron and the past I'vehad a Brooke recipe, I've had a
Joe Flame recipe. I don't knowwhat's been happening, like, because I
agree, I think that not onlywas this like the strongest final meal,
I guess in Top Chef history thatlike you're this is one time where you're
really like damn, especially like thethree pasta dishes and the second course just
all looks so freaking good. Yeah. Do you think they decided to go

(27:38):
with a final three because it wasAll Stars, because they wanted to showcase
as many people as they could,or because last season I think a lot
of people wanted Eric to go onand win and got cut right at that
final three and it kind of felta little like odd they didn't want that
person to get cut again. Orwhat do you guys think, like next

(28:00):
season, we're going to go backto a final two? Yea, Because
that's the interesting thing is that fora little bit of Top Chef history.
So they did Final two for thefirst two seasons, then it did Final
three starting in season three until thefirst All Stars when they went back to
a Final two, and they've beenat that until the second All Stars when
they went back to a Final three. So it's weird that, like All
Star seasons are constantly changing the currentof the Rivers. So to answer your

(28:22):
question, Heilly, I wouldn't besurprised if we do Final three from now
on, especially if they keep bringingon like fifteen to sixteen people. I
think everyone felt incredibly, incredibly robbedby Eric being eliminated the way he did
last season. That could have beenmade me, speaking from the heart,
really still burned terribly by Eric beingeliminated when he was Um, yeah,
I feel like I should get ahoney baked ham for winning last season.

(28:45):
But here are there and the umand this probably doesn't factor innow it.
But because I think we've I've I'velanded on the idea that they were always
going to bring Kevin back from LastChance Kit should no matter what that they
were going to, you know,judge that best of three returning challenge in
his favor, no matter what.Um, that's the closest I'll get to

(29:07):
a reality TV conspiracy. But ifhe hadn't come back, maybe it would
have gone down to a final two. Maybe I'm wrong because that'd been one
more elimination that they would have hadto fit into the show. Yeah that
makes sense. Yeah, but butI am usually I guess specifically when it
comes to like three competitive shows likeSurvivor and Big Brother, I am not
a fan of a final three.But this, this, you know,

(29:29):
got me a little bit on board, and I think it's only Yeah,
it's it's interesting that I think forTop Chef for some reason, um,
because I think like if a seasonof Top Chef is excelling, then like
the structure of the show is differentthan Survivor to a certain social it's not
social competition. It's for Project Runwayto Final three, So when you're judging
people's craft, it's less important froma game theory perspective if there's two or

(29:52):
three people. I think I thinkthree is is the right way to go
for Top Chef. This pip,I mean, I feels right because I
do think that because it's it's afinal three, we were allowed to have
like three really powerful story beans runningthrough the season, you know, like
and like there's a reason why thisseason the ending feels so satisfying. It's
not just the quality of the chefs, but also the ability to really artfully

(30:15):
tell the stories of three people whowin in their own rights. And I
like that the judges are given morethings to compare against each other as well.
It gives them a little bit moreto talk about and kind of work
through. And if yes, yes, it makes maybe makes their job a
little bit more difficult, but they'regetting pay good money, so I think
they can a hour to decide whowas I like that though, because I

(30:37):
will say I'm not a huge fanof like the head to head aspect of
the final feel like, I thinkthe worst example by far was in season
ten when they did like, okay, we're literally going to give points to
people based on each round. That'show Brook like unfortunately never never made her
dessert because they were actually scoring itout of there. This at least allowed
them to not necessarily do like ringchoice voting, but more so like,

(30:57):
okay, this is not definitive thisagainst this because like you could say,
you know, Brian Baltajio won thefirst course, but what does that mean
if like Stephanie wins the second churseand Melissa Whin's the dessert. It definitely
keeps more things up in the air, right, Oh, delicious things meals
though, huh except for that phenelin Melissa's first course, like she should

(31:18):
have lost for that. Well,maybe maybe it would be best if,
like I know that we're not wedon't usually go like, you know,
dish by dish, but maybe ifwe do like our favorite first course second
course. Yeah, I've been consideringthis, yeah, because I mean I
do think that like I would probablyI'm a fan of octopus, as a
Sir Squinnington fan that I am.But I do think that Brian Baltajio is

(31:41):
like beat Tartar. Essentially, Ithought was really really cool, so I
could understand why it won. Thefirst course. The shrimp um and like,
it looked really good. It looked, it looked so good, and
the way you just said that itdid it did look really great. Emily,
the degree of difficulty in cooking thatway, were you? Yeah,

(32:04):
no, Tom hit hit the nailon the head. That's really hard to
execute without overcooking the shrimp. Um. You want the crispiness of the katafi.
You want the shrimp to be perfectlycooked and not rubbery, and yeah,
that's that's not easy to do.And also just like the story baked
into that. H my god,Yeah it was Gail. Yeah, when

(32:25):
cried like that, Like when Seecried, I was like bo. When
Gail cried, I was like,oh, I'm done for okay, it
was too hard. Yeah. Ilove I love shrimp. I could eat
shrimp at every single meal, sothis one really had my eye same um,
And I love coconut shrimp too,So if Stephanie wants to make me
some coconut shrimp, I wish Iwould love that. Ny why is there

(32:51):
like egg when the breading or whatever? Yeah, I would have gone for
those Stephanie's first quarter. You justgoing to talk about how I've been shoot
away from shrimp at weddings? Whatwhat tell me more? Well, em
we Emily will crowd a pash.That is what the Strong family does.
Like my aunt, like, we'llusually get together with the dad my dad's

(33:13):
side of the family on Christmas Eveand just like not even have like dinner
and just have like apps. Myaunt. My aunt always put out shrimp
cocktail yep, and me, mybrother, my dad, and my uncle
will all just stand around it likeconversations about this shrimp. He stood up
right now. Oh, I lovethis shrimp is like a talking point,

(33:34):
strong family ritual. But we don'ttalk. You know, the talking was
exaggeration. My my family are quietfolds. That's what we do. And
Ethan. Ethan doesn't eat seafood,so he's just like sitting back to like
looking at all of us, justlike going to town on the shrimp,
like I love I can every day. I I wish it was more so

(34:00):
actually acceptable to eat cocktails off witheverything. Oh, I put it on
everything. I put so much horseradish in it. I love the brain
freeze like right here, yes,yeah, I don't get brain freeze.
Mike looks so upset by it.I don't know why. I brain freeze
is like something you want to strivefor in your food. But well in
like the in like the horse rads, you know what's working? Yeah yeah,

(34:25):
Mike, do you well like horseradish shirt? Does it bother your
tongue? You know? There's somuch of this carbonation. Let's so about
taste. No, listen, Igot I got a big thing up here,
like I'm I want to clear outas much stuff as possible, and
just why sniff lines of horse radishevery day? Baby? To get that
stuff would not advise. Yeah,I don't know that it's gonna work the

(34:45):
way you wanted to. That wasa horsh I've never I never maybe this
because I'm done with food never.I've never heard of tatafee before this point.
So like this idea of like greatangel hair is like it was a
cool concept to me. I recognizeit, but I didn't know name.
I didn't either, So that's fair. Um, guys, should we get
together and eat the shrimp cocktail?Yes? Oh yeah, shrimp Cocktail podcast

(35:08):
with with John John's special guest ohTail to talk during it. Yeah,
when shrimp, we'd have to makesure to divide the shrimp being like evenly
so that we all get in thesame amount of shrimp, so we don't
get any in fighting about shrimp,like shrimp six ways like ways there can

