Top Chef: All-Stars L.A. | Season 17 Feedback Show - Reality TV RHAP-ups

Episode Transcript
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(00:15):
Unpack your nys and say yes sday. Welcome everybody to the top chef,
wrap up, wrap up. I'mHaley Strong. Welcome. We've got people
here today to talk to about things, mostly food, sometimes other stuff.
Kurt Clark, Hey, Haley,how are you? I'm swell, as
they would say, if I wasa water bottle, I'd be swell.

(00:37):
Is that a brand in the Statesor just here? I'm actually looking at
my Swell water bottle from here,it's right there. I drink my water
out of a three dollars starebucks cut. I'm drinking mine out of a soda
stream container. I've been a EthanBobby soda stream years and years ago in
an effort to get me to drinkless pop didn't work anyway. I have

(01:03):
been starting to use the soda streammore, mostly to make soda for things
like mohitos, white wine spritsters,sangrias. So I'm getting a lot of
use out of my soda stream thesedays. I was very happy when the
local bed bathroom beyond open backup forshopping services because I was out. I
think it's like, just like Ishould have gotten a haircut the day before

(01:26):
quarantine set in I should have reloadedmy soda stream canisters the day because it
was like literally I had like enoughfor like a bottle or two when quarantine
hit. So I'm talking carbonating.Tell me if this is bad. So
I think I was given my sodastream in probably about twenty fifteen. I'm
still using the same carbonation canister.Will I die? No, You're fine,

(01:48):
Okay, Emily, Josh, doyou have a soda stream? We
did? I think it might bein a closet. Still, it's in
a closet somewhere. Yeah. Ionly used it once and then I made
myself high, so I stopped accidentally. Again, did you buy one of
those nitrous containers instead of it?Yeah, I basically did. I didn't

(02:14):
let it air out. I justlike inhaled and then drank it immediately.
Oh, you had like a littlewhite mists floating at the top, so
you basically excited to get the bubbleson her time and then I had to
go lie down for about an hour. That happened to Mike. Yeah,
oh boy, yeah, that happenedin twenty twenty twelve, twenty eleven maybe

(02:36):
time. Yeah. On a relatednote, in high school, when I
was in plays and stuff. Wewere using dry ice for something. This
is this is a CEO two relatedmatter. And I remember that we like
in the Jander's closet. We wedumped the ice when we were done,
um and you know, put wateringin the whole tub filled up with with
the mist, and I stuck myhead in there, and uh, no,

(02:59):
you're not supposed to do that.Years later, this explains a lot,
but no, like in terms oflike the obvious, it wasn't.
I didn't stick my head in thewater, but I stuck my head in
the tub of mist and I wentto inhale like surprise. It's CO two.
You can't breathe that, And soit was very off putting, I
guess is the word. It wasvery strange, like I didn't like it

(03:22):
was strange to draw breath but notdraw breath. And then I learned from
that moment, that's a shame thatyou got scared off of dry ice from
that moment. Word, I wouldimagine. Actually I went to a friend's
Halloween party about a decade ago,and one of the things was they made
Grandma's punch and they put this ringof dry ice in there to kind of
have be bubbly and foamy and stuff. And one of the a friend of

(03:46):
a friend who is there after theparty, went to her mom and said,
yeah, this party blah blah blah, there's a string and a dry
ice in it. And the momfreaked out, saying that's poison. You
shouldn't be drinking that much, andthen the friend freaked out on the other
It was a whole thing where somebodyaccused somebody else of trying to poison them
at Allen party because it was dryice punch drink, and it would have
been on brand if like people werejust starting to get poisoned. This is
night. I think I've seen them. Yeah. Uh, we have dry

(04:11):
ice that comes with our cat foodthat gets delivered. What cool? Yeah,
okay cat food delivery well, andwe we do because we have to
get the kiddies the real good stuffbecause Emily, you you, uh,
what did you do to the cats? I spoiled them early. It developed

(04:32):
a very uh, you know,high level, and we would like feed
them chicken from our from the chickenthat we would make for ourselves, and
they would eat it. Now theydon't eat their normal cat food, and
they're like, where's the dead stuff. Yeah, and so now all they
do is eat dry food and yetsay it, No, they don't eat
the dry food they eat, theypick it wet food or mat wet food.

(04:56):
Should that the next direction of thepodcast? I know that was one
of the things where talking about hereshould we talk about pet food? I
would just say we could sounds fromyou're not going to eat any that could
have an entire episode on CO twoand pet food canned cat food at our
apartment one. Nothing sounds less appetizing. It's it's truly amazing to me.
We got our cat in mid Novemberand he's literally only eaten one kind of

(05:23):
cat food in his life, andhe still goes ape shit over every single
time we open the can. He'slike, yeah, I'm like, you
know what this is? Like?Are you not bored of it yet?
No, it's in a dream andI don't relate now. I think the
most recent episode of The Sportful,the Dan Pashman interview, is a food
chemist and one of the things thatthey talk about is the fact that she's
had to I don't know if it'sthe scent or the flavor which, but

(05:46):
she's also had to work on asa food chemist on pet food because when
you do that, you are appealingto the taste buds and the smell buds
of of of the owners smell buds. You're oh, bud Josh, oh
factory joke. Hey, everybody,it's been so long. It feels like

(06:10):
because we took a week off,and it's like, remember how we would
talk about Top Chef every week formany weeks and then like we took a
week off, and it's like whereis everyone? You kind of felt like
the same too. It was likeif you have a birthday party, and
like if your birthday's in the summerand you have to have like a weird
birthday party, and you're like,wait, what is everyone doing right now?

(06:30):
No, I'm not going to tellyou when my birthday is, because
now every day I can't leave it'syour birthday today, and every day I
feel like I've given context clues asto when my birthday is for a long
time. You sign yeah, yeah, so it's it's within that range if

(06:51):
you can remember what sign I am. Some people will, some people won't.
That's fine. I know one personwho is not here on the panel
today would know when my birthdays orabout when it is Antonio. Yeah,
I was gonna say, gotta beAntonio. He's well, he's the develophant
never forgets. Antonio says, amemory as old as time. We also

(07:11):
have the same star signs, sothat helps. Does that mean you're in
the same birthday range is Antonio?Yes, Okay, I got you,
all right, I've got some I'vegot a couple of months. Okay,
yeah, I'm gonna calendar rise therough period of So do you want to
say why you're doing this? Andum, maybe a little bit more context
into birthday wishes for our for ouraudience. I think everyone knows that every

(07:36):
day has been Kirk Park's birthday untilit was actually Kirk Park's birthday. Still
my birthday week. Uh yeah,I guess technically it is. How is
your actual birthday, Kurt? Howis it? How is the true kirthday?
It was? It was fine.One of my friends who's local reached
out. We actually I went outto my I went out to my only

(07:57):
out dining restaurant experience for the pastsincence quarantine and then immediately California shut down
again. But we did Brazilian barbecue. Yeah, so they keep the keep
the meats coming. Did you havesome? I don't know what is?
Did I? But could you?Oh no, no, no, no

(08:18):
no, I had water. Um, I had water and a lot of
meat. It's important to hydrate orelse you get the meat sweat. Oh
no, yeah, yeah no,I'm very familiar with the meats really need
though beyond just like the meat andthe water. Yeah, overdid it.
On the sides they shut down Likemany of you who've been to a Brazilian
barbecue. I no, there's thebig kind of salad bar with stuff,
but here because of of COVID,you now kind of have. They bring

(08:41):
a list to the table and youcheck off what you want them to bring
to you, so now you don'teven have to move and uh yeah we
we overdid it. Um, likelike the button mushrooms and the asparagus and
the sweet potato for everything everything.I should just focus on the meat.
Hailey went into your birthday, willyou do Brazilian barbecue? You're gonna ask
if I was going to focus onthe meat on my birthday, I would

(09:03):
never be so bold. That soundslike the worst birthday present ever to me.
Great, No, um, youknow what this year my birthday should
be slightly interesting, um as myscheduled nuptials will follow a few days after.
UM. We did, however,go to a Brazilian barbecue for Ethan's

(09:24):
birthday this year because the local itwas. It was good because the local
one or the one in the falls. Um, if it's your birthday,
you get to eat for free,so it was this one. It's like
if it's your birthday and you bringthree people who each spend over forty dollars,
then you eat for free. It'slike this contract that you can't get
out of them. Well, likeours is like a set price like it,

(09:46):
Like we do get a niger residentprice m for going during the week.
And his birthday was like on aMonday this year, so it worked
out well for us. And thenbecause his birthday was on on that day,
we got a good a deal onthis. They make a really great
caesar salad there too. I don'tknow what do I want for my birthday
this year? Maybe red lobster takeout? God, I love red lobster.

(10:09):
I haven't had red lobster and waittoo long. Those cheddar biscuits, that's
how I was thinking. The cheddarbiscuits. Yeah, that's what it's about,
but more importantly, support your localrestaurants. I don't need a chains,
don't don't. I just love hera lot, you know, I
just love it, like I can'thelp myself, Like I can be such
a horror for team restaurants and Idon't want to be. But I am.

(10:31):
For every four times you eat locally, you can go to a chain
restaurant. That's a good rule ofthumb. So that's like one in four
or one in five, five twentypercent of the time. I'm good at
math. No, not, that'sa lie I am. I mean,
like the town I live in,it's all local restaurants anyway. Like the

(10:52):
chains we have are just like McDonald'sand Wendy's and like a w and that's
about it. Um in Subway,but like most of the sit down restaurants
all locally owned. So it's reallyeasy to eat local here. All good
foond um. So we're here totalk about not just I don't know nothing,
but I think we are previewing alittle bit of like should we should
we progress further? And we havedesigns on progressing further. This is probably

(11:16):
a good teaser what's to come.Yeah, So we're just gonna talk about
Red Lobster. We could do awhole episode on the restaurants. I don't
see why the heck not that's thelist. Is it judgmental of my love
of Red Lobster, because that's sure, No, it's not. Um.
I just want to talk about Corrabbassome more. Can we talk about Carrabas

(11:39):
recently? Yeah? Yeah, becausethat was like the fancier version of right,
I would go back. Okay,well a, we'll add it to
the list and we'll circle back onchain restaurants, No boys imitation episode.
I could talk about Chilis and Applebee's, like you have no idea. I
eat restaurants in my hometown. Growingcannot wait for that. I want to
know more about the night nine nine. You'll always come New England. I

(12:05):
ate there one time on the roadtrip to my graduation. Back for more.
Well, it's I'm not. I'mnot in the New England very often.
Old England, however, that's anotherstory. I have been to Old
England more recently than I've been toNew England. I was supposed to be
flying back from Old England today.Hey, I'm sorry I derailed you.

