#2779 Top Chef Season S22: Cooking The Canada Cast
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who cares what happens when there's so much that happens

well hello and welcome to watch what crap ends a podcast for all the crap we love to talk about on your brahms i'm ronnie and over there is the handsome and talented gorgeous and thin ben mandelger of the ben mandelger womb of carolyn mandelger's womb many years ago here he is that is my story hi how are you how's it going good what's going on with you

You know, just, you know, I'm getting excited for the upcoming weekend and the adventures therein. What's going on with you? How are you feeling? Oh, whatever. So we are traveling. That's what Ben is referring to this weekend. We're on the mountain Historia, Historia.

We're talking about history. We've become a history podcast. We're on the mounting historian tour this weekend. We are going to be in DC and Philly in DC. We're going to be doing Southern charm reunion in Philadelphia. We're going to be doing a summer house in which means those recaps are not going to be out to the weekend here on watch what crap. And so instead today we're going to do a top chef breakdown where we kind of catch up and go over all these chefs. So yesterday we did a trailer trash for the valley. Um,

Um, what kind of was fine. Um, and normally those are bonus episodes over on our Patrion. Uh, so if you want to join patron and get stuff like that, plus our white Lotus recaps and traders recaps and stuff like that, go over to patrion.com/watcher crappens. It's also where you get video like today's hello. Um, and you can see all the stuff we're talking about in trailer trash and some of these cast members and stuff like that. Cause we are putting them up on the screen. Okay. Guess what?

patreon i mean watch what crappens is also where you get ticket links to the shows in philly washington dc boston massachusetts detroit chicago austin dallas las vegas those are all available on watch what crappens dot kial wow pretty cool wow wow great stuff wow

I know. So Top Chef, we're three weeks into Top Chef and we haven't discussed it at all. We haven't talked about the chefs at all on the show. Oh, we're going to do a little video action. Fun. We're going to actually look at it. Well, we can. We definitely have the option to show people what these suckers actually look like because here we are on the website. Yeah.

What do you, so it's destination Canada. What do you think so far, Ronnie, about the new season and how everything's going and how newbie Kristen Kish is doing in her second season on the show? What do you think?

I like it. I think the evolution of Top Chef has been a remarkable one. I think that people are so talented on this show now. It's so hard to pick sometimes who sucks because they're all really, really talented. I mean, wow. I mean, one of the guys who won one of the challenges last week, like a chicken sandwich or something, is like, oh, yeah, I've perfected this. It was named the best chicken sandwich in Chicago for like five years. And

They opened a James Beard house just for me over this chicken sandwich. So that's what I'm entering into the competition. I mean, part of me wishes that it was still like a caterer named Betty and, you know, an ex Applebee's chef going against, you know, I kind of missed that element of it, but for the most part, it's pretty good. I like it. How are you feeling about it? Yeah, I love it. I think this has been a good season so far. I like so many of the characters. I think it's cool that they're in Canada. Yeah.

And I still miss Padma. I think Kristen has loosened up a lot. I think last season she was the first half of last season. She was really stiff. I don't think she was comfortable yet. And I'm still concerned that she hasn't really developed a persona beyond just being nice. But I enjoy her, though. And she has expertise, which is good.

And, yeah, I've just I've liked all the challenges that we've seen so far. I think Gail Gail has really stepped up her persnickety ness, which I really like a lot. And I've enjoyed the food, the challenges. I still don't understand. Like, I still don't love the idea that you get immunity from winning the elimination challenge because now the quickfire, the quickfire is like a trader's challenge. It doesn't really matter.

It's just money that you can earn on the side. Like, who cares? I don't care if they win money. You know, I would care more if they won like an advantage. Yeah. I agree. I don't like the whole making the quick fire not matter as much. It matters for their money, which is great. But yeah, I agree with you. I think that it adds an element of scariness when, you know, someone could do well on a quick fire and then be terrible in the main challenge, but they're saved by their earlier performance. Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's also like the elimination challenge already has its own stakes. If you fuck it up, you get sent off the show. So they've just taken the stakes out of the quickfire. And I just don't understand that. It was like they decided to change it up just for the sake of changing it up, I guess. I think they were so concerned that if you win the elimination challenge, like the prize for winning felt inconsequential to the audience. But I don't know. I just think the quickfire is just...

I don't know. I think they need to go back on that one or find some way to make it more relevant. - I'm guessing that they had so many situations where they really wanted to kick off the person that won the quick fire, that they were like, let's take that element out. But sorry, game makers, you can't just change game rules because, I mean, you can obviously, 'cause you did, but you shouldn't just change game rules because you wanna kick people off.