(35:30):
be like even if it's just variationalwar cocktail, I prefer not breadit.
Oh sorry, this is this ispostseason content, isn't it. Um?
I can't wait for a shrimp episode. Episode is gonna be really good.
Now people know that I'm a bigpizza fan. Wait, wait, and
this is I think overreported is howmuch I love pizza. Underreported for me,

(35:52):
So pizza is like comfort food forme. Pizza. No no,
no, I thought that's where hewas going to. No, I'm throwing
my support behind another first course.Uh, and that that is Melissa's first
course is like as as it's thepizza course as as a as a as
a Long Island jew who had afather who like never set foot into kitchen

(36:17):
and a mother who rarely did andoften would get us take out. Uh,
Chinese food was a huge staple inthe Wiggler household growing up, and
majam uh was the one two punchof a cold sesame noodle which I love,
like the peanut buttery sauce and uhspare ribs Chinese spare ribs which is

(36:40):
the which is the charsiu sauce,which is the charsiuquas and that has been
Um, those two things are consistentlyamong like if I were to list out,
like what are the things that remindyou the most of like home,
Um, pizza is a big oneobviously, but those two dishes in American
Chinese food and how Charsiu has hashas been something that I've like aggressively pursued

(37:06):
beyond, just like the American Chinesestaples. He buys like what is required
in the recipe, but in theraw forms. Like he's like, you
need red bean paste, and hecame home with a bag of red beans
dried and I mean yeah stick,Like, yeah, We've had this bag
of red beans for about ten yearsnow that you brought home to our party.

(37:30):
So they haven't turned into they haven'tturned into paste yet. Yeah,
No, I got another It's anotherdecade to go. I can't imagine,
Like John's like Josh gonna have beefto night go shoppy, like brings home
a cow, like all right,let's do it. You all laugh.
But when the apocalypse really hits inand within the next year, we're gonna
have beans to cook. So we'regonna be set on sustenance for one month,

(37:51):
longer than the rist of y'all.Um. No, But like anytime
I'll go to like a Chinatown orwhen I've been lucky enough to travel internationally,
like I will aggressively hunt and chartsdo anything which is typically pork.
So the idea of applying that tooctopus and like marrying that very specific flavor
that like my palate knows and lovesvery very well was a fascinating choice to

(38:13):
me, and like I could,I could see that, I could visualize
it, I could taste that veryclearly in terms of this idea of Melissa
trying to marry her cultural experience withthe Italian cultural cultural experience, so that
in terms of like that journey thatshe's trying to establish here in her in
her menu, it made a tonof sense to me. And I really

(38:34):
wanted to try that stick a forkand it will be right back after these
messages and take that fork right outbecause we're back. So Melissa's was my
favorite for the second course for thepasta. I know that you know people
were going gaga over Stephanie's stuff,but that what you basically said, Josh,
was like, I don't know,I love chicken skin personally, and
I think that throwing it in withthe pasta like probably added such interesting textures

(39:00):
to it. And this was likeone of the big examples to me of
like literally taking something it's Italian andthrowing so many Chinese influences into it that
it not only did it look reallygood, but just like everything that she
kept mentioning I absolutely loved. SoI think that you know, maybe hers
was one of the more underreported,you know, parts of the second course
that I think was just another Shecontinued on that streak, even though the

(39:22):
first course was probably what gave herthe most quote unquote criticism. I think
all that wasn't validated by the timeit got to the second course. Yeah,
chicken skin on anything is probably agood call. Yeah. When people
take chicken skin off of things anddon't eat it, get upset. So
I was just googling, like allthe local food delivery service to see if

(39:43):
there was charge to anything that Icould I in Portland, Oregon, Ones
there's a there's a sandwich place Iwish I remember the name of. But
they did like a BLT, exceptinstead of bacon, it was like a
huge thick sheet of chicken skin.Oh it was Oh you weren't you weren't

(40:04):
there for that trip. It wasunbelievable. That sounded shrimp. Let me
see if Google to figure out wherethat was chicken skin blte. I will
say I'm not a lasagna person,but I say, Mike, but I
really I liked Brian's. I thinkit's maybe because I'm not a huge fan
of like too much cheese and alasbecause I feel like, Okay, we've
talked about it, because I knowthat Haley and I've had a Racoda discussion

(40:27):
before that I'm the same way,Mike. Yeah, but like I don't
I don't want a two thousand dollarsPatrons can see how upset Haley is right
now because I don't want to.I don't want to taste only cheese.
What do you mean do you wantto taste only cheese. I want to
taste like the meat. I wantto taste the pasta with it. You
know. I wanted to be likean actual mixture of things instead of like
added calories on top of the cheese. So I think the fact that like

(40:49):
not only did have good presentation,but the fact that like the Racoda was
like limited to like a bisham land there was so much other stuff on
top of it, I think probablymade it more of like a complex.
You know. They called it whatlike we're fined and light. I've never
heard anyone described lasagnea's light before.Yeah, And in college I went through
there was a sports bar that hada great chicken Florentine lasagna with like pine
nuts and spinach and a beschea melsauce, which you would not expect this

(41:13):
from a sports bar, but itwas amazing. And that's like the one
lasagna I've I've enjoyed. But lookingat Brian's dish, the fact that I'm
assuming you could you could between thebest mel hopefully kind of countering the riccatta,
the fact it was a wild boarboigniers. I was intrigued by Brian's,
but I think I would have probablygone for Stephanie's not just first course,

(41:34):
but her second course as well.That just sounded between like the pumpkin
and the apple. It was.It just sounded really intriguing. Strong flaves,
strong flaves. Yeah, yeah,you rang it did well. I
think I can also imagine it wasfall then two right, Yeah, it's
a good way to like, Imeanee fall. Yeah, that's the thing.
The pumpkin was included. I feellike there are not many references to
Fall, but Stepe including some pumpkinin there made it feel like it finally

(41:57):
was is And Emily, I don'tknow if you know spicy rugla a kind
of a rugla or is it somethingyou have to do to you rugela to
make it spicy, Because I sawthat both Brian and Stephanie had spicy arugula
as part of their first course.I didn't know if that was, like,
yeah, we're typically used to eatingbaby arugola, which doesn't have kind
of the same bite to it.Okay, But then when you let it
grow a little bit more, atleast what I've dealt with in terms of

(42:21):
actual variety of arugula, that tendsto be spicier. Okay, So it's
an inherent quality of the root.Okay, when you let it mature a
little bit more, it gets alittle bit more bitterness to it. Oh,
I can relate completely. Yeah,I found the sandwich. That's great
about like having like four to sixhosts is that you can always be googling

(42:44):
something you were just talking about.It was it was it was a special.
It wasn't it's not always on.But it's a restaurant called it's a
restaurant called Lardo in Portland, Oregon. And the sandwich was called the Yardbird.
And it was a blt with chickenskin instead of bacon, and it
had like pickled onions and bread.Looks good. It was. Yeah,
I'll post a link to it inthe show. So it's a clt.

(43:05):
This is a This is an Instagrampost of mine from October fifth, twenty
fourteen that currently has twenty one likes. Let's seen, like, all right,
we're linking to it in the shownotes. Let's get that up to
twenty three legs. It will saywhen I have a little too much to
drink. One of my favorite activitiesis like going through people's Instagram and just
like liking every single photo. Sobe prepared for that, you guys,

(43:30):
cool so well. Speaking of bread, I guess you know, Melissa was
again super out in front. ButI think one of the things that did
Brian Botagio in was his baking rightwith that like squid inc facaca, Like,
I didn't even think about the factthat he had to, I guess
make that bread. But it turnedout not to be too great on the
ditch, say, where they thoughtit had too much like egg in it.