(12:26):
You were about to like actually getus on track. Yeah, Like,
what's the point of me doing that? Like, obviously we're not going to
stay on track, so why bother? No. I think we want to
We want to put a bit ofa bow on top. Jeff. Also,
it's so weird that Mike Bloom hasbeen in here this entire time and
he just hasn't piped up yet.Bike is just like watching us For all

(12:48):
the thirty thousand dollar patrons who arewatching us live right now, we've adjusted
our fee. Is it because Ididn't introduce him? Do you think?
Yeah? I think until you introducehim formally, I don't think. Is
that a face tattoo he has?Yeah, your head, Mike, Yeah,
okay, Oh it's good. That'sgood. Was he getting the tattoo
today? Is that why he couldjoin it? That's probably right? Is

(13:09):
it? Actually? No? Ithink I don't know. Gave them outside.
I think he and the family arecelebrating their independence. Oh right,
Happy Independence Day, guys, Iforgot you know plated Canada Ny and happy

(13:31):
early birthday, Hailey. Thank you. I really appreciate that. Um.
Well, I think we want towe want to put a little bit of
a pin on the top. Chefstuff. I think we want to talk
about where we're gonna where we're gonnamove forward with podcasts. We've got some
thoughts on on what we want todo, sort of like a bit of
a tasting menu around the food universe, keeping it close to shows, not

(13:56):
always confined to shows, um notalways confined to sticking to the topic either.
Obviously totally true. And I thinkwe also primarily before we even get
into any of that and what we'remaking, what we're eating right now,
aside from the tedder biscuits at atthe Red Lobster, is looking beyond this

(14:16):
season of Top Chef, which weall adored and loved, and I think
even with like some of the designflaws that occurred along the way, we
were we were still so happy withthe journey. But I think like maybe
even just acknowledging, like some designflaws along the way some ways that Top
Chef could probably improve the recipe evenfurther moving forward into the future. Also

(14:41):
like maybe talking about like what doesTop Chef looked like moving forward as like
the future of food generally is justso uncertain. I mean, people are
gonna be eaten. We're never gonnanot eat I hope, but what does
the restaurant industry look like and everythinglike that, and what is top chef's
roll and all of that. SoI think I was looking beyond the scope

(15:01):
of the show, uh, youknow, having we have a lot of
feedback to guide us through, um, a lot of that conversation. I
think, uh, yeah, Ithink it'll be fun. I think it
would be good, would be great, It could be great cool. So
where do we want to start?Do we want to start with some reader
feedback? Um? Yeah, sure, sure. Um. There's one thing

(15:24):
that that's that someone had had sentinto the patron group that actually, even
though it was the one of thelater comments we had, was one of
the kind of just you know,stuck with me the most, and to
me, I think it's it's aninteresting idea from Kenneth Gregory Jackson. It's
like, what do you guys thinkabout potentially And lots of these ideas are
they like kind of kind of oneoff either challenge ideas or kind of tweaks.

(15:46):
There's nothing that's there's some things thatare broad sweeping, but this is
more of a very specific, uhthing in terms of in the first episode,
we can visit all the chef's restaurantsand have the judges eat from their
menu in order to give us contextfor each chef. So that way we
I think we as viewers, Yeah, I think we that way, You're
not necessarily because we've seen we don'talways get that initial challenge with the chef

(16:11):
testins as being cook us something thattells us about you. I know,
the Project Runway will often do acasting special or a peview, specially where
you get to see some of thedesigns of everybody before they come in,
but some sort of in depth castpreview, maybe an episode zero where they
visit either the restaurants or there theytry their menus, or they for Chef
Jim, someone who visits the stateof Alabama because he's the state chef.

(16:34):
At the time, they used tohave they used to have like these super
long premiers, right like what wasthe season was it Texas where they have
like a thousand people competing to likeeven get on the show that in Seattle.
I believe both had that kind offormat ish deal. So I feel
like like we've gone away from sortof like that big introductory episode. I

(16:57):
think like maybe there's all budget considerationsthat would be difficult to go to,
you know, sixteen different chefs,but I think it would be really really
fun to see, and especially forpeople who are either still cooking in restaurants
at that point, or if it'speople who are working as private chefs,
or even if Top Chefs in termsof casting moving forward, which I would

(17:19):
strongly advocate if they're trying to likeboost the platforms of people who had restaurants
or worked in restaurants and are notanymore because the industry is what it's going
to be and what it is rightnow, and are using Top Chef as
a possibility to like boost the platformfor some really incredible people who who could
really use the shot. Like Ithink that an episode to throw that focus

(17:41):
is not just on like going tothe restaurants of these people, but maybe
either going to the homes of thesepeople or doing some sort of like outdoor
thing with some of these people.I think something that is like less competitive
and more character focused and more likethis is how this person cooks, this
is what you can expect from thisperson this season. That's kind of like

(18:03):
what they do with like Great BritishBake Off right where they're like Joe Loves
to entertain his two daughters and hiswife while making delicious biscuits, And like
that's just like a small anecdote,but it kind of gives you at least
a little bit of context. Iagree. I think they would be fun
to like sort of see them notjust as chefs, but chef people.
Chef people people do when the fullmoon comes out? Do we know what

(18:30):
the audition process is like, like, do they have to are they are
they cast based on their their reputationor do they have to again going back
to Project Runway, I know thatthey do have to bring in here's examples
of our you know what I've puttogether before, do as part of the
auditioning process. Do we know ifthey have to cook or do anything to

(18:52):
kind of show off their skills oris largely a reputation bits though, But
I actually don't know anything about aboutthat run up process. I would I
would love to peak behind the curtainand know, Yeah, that a surprise.
We haven't like thought about thought aboutthat before. You. I thought
you just kind of magically appeared onthe show. It's like, yeah,
it's like you have a you havea business card with the word chef after

(19:15):
your name and you can automatically protectYeah. Yeah, Tom is like secretly
dining at places where he puts amustache ont so you don't know who he
is. Yeah, recognize quick yoby his hat games. He may have
busted that for himself. Yeah,it's and like if that's happening, then

(19:36):
that I mean that if they arehaving to cook for some sort of casting
panel, it'd be great to seethat and see kind of like at least
get that experience. If it iskind of cost prohibitive to have people visit
all of their restaurants um unles Yeah, because it wouldn't be realistic. They're
not going to cast everybody from thesame area, so that's never gonna happen.
Um. But if I think toyour to your point, Joshua,

(19:59):
Emily Shara says she feels that there'sbeen a recent overall shifts in casting to
broaden the varieties of chefs involved beyondrestaurant executive stuff, private chefs, sho
chefs, caterers. Is there away to elevate this? I think you're
a point about especially post COVID um. You know, they're people who are
you know, they're former chefs becauseof the uh, but someone thing.

(20:21):
It's like, I don't think you'reever really correctly what you I'm curious,
what do you think about someone You'renever really a former chef. You may
just be a chef without a restaurant. Yeah. Yeah, So it's so
that's definitely probably what we're going tobe seeing a lot more of, and
especially since events are still curtailed tothe extent that they are. Um,
are you just someone who's doing privatechef work? I know so many people

(20:42):
who work in restaurants who are doinglike private chef work right now, just
because that's really literally all there is. But even somebody who is, you
know, a restaurant tour and thenI gets hit so bad that the restaurant
goes away and they can't get anotherjob in the strants, they might develop
a product or something. Well.I even think like someone just like goes

(21:06):
and like works at a store andit's like out of the food industry,
that person is still right like justtaking that person's proverbial knives away. I
think that that's really interesting storyline tofollow, and I hope that I think
what we're this is like sort ofI mean, it's it's on topic,
but it's also just more broadly aboutTV is I'm I'm really interested to see

(21:29):
what kinds of stories we're going tobe seeing moving forward. UM. I
think like there is a very strongargument in favor of like I don't want
that COVID nineteen TV show. Youknow, this stuff is pressing and like
we've been living in this and likeI don't need it in my fiction.
But the world's transform But how howdo you not address it? To some

(21:51):
extent certainly? And I think realityTV, I think the Reality TV landscape
is going to be m responding tothis moment moment and adapting to this new
world we're living in in their storytelling. Um. I think that's going to
be a big story just in thein the medium moving forward. And I
think with Top Chefs specifically, whenunlike a Survivor or a Big Brother or

(22:15):
The Bachelor, I assume, uh, you know, Top Chef is about
everybody has like a shared occupation essentially, you know, it is all about
chefs. UM. So you reallycan drill down into um, how are
the people of the food industry impactedby this moment? Are there those stories
to tell about somebody who is justso down and out that they're not in

(22:38):
the industry anymore. UM, isthis an opportunity to reclaim something that was
taken from them? UM? Ithink. I think casting in the wake
of all of this, UM isone of the things I'm most interested in,
even if my my primary concern withall of it is like, can
we make the show? You knowthis is going to say the show can

(22:59):
be? When's it even going tohappen? And could could they pully?
For those of you who saw themost recent season of Drag Race finale,
like they typically it's a big stageproduction and the lip syncs, at this
time, all the final three queenswere all doing it from home and like
they were shipped the materials to kindof set up a Fox stage in their
their residence. Is there a waythat if the choice is between no Top

(23:26):
Chef and Top Chef Home Edition,is there a way that this could be
done via UM? Just like someof the when when like the bon Appetite
videos when they were still making themin that brief window of COVID where all
the people were filming at home,is there a way that that could be
done where UM, you get shippedyour your creative materials, keep it,

(23:48):
you know, put this in thein your freezer, but don't open it
up until the channel. I don'tknow, is there a way to Is
there a way that this could bedone at home? I I don't know
if it could be done at home, but I will say what the Bachelor's
planning on doing, and as faras I know, they are planning on
starting at production in a few weeks. And what they're going to do is
have everyone come to one spot,do temperature checks, do you kind of

(24:11):
like if they're coming from outside ofCalifornia, and do like a you know,
a mandatory quarantine kind of thing,and then just keep them all in
one location, do all the datesin like one spot. So I could
see a Top Chef kind of doingsomething like that. I know we'd lose
some of the charm of seeing thecity and you know, seeing what the
restaurant's see is like in a place, and even I feel like we lose

(24:34):
grocery shopping. Yeah, that's abig part of it. But I think
it could be done. I don'tknow if that is what people want to
see, but if it's between thislike new weird restructure version of Top Chef
and no Top chef at all.I don't know could they? Could they

(24:55):
do grocery lists, Like do youhave like fifty to make a grocery list
someone? Yeah, I would endup ordering like an actual chef does for
the most part, which is yeah, having your suppliers and like making sure
that the things get delivered on timeversus literally having to hand pick everything.
So like, I mean, that'san easy tie in, I think for
Whole Foods, And that's probably whyit's been that way because it's fun to

(25:18):
watch the drama of everyone running aroundwith like a shopping car. There ways
to do that still, where likeif your idea is like grocery list and
um, like imagine Melissa narrating whatshe needs for her dash and the grocery
list and like they have literally likea GoPro on a shop yeah, inst

(25:40):
cart employee. That's what That's whatmany escape rooms have been doing, is
they have the GoPro on the avatarin the room and you're like literally at
home voice like no, no,no, trench, you're left, No,
you're your other left, Okay,look on that second shelf, you
know, So they could do thesame thing where you're guiding them second aisle.
No, no, no, that'sthat's dry dry, that's canned food.
We need the next aisle, orthat could be that could be fun.