Yeah, or at least make the quickfire be part of the consideration for the elimination then. I think you brought up a good point, which is that they probably wanted to kick off enough people. Tom probably got annoyed. He's like, you know, our chef went home because someone who had immunity got to stay around. It's not fair.

and i think that like whatever you're giving out immunity a different part of the show instead you'll still have the same issue yeah well as far as the kristin thing you know i felt like this last year too like i can't blame you can't blame kristin for not being padma you know i feel like we're stepchildren in a way where we're like you're not my mommy and uh she's not but i think she does a great job i'm just i think the saddest part was that padma died in the beginning you know padma died in that horrible quick

Maybe that's why they were mad about the quick fire challenge when they did that little blini challenge and she died on a blini fry.

And, you know, thankfully she's back as a ghost to kind of get little comments here and there. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if you, I don't know if anyone at home heard, but like, uh, we, we definitely heard Padma, you know, we actually heard her voice during the show. It was really strange. So, you know, we'll be, of course we'll be incorporating that. Yeah. This week they had a hockey challenge and, um, I just heard Padma telling Gail, wow, Gail,

You're a family of hockey people, really. And you made it all the way through high school without getting pucked once. I was like, oh my God, Padma, you're even a bitch as a ghost. I love it. Please be here forever. I remember the first time I went to a hockey game, Gail Simmons took me and it was so fun. Although it was quite awkward when she ran out onto the ice and tried to take a bite out of the puck. Other than that, it was a lovely time. Butter makes everything edible, doesn't it, Gail? Yeah.

So, yeah, it's been enjoyable. So we figured since so much has gone on. Also, this show is traditionally difficult to recap because there's just so much food. It's like, wow, that

that guy really did a good job with his maple syrup, whatever concoction they're asking them to make this season. But it's especially difficult in the beginning because there are so many chefs and there are so many plates of food coming out. So we decided to skip the first few weeks. So instead, we are going to go through all of the cast and go through their bios and kind of do a cast roast, which we enjoy doing for this. And then we'll jump in with some

If we don't stay with full-time recaps, we'll be doing some updates and stuff as the season goes on. We'll just see how it works out, okay? Let us know what you think.

I can subscribe. I think, by the way, my note for Kristen is I just want her to be more mean. I think that's all it is. She doesn't have to be Padma, but she does have to be a little meaner or cutting. And that's all. I just need someone to be not supportive to the chefs. And I'll be happy. Yeah, I get what you mean about more personality. Because she does have that kind of video game version of a host where it's like, and now here coming up. And, you know, I need more. But I think she's a badass in general.

She is a badass. And last season, her whole thing, which I thought was funny, was like the second half of the season, she kept getting herself choked up. She's like, I remember what it was like to stand in your feet and your shoes. And I just want you to know it's an honor. And I feel it was an honor for me. And it should be an honor for you to be where you are right now. So congratulations. You're doing great work. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, she's not doing that this year. She's like, I'm a veteran now. Fuck you guys. I know how to host. Yeah. So, yeah, let's dive into this cast, shall we? Yeah, we don't need to go too far into the judges just because, I mean, duh, we already know the judges. We don't know the judges. But I do want to say, Tom, no one's buying this look in your picture on Bravo, okay? This is like...

He looks like an orange. He's got the Donald Trump, you know, finish on his face. And I don't believe it. Gail, your hair is great. I'm sad you're not wearing patterns. You're wearing just a solid mustard like the little hot dog you are. I will say last week during whatever challenge that was, she showed up in a tie-dyed dress and I was dying laughing. Fucking, fucking Gail. Every time I think Gail finally got it together for a season, she pulls shit like that.

I mean, is it mustard or is it egg yolk? Because Gail loves an egg. And knowing Gail, she probably would crack an egg on herself.

What'd you say? Finally, Gail's getting feedback from her attempt at finding a date for the Valentine's dance. Actually, fun fact, this was a white dress. Gail just spilled all her eggs on it because she's stupid. Unfortunately, the teenagers on the block thought that Gail was the creepy house, so they just went at her.

It's also mustard. Who am I kidding? If there's a choice between two foods when it comes to Gale, the answer is always both. Yeah. So let's start with Anya Elwatar. Anya. Now, Anya, I think, was both of one of our favorites because, listen, we love a Russian lady chef. We love it. We loved it on Gale.