(43:52):
Maybe you think that about everything though, I think, yeah, I
think this, Yeah, every timesomeone says egg um, there was there
was and they so they it wasn'tlike spongey enough so they couldn't use it
to stop up right stuff from thepasta. A typical focaccia is just like
yeast water and flour and a lotof olive oil, So throwing it was

(44:15):
a stunning thing. Yeah, butI can see how that would be an
issue because you wanted to be spongyand not superventse and usually when you add
egg to an enriched bread or doughlike that, it makes things denser.
It was a cool idea of like, you know, no part left behind,
right, used the whole, usedthe whole animal. And I liked

(44:36):
the idea. But that that's thatwas a prime example of how I knew
Melissa had won. Uh. Therewas nothing said about any of Melissa's stuff
that even rivaled the comments about thesquidding focaccia. Right, I'm not a
single comments right. The closest isthat the charsi was too sweet. That's
especially compared to this third dish one. Again, this is the this is

(44:58):
the squab with the percini where MarcusFamilson freaks out and I'm middlely I think
I would not be like drawn tothis, but it does sound like from
the judges feedback like that this isthe one that this was like one of
the dishes to try because it wasjust so like Parne. The best part
of of the not the best part, but one of my favorite parts of

(45:19):
the episode was when someone comments that, like it's almost like a riff on
Foa Gray, and Tom like veryexcited to goes yes, yes, yes,
exactly exactly that, Yes, yougot it, that's exactly it,
Like well, Tom Lea. Myfavorite was when Neilo was like, I
don't even like squab and I lovethis. Yeah, your girl, but

(45:39):
I Nilo got the invite to GrandElliott. Still am I A see I
would have gotten just you know previouslyreported early in this season. I love
baby Cow, so I would havegotten the vele um, but I think
I would have been intrigued by Melissa'scourse. I was like, I would
have had like everybody order and thenmake sure someone gets this's dish, and

(46:00):
I would have tried it, andthen I would have made my decision and
had my entree after everybody else gotpicked, because I I would have needed
to try the I don't want tojust settle for the veal when the squab
is intriguing, but I don't wantto decide on the squab without trying it.
Yeah. I love a salty sweetcombo, so I think the squab
in Persimmon would have been an appealingoption for me. Yeah, I think

(46:20):
the like the Veal and the Njokiseemed good as separate ideas. I don't
know how I would feel with themtogether. I guess that's one of their
notes as well about the dish toorights like Tom felt and Yoki was too
much. So I mean, Ithink even Stephanie knew that, like it
just didn't come through. But again, like we talked about, like,
she has had her own emotional andmoral victory, so I'm sure she was
just fine being like I got tocook in a Top Chef finale. That's

(46:44):
freaking fantastic, especially after the wayshe went out and her not original actually
in both of her original consists,like she got cut in Seattle and then
she came to New Orleans and shewent out on a dish that wasn't hers.
So I think she's just feels sosatisfied that she was able to prove
herself and be like, listen,like I'm good at this like everyone.

(47:07):
That's the thing as well, Itotally forgot. I totally forgot Kristen Kish
was Stephanie's bff. I will neverforget that for the rest of my life,
well, because I remember because theyin Seattle. They were with each
other during those qualifying rounds and that'show christ and moved forward and Stephanie got
eliminated. So it was fun to, you know, finish that storyline off

(47:27):
what like seven years later. Yeah, we talked quickly about um oh,
I don't know, Tom Padma andGail cooking together. What did you guys
feel about that? I felt likeit was really hot. I just I
love her. Yeah, Spicer,I love hire so much, and I

(47:50):
think she's probably one of the mostbeautiful women I've ever seen in my entire
life. And she's forty nine yearsold. Guys, As she announces in
Taste the Nation, her new Hulushow, which people should be watch,
Yeah, I don't know why she'sso committed to those awful glasses. Yeah,
I kind of love them. Ikind of love them. Not in
the kitchen, no, I meanthey're gonna be smelling like food for like

(48:10):
years at this point. It's somebodywho's literally never worn glasses. Glasses like
that is one of the dumbest thingsI've ever heard. And I love you
to death, but I wear glasseseverywhere every day my glasses doors smell.
You're not then absorbs smell. Idon't know exactly. Clearly, I love

(48:37):
you. I don't mean to comeat you hard, but your glasses don't
just like warm smells. If yourglass is absorbed smells, I would I
would have been gone all learn somethingtoday. Yeah, if it out small

(49:00):
Tom's than Tom's Jankie ass nineteen ninetyfive bowl cap absolutely well from that smoke,
I will absorb the food that campfirefor what ever? Decide with?
Like I did think the glasses justseemed an odd fashion choice. Like I'm
sure she has other frames that youcould have warned it just it, but

(49:21):
it seems like she does. Shekeeps wearing them and taste the name she
liked. It wasn't so recently thatI have more than one. No,
I don't know if their lenses thanthose things, otherwise those would smell too.
What is she wearing it like awelder's mask to protect her from fumes
or something or no, like herfashion, absorbed don't smell you, you

(49:42):
fool. No, every part ofthe glasses a smell. Yeah, you
clearly never Wren. The lenses aremade of rock candy. They don't absorb
any smell. What do they smelllike? I smell like the smoothie I
made him earlier. Yeah, therewe go. Yeah, I did make
the smoothie. It is different.Papa has those new sponge based frames exactly,

(50:09):
glasses like edible glasses. Is aninteresting idea. Let's leave the silence
agrees with your silence acceptance. Sowhat does err you picking? So?

(50:31):
Yeah? I tend to avoid tarmisu. Um. I don't love bitter flavors,
and I'm not a coffee drinker.I wonder because this tiarmisu is made
with like milk or not milk?Oh my god? If it's made with
tea, if I would like ita bit better, I would definitely try.
But I think I would go forthe malt chocolate mouse. I would

(50:52):
rather die than ever like consume somethingcalled carmem soil. But that's the thing
I wouldn't. I would ask eatit. That's a lie. But I
just like cardamom soil, Like,like, why are we calling it cardamom
soil? Have you even had thesubtitle of cardamom yeah, which I thought
was strained. There was because therewas no call out to it being amazing.