(26:00):
Um. It also might force usto kind of look at smaller suppliers
too and sort of focus in onmore local foods, which I think is
a good thing. Um, youknow, because farmers markets are still happening,
So maybe it's something where you havelike a smaller point of contact and
you know, lower influx of peoplearound you, but you're focusing on the
farmers and the food that they're procuring. So that could be kind of cool.

(26:22):
Or I just like the doa ofyou make the shopping list, but
they start literally at the top downand anything at the point that you hit
your budget, anything below that pointyou don't get. That could be a
fun little po least game game mechanicif they're ways in which I think like
our imaginations have to catch up tothe moment. Yeah, and I think

(26:45):
like where we're doing some thought exerciseson that. I think our eyes have
to catch up to the moment too. Like I think that like people who
are really used to like zoom callsnow for work, um, maybe are
going to be like caught up tothat quicker. Um. But even even
then, like I think there islike zoom format exhaustion. There's like zoom

(27:06):
so yeah, we someone in ourcompany referred to it as the we use
WebEx and someone who referred as theWebEx death March. In terms of just
like constantly it's tough, it's touchlike constantly see the same angles and like
the Internet misconnections and and everything likethat. Um, but I like the
longer it goes on, if itgoes on to an extent that it has

(27:29):
like this really long term impact onproduction. Eventually, like you're you're so
weathered to the idea of watching zoomquality programming. Um, It's like if
the question, like to your pointHaley, was like either zoom Top Chef
or no Top Chef. Right nowI would say no Top Chef, but

(27:52):
eventually you might say zoom Top Chef, or like here's here's another idea for
for some of the countries that kindof do happen a little them are under
wraps, Like what if I don'tknow, like Magical Elves paid New Zealand
to produce a season of Top Chef. That's true, or you know,
and just I wonder, I wonderwhat kind of are there, what sort

(28:12):
of like international laws prohibit something fromlike that from happens. I don't know,
they're not all sick like we are. Still I do think that that's
a great ideas. Yeah, welleven even you know to according going back
to stuffing season in Canada where thingshave started to slow down a little bit

(28:33):
and you know some common I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I but like you
know, like the Atlantic coast ofCanada, like they're kind of in a
bubble now, So like you couldPrince Edward Island, Yeah, I know
that Top Chef Newland. You'd needyou'd need subtitles the entire time. Would
be tough though, because it's it'sjust Pei muscles all the time, right,

(28:56):
Like that's available ski can you potatothe world? I'm I was just
missus Dallas lobster. Josh makes funof me because I always abbreviated to Pei,

(29:17):
because that's how what I grew up, saying, what do you mean
he makes fun of me? Ownonly make fun of her in so far
as like you'll always when you're orderingPrince Edward Island muscles, you always I'll
have the Pei muscles please, that'swhy we That's what I know. It's
great emphasis on Pei instead, it'sjust an this is a good thing that

(29:38):
you do. You're just jealous thatyou've never been there. It's a great
place, huge bridge. I'm upfor almost anywhere, should it be healthy
and safe. I'll go just aboutanywhere getting to that point. And I
think it's spen a lot of timeon my Island and Animal Crossing because of

(30:00):
trying to travel wherever I can.That's why I just keep buying new expansion
backs on the sands so I canhave new worlds to play it. It's
brilliant. Oh, it's like thatis travel now, it's virtue when we
when we stop recording, Josh,we'll have to chat last of us too,
because I'm curious if you've got anyfurther Okay, it's it's it's not
an uplifting game. Yeah, I'mnot ready for that. I gotta I'm

(30:22):
too busy churning my Island and AnimalCrossing into a sequel to Lost. But
I do think the International's an interestingto you. And this is a spoiler
free comment, Josh, is thatgive what that entirety of season of the
Mold that you just started watching hisfilm doing like what France and Spain so
like in the beginning. You know, maybe production law or what what have
you has uh changed since that air, but you know, you know there's

(30:45):
that there's there is that potential umunderreported. It's time for a message from
our sponsor. Check that timer.I think we're done. I think one
of you had mentioned earlier the ideaof you know, getting you know,
somebody else to do the the shoppingfor them. We have another comment,
and I apologize if I butcher yourname, but Ruan Corey Freel in the

(31:07):
patron Facebook groups and restaurant wars needsyour help. Why do the chefs have
to waste time shopping for decorations?They should just meet with a design team
that executes the design and sets upthe tables for them. I guess this
is to free them up potentially todo the go back to kind of what
they focused on. What do wethink about that, like in terms of
the last couple of seasons where butit admitted to we did have that there
was I remember they met with likea design team. But I think,

(31:32):
like I think part of that islike sponsorships and they want they want you
to see inside you know, thestore, the storeroom or whatever it's called,
like you know all of everything theyhave, and you know, et
cetera, et cetera. Yeah,if it's a sponsorship idea, it's hard
to get around that other than findingother other sponsors. But you can just

(31:52):
have a because there's probably amount ofstarting amount of screen time that you need
to dedicate to it. The onlything I think we quote unquote got from
it this season and was the YouTook My Flatwear drama and and Brian Malarkey
trying to do the entire the restset up the entire restaurant himself because he
didn't have any help message And maybethat's just stuck in my mind like otherwise,

(32:15):
Um, I guess maybe kens Kevin'swhole design approach for his Grandma's kitchen
um that looks like the Golden Girlsset. I mean it did scream Grandma,
But I don't know. I havea restaurant wars idea what if?
What if? And just hear meout, hear him out, what if?

(32:40):
I'm waiting for Curt to say whatfor good? What if we don't
do it? Oh? Do youknow why Joshua I was going to say
that, but I didn't know ifit was going to be. Look look
at yeah, like look at mypost it note I have Restaurant Wars,
and it's just like that could havebeen, that could have been more,
That could have been more Restaurant Wars, and you're just changing it looks like

(33:04):
the first are looks like a vI Okay, yeah, I know,
I reading, okaystur Yeah, whatif we just did? What if we
just had I'm tired of it,we say, because you're always like,
hey, don't be addicted to theservers, because I'm I'm like living because

(33:29):
Restaurant Wars. And I said thisduring Restaurant Wars episode. But it's just
like every embodiment of every restaurant stressdream I've ever had. And I had
a restaurant stressed dream last night,and it's it's the worst. It's so
awful, and like it's just likeseeing that play out every single time,
no matter what, no matter howam using. The chefs on the team

(33:51):
are like, it is a nightmare, you know what, because like,
why do we need Restaurant Wars rightnow? We need restaurant Peace. Yeah,
the restaurant piece you don't want restaurantwars right now. No, I
don't want to come together. AndI think, what Top Chef burn it
down? You know what I think? I think Brian Fultaggio revealed the nectar

(34:15):
of Top Chef's success in the finalethis season. That sounds so delicious.
I know it was the it wasthe it was the lasagna just like blended
together and put in a bottle.That's the nectar, less taste, less
taste. Um. There's the momentwhere it comes about that he and Melissa

(34:37):
are both thinking octopus right, likethey're both gonna make octopus dishes for for
the final push um. And hesays, that's great. I'm not concerned
about what she's doing. I wanther to make the best octopus dish that
she can, and I want tomake the best octopus dish that I can.
That's Top Chef at its best.That's not the restaurant wars is by

(34:59):
by definite conflict. And I thinkthat we have really drilled in on not
welving the conflict on top yet,like it just agreed. It doesn't feel
good and and I'm just in aquick sitance that points like I've always been
surprised that people steer away from usingtypically steer away from using the same ingredients,

(35:21):
like they find out somebody else.Oftentimes you'll find out somebody else is
using octopus. They're like, well, I'm not going to do that now,
Whereas I kind of thought people morepeople would would steer into kind of
like kind more like what Brian wassaying, where Okay, she's using octopus.
This is my chance to show whyI can make a superior octopus,
just versus shying away from the headto head potential comparison. There is there

(35:43):
is there a way to do.I think the thing with restaurant wars is
it's it's that tradition. Okay,throw that out the window. I don't
need tradition. Is there something elsethat we could do that would be there
a new tradition? When you getthat it's a nice round number. Um
uh from a brackets perspective, Isuppose I don't know, just it just

(36:05):
maybe it's some only feels like anice round number because that's where it's always
been. But is there something thatcould Everyone has their own food truck that
was that's a show. I no, no, it's not. No.
But what if everyone individually Lance wouldlike to have a word with you.
There was there was There was afood truck episode. Yeah, we were.