Below Deck Great Adventure? No, wait. No. Below Deck Mediterranean where they lost the chef and they had to get Duska from the boat next door and she just kept coming on and she didn't know much English so they'd be like, hey, Duska, do you know how to make soup? And she'd go, I'm Duska.

Yeah. Yeah. Anytime that there's like a chef who's like from like an Eastern Bloc nation also because in Top Chef, All Stars, like the world, All Stars, whatever, there was like that Polish chef and she's like, my specialty is potato.

So in this case, we have Anya who in the first episode, she would talk about what's cabbage. She's like, I'm going to make cabbage and I will add the cabbage to the cabbage with a cabbage sauce and a cabbage reduction. And then after that, more cabbage and everything was a cabbage. And when they had to make poutine, I was like, she's going to make a cabbage poutine. Won't she? Yeah. And there was a, um, they were presenting their food and they were working as a team and she had made cabbage as part of the dish and

and the lady who was announcing all the food didn't mention the cabbage. And then they went back into the line and Anya was like, "Well, I would have appreciated you mentioned cabbage because cabbage is very important to Russia and you didn't mention the cabbage. That's my only note. That's my only note." My only note was cabbage. And then last week she made a little something. She brought tiny little edible pine cones, which are so cute. And she served them to the chefs and What's Her Face from Schitt's Creek.

And that was like, I was like, oh my God, I love that Anya is doing this kind of like Russian forest Siberian kind of cuisine. I love her and everything she did was so good. So I was like, oh, she's going to go very far. And on top of that, she's like my favorite and she does the cabbage thing. She's gonna be a really fun one to talk about all season. So of course, as we gear up for our first Top Chef recap, she gets eliminated right away.

Yeah, you know, and I found it ironic because she kind of fourth wall broke. And she's like, you know, we are allowed to bring things from home, very special ingredients, which is why I brought tiny pine cone. You know, I thought tiny pine cone. So I love that that's a thing in Russia. They're like, you know what? Let's give them pain. Let's give them something very, very sharp and difficult and make them swallow it in America. So she brought those and she brought something else this time, which is like a powdered version of sourdough.

some, some, and also pine needles. She got like a little bit too far into the, into the forest thing. I mean,

The challenge for this week was to make a cold... It was all about hockey. And so therefore the food had to be served cold. And so you're thinking, okay, she's the Russian chef. And she's like, I love cold. I go swim in 50 degree water in San Francisco because it's cold. And I love everything. I have big cold repertoire. So then she makes cake and ice cream. I just felt like...

She could have- this one just felt like it was a way up for her. Oh, you're from Russia. Yeah, you're from Russia, you should know how to make cold shit. Make some beets, or some salmon, or I don't know, dill. This challenge is a dish best served cold, like revenge. You know, what fashion takes on Gail every time she steps out in front of a camera.

But yeah, she decided to make a cake, but then she couldn't make the cake because she was putting this powdered stuff in it. And so it messed with the consistency of the cake. So it came out really hard, like a cookie that she had shaped like a maple leaf, which is, I mean, kind of on the nose. And then she did the ice cream, but then that didn't work either. And it was just a whole, it was a whole fucking mess. And she also had a rough time in the quick challenge, the quick fire, right? Yeah. What was the quick fire again? Why am I blanking all of a sudden?

What was it? She had a rough time. She was in the bottom. Was it maple syrup thing? I remember it was last week. It wasn't poutine. Last week was poutine and maple syrup. And this week for the quick fire... Oh, they had to make Jamaican patties. So she made... Hers was just crappy. Yeah, it was just... It was bad. So her...

Her stuff. She's chef at Birch and Rye in San Francisco. Born and raised in Moscow. Anya Al-Watar's culinary education began with her mother teaching her about foraging. Oh, well, there you go. Preserving and showing love through cooking. Anya emigrated to America at 18. Undergrad degree at Columbia University.

attended the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico to study healing properties of food. Okay, yeah, I shouldn't. If we had read these before, I would say she's going to lose.

Yeah, that's exactly what I would have thought. Since we saw her first, you know, because she also wore that nice kind of like, felt like a traditional Russian kind of top or had like some sort of like rustic farmer rural pattern that looked like it was from like the giant steppe of central Russia. So like, I've been like, oh, she's so charming and lovely and so wonderful. But if I'd realized that

she was forcing a pine needle and pine cone agenda because it was about the healing properties of them. I would have been like, oh, fuck this leaf. Yeah, fuck off. Yeah, if we're going to talk about healing properties of food and we're not going to mention ice cream, I don't want to hear from you. You know what I mean? Because it's never ice cream. It's always like, oh, look what this leaf does for you. Fuck off. Yeah, I'm glad that the pine cone can heal me, but you know what would heal me better? Properly made cake. Yeah.