(51:13):
I don't remember. Yeah, that'sthe thing is that I guess it's
just like our own discerning dessert taste. But I would say, like Brian's
looked, I guess the most palatable. But it's also because it's the most
simple, right. It was likehere's a lump of moose, here's a
lump of ice cream, and here'ssome soil beneath it. And I think
that I'm just I'm not a fanof toffee. I disagree with that one's
jus like, who's not gonna lovesticky toffee pudding? Yeah, Like I

(51:34):
would never choose a sticky toffee puttingin a line of like a Venetian um,
you know table. Look, theykind of looked like does there a
table at a wedding? I wouldease table. I would have picked the
sticky toff pudding. It kind oflooked like a donut it did, I
would Well, I guess the makessense right because she's this was harkening back

(51:55):
to her like donut pop up,So I think that makes sense. Yeah,
if all three of these were infront of me, would I consume
them without three breaths in between?Yeah? Like, based on the written
description, I would have first throughfourth course picked Stephanie's meals, but like
seeing things like knowing the chefs behindthem and seeing what they ended up looking

(52:15):
like. I could have potentially swished, like if the Hong Kong Milk t
Tira Misu had any resemblance to say, a like a you know, a
tie iced tea or like some likesomething that was that was a little bit
different. I don't think that forme. Tira Missu isn't too bitter,
and I will will drink coffee,but it's intriguing. But it's like I

(52:36):
would have tried all of your's disheswhen you got the stuff I didn't get.
Yeah, Hong Kong Milk T's awesome, and to marry that with the
Tira Missu is a really cool idea. I would definitely eat that and get
very ill. Yeah, you wouldnot, you would not be buzzing to
be a run. I think ifI had to pick a menu, I
think I would almost gravitate towards Melissa'sbecause it's the most different from anything I

(53:01):
think I've ever tried. I lovethe way she really melded her culture with
where they are. I find oftentimesin these finales because they travel and I
think we saw this with Gregory inthe finale of Top Chef Boss, so
when he really tried to take somuch inspiration from Mexican cooking that he kind

(53:22):
of forgot what it is that hedoes. And I feel like that kind
of happens a lot when they travel. They really try and go like,
oh, like I'm here, Igotta do this, And I think Melissa
bridged them perfectly. Yeah, AndI feel like her menu was the most
interesting to look at. Yeah,it's through line. I think when you're
like looking at them all as likewhen you're actually like reading through all of

(53:45):
the menus and you see all ofthe dishes that are on each menu,
I think the through line on Melissa'sis like the most obvious. And like
I think, like as Brian andStephanie articulate their journeys, it makes a
lot of sense as far as howpersonal it is to them. But I
think like you could read Melissa's menuand like you get where she's coming from.
This is it was like ruby slipperson a platter, Emily, but

(54:06):
it is it is. It's fusion. It's a journey of fusion, and
I think like you can just readthat and the fact that apparently it delivered
on the promise of what's written onthe page, I think is really really
great. Molissa made a magic trick. She attempted something that was not really
possible, I think in a lotof these people's eyes, and considering the
fact that time after time, Imean, let's remember she won all the

(54:30):
elimination challenges in Italy by doing this, and to have these native Italian cheps
be like, what you're doing isincredible. That speaks volumes and it understands
why she comes in with this perspective. But I whilst I also agree that
I love that they all had perspectivesin this as well. I know that
we don't often get people coming intothe finale being like I'm cooking with this
journey. It's more so like,yeah, here's a bunch of stuff I

(54:52):
can cook. And so it wascool again and speaks towards the storylines of
each of these finalists that they hadsomething they wanted to communicate through the food
other than just like, hey,this is the best meal I can cook
and I want to win Top Chef. Yeah. Plus, everyone was just
so lovely. I just really likedall of these chefs so much. There
wasn't any sort of contention, evenat the beginning when Brian, you know,

(55:15):
says, oh I got Octopus twoand then in the confessional says,
I'm not worried about anybody else's dish. I'm just excited to cook for myself
and I'm excited for everybody else tocook, and that, I don't know,
in a world where everything is supercompetitive and can be pretty nasty,
it's really lovely to hear that kindof sentiment. Can we talk about the

(55:35):
music video Oh my God, nothingmore? In a week where Survivor has
commemory one of its most famous musicvideos, Top Chef says, hold my
tira, Missu, here's one foryou. So there was actually two music
videos. I believe Stephanie released what'sit called? Stephanie Samara and the Kings.

(55:58):
They did a cover of Who's Who'sIt Again? Uhoy men? Yeah,
end of the Road I think thesong is called. They did a
lip sync. It was really beautiful. There was a more Stephanie was in
the bath and it was just magical, like fully clothed in the bath.
Yeah, And then there was likeanother one with like producers and stuff.

(56:21):
They did another lips that one.I can't remember what that one was too.
Yeah, there's great, great content. These are people who clearly enjoy
each other tremendously. I'm glad thatBrian partook in that. We saw Brian
Voltago lip sync then like what,I don't know he he didn't don't feel
like that dad that would like dothis type of like when his kids like

(56:43):
dress up and play fairy bell He'slike, all right, I will be
the fairy princess want. We hada lot of Brian laughs in this episode.
I think if you went back andlike charted like the number of going
back to my whole you know,Dia Tribe last week on introversion and Brian
Voltagio, I'm wondering if you goback and enschart the number of laughs he
made and compare that to the numberof contestants still in the uh like the

(57:07):
he is he getting looser and looserand laughier and laughier. Uh No,
Taffy as the ash as the episodesprogress, Yeah, I've had peak laughter
in the in the previous two episodes, but here it's still I like happy
Brian. I would say my opinionof No Chef changed more than my opinion

(57:29):
of Brian Voltaggio this season in agood way, in a good way,
in a in a good way,because I think I entwered this season like,
yeah, he's he's an excellent technicalchef that has no harder soul would
probably have been my my take onBrian ball he's a robot um and I
think actually he bared out to besomeone who has just like a really really

(57:51):
pleasant personality, seems like a reallypleasant person to be around, really does
care a lot. Uh, he'sa lovable rough spy. You know,
he really is, He really reallyis. And I was so pleasantly surprised
with with Brian. See I wouldcop that comment for Melissa in my opinion,
where I thought Melissa was like apleasant presence in Top Chef Boston,

(58:15):
but she didn't especially when compared tolike you have Dougie, and you have
Gregory, and you have May andyou have Katsuji. Like it was a
season full of big personalities and bigchefs, and Melissa just didn't really stand
out. So I'm like, Okay, it's fine that she's back. And
then she goes on to like absolutelykill the season and then also open up
to us about like how much strengthshe has gained as a person in both

(58:37):
her occupation and her lifestyle, herlife choices and like being able to bring
that into the kitchen and then justkick so much ass the entire time was
really really cool to watch it.In my opinion, she is one of
the all time greats. Oh yeah, yeah, abolish and I would not
have said that coming to the season. That's a surprise as well, is
that I think Melissa became like theBrian Botajo of this season in that coming

(59:00):
in, I think a lot ofpeople were like, oh, yeah,
this is Brian's season to win,just like it was Richard Blade's season to
win. But no, Melissa provedthat she was the front runner this entire
time. Quikio apparently, like yousaid, Quikio says that she's the best
of all time. I would takethat stand now. I think Wisa King
goat, yes, King, I'mI'm happy. I'm happy to go with

(59:20):
that. I love Melissa. Ilike to think that early in the season
and like before the season, Iwas really excited to see her again.
Yeah, that might be revisionist history, but I think she was really good
in like the final push of herseason. She was really strong. Yeah,
I feel like I talked about that, I loved her and I was
excited to see her again. Mike, I totally get where you're coming from.