(36:28):
They were they in teams for that. I'm trying to remember what was
the camp. Is this the onein Miami? That one we're like a
late night dining in a food truck. No, no, it was like
in a college campus. I seemduring remember, I can't remember. I'm
trying to remember the this is thisis why we need Mike and Antonio at
certain points. Um, yeah,there were. Anyway, I like the

(36:49):
idea of more more food trucks,um, just personally because that's where like
you love food trucks because I lovefood trucks. I love the fact that
I could order food and then asI'm eating, I just kind of watch.
Yeah, no, what if wedid restaurant Wars, but it was
everybody's individual theme actually coming to fruitionrather than everyone having to work together and

(37:13):
then people getting bitter when they havelike the ship job of being the Sioux
chef and then they get thrown underthe bus for something where it comes in
where like like Top Chef is likebringing in like big teams of people to
to execute division, where like you'vegot a designer squad that's on standby per
chef. Yeah, you've got like, um, whether it's like it's if

(37:35):
it's like at a halfway point,then everybody can like pick a Sioux chef
from someone who is eliminated previously.Yeah, well it's it's more of like
the Great British Sorry keep bringing itup, but it's more like the Great
British Bakeoff, where it's like you'reindividually judged on every single thing that you
do. There's never a time whereyou're brought in to collaborate necessarily and therefore
costs and engenders a much more supportiveand like community of people around you versus

(38:00):
hurt you. Okay, yeah sorry, just versus you know, being pitted
against each other in certain specifics likethings, because you're relying on other people
to kind of carry certain amounts ofweight in specific challenges. Right, So
if you have the structure in whereyou're always responsible for your own shit,
then you're going to look at otherpeople and be like, yeah, good,

(38:22):
good on you, that looks great, or you know, we'll get
them next time kind of thing.It's it's more of like camaraderie, support
of environment versus you know, pointingthe finger at somebody when something doesn't go
well and it's a team effort.Yeah, Ken Kevin Doherty in the Facebook
groups. So one of the thingsthat he likes about Master or Chef Australia
is that nobody has ever directly eliminatedbased on a team challenge. If it

(38:43):
if it is the team lif ateam loses, you know, those chefs
then cook individually in an elimination challenge. So like that's something like I think
would he'd be proposing for Restaurant Warsis you know, if there is a
losing team and a team challenge suchas Restaurant Wars, then there is still
a battle between these people who arepart of the team in a completely separate
elimination challenge. I do think onething that stinks about that is if somebody

(39:06):
just like blew it and then it'ssomebody like on the flip side, like
really crushed it on the losing team, and then they go to this now
elimination round and then the person whoabsolutely crushed it and shouldn't be there at
all does poorly in the elimination challengeand they go home. Like that kind
of stakes, that's life. Butthat's yea reality TV isn't fair, Josh,

(39:30):
and life is certainly fair for lifeis fair. Um, I think
you would just like take out restaurantworks for a season. It feels like,
don't even try to fill that hole. It seems like any restaurants anyway,
So maybe that's what solves it.Come on, sorry, Like it
seems like they are trying to figureout how to evolve because out sorry,

(39:54):
I'm talking more stateside. You're safe. A lot of this is Emily Zone,
Essential Triad. Yeah, I don'tworry about it. Guy. Yeah,
I'm guessing small town Ontario is lookinga little different right now than the
big old New York today. Yeah, you guys are California. That's not
the um. Yeah. So it'slike two two seasons ago. They tried

(40:21):
to move Restaurant Wars earlier in thecycle, which seemed to fall really flat.
You didn't know who anybody was.This season, they tried to change
it up by having the pitch youridea. I think all that that served
to do was it was all goingto fall onto Kevin or Gregory. But
do you like the idea instead ofhaving a restaurant Wars, just having that
pitch so that you understand like whatit is that the restaurant they want to

(40:44):
do is, and then having actualdishes and like having their control over everything.
Yeah, and what if it wassomething where like everyone sits down and
has that specific dish as the pitch, but the napkins are there, the
floral decor whatever you decide to do, which would be like a smaller micro
posim of a larger restaurant. Yeah, food court wars, Yeah, where
it's like a diorama, you know, Yeah, it's like a poster board.

(41:07):
But like let's make it three day, like bring out like the one
small table and then like three coursesthat you would Yeah that's it. Yeah,
No, I like it, Likehave it have it be a two
part or one part pitch, secondpart you know, reality, but you're
still responsible, you get notes one. I feel like that would be great

(41:27):
if, um, you know,if the judges were like I don't know
if that aspect of this works,so like here's how to change it,
and then like no one gets eliminatedin that round, but maybe there's a
double elimination the next round. Idon't know, whatever, but I think
that might be a better way togo about it. Yeah, less people
like freaking out at like the hostessstation and like like dropping drinks. I

(41:50):
don't I don't know here for areservation. Let me check my open table.
Yeah, it'd be interesting if likealso, the whatever concept they pitch
at Final eight, they have touse that concept in the final battle,
whether it's Final two or three.So that's just an interesting idea is to

(42:10):
basically like set up a final arc. Yeah, for some of the people
who are still in so like restaurantwhatever restaurant. I mean, like this
is like almost antithetical to what wewere just yeah, it's restaurants. Its
top restaurant. Is that, likeRestaurant Wars becomes like an arc for the

(42:30):
rest of the season, and thenRobert Irvine comes in, Like you're locked
into an idea from that point forward. It's like now, but but what
would be good about that is likenow you are competing sort of within yourself,
get your best idea. You're lockedinto your idea. Now everything that
you're trying to showcase moving forward isabout that concept and that if you win,

(42:52):
you open the restaurant. Yeah,y, I don't know if that's
like American idea where like Bravo wouldbe like and we own it. We
are And it's also a little bitlike not sure you know there was an
listening audience if you've ever played alegacy board game. So rather than its
simply being okay, this is ourthis is you know, you know,
a little too timely pandemic Legacy isa great thing. Took you off the

(43:15):
board, Yeah, like the outdoneScott, rather than it have like each
episode of the season be kind ofstandalone. One person goes home, Okay,
move on to the next challenge.Your decisions in episode one, roll
over to episode two, So likethat that decor you picked in episode one
is now with you the rest ofthe season. Maybe you can win a
challenge to unlock, you know,to revise some things moving forward. But

(43:38):
I like that idea. Have it'dbe more of a campaign. Yeah,
yeah, I think it'd be cool. I think it'd be cool. But
I'd also be down to just likedo Top Chef with that restaurant with ye
to try that. One thing thatTop Chef omitted this season, which I
was a big fan of, wasthere was no sudden death quick fires.
I hate a sudden death quick fireand I'm glad that we didn't have any

(44:00):
of the season and I hope wenever see them again. Yeah, you
know what, I think that anunderrated thing with a creative project with the
show like this is not something thatcould apply to say government, where like
you just throw something under the rugand hope no one notices. Be cards
up for you is I want toknow everything, tell me what you're doing.

(44:22):
But on a show or even ona podcast, you did a segment,
you don't say any So here's anexample is on the Lost podcast that
Mike Bloom and I do. Mikewould tell you about this, but we
haven't introduced him yet, so he'sstill not talking. Mike and I have
a structure where we have a feedbacksegment in the back half of the podcast

(44:45):
or like the back third of thepodcast. But it used to back half
the podcast because we had it veryspecifically that it's going to be either fifteen
or sixteen feedback items because the numbersare good and the numbers are associated with
and we we just have a feedsection at the end of our podcast,
right, that's correct. Let mejust feat ourselves. We still have the
feedback section, but we we justlike stopped doing it like tied to any

(45:09):
kind of like New America, andit seems like the instinct behind that was
right. It's like, let's notlike pigeonhole ourselves to something that's not going
to be working every time, andwe're just trying to force a thing.
We also don't have to make abig deal out of the fact that we're
not doing it anymore. And let'sjust see what happens. No one has
said anything now they will. Nowis going to get a flood of emails

(45:30):
from the from the field. Peoplewho listen to this podcast say you'll be
able this podcast. You'll be ableto map out the ven diagram based on
your emails. But did they sayanything about we're not doing sudden quick sudden
death quick buyers this season. No, And thank god, like I just
forgot, I just forgot. RestaurantWorks could do that too. It's just
not working. It's just not reallyworking. It's just it's it's not fun.

(45:52):
It's been a few seasons now whereit hasn't really been fun. Just
don't do it. Don't say you'renot doing it, just don't do it.
We don't need to know all ofthe reasons why. I kind of
inherently get it production note or productionquestion that, Josh, do you tell
the contestants at the outset just solike they're not like the act if they
if you if it's like, Imean, yeah, I think that that

(46:13):
could be a thing. It's like, I know, you guys always walk
in here thinking we do restaurant wortsjust so you know, and this isn't
chicane ory. We're not doing itthis year, you know. I think
that you could be cards up that, especially because it's an iconic piece of
the show. I don't think peoplewould be disappointed. Do you think contestants
would be a disappointed? Like Iknow, it's like, oh, I've
made it to this level, likeI really made it in Top Chef.
I think to the degree that somebodygoes on Survivor and finds out that there's

(46:37):
the Edge of Extinction is in play, and then like what are they're like
if you're a super duper fan likeAdam Cline who hates the Edge of Extinction
and is competing on a season wherethat exists, I think it's still thrilled
to be playing Survival, you know, Like I think like even if you're
not thrilled about the game decision.There is still an element of like,
I'm still on the show and I'mstill doing the thing, and now I

(46:58):
have to addust it's not it isnot really something you can come into the
show prepared for because you kind ofhave. It's one of those channel because
it's a team challenge, you haveto adjust your expectations to what the team
wants to do. I think ifthey got rid of the pitch a restaurant
idea that was paired with Restaurant Warsthis time, I think that's something people

(47:20):
will come in prepared for and thatmight and i'd so I'd still like to
see how people kind of potentially sharetheir ideas for that, But I don't
think people are coming in to TopChef with all here's here's the what I
would I want to bring to thetable for restaurant Wars, because you're gonna
have to, you know, navigatethat with three others. So I don't
think people would necessarily miss I wouldjust want them to let them know up

(47:43):
front so they're not thinking about itas chefs at the back of their mind
constantly leading up the Final eight.This was from Natalie Franklin that I think
is kind of in line with whatwe're talking about in terms of just like
just get rid of it, goleave, take the thing out, get
out right now. Yeah, Ilove Joe Joe. Natalie writes, I

(48:05):
would love a season without immunity.Have them played for San Pellegrino. Yeah,
that's an elimination challenge or Soda Streamseven hailed. I love that idea.
I think that's fantastic. I thinktoo many times we've come to we've
come to the end of the showand it's somebody who deserves to go home

(48:27):
is not going home because they haveimmunity. And I get that was like
a function of the game in that, but I don't think it has to
be in the future. Prize money. I think these people want prize money.
Give them twenty one hundred dollars everytime they win a quick fire,
Oh my god, are they happy. I feel like we did that in
Las Vegas, and that was fun. I think if I got on Top
Chef, which the journey of thatwould be amazing. Top Smoothie. I'm

(48:50):
off my game. I've been offthe smoothing train for it. I was
just gonna say, I think it'sbeen six weeks how are you getting your
vitamin intake? Think I was goingto ask if you take a take a
supplement or anything, am, ButI think if I got on the show
and all I won was like twentyfive thousand dollars worth of sam Pella greeno,

(49:12):
I think could still be pretty bump. Yeah, listen on your teeth.
Somebody could give me fifty dollars ina pound on the back and I
would think that was a success.This is great, I think, I
replied to Natalie's comment. Here islike I would be happy with a grand
prize being all sam pelagreen as aas a bubbly water fishing out of myself.
I think if Mike got on theshow and he found out that was

(49:34):
the prize, he would not behappy. To have a great idea for
a show where every uh, it'sa cooking show, but all of the
prizes are like sparkling water beverages,specifically sparkling water. I think we could
call it SODA's Dreams. I wouldcall it for a day Soda stream.
No, we got a josh.We just didn't think it was funny.

(49:57):
Do you guys want me to kickhim out of here? You can't boot
me from the chap But if youwant to put me in time out,
I'll leave the room for a fewCan you go stand in the corner?
Blair? Which style? Plase?Yeah? Guys, all right, moving
on, that's want one hundred thousanddollar Patriots. We're about to see Joshka
all Blair witch on us. No, he's sitting on the couch. That's
not the same thing. But Iactually liked the back that he's just sitting

(50:19):
in a chair watching us from afar. You literally look like you're going to
turn the TV on. It justsomething. Is there a TV in this
room? Yeah? Right? Ilike the ladder on the bookshelves. By
the way, Um, were thehours shoved behind the ladder? It doesn't
work well for the just I'll justcome back. We can hear you though,
Yeah, um, what do youthis is? This is this is

(50:42):
kind of uh off the board,that off like off the menu. I
suppose, Um, I'm not sure. I'm sure, Hayley. You're probably
watching this season of Drag Race AllStars where they bring in a lip sync
assassin from a previous season to competeagainst the top queen and to see who
goes home. What we think abouthaving some sort of top Chef assassin where
there's some I don't know if it'spart of the elimination challenge or but you

(51:07):
bring in a past a person whoperformed really well in previous quick fires or
elimination challenges to have them compete againstthe chefs in a one off manner.
Whether it's the winning chef does this, or is it a replacement for sudden
death where you compete against I don'tprobably not sudden death. Let's keep that
off the table. What do wethink about this idea of bringing in somebody

(51:28):
it's a reveal, it's Stephanie Eisardand she you know, you have to
cook against her in some banner orcapacity. I think that would be fun,
like once or twice for the season, but I don't think i'd want
it every single week, not aoccurring. Yeah. I think it works
in Drag Race because it's at theend of an episode and because it's all
stars. I don't know if itwould work with an all newby season.

(51:49):
I think we might be too focusedon who's coming in each week, and
because it's in the middle of anepisode, I think you would kind of
do something weird with the flow ofthe show, but I would I think
it'd be cool to see it atleast once completely fair. Yeah. Um,
looking about it like Mike Tyson's punchUp, it's like you get to

(52:10):
the final stage and like you goup against like you guys Art and then
Blaze and then Tom. Yeah that'sthe finale now, so like you win
normal top Chef, but then likedo you want to be like the top
top Yeah, yeah, hmm,that's something we can think about. That's
like a bonus episode of such anice way of saying no, We'll just

(52:35):
that. We'll add that to thelist the bottom SODA's dreams in pencil.
But that and yeah, why doesyour hat say tuna? Because so I'm
wearing a hat that says tuna uhand my tuna hat comes from a mobile
sushi cart in Portland, Maine calledmister Tuna. I will also have a

(53:00):
sweater sweatshirt that says mister Tuna onit, and anytime I wear the hat,
Emily will like, very like provocativeif we saved me mister Tuna.
And then I'll look back and I'lltip my cab and I go from missus
Tuna. I also have a sweatshirtfrom Portland, Maine. But it is
a sea dog sweatshirt. Cool.It's poor local baseball, you know.

(53:21):
Yeah, I have nothing from Portland, Maine nor Portland, Oregon. I
made my mister Tuna hat into ahat I can wear an animal crossing.
I made a custom mister Tuna hat. He loves to show it to me.
Yeah, on animal crossing game,I don't play. If you play
animal crossing, I would love toknow what your stock prices are at any
given times that I could work thestock market. I have a tuna hat

(53:45):
and last of us two um LeahKnight rates. Uh do we want to
look at other ways to consider eliminations? I believe she was posting it seems
like obviously, you know, verysubjective, but potentially do you factor in
the chef's performance during the entire season? So is it more of a track
record elimination or can we potentially havemore objective criteria or eliminations? So I

(54:09):
thought in the past we've seen fanor diner votes which potentially grant somebody the
win. But then do you turnaround, say the person who had the
least votes or potentially raised the leastamount of money, do you have something
that's a little more objective to determineeither the bottom three or the loser.
I don't know. I like howI liked the kind of way they did

(54:30):
it this season was like the productthey were selling where the person who won
was safe or got a prize,like the fan vote, but the judges
picked who was their favorite. SoI like people having an opinion, but
I don't know if I want theiropinion being the one that's exactly what I
was, you know, like moveto the USA, was there like a

(54:55):
big decision this season that we wildlydisagreed? Well, no, there's just
there. Whenever they do these likegroup polling situations, it's always like,
oh, well I really liked thisand blah blah blah, what a unique
thing. And then the judges arelike, we've seen that a thousand times,
Like that's not going to be thething that wins, you know what
I mean? Like yeah, andlike, I know I probably have a

(55:16):
pleaed palette, so like to goto one of these cooking competitions, I
think I would like everything and Iwould have a hard time like picking any
flaws because it's all like show outsideof my realm of possibility. But then
these like high class chefs come andbe like, well, I could tell
that you cooked your soup two degreeslower than you're supposed to, so that

(55:36):
is why you are going home,or like me, an idiot wouldn't ever
be able to figure that out.Yeah, I think, yeah, I
don't know that. I don't knowthat I think the elimination process is broken
necessarily other than I think taking immunityout of it solves a big problem.
I think that that solves a reallybig problem. I think that I think

(56:00):
that the fact that they're judged muchlike the Fast and Furious family lives one
mile at a time. But Ithink that the way that the chef testins
live one dish at a time isgood. And I think that diagrae generally
works. I don't know that Iwant like the full back catalog of a
season to come into play, becauseI actually think that that is where more

(56:25):
subjective criteria comes in. I thinkthat is where like biases start to show
up even more, whereas if you'rejust judging based on an individual dish,
there is more room for objectively,like clinically analyzing the given situation. And
I think that this season, offthe top of my head that that worked,

(56:45):
like I think that that. Idon't know that that's always worked,
but it feels like it worked thisseason. And so I think if like
you bulldoze the idea that one personis going to be safe and even if
that person, even if that personclearly delivered like the biggest part of a
dish in that given round, butthat person is now safe because they want

(57:07):
immunity to take that out of it, I think that solves the issue for
me. I don't think that theissue is like you need to account an
entire season's worth of history into theevaluation of the chef. Although if we
do make that shift to top restaurant, then the I could see them doing
it where Okay, you're making appetizersfor your restaurant in season three. Now

(57:29):
when you move on to the Superorsalad course, maybe you do get judged
on that transition from app but that'sa completely different, totally chef. Yeah,
but if it's not a kind ofpublic vote for like who gets eliminated,
let's talk about other kind of votingoptions and fan participation and viewer participation.
Brendan for Fitzpatrick, Chef Brendan ofChef Fitzpatrick a great Irish restaurant.

(57:55):
Maybe a fan vote challenge. Isthere a way to pull the viewers on
a protein or a specific dish thatthe chefs have to do their best version
of, or that can also bemade at home production reality of that is
challenge, right, he says,he knows it sounds like a different show
since Stop Chef is taped. Ifthey could figure out way to involve the
audience more, help the connect tothe show to the viewer in a more

(58:16):
direct way, make it feel moreapproachable because it has such a reputation of
being high class cookery. Is theresomething to make it more accessible, whether
it's through a fan thought or someother way. Do they need to adjust
the challenges to make it more accessibleto home viewers? So, I know
they have it is a recorded show, but they have done stuff with audience

(58:37):
participation in the past. You rememberthat, like Fancy Food Challenge where they
had to make everything looks super pretty. It was really like local Jacque Lamar.
Yeah, so they I think audiencevoted on that, and then the
Top Chef California challenge I attended,they did tweet out saying like hey,

(59:00):
if you're interested in coming like DMor like tweet me back and we'll figure
something out kind of thing. Yeah, it's not that they need to do
a pole live. If they coulddo the pole for ingredients and anticipation of
the understands, this is very surprisingfrom the tabulator. I'm not I'm saying
you could take a pok. Yeah, I think it would be interesting from
for a challenge, but even youknow, um, they could do a

(59:22):
food truck challenge where the food feelsmore accessible than in the high end restaurant.
I feel like there are ways tomake things more accessible. But but
isn't part of it like top WatchingTop Chef is like the reason you watch
travel shows. It's because like youwant that travel porn. You want that
food porn that's like like so beautifuland like so different from what you're going

(59:45):
to find at your local diner.The inuality too. For me, it's
the creativity I could. I actuallylike more of the challenges where it's like,
oh, you're a little you're allpainted into your individual corners a little
bit, how are you going toget at almost? I like the the
escape from element of the show interms of I've got these disparate things I

(01:00:07):
have to put them together in away that's useful. Um. That's actually
one of the things that those episodesare the episodes that I like the most.
Um. So, I think anythingthat highlights the individual interests and passions
of a given chef is going toget a yes from me. Like that

(01:00:28):
is always the idea that is goingto go to Samoa for me. Um.
Like any anything that is going toembolden and highlight Melissa King wanting to
honor her heritage and and marry thatwith Italian cooking, anything like that is
something that I am going to bereally here for. Or like Eric's journey,

(01:00:52):
anything that has like that's that's that, that's that specificity, like that
really specific individual angle. And Idon't I don't know, Um, I
don't know if like having like fansdetermine what people are making is like going
to lean into that particularly hard.Like I like an inventive challenge and especially

(01:01:15):
like watching a chef bring themselves tothat challenge. But if there's a challenge
where like just by the design ofthe challenge, like you can't really be
yourself in the challenge, I guessI don't. I don't love that as
much but I think I think allit's doing is it's simplest, it's taking.
Okay, we could have one offive challenges for the sixth episode,
we in production are going instead ofchoosing challenge too, We're gonna put the

(01:01:39):
challenge up to a vote for thepublic. So it's at least like getting
the public a little bit more invested. And I do like those episodes or
at least give where I can likewalk out of the episode, walk away
from the episode saying there's something newnow that I can try and know.
The Monica Dori and the Facebook groupsaid, um like, even like the

(01:02:00):
episodes that encourage people to visit particularrestaurants or try different cuisines. So like
the I really liked episode two ofthis season in terms of Jonathan Goldman.
Am I getting the name right?Yeah? Gold Um Like, in terms
like I literally took note of thosethose restaurants because well, hey, I'm
lucky that I'm in LA and theyou know, restaurants are now in the

(01:02:22):
process of kind of opening up again. Um. So I think if it's
not a like direct fan input intothe challenges, anything that at least gives
the opportunity for people to try somethingnew or to open up their minds to
something new. I think it's interesting, Bailey. Should we do as a

(01:02:43):
second chance season, a fan votevote the cast on to top chef?
I think I think you want meto hate this that I don't hate it
at all. No, I don'twant you to hate it. I know
I even like okay, okay,no, I I how do you feel
good about that? It's weird,but I feel good about that, and

(01:03:07):
I kind of I mean, especiallynow with so many chefs doing like live
streams of kind of walking people throughcooking, I think that can be an
interesting way to present the chefs potentialchefs to the audiences. Not only do
you get to vote somebody in ora pool of subset of people in,

(01:03:30):
but you're basing it not just onlike your typical survive or profile or like
a casting video, but potentially isit a little cooking experience where it's like
a fifty yeah, however long thingyou get to experience and also try at
home. We'll go on a journeywith me, Emily Fox. This is
this is the thought. Everyone elsecan participate in this journey as well.