(59:40):
We just like you said, thereare so many big personalities that season
that was really hard, and shealmost didn't get an edit until like the
final three or four episodes, SoI totally get it. I was excited
to see her again. I'm soexcited that she just obliterated this season and
I'm so happy she out the win. I cannot I cannot be happier with

(01:00:04):
how this season ended up going.I think for me, Um, one
of the issues I typically have withreality TV in general is that it always
feels like there are a lot ofblowhards. There are a lot of people
with a lot of big personality.Yeah, listen, we have enough of
that in real life. I don'tneed that shit to be perfectly frank,
I love to see somebody who isdedicated, who who has technical proficiency,

(01:00:28):
who is disciplined, who is kind, who is honest, rise to the
top and fucking earned that spot.And that's exactly what she did. And
not only that, but she earnedthe hearts of the fans as well.
Because spoiler alert Melissa King is yourTop Chef fan favorite for then I didn't

(01:00:50):
I didn't know, but that Idon't think it's a spoiler. But the
really great thing is we talked aboutjust a few weeks ago, but she
has officially donated one hundred percent ofher fan favorite prize money, all ten
thousand dollars, to the Black VisionsCollective, the Asians Americans for Equality,
Asian Youth Center, and the TrevorProject. Got to I got to talk
with her actually yesterday about this,and you know, she talked about how

(01:01:13):
she just feels like there's so manyrelevant causes to this that she really wanted
to find a time to like usethe funds to support that. So I
hopefully we can link to that inthe show notes as well, of like,
I think these are great causes forpeople to donate to as well.
But yeah, I'm happy and followyou King, Yeah exactly. But I'm
happy and a little surprised as well. Like we talked about this the past
couple of weeks, right about howBrian Voltage is sort of like the casual

(01:01:37):
favorite of Top Chef, so evento see how Melissa was able to beat
him there I speaks towards like justhow freaking dominant she was this season.
The line from Stephanie like the rowaway, like I'm going for fan favorite
good, just the funniest person maybeon top chef ever like to give that

(01:02:00):
too love. Do you think shewould eat eat shrimp cocktail with us?
Yes? Oh yeah, let's signinto her d NS. And I think
Kurt Meby you mentioned this. Ican't remember, but somebody said, like
Stephanie just so casually saying yeah,I think my chances are one and three.
Yeah, yeah, that was great. No, I think she One

(01:02:21):
of my crime moments of the episodewas her final confessional about her talking about
like you know, she wasn't feelinggood about the mental space since her brother's
death, and she says, butnow I'm so glad this is what we
can talk about for a while.Like that just that broke me because just
like her being like and like somany people thought I wasn't okay and I
just want to be like I'm okay. Yeah, and then Gail crying again.

(01:02:43):
Oh my god, he's gonna makeme cry again, Like I'm going
to know I'm a crier. Whatcan I say too? Well, what
do you guys, well, whatelse we thought about this episode? Anything?
Are you ready to move into ourWell, so I'm without us.
I want to I want to positsomething. UM. So we don't know

(01:03:04):
what the future of Top Chef lookslike, right, we don't. We
don't know what the what they're forthe future of this podcast looks like.
UM, I would like to proposethat any conversation about like what should Top
Chef do next, be punted untilnext week for us to get back together
talk about that like a full episode. I love almost like a feedback show.

(01:03:29):
But let's do a feedback show,Let's do a think tank, and
let's also maybe entertain some ideas oflet's keep this party going. I love
I love that idea so much.And you know, I kind of and
I think like this is a greatopportunity where we've got a lot of people
who are on this podcast. Thisis like one of the biggest multi headed
podcasts in the in the rhap sphereum. And I think the more the

(01:03:53):
merrier, And I think that thisis a podcast where there's they're great opportunities
to have guests on and to havea bunch of different people coming on and
talking about their food experiences and ideallythreading this through the lens of television to
some degree. But for us tohave this corner of the Rachp universe where
we can be talking about food andour collective eating experiences and marrying that with

(01:04:15):
what we're watching and how we're interactingwith each other through screens, that's the
name of the show. So whatwe do have to work on some branding,
probably, but let's let's get backtogether next week and talk that stuff
through. Because I'm not I'm notready to close our standing Saturday appointment.
I'm not either, and I've gottena few messages from people saying that,

(01:04:36):
like, Oh, I'm so disappointedthis is the last week, and there's
nothing I would love more than justto continue this. I think what we've
got going on is so wonderful.Like you said, Josh, we have
so many opportunities to bring in peopleand talk about things, and I think
it would be fun to like tellour food stories and you know, talk
about food and just a slightly differentway than we have been. And there's

(01:04:59):
so many food shows out there thatI think we could be watching. So
listeners, let us know what youthink we should watch or and even if
we just watch one episode or wecover a whole series, or just what
kind of things you want to hearfrom us? So you can email us
your ideas actually rapp at email dotcom orca or do we officially invest in

(01:05:23):
the time. No, no,no, no, don't get it.
We'll get an email address once wecome up with a show name. I
have one. I have one SaturdaySpume. Hey, Emily, no,
oh my god, blacks to smelllike spume after you check it? Can
we ask? Can we ask Robfor the email address? Food? Rob

(01:05:45):
has a website dot com. Yeah, you know, Rob is so anti
food that I don't know if I'llapprove of that. But Food as a
website dot com is about to bemade. You may want to wait until
like Monday or Tuesday to send anemail there because it'll take a little I
would get set up, but I'mliterally right now getting it set up.
But I know that I know thatsome ideas that we have internally plowed around
is like going back and watching anold season of Top Chef covering one of

(01:06:08):
the more modern food series out there. Josh mentioned Padma series for instance,
like or just talking in general aboutlike spending an episode about ingredients or about
cuisines, like the world is ouralways certain a manner of speaking in that
regard. So if you have ideasabout what you would like us to watch
and subsequently talk about, our earsare open. If you have shows you

(01:06:29):
want to warn against, let meknow. I'll take those under my wing.
Yeah, oh my god, yes, what did we make this week?
We can't leave without. We wouldnever I didn't really make a whole
I have a visual to remember.I always those BLOGI tacos they are so

(01:06:51):
that's like today I was thinking Iwas obviously my whole runner. This season
with food was like, okay,I love Bulgogi bowls, also love Asian
tacos. And somehow it got tothe altar and the bride and groom were
finally able to make it work.I made bull Googie chicken tacos. Bryan
Bularky like get sponsored by Blue Apronto do that. Yeah, the hym

(01:07:15):
and Shrek they carted up together.But it was good as a pickled cucumber,
some Sarapan sour cream and some likecooked cabbage and it's super simple but
it turned out really well. Andlike scratch that ish that apparently has been
itching me for the past like threemonths. Also, did you also do
the pork bulgogie bowl that was availablethis week? No, I didn't want

(01:07:38):
to. I didn't want to go. I didn't want to go to bowl
googies back. I brought the visualbecause Angela always throws the card away and
by the time it comes around toSaturday, I always freaking forget what I
cooked. So I'm like, allright, let's let me like actually have
a visual aid here so I rememberthe exact name of it, especially for
those that are partaking. Actually curtainedmyself and the meal kids. I heard

(01:07:58):
those cards, like we did HelloFresh like two years ago at this point,
and I still have cards from thatjust just in case I ever want
to make it again. Korean KoreanMexican fusion is like one of my favorite,
like the we've talked about the Kogitruck. And when I lived in
Chicago, there was a place calledLata Korea which had like some of my

(01:08:18):
favorite like you know, Calbar burritosand they had ramen with kind of like
moley spice. It was just oneof my favorite fusions and mashups in the
world. That sounds delicious. Whatdid we do I'm trying to remember.
Oh I made tacos. Yeah,I made halib it tacos. We were

(01:08:41):
awesome. Yeah, with a cilantro, pineapple and mango slaw. Oh so
good. In your opinion, what'sthe best fish for a taco? I
like halib it because I don't lovecod, and also cod is a weekend
fish stock in the ocean, soyou should not be buying it. It's
been over fished for centuries. Primaryfish cod's primarily the fish and chips fish.

(01:09:03):
Yeah. Yeah, so everyone waslike, oh the British. Yeah,
and when when everybody came to NewEngland, they were like, wow,
there's so much cod here. Don'tanymore? Yeah? After it come
on? Yeah, So I thinkhalibit's really good. It's it's it's a
very mild white fish. It flakesreally well and um is super delicious.

(01:09:23):
So we pan fried that really easily. But you could also batter it and
fry it of course. Um.But yeah, you can do fish tacos
with virtually anything, you know,it just depends on what you're you're accompanying
it with our work has Um,we have haddock tacos and we have like
Gary Perch tacos both here. Soyeah, Like I've even done salmon tacos
before and those have been great.Sammon this week also, yeah I did.

(01:09:46):
It was like a miso glay salmon. Oh yeah. And I was
told by my primary care physician,I need to eat more fish. I'd
got a big fish eater or fishlover those Omega's Kurt. Yeah. Yeah.
Actually my next meal kid Mike fromfrom Hello Fresh, Actually I'm adding
on just their two flames of samlike they did. They're there. You

(01:10:08):
can add like just meat producing stuff. That's a while ago. A while
ago from um Costco, I gota big bag of frozen bassa and I
liked that for doing stuff with twoKurt. One of my favorite ways to
do to do fish is just tomake a really simple like black and seasoning
and just cover that and then heavysea on both sides and then you got

(01:10:30):
that nice crispiness um, and thenyou got that flavor I also love.
I don't know if you guys haveit have it there, but we have
fish crisp here even just to doa light coat in that um and I
like to do chicken and fish crisptoo. What is what is fish crisp.
It's just like a it's almost likea light, very light, thin
breading, Like it's not as frenchyas like a Panco party. Oh.

(01:10:53):
I was gonna say like a tempora, but then you just said Panco,
So never mind. No, No, it's it's it's like really fine breading,
but it's really tasty. Cool.That's good. That sounds awesome.
That that sounds like that would bereally good at the chicken. Oh,
I roasted a whole head of cabbage, which, let me tell you,
underreported one of the more delicious thingsyou could absolutely that when you were saying

(01:11:15):
roasted a whole head? No,so what is? You can cut into
a cabbage and segment it so it'sbig chunks of it basically really high heat,
so like four fifty both sides,with a lot of olive oil,
salt, pepper, and then Iput toasted breadcrumbs over it, pine nuts,
parmesan, and a little bit oflike flex salt on top of that.

(01:11:39):
So good. I ate it forlike three days straight. Because you
didn't need any of it, Iordered charsius ribs and sesame noodles instead,
and then we got someone else's deliveryless. Oh yeah, we ordered.
We ordered from one of our favoriterestaurants in the area and got somebody else's
order and it was hilarious. Itwas very funny and it was a good

(01:12:00):
order, so we just kept itand you know, it was fine.
Well, they were gonna do likea redelivery. We're like, don't worry
about we don't need that. HThe only thing is whoever's order we got.
They had a shellfish allergy, veryspeci specified shellfish allergy. Oh,
and thankfully we assumed that they gotour We almost almost we all very nearly

(01:12:23):
ordered a shellfish dish, and thankfullywe did not. So I wonder how
that person enjoyed our dinner. Weliked theirs, but it was definitely like
a dinner for one. It wasboth like, oh it was tough person
feel about getting two meals? Well, Emily was remarking, based on the
order is very like protein heavy.It is like this person's on keto ye.

(01:12:45):
And we we ordered carbs, solike we're gonna open up and be
like, oh, why is therewell a pound of well so yeah,
so we were order from from aWahakan restaurant in in our neighborhood and they
serve fresh massa. And Emily hasa new tortilla press uh that that she

(01:13:10):
got from from my job that closeddown, from her job that sadly closed
down officially this sorry. Yeah,so that's Haven's Kitchen in New York.
So if anyone's looking for a personalchef and the anyone wants fresh pressed tortillas,
that sounds damn appealing. I thinkEmily Fox how at the first step

(01:13:31):
to making tortia chips, I'm stillnot clear on them. Yeah, I
think Emily, you should do likea freelance cooking consultant thing. I agree.
I think that would be so wonderfuland fantastic. Isn't that you are
like looking people's covers and say hereyou can make this. Yeah, there
you go. You can charge likefor like an hour of your time.
You could get on a zoom callwith somebody and you could talk them through

(01:13:53):
what they've gotten. And if peoplewant to do that, Roth Food at
Roth has a website dot com anddefinitely abody get Emily personally or or knock
on at emlet on Twitter or Instagram. Yeah, yeah, yeah, um
what I made this week and startof last week too, although Josh mentioned
a few things, I did thinkthat was on my Instagram. Thank you,
Josh, I appreciate that. Bestfood photographer in the game. Thanks

(01:14:13):
you're rosa sweet to me. Thebread crumbs, the toast of bread crumbs
on the pasta, and well youmentioned putting on the cabbage. I want
to put those on everything now.It was just like a really wonderful thing.
Um. And I think even ifyou're vegan, if you do the
toast of bread crumbs in an oliveoil and put that on top, I
don't think you'll miss any like cheeseelement because it has so much flavor in

(01:14:34):
it. You could mix it withnutritional yeast. Yeah, that too.
Something else we made last week wasPortobello burgers. We got just ginormous Porto
bellos in our in our farm boxlast week, so we made Porto Bello
burgers. I put mine with alittle ra cotta and a piece of pro
bolone over top, balsamic glaze androasted red peppers. It was delicious.

(01:14:58):
We also made l pastor talk.It goes like we tried to make a
spit. We just put some skewersand a piece of pineapple and put pieces
of pork over that that turned outreally nice. And this week we didn't
make a whole lot of exciting things. Um. We made burgers this week,
and Ethan made some buffalo cauliflower whichwas really delicious. Um. And

(01:15:18):
I made a frozen sangria the othernight and I directed me up on my
blog for that this morning. Andif you want to see what else I've
been making, you can find thattoo on Strong Pikes Outs. Yeah.
Perfect summertreat, thanks mine. Ismell up your glasses, that's yeah.
I was gonna say it, parisnicely with edible glasses glasses. Yeah,

(01:15:44):
I didn't. I didn't make muchthat I can think of this week.
I did go to the Westlake VillageFarmer's Market on Sunday where I picked up
a bunch of stuff. I gotsome walnut cranberry bread. I got some
a whole week garlic bread. Um. I picked up a chocolate bread which
is like the like a banana breadloaf, it's just chocolate. I got
some dried pluots cotton candy pluotsum kanyeand garlic spread. I got a three

(01:16:11):
layer of feta pesto sun dried tomatodip and so that was a that's so
I just kind of been like nibblingon that all week. Um, I
keep checking out different um sechuan restaurantsin the area because I was trying to
find a kind of twice cook porkthat matches one that I love in Chicago.
So I found a great Sechuan placenot too far from me, uh

(01:16:33):
called Schwan Place really on the noseat that Yeah, yeah, yeah,
and I think I found my match. It's a little bit it's like about
a probably like forty minutes a halfhour round trip to get there and back.
Um, there's another literal Sechuan placeand closer to me, different menu.