(01:03:50):
I just turned to look at Emilyas I was having brainstorm Emily is your
copilot because I think this idea thatlike you would vote a cast onto a
season, Um, there is thenyou know there is there is the weight
time between when you have voted thecast onto the season and then when you

(01:04:12):
get to watch the season because theygot a film the season. In this
time where we are and we's pickingthings off my shirt in this time where
what is it? The hair?It's a hair? Whose hair is it?
Joshi? I think it's time,so it's both of our The hair
belongs to us we as I don'tknow. Uh, we're at a time

(01:04:33):
when we're starved for content. Shouldthat be a name of a pot of
starved for content? That's goods addto the list. We're starved for content.
So at a time where we're starvedfor content, and at the at
a time where we're like we're kindof turning our noses at like having to

(01:04:54):
spend so much time on Zoom orFaceTime or whatever. Um is there way
where that is that is not justpalatable, but it's actually a function of
the design. Where could Bravo andTop Chef do like a Zoom specific mega
season of like exploring a bunch ofdifferent chefs and what their situations are like

(01:05:15):
in their home kitchen. It's likea bracket something like that, where with
like fan participation, we are we'relike voting on who's moving on. And
it's like things that like you canedit together relatively quickly. You're shooting it
and airing it close to real time, and you basically get like sort of
like a mini Top Chef season todetermine who will be like the real cast

(01:05:38):
once these fans can interact with eachother in the flesh. So it's kind
of like a two part show.Part one of the show is it's it's
not simply a one and done vote. It's like it's like the casting process,
this mysterious casting process we talked aboutthat we get invited to like participating
to some degree and they turn itinto a show. There's probably like a
sorting hat involved or something with thecasting process. It's like they have like,

(01:06:01):
um, you know, like let'ssay it's like an eight episode thing,
um, and every episode two peopleget to move on and they will
be participating in like the actual seasonof Top Chef. Yeah, like two
people that could be interesting. Sixpeople lose, so okay, I don't

(01:06:24):
know, I'm down. It's justoh sorry, no, no you you
was gonna shift topics slightly. ButI mean so I've been thinking a lot
just based on the fact, Imean mostly just like pitching, Like Emi,
you could be a contestant on theZoom thing. You think you could
be on top of Oh, Isee what you mean, Like you want

(01:06:45):
regulars? Yeah, I don't wantto be on top show. I don't
think I have the skill set.I disagree. I think it's great.
No, I think what I've beenthinking about a lot just in seeing a
lot of um, how food ofmedia has literally imploded on itself in the
last maybe months or so. Umwho gets to tell these stories and and

(01:07:08):
what do they function as in termsof using ingredients where their source from background
of the chefs themselves challenges themselves,and who gets to judge the challenges.
This is a really unique opportunity tobring in a lot of other voices and
people who don't normally get to participate. And I'm really interested to see potentially

(01:07:29):
how Bravo handles that incorporates a lotof that because we're seeing I mean,
I'm burying the lead a little bit, but we're going to talk about pad
and a show. Um, probablyin the next podcast or so, right,
Um, she's one of the firstdrop I'm burying the lead. I
buried it. We're gonna talk aboutthe Padma show. Yeah, more and

(01:07:56):
that we'll talk about that in asecond. No, but she in her
sort of dissection of American cuisine talksabout how it's like very I don't know,
it's very fraught with a lot ofconflict, a lot of colonialization,
a lot of imperialism, a lotof things that have been co opted or

(01:08:16):
appropriated that we need to understand theroots of, and like, how does
pop Chef, which is an incredibleshow that really showcases a lot of diverse
people, but could do better sortof take a note from that and all
the other things that have happened aroundfood media and food culture that have been
brought to surface or have been lingeringfor decades and centuries and make it sort

(01:08:42):
of more palatable or understand not palatable. Actually we shouldn't be doing that,
but we should be understanding a betteridea of where all these ingredients play into
and who gets to talk about themthen who gets them? And I don't
know, I think that that's justbeing the food studies nerd that I am
something that we also need to takeinto account. It's not just casting,

(01:09:04):
it's it's what are these challenges?Who gets to even be a sponsor in
this and what kind of sponsorship isit? I think, Uh, this
is like, this is a bigconversation in the reality TV space right now.
Is particularly prominent in our specific universein Survivor as a lot of the

(01:09:26):
alumni from Survivor, a lot ofblack players from over the years have been
really pushing UH, CBS and SEGto acknowledge ways in which they have failed
in UM in representation in telling thosestories. And there's a great petition that
had been circulating and a lot ofit. I think the conversation stems on

(01:09:50):
like casting, production is such abig piece of it for me, I
think production is equally vital and likewho is who is it behind the scenes,
Who's who's advocating for which stories we'retelling? UM, Who's who is
it behind the scenes that is UMparticipating in challenge design? Who is it

(01:10:12):
behind the scenes in marketing? Thatis like who's like working with the right
people for for product advertising and everythinglike that? Uh, it's it's very
vital that we see better representation infront of the camera, but I think
behind the scenes too, If thatis not something that's shifting, um,
then we're really just acknowledging, youknow, a piece of the puzzle,

(01:10:34):
not the full thing. Yeah.And I think we also saw it with
you know, Restaurant Wars pitching,right, we brought it up. Antonio
made this point of like we're seeingKevin, you know, bringing out Country
Captain and being like, this isthe first case of Curry and it's so
intertwined with the Transatlantic slave trade,and yet we watch Eric, you know,

(01:10:57):
fumble on Middle Passage again, Sowhy aren't we sort of dissecting that
more. Why aren't we understanding thatmore? Why aren't we being more critical
about how those stories are told?And the whole Plantation visit in the previous
season. Yeah, and you know, I think this is a teachable moment
for so many reasons, for somany different genres and industries just generally.

(01:11:21):
But Top Chef has the chops toreally handle this well, I think moving
forward, if they're really mindful aboutit, and they've had instances where they
really could have been better about hitand I welcome them, and I'm really
hopeful that you know, they takea note from everything else that's happening around

(01:11:42):
them and will continue to happen likethere, this is only the beginning of
seeing certain powerful, usually white menhaving to reckon with the fact that they've
appropriated stuff. Right. Yeah,I really want to see how top Chef
handles it. I'm really interested.I'm very hopeful that people like Padma are
you know, leading by example.Yeah, and she is such a powerful

(01:12:03):
voice in a lot of this.Let's see where it goes. I want
them so, I want them sobadly for them to be proactive versus reactive.
I don't want them. I don'twant there to be a YO and
a flashpoint moment where like, ohwe didn't consider that, yeah, when
there's nothing, when there's no trackrecord of them having actively considered and proactively

(01:12:26):
considered things. Yeah, I mean, we'll see how it happens. I
think there are a lot of blanketstatements out there, and it's sort of
like and your next move. Soyeah, uh, I really am hopeful,
crossing my fingers. I think thereare a lot of really excellent people
that have been on the show.I think there are a lot of really
excellent people that are judges on theshow, but there need to be more
There need to be more color.There needs to be a better discussion about

(01:12:53):
food and where it comes from.And and I just I'm I'm crossing by
fingers. Yeah, it's this conversationis a big piece of why. Yeah,
So next week we're going to talkabout Taste the Nation, the new
Padma show. We're gonna we're gonnawatch as much of it as we can.
I don't know that we'll watch atall, but we'll definitely have like
a bigger conversation about everything that's happeningon the show. And I don't know

(01:13:14):
how many people on the panel havehave seen any of it yet, but
it's a really good show. Padmais awesome in this role. Uh,
there's there's some burritos that look justlike super super bomb in the first episode.
Uh, and so like there willjust be like delicious things and like
glorious cinematography and stuff to talk aboutthere. Um, But I think a
lot of a lot of these kindsof conversations are things that can continue into

(01:13:38):
into next weeks this course as well. Well, I know, yeah,
is this something that we want to. Usually we talk about what cities we'd
like to see Top Chef go tonext. Is that too hurtful in this
time that we don't know why we'regoing to ever be able to go to
another city again? I mean,I think we already Hop Chef the Internet,

(01:14:03):
Top Chef Shelter. What's the citythat they haven't done? Philadelphia got
brought up to us earlier in theseason, and I keep thinking about that,
and I think that would be funat least a great good city.
Yeah, yeah, we did.When we had our last m r HP
event March of MARCHRESO of last year, I organized for the patrons a walking

(01:14:23):
food culinary culinary tour of Philly.It was a lot of fun. It's
it's and we went to Eddie's Eddieand Knick's restaurant, uh while there as
well. Uh huge. Yeah.I can see them doing Philadelphia and It's
and it's you know, so closeto you know, just like when Top
Chef Kentucky went down to was aTennessee, uh you know, to Philly.

(01:14:44):
Could go to Jersey, Yeah yeah, who I mean, Jersey has
incredible produce, so they could definitelydo something out there. You know,
like that's where most of our farmsare. For a lot of the things
that are in the Price state.I think it's not so much that it's
like it's it's too painful to consider, like what city could they go to
next? Because like can they goto a city next? I think,
like again to tip it to tosome of the conversations on RHAP surrounding survivor

(01:15:11):
and like being like locked into Fijior being locked into the idea of like
it has to be this international uhset show, why can't you just film
in Utah? Like why can't youjust film? You know, Like I
think, Uh, it's not likethere's a state where there's no food,
you know, Yeah, I thinkI think the primary thing for me is
just like can you make Top Chefeighteen? Right? You know, and

(01:15:34):
like wherever you end up, thereyou are and there are significant food stories.
Like you just said, that's notYou're not going to go to a
state that there isn't any food.There are so many different landscapes within the
US that have legitimate stories behind themand things that you can discover, really

(01:15:55):
discuss and honor, you know,like because we have like a bunch of
planes states that are very flat.Doesn't mean that there's not like a booming
culture of like, Okay, thisis a really important place to get corn.
Why don't we talk about corn.This is a really important place where
we grow wheat. What is thehistory of wheat in this culture? You
know, like there's so much Iactually kind of liked it. Even again,

(01:16:17):
I'm trying to figure out how thiswould work both in COVID. Maybe
this might have to be a postCOVID if Forever and post COVID a idea
or I'm not sure how this willwork with film credits and states. But
the idea of kind of like aTop Chef road rules challenge sort of thing.
Yeah, I wow, this reallymarries the food truck idea into it.