(01:16:54):
Can't find anything that there's there's somethings in there that might be what
I'm looking for, So I mightexperiment within the orderings like is this braze
to pork with leaks the twice cookpork that I'm looking for? But um,
yeah, eating out a lot,but I'm enjoying that. Yeah.
And just a note to our listeners, who I'm sure are wonderful and lovely,

(01:17:14):
and you know, as things startto open up a bit more and
you are going to eat at restaurantsor eat at patios at restaurants, just
be kind with your servers and youknow, the people working there. I
know, I know that people listeningto this podcast, they're not the ones
who need to hear this. Butwe're all in a weird spot. We're

(01:17:35):
all uncomfortable. We're all just tryingto make things work. A lot of
servers and bartenders and restaurants stuff areback to work for the first time in
a long time. We all haveto follow some new protocols which make serving
harder, even harder than it wasbefore. So just be patient and just

(01:17:56):
to tip, well, please please, if you're joining out, just yes,
that is like the number one ruleis like over tip. And I
would encourage everyone to embrace mask culture. Yeah, let's not let go of
that. Yeah, like no,no, no thing to say goodbye too.
That's a place we want, wewant to be happy that things are
opening up. Part of the youknow, our responsibility and trade off for

(01:18:19):
that is, yeah, being aboutother people, be respectful of the people
around you, in the space aroundyou, and just being really conscious about
what's still going on. And somepeople are a little bit more movers about
going back to work, but theyhad no choice and so just be really
cognizant of that have empathy. Yeah, you guys want to know what my

(01:18:41):
favorite thing is about wearing a mask? What I can sing along to all
of the songs and no one knowsthem. Oh yeah, you could do
like a lip dub much like theFinal Three and nobody know. I can
make it extraordinarily disapproving face and noone knows better. I don't know if
I said it's on a podcast recentlyor not, but my favorite thing about
mask culture is that you no longerknow just how many chins I have.

(01:19:05):
Is like, I have a maskthat really gets to cover the lower portion
of my face, and like youcan't see all of my secrets. My
favorite thing about mass culture is nowI have instrumentally more people asking me about
Survivor after wearing the buff on myface about the show, Yes, conversation
started. Yes, I mean Imade the mistake of buying masks that are
kind of surgical green in color,so I have a lot more people asking

(01:19:27):
me for my medical opinion. Ohwow, doctor Clark, like, what
do you think of this rash well, and Kurt says I Concurt, I
Concurt, Yeah, Hey, Kurt. By the way, I just wanted
to quickly take some time here publiclyon the podcast to wish you a happy
birthday. It is just important forme to take a moment here to wish

(01:19:53):
you a special happy birthday here onJune twentieth. Happy twenties birthday. There's
nothing correct about it's really it's reallycool that you turned twenty on June twenty,
twenty twenty birthday. Yeah, Ilike I was getting a happy sweet
sixteen Curt. You know, really, Benjamin buttoning this Kurt is to wait.

(01:20:15):
It's not your birthday to day?No, but I'm getting close.
I'm getting closer. Well, yeah, you're not getting farther. But well
did I did? I? DidI miss it yet? No? So
I'm gonna get single day on ourcollective calendar says Kurth Day. Yeah,
it's kurs Day for all of June. It's a big, big orange block
of kurth. Oh. I forgotthat was a thing, wasn't it this?
Yeah, Kurt, I'm not gonnamiss your birthday and you're not telling

(01:20:39):
me when it is. So everyday's your birthday? You wait, so,
Jo, you didn't tell you thebirthday, so you just put a
day every single day in the calendar. He said, it's at some point
in June. He said that it'scloser to late June than not, and
so he they are and closer tolate June than not. So every day
it is kurs Day until just Ijust figured out when Kurt's birthday is.

(01:21:02):
Yeh, whoa, It's like it'slike who guess who? With birthdays?
Like is it in the beginning ofHey, do you my favorite? And
don't tell me because I want tokeep firing Kt Happy kirthday. It's oddly
comforting to see something on our calendar. Yeah, single day rather than nothing.
Yeah, I'll take gifts every singleday. Yeah, let's make Kurt's

(01:21:25):
birthday hanukkah. Let's let's not getgreedy here, Kurt. Why don't you
guys work on getting Emily the honeyBaked Ham and then let's talk. Wow.
Yeah, just let me know whoI need to pay a pal because
I don't think I can send honeyBaked ham from figure it out and know
that the exchange rate is different.Please the exchange rate sound? I want

(01:21:54):
to I want I want to takeI want to take a quick No,
you go ahead, Okay, Ijust wanted to quickly shout out when we
talk about what we've been making,um that last week we talked about the
pesto that Emily makes based on theSeminosarat episode of Salt Fat, Acid Heat,
her trip to Italy Switches, whichhopefully people checked out. If you

(01:22:15):
haven't checked out that show, thatshow is ridiculous. We should be following
her on every platform imaginable. She'sincredible. I actually think that that could
be fun to just like talk thatthrough. Even though it's it's older,
right, I haven't watched it yet. I have the books. Yeah,
I just got the it's four episodes. It's four episodes. Each episode is
really worthy of a deep dive,so we could love that. We could

(01:22:38):
do that as a four week adventurefor sure as a podcast too. I
just subscribe to it. Amazing,amazing. Oh yeah, Top Jeff Cookbooks.
Okay, we weren't really talking aboutthat, but okay, that's it's
the only TV based We're talking aboutTV based cookbooks, the only one.

(01:23:00):
Yeah. Well, I wanted tobirthday Kurt. Maybe we'll send you.
Yeah, I wanted I wanted toshout out our our guy, the great
Antonio and this guy Antonio Mazzarro,who has not been able to be on
the podcast for the last several weeks. Lots going on LifeWise, and he
had he had made the pesto uhlast week and said it was it was

(01:23:20):
very very very very good. Yeah, with this mortar and pesto, and
I just want to I want toshout him out. He's been really missed
on the podcast. Uh and Uh. It's just one of my absolute favorite
human beings on the entire planet.Uh and and love him very much,
and I'm sure he will he willpop up on the podcast whenever he is
able to do so, but justsending a lot of love Antonia's way,

(01:23:42):
yes, and Antonia's way as well. He see Mazzaro Choosies one r No
Rule podcasts, and he's not here. I always imagine him on my couch
over here, just kind of chimingin. So he's with us in Spirits
for sure. He always asks mevery chefy questions and I get like intimidated
by it because I'm like, well, I don't know if I know that
box on the spot. Yeah,I just opened up to a random page

(01:24:03):
in the Top Chef cookbook and wehave jose as bacon rep palibit so all
right? Yeah, Emily is shakingher hard gass? Is it which which
part of you shake your head?Dude? He seems great, but I
don't know. Well, no,he's also he is undergoing some struggles right
now. I believe his daughter issick. That's the thing. Like he's

(01:24:26):
he's a good man. I've literallynot even opened the Chef. How long
did you get that a go?I feel like they only came out with
one like in the first several seasons, and then they stopped doing it after.
Remember one of the quick fire winswas like, get your recipe in
the Top Chef cookbook. It's liketen years old. Yeah, it's copyright

(01:24:46):
twenty ten. And I want tosay thank you, um to all of
our wonderful guests we've had this season, Jim's and Eddie and Brook and Zeke
and Rourke. What joy it wasto have that come talk about it.
It was so wonderful, um,to all of our wonderful listeners. We
hope you continue with us on ourjourney. To you guys, I love

(01:25:08):
you so much and such a joy. And Antonio two, I love you
as so much. UM. Ihope we continue whatever this is for as
long as we can. I'm soglad we have the group chat. Having
the group chat and being able tosee you guys every week because really added
just a whole nother level to tothe joy this brings me. And I

(01:25:30):
am so thankful that I have hadyou guys over the last three months.
I've been I've been very lucky toto like know Mike very well over the
last little while, and No,Kurt really well over the last little while,
and Antonio of course, and Iguess I know Emily, you probably
know, But Hayley, I feellike I've gotten I've gotten really close to
you through this, and it's beenawesome. It's I feel like I've really

(01:25:53):
gained a great new friend in youover the last several weeks, and it's
just been amazing. I agree.I was always worried for years and years
that you didn't like me. OhGod, no, I guess I do.
I guess I do project that Ido project that apparently, but definitely,
nothing could be further from my God. I can't believe that one of
my absolute favorite people and one ofthe great blessings of this period of time

(01:26:13):
has been getting to like really becomefriends with you. Thanks guys, previous
guests. We should know that thegreat Zeke Smith, great friend of the
podcast, was on a recent documentarythat just dropped on Netflix called Disclosure.
I was actually just watching it beforewe came on here. It's a fantastic
depiction of trans characters in TV andfilm over the years, and Zeke is

(01:26:40):
a great talking head, looking spiffyas per usual. Also some other random
plugs for people I will before youmove off of that it's relevant. UM.
I actually uh spoke with Zeke forabout an hour and a half last
week for a podcast that we're goingto release this week on Post Show Recaps,
which is it's it's touching on thedocument memory a bit. We're also

(01:27:01):
talking about space Force then that Iwould know which was which was comfort viewing
for Zeke during during Quarantine recently,and also talking about sort of the TV
landscape and what it means to bea writer in these times and just what
it means to be writing fiction generally. UM, a really like far ranging
bonus podcast that we're going to haveon Pusher Recaps that I think expresses sides

(01:27:26):
of Zeke that it really just feelslike when the two of us hang out
and just have a conversation. Uh, there's some moments where I think both
he and I are perhaps more honestand vulnerable than I would have expected or
volunteered to be on a podcast thatis being recorded. So I'm a little
nervous about releasing it from my ownpersonal sake. Um, but I'm I

(01:27:47):
think that if you, if youlike Zeke, if you like me,
uh, that that podcast is goingto be popping up on Pusher Recaps next
week. So just check out themain feed, pusher recaps dot com,
slash iTunes on Apple or or whereveryou get your podcasts. That podcast should
be popping up. I would guessMonday or Tuesday would be my bet.
So Top Chef people are doing alot of stuff outside of Top Chef.

(01:28:10):
Josh already mentioned Padma's Taste the Nation, which is on Who. Okay,
anyone can figure out a way forme to watch in Canada that's fairly legal.
Least watch you can at least watchthe Gulagichi episode on YouTube. I'm
going to And I also I Padmamentioned a book to go along with that,
and I did buy that book andI did start reading it yesterday,
So I'm really excited about getting thatparty. And also Tom has a podcast.

(01:28:38):
New podcast just came out a coupleof weeks ago called Citizen Chef,
which is a really cool podcast basicallythat sort of combines activism with the food
industry. So Tom talks about basically, let's see. According to uh top
podcast dot com, Tom Clikio hasissues with food. Citizenship is about what
we eat, where and who itcomes from, and the politics to decisions,

(01:29:00):
policies and people that shape our foodsystem, with the goal of turning
curious listeners into more informed, engagedcitizens. So I don't know if people
know this. Tom has really madeone of like the huge advocates during this
time of like getting relief funds intothe restaurant industry. He has unfortunately predicted
that about like eighty five percent ofrestaurants are going to shutter as a result
of the pandemic, and so hehas been really working to try to get

(01:29:23):
the government to put relief funds in. I think this podcast is speaking about
that and just generally the role thatthe restaurant industry plays in things like disaster
relief, how food how food policyis made. So I highly encourage people
check that out as well. Andin general, so we're talking about,
you know, having people on totalk about their food stuff, we should

(01:29:43):
say that in general, the GreatRobsess starning know the R and RHAP has
been putting out a call to armsan application process for new voices in RHAP.
So if you want to come onand talk food or if you want
to talk about TV in general,no time to apply. Like the president,
I believe the I don't know ifthere's a vanity link for it.

(01:30:04):
I believe the survey is on Rob'sTwitter, so be sure to check it
out. The deadline is June twentysixth, I believe at midnight. So
if you're interested in talking reality TV, and especially if you feel like you're
a voice that hasn't necessarily been heardamongst all of us here on our AJP,
I heavily heavily encourage you to apply. And what's more, feel free

(01:30:25):
to reach out to me to messageme if you're nervous or if you have
any questions about your application, I'mmore than happy to hear you out on
what you want to talk about.Total also process totally yeah. I think
that applies with if you want ifyou feel like you connect with one of
us more than whatever, and youfeel comfortable chatting with one of us,
I'm sure any of us would bemore than welcome. Our tms are open,

(01:30:45):
wide open. Yeah, and evenalready just in this process, I've
gotten to talk with a few peopleand I've been, you know, saying,
very excited about some of the peoplewho are who are looking to get
more involved. So yeah, slideinto our dms if our dms are open
on our respective social media. Mydms are only open on Instagram where I'm
at Round Howard, but definitely slidein talk to me if you've got any
questions for me about the process.And I know that that's a standing offer

(01:31:06):
for anybody here. EMILYA where's yourInstagram? And or Twitter at emilet like
an omelet but with an E onboth Instagram and Twitter. Michael at a
Mike bloom type. You can alsoI interviewed Melissa that's up on Parade dot
Com. She was lovely. I'llalso hopefully be talking with Brian Baltajio and

(01:31:26):
Stephanie and also um getting a survivorchattoo and we cast that this athlete and
us I can't believe it's happening.But it's been very, very fun so
far. So if you're into themalarkey, not to confuse with the person
that we're about to embark on bishoto check that out on RJP proper Kurt
I am at Kurt Clark with twoc's on most of your major and all

(01:31:49):
of your minor social media platform willyou be covering um don't touch the lava
on Flora's lava. Yeahs as muchas a little lap. That's the Canadian
version um lava. As much asI would love to. Uh, it's
kind of it's very episodic, it'sa fun show. It's just it's it's

(01:32:10):
it harkens back to it as achild of the eighties, you know,
just you know the floor his lava. Everybody knows that it is and you
just don't touch it. So Ihighly recommend checking that out on it.
Any any tires involved in this one. No one got tired in this one.
No no. And Antonio's handle isa Bizarro, which is oh Mazarro

(01:32:38):
one, rry, We'll get there, We'll get there. We'll say we'll
get there. Yeah, is hisdoes his middle name start with a ce?
No? No, it's just arandom letter. Yeah, yeah,
I think it's. His actual nameis Actoni. Yeah the sea silence exactly.

(01:33:04):
Well, I don't know. Sometimespeople like random letter. Okay,
you know what you can find meon Twitter and Instagram is Strong Underscore.
Check out my blog Strong Pigs aBye. Will be back next week.
We will, we will come back, come back. You will be refreshed
and let us know what you letus know what you want, like I
think next week, I think thatthe we would love to answer questions for

(01:33:25):
people as to like their thoughts onthe season specifically or like where they want
Top Chef to go. And alsoif you want to throw some stuff like
this is what you guys should donext? I'm sure we'll dedicate part of
the podcast, so that for sure, for sure, for sure. So
all the all the social channels thatwe listed are good ways to get in
touch down the Hatch Push or recapsdot com, Bachelor rap up at gmail
dot com. So that's it allright, helly, the poor is yours

(01:33:48):
once again, and with that youcan pack your knives and go bye bye.
Don't stink up your glasses, yikes. Four