(01:16:39):
There it goes. Yeah, butyou get you get like, you
know, two or three RVs maybefour four people per RV, and you're
you're literally you're going, okay,now you get guess what. You woke
up and you're in Idaho. Yeah, you're you're in New Mexico. You
don't necessarily know where you're gonna go. And maybe maybe maybe there could be
a little bit like a you know, you know, choose your own event,

(01:17:00):
your element to it. Maybe thebenefit of winning a challenge is if
you're getting rid of eliminations, youget to pick. You know, you're
either which place in Indiana we goto or which which route? I don't
know, but that's very wayfaring.I have a really good idea short lived
Malcolm Freeberg Internet show, Wait Ready, go for it. Top Chef Oregon

(01:17:24):
Trail. Why not please pack yourknives and get dysentery, like you killed
a bear, you can only bringback fifty pounds. Please pack your wagon
and go. Yeah, Top Chefand the Top Chef and afraid a Top
Chef. Yes, that's good.I like Top Chef Oregon Trail. Yeah,

(01:17:46):
and it's good because you know wherethe finale is. Yeah, Oregon
is. You have all of yourprovisions, you're smart about it. Um.
So, what were like those youneed new protein? Yeah, you
gotta you gotta shoot it on thego? What were those? Those are

(01:18:08):
the PBS shows? It was likePioneer Life or the Yeah parent love that
show. Yeah, so it couldbe it could be like a little bit.
It could be a blended survivor inTop Chef. But like um underreported
in in eighth grade, I wentto survival camp and you had to like
you had to like there was fivedays in a cabin, but then there's

(01:18:28):
like two days in the wilderness whereyou had to like build lean two's out
of sticks and like boiled leaves forlike tea water. Um, it could
be something I don't know. Yeahit could we sign me up for that
please, Yeah, like, ohis this route edible? Find out?
Uh, but it could be itcould be something a little bit like even
more survivalists than we're used to seeing. I wouldn't want it to be yeah,

(01:18:53):
top forager, but um I likeit. Yeah, we have one
on my list. Well one lastemail. Want to give a shout out
to you justling first consider is likewe've seen it completely off topic. This
isn't a tangent as much as it'sa complete left turn. But I just
want to you know, you know, thanks to Missing Florida for for emailing
us at food at Rob has awebsite dot com. Do I get the

(01:19:15):
email rights website dot com? That'sour spot. Hit us up with all
your feedback future PoCA feed feed feedfeed feedback feed. There's there's a there's
a food foodback. Yes, it'snot feedback, it's feedback. Um,
what should be the result? Whatshould be the role of dessert in the
show going forward? It used tobe the kiss of death in earlier seasons,
but seeming now like each chef comeswith a few recipes to get by.

(01:19:36):
Do we think that desserts should behighlighted more? Should desserts be removed
entirely from the menu so to speak? Um? I like that we're ending
the food back section on dessert.It feels like a full meal now.
I personally think it's important to havedessert in some form in at least the
challenges in which you have a fullmeal, because your girl wants a dessert

(01:20:00):
after every single meal, and thatincludes breakfast. Yes, I also feel
like there needs to be better representationfor pastry chefs just generally. Yeah,
I would. I would like tosee more of a complete challenge, a
complete more challenges, a completely focuson dessert versus one person getting stuck with
dessert, right. Yeah. Ithink dessert gets a bad rap in cookery

(01:20:21):
in general when it comes to stufflike this, and people are always like,
oh, I don't do pastry,it's not my background, blah blah
blah. I think pastry chefs aresome of the more talented chefs that exist.
It's way harder. Yeah, it'sway harder. And if you're a
pastry chef, you know how tomake regular food too, Like it's not
just one thing where you're like,oh man, all I do is make

(01:20:42):
sandwiches and then I make this beautifullike tart. Otherwise, like no,
like you have a range of skills, Like it's just like anything else.
If anything more, you are thatmuch better. So why don't we see
more pastry chefs recruited. My philosophyis if you put a lip candle in
it, it's dessert. Just Imean you desert meat loaf dessert. Happy

(01:21:09):
birthday to me. I mean itis your birthday. So you get to
check everyday you get uh any otherwell we want we surprisingly have not brought
up his last chance whatever. I'vemade my piece. Yeah, I've made
my piece. It's here and andI think, especially now, I'm not
I'm not going to be the guywho gets out here and is like,

(01:21:31):
reduce your digital content. Like ifyou got a way to make a compelling
digital show right now, now's thetime, did you did you enjoy what
you saw? It? The season, Josh, I did what I saw,
you know I did. I didn'tend up like going ham on on
Last Dance Kitchen, but ham gotto coordinate that. Um I I really

(01:21:54):
enjoyed what I watched. Um Ishall eat my own words on that Eat
Your Words another podcast titles that EatOur Words, Eat our Words, Eat
your words, Eat your You.You could say you is YW sounds like,

(01:22:15):
so what have you guys been makingthis week? Speak of you?
Um? Yeah, Josh, wouldyou make this week not a smoothie?
Not a smoothie? Made homemade homemadecavatelli last night? Yeah, I have
a Cavatelli machine. It's the bestthing I've ever thought. You just crank

(01:22:36):
it. It's like a hand crank. Yeah. Cool. Sometimes like you'll
you'll always make the pasta. Wlike you want to make the cavatelli.
Was very reluctant at first, andthen you shouldn't be had was like,
oh, this is super fun.It's like Plato into the machine, make
a little sneak. Yeah. Right. Is there a pasta where you can

(01:22:56):
like put the little person on thething and the hair comes up and you
just chop it off and your justlike a chia pasta. Yeah, how
was your chia pet doing a hailey? Oh no, yeah, I died
many months ago. Yeah, sorry, I have I I'm bad with plants.
I'm bad with plants. What canI say? Kurt? What did

(01:23:17):
you make this week? Did Imake anything? I made the Clark family,
uh, beans and ground beef,but I subbed in ground turkey right
yeah, yeah, yeah, Ijust kind of dumped a bunch of spices.
And now this this was a weekof I wasn't going to cook a
lot during birthday week. Um,yesterday I ordered in from I was craving

(01:23:38):
Italian. I ordered in. Iwas like kind of a seafood pasta with
usilli and diced clams and shrimp andpine nuts. Um, some really good
garlic bread with that. Um.I got sent to me from my co
workers a uh edible arrangements a boxof chocolate covered strawberries. Nice. Um

(01:23:58):
they were arranged in the box.I guess that and they were edible.
Um. I think there's been uhmuch else. I kind of already mentioned
the Brazilian barbecue, which was whichwas a good time. Um, this
is a takeout heavy week. Ifeel like this was takeout heavy week.
For me, definitely, and I'mtrying to figure out. I have a
I have a meal kid coming onThursday, so we will continue to be

(01:24:18):
a little bit take out heavy.Um oh yeah yeah. The Uh went
to the Sechuan place called Sechuan Placeonce more. I enjoyed their Dan Dan
wantons once more. But then Ibranched out to their pot stickers and their
UH to some of their Boo dumplings. I think all three of those.
So I kind of did three setsof appetizers and all three head porked in

(01:24:40):
them. And it's still just I'mreally loving those dantons, but I'm not
finding I'm searching for that accompaniment thatcan make the meal, and I have
yet to find it. So letme have to this week a grate.
I love my parents on Long Islandand brought them some bowlonais that I made.
Your dad wrote me an email whichthe subject line said bolonaise, and

(01:25:03):
then the body of the email saidgreat, right, it's not my dad
communicates with people. Either that orhe'll like write out a poem, not
intentionally, but his email style waslike poetry, poetry, very strange.
He writes like pikus. It's weird. Um I did. I did go
on a little bit of a shoppingbinge at the local liquor market. Um.

(01:25:27):
I bought BlackBerry wine, which Idid. Yes, I did not
enjoy. Oh no, sorry,that's okay. It was it was on
brands und reported. I also don'tlike wine that much, so I didn't
know where BlackBerry wine would land.Nobody doesn't like wine. You just haven't
found the type of wine you likeyet. I like wines. It's hard.

(01:25:49):
It's hard with other fruit wines becausea lot of times they're dumping in
a lot of sugar to make ita little more palatable. Um, which
is not necessarily the way wine alwaysgoes. I do like reasonings in moscados.
Okay, so you're right, yeahyou have. You have a sweet
tooth. So also get into theworld of giverts demeaners. If you find
a nice givert's reasoning combo, Iwill drink it. I will drink that

(01:26:13):
just for the name. Um.I bought a four pack of cider and
then I bought this apple. Ithink it's kind of It was in the
wine section, so I think it'slike a meat or a wine. I
guess meat is honeyed wine, butit's apple based. But then the questionable
things. I think each one ofthe more five bucks was a dark a
crumb to cacao and a pecan liqueuras well. Um, so I now

(01:26:42):
mix those with my coffee. Verynice. I found a s'mores Irish cream
this week, but I couldn't sayno too. I think it's going to
be killer, but oh, Ilike, I'm just getting in. I
can't remember who on Facebook it waswith. Where are you talking about they
pust it on? I think itmight have been Ian Rice from the Patron
group. Smores are overrated, Igo. I think the effort behind smores

(01:27:06):
isn't worth the You're just not doingsores right then, I like the end
product. I have the benefit ofhaving a gas show, so I will
often cook my marshmallows for Smores onthat instead of a fire. I do
have a lot of candles. Ithink that would just get missed. Oh
I've done that in college. Don'tdo that in college with a vanilla scented

(01:27:30):
candle. But you can easily.But you can just do it. Put
it under the broiler if you havea broiler in your stove. Just don't
put the top Graham cracker on,just up, put the bottom the chocolate
and the marshmallow. Put it inyour broiler for a couple of minutes.
Still the chocolate starts smell, andthen take it out and put your other
Grammy on top and go to town. You see this, This all sounds
like work. I would rather justdrink my Smores like you are about to

(01:27:54):
do. Said, no, it'san Irish cream cream. Yeah you guys
ever microwave to marsh hello? Ohyeah? If ever, Mike, have
you ever done Mike cleaving a marshmallow? Peep? And then what they'll do.
People will put them toothpicks. Youget two of them next to each
other, and then you you kindof stick a toothpick on the side of

(01:28:14):
either one of them, you thinkingyou might you might pierce it. And
then as they expand, it's likepeep peep jousting and one of them the
toothpicks will inevitably hit the other peepand then it deflates all of a sudden,
so it's like, yeah, it'svery fun. Um, I don't
over microwave them. I used towatch There was somebody I used to work
with who would make martinis and thenput a peep in it. Huh.

(01:28:38):
That's a ruin, like a garnishm Like it's like a little like a
little rubber ducky on floating on topof them. Yeah, and then it
would dissolve over time and add somesweetness to it. That's probably what like,
I'm not going to go for personally, no, but I sure I
the in my opinion, and thisis a whole other podcast. Who I

(01:29:00):
have to get Jim Rasari on thisone is that to me, the Unholy
Triumvirate of candies is candy corn,Peeps, and circus peanuts. It's like
all three of those are different typesof evil, and I don't know which
is lawful evil and which is likechaotic evil. I think got signed a
line of death. It's peeps,and what's the third. I'm sure if

(01:29:20):
you described the more I would,I would. They're like orange and banana
flavored and marshmallow looking, but they'revery kind of yeah, they're like yeah,
oh those yeah, yeah, okay, they're okay, I know you're
talking about. Yeah, those arelike oh yeah, if that noise,
just throwing the bag and Smarties andthen you're good. A kind of like

(01:29:42):
Smarties. My parents needs to giveout Smarties at Halloween and okay, my
lives till these things got a rut, very tough. Did you ever?
But your your smarties are like thechalky ones? Yeah? Yeah, ours
are delicious and chocolate. You're right, we calls rockets. Yeah, so

(01:30:04):
how about you, Hailey? Otherthan the s'more liqueur, that's more as
Irish creams. I haven't been cookinga whole lot this week. I have
the restaurant industry and Ontario. We'vebeen opened up a little bit more.

(01:30:24):
We were open on the patio,so I've been working quite a lot.
So it's been nice to be backto work. Um, it's taken a
hit on my cooking. What haveI made earlier this week? I made
um an alumatar from the Vegan reachOut website, which was really delicious.
That is on my Instagram if youwant to look at it is that it's

(01:30:45):
like a potato and key like curry. Interesting. Oh yeah, that looked
really really good. It was tasty. I put it on rice, and
I next time I made it,I would not do that because I found
that the rice really soaked like uplike my venus of it. Yeah,
and I just kind of wanted toeat it like like mar mar of a
stew would you have read with itor something? Yeah, i'd probably um

(01:31:10):
do like Nan nan next time.Yeah. I don't love couscous the texture
kind of I'm not. I don'ttotally love rice a lot rice fans.
I mean it's just filler like youusually remember I get when I get a
side of rice, like in thelittle white container with the next of the
big wet container in Chinese food,nine times out of ten, the rice
it just gets tossed. H Yeah, I would just plain plain wet In

(01:31:33):
the days when I would drink uhoften, like I would get past the
hangover by just crushing rice really byordering it. Yeah, and I would
like eat it by like the handful. Yeah, speaking, there's a reason
I don't drink anymore. I did, I did. I did pick up
some edibals this week as well,from some chocolates and some gummies. And

(01:31:57):
the reason I bring that up isI demolished half a box of dry cinnamon
toast scrunched. Yes, that alsosounds like a flashback for me. That's
good, that's really great. Sorry, But you also make did you make

(01:32:18):
crapes. This tweak too, Haley. Technically Ethan made crapes. You make
crapes and you can't enjoy the crapes. Well, Jasper enjoys anything with whipped
cream on it. He is awhipped cream Helen that cat. Yeah,
used to easing me. Crapes andthey're delicious. So first say we're crape
we um um. Grilled up somechicken and mushrooms and put it in there

(01:32:40):
with some Swiss cheese and for dessert, stuffed it with ice cream, topped
it with some berries, whipped cream. Call it a day. Had a
great time. I had a crapeone. I'm sorry, No, it's
okay. The cream my head wasin France, so I'm not going to
complain. That was the place todo it. If you're going to do
it. I guess it's hard tomake crepes eggless, yeah, because it's

(01:33:03):
mostly I think you crepe No.I mean, that's why they looked at
me funny at the restaurant. Yeah, that's like. I went to a
restaurant once and the side dish thatcame with the entree that I was interested
in had spatsil and I was like, oh, you know what, like
let's like get rid of the spatsil. I'll get like French fries or something

(01:33:24):
like. I was like, Ibelieve the spatsil's eggless, and I was
like, no, it's not.That's like telling me the omelet is eggless.
That's the key component to something likethat. And he was just like,
oh, and you know, canyou do you can? Is it
the yolk of the egg white oris it kind of the whole. I've
never tried to separate the two andfigure it out, but I have noticed

(01:33:45):
sometimes if there's like just a slipebit of egg white and something, it
doesn't really bother me that much.Like I also haven't tested it out in
a very long time, but Ithink, you know, like a foam
on a brink kind of thing.I've never been like, oh my odd,
Like obviously I avoid it, butthere have been times where I wasn't
so hip to how things were made, and I would be like, oh,

(01:34:08):
I think that had egg white init, because I think because I
think I might have a minor eggallergy, because I know if I have
a if I have an omelet,it often will wreck me um. But
if I have an egg white omelet, I'm fine. So oftentimes I will
just do an egguaite omelet um.But between like if I get like just
like Sunday side up or Friday,I'm fine. It's really for some reason
omelet form. It really does justlike the sheer volume of how much egg

(01:34:32):
that might be it actually, yeah, it's all connected to your gallbladder.
That could be a separate um.You know podcast. I know a lot
about gallbladders because I had a verylow functioning gol. I'm adding to this
the spreadsheet food issues. Yeah,I'm putting your shoes in quotes. Yeah.
Are we gonna talk about all thethings we can't eat anymore because it

(01:34:54):
recks us? Yes, that's that'sthe funny. If I'm not eating should
be a second, Yeah, orlike eating things you know are going sometimes
I like, if I'm craving aWendy spicy chicken, I have to make
sure I've got nothing else going onthat day. Yeah, we could do
a Curtied Fennel podcast. Oh mygod, you really want to volunteer your

(01:35:16):
soul for that? That one's definitelya video podcast. I would there's I've
I think the way that that hasto work is, like you you while
you're eating the fennel, you probablyhave to mute yourself and we have to
like, uh, basically give commentaryon on what's happening to your body.
I don't think there's any food Idislike enough that I wouldn't that I would

(01:35:40):
avoid it for entertainment purposes. That'sgood, that's good. I'm backpocketing that
information. I think it was like, um, I twit had message you
guys that Padma was on Josh Gatestonight this this past week. In an
earlier week, he was he's beenrecording from home. It could have quarantined
his production made him try a bunchof different jerky where he would basically unwrap
them and then eat them and tryto guess what they were. And there

(01:36:04):
was somewhere like right away he's like, wait, this is gonna be terrible.
This is gonna be a horrible AndI was like, oh that was
that was interesting. Oh that waszebra Okay, I didn't expect that.
So I think we could do somesort of fun food taste tests as well.
I'm into it, definitely into it. Crunch of mouth sounds, We've

(01:36:25):
got this, We've got the themesong already. Josh Yeah, it's true.
It's true. So we're go atalk Taste the Nation next week.
Yes, padmas Hulu show. It'son Hulu. You've got Hulu. You've
got Taste the Nation. Um,you don't, and screw you, I
your friends. Screw you is theother channel that you could also? You
know what we could do? TheGulla Gichi episode is free on YouTube if

(01:36:48):
we can't watch that one, sothat everyone could watch that one and then
well we'll link to that in theshow notes too. It's an episode of
Taste the Nation. So if youwant to leave to make sure you've watched
that episode, you'll be on board. Do you have an idea where we're
going to go conversation though, Iimagine if you don't watch the show,
uh, probably still just get thesame all over the place Top Chef podcast

(01:37:13):
as as what are you talking about? This is so streamlined? We really
it's actually great. I had Ihad a blast date. This is really
really fun. It was it wasgreat. I was afraid. How yet
he can't talk. Yeah, he'sjust nodding. Yeah, heat eat,
drinking, drinking some carmonade water.Um yeah, yeah, we didn't have
our historians on h but I thinkwe fared. Okay, he did.

(01:37:36):
Mike would quit Top Chef if hewas on Top Chef and their prizes were
all sparkling water, no, becausehe said sparkling water is fine, right,
just not pop. Yeah, hehe would, he would gift it
to somebody if it was the prizehe's he would still go through with the
kind of guy. Yeah, yeah, guy. Wait, does this mean
he doesn't like pocacola? I don'tknow. I don't know if he was,

(01:38:00):
I can't remember it was washed brecklingwater or carbonated beverages in general.
I think it was just carbonation becausehe said it bothered his tongue. Right
anyway, Well, I think that'sit right there will name for the podcast.
Let us know which one you like. Starve for contents, eat your
words, your tongue? All right? What's that? I get? Wait?

(01:38:26):
Where can people find you? Everyone? Emone on Instagram, Twitter,
Round Howard, Instagram, Twitter,Kurt Clark, everywhere, basically pretty much?
What is one platform like LinkedIn whereit's Clark Kurt? If anyone's looking
to add me to LinkedIn, don'tYeah. How often do you sign into

(01:38:47):
LinkedIn? Haley? I'd say threetimes a year. Yeah, I like
quarterly feels like a lot to me, So I don't think it's I've been
doing it more recently because I've updatedmy resume and like there are people that
are active all there, and I'mlike, really, people like blog on
there ye two to three two,I got like two or three birthday,
Like you have a birthday announced wishfrom someone on LinkedIn. I'm like okay,

(01:39:10):
And then LinkedIn gets thirsty once youlogged in, where it's like,
don't you want to come back?Come on? Like, no, it's
my healthscape. Yeah. I thinkI live in once every year and a
half. You know, someone justlooked at your profile and it's like my
mom. If I don't have aconnection with you that I know already in
some way, likely a professional manner, I will likely not connect with you
on LinkedIn podcast. I won't accept. I won't deny it or accept that

(01:39:33):
you just live in yeah world,LinkedIn Limbo Yeah podcast where we drag LinkedIn
No, because what if they sueus or I want to sponsor us one
time? Oh right? Got it? Not all about that anymore? All
about this. You can find meon Twitter and Instagram at eight strong Underscore

(01:39:58):
you can check out my blog StrongTakes Dots. Yeah, and with that,
y'all can pack your knives and headon out mind m hmm

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