And medicine. You know what I mean? And like, you know, you can't just add like a powder to a cake and expect it to be fine. Like that's just not the way cake works. That's not how baking works. Yeah. I think sometimes on this show, especially they, they really highlight our differences, right? Cause this shows a lot about, um,

bringing in different kinds of people and from different backgrounds and cultures. And I think it's great because you learn as just as a viewer, you learn so much just watching these people who are like, I'm from a small town and wherever. And, you know, in our country, we do it like this. And it's cool to see that. But I think sometimes people lean too heavily on that identity

to for every little thing and i think that's what got her here where everything she made had to be so russian and so this and even when she left she was like i'm so glad i could prove russia can cook i was like did you but also why are you putting that kind of pressure on yourself and why are you putting that kind of pressure on me you know what i mean just make something good like if it has something to do with russia that's awesome but i'm not going to sit here and like jerk off to you because like you gave me more russia in my life like just make good food it's a chef show above all

Yeah, I mean, even the judges said that. They said, you kind of abandoned the challenge, and instead of doing what you're supposed to in the challenge, you tried really hard to show your background, and that was to your detriment. Yeah, Russian ingredients ended up getting you kicked off. I do like that she launched something called Project Butterfly in San Fran, which is a catering venture dedicated to providing meals for charity fundraisers, and I just...

Why are you putting people through that cabbage? You know what I mean? I know. It's like, come to Project Butterfly and everyone's going to expect this lovely, delightful thing. Cabbage. You get the cabbage. Baby pine cone. You eat. Baby pine cone. You eat now. Cabbage. It's time for a commercial. It's time for a Crappin's commercial. I just love Wayfair. Can I just say that? I love Wayfair and I have been rejoicing.

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All right, next up we've got Paula Andara. Let's see. Yes, she's from the Honduras. And is it not working? Oh, there it is. Yeah, there we go. So, oh, so she is in Lexington, Kentucky, which I did not realize. Okay, so James Beard Foundation boot camp alum Paula Andara began her culinary career in her home country of Ecuador at 18 years old. So she's been doing this for 13 years. And she's been doing this for 13 years.

And she's specialized in avant-garde cuisine at the Bass Culinary Center. And she also worked at Quito, where she collaborated with Amazonian farmers to open her restaurant Roots in Arkansas that blended her Ecuadorian flavors with fresh local ingredients as opposed to rotten local ingredients.

Now, a couple of, now, but you never know. This is top chef. They do have people who are like, I'm a fringing. I just take stuff out of dumpsters and make whole meals out of them. That's my sticks. Like get the fuck out of here. Okay. I had a Yoplait wrapper on my steak. Unacceptable. Why is there chewed up gum in my gumbo?

um so i didn't realize this about paula but she i guess maybe was she karen huger's executive chef was she like a private chef for karen huger because it says that she is the executive chef at grandam um now i think it's funny that she opened a place called roots in arkansas because you know how many ladies walk in there like i just do you have an appointment like ma'am this is a restaurant god damn it

Very confused people. I wouldn't if this was a pre. Normally we do these cast roasts before the show is out and we know anything about these people. I would guarantee that this is not a good chef because she's wearing earrings shaped like gongs from the gong show. And that's a bad sign. But she turned out to be pretty good so far. She's OK. Well, she was in the bottom this week because she made a ceviche and they were like, oh, is this a soup?

Is this a soup or is it a sauce? What's going on with it? I can't really tell. It's kind of like my son's career. Is he a mixologist? Is he a chef? What's he trying to do? Is he just going to be leading a band somewhere? I don't get it. It doesn't make sense. Yeah, but that's kind of where the judges get themselves in trouble too, right? Because she's like, well, yeah, because ceviche in Ecuador is more sauce. It's not just the fish.

And so I thought that made the judges look kind of stupid because they're like, well, we want to, we want to have things like how they are from your country, but then she does it and they're like, nope, too much sauce. And she's like, what the hell? But her other thing this week was that she didn't have enough peanut. Like her special ingredient was peanut and she didn't put enough of it in there. So Tom's like, yeah, because barely kill a child who's allergic to it on the plane. Okay. Okay.

I can't even tell there's a nut in here. You know, because the thing is that with the challenge, not only did they have to serve their food cold, but each of them had to choose like a cloche. And the cloche was like a clue to hockey slang. And it turns out there's a lot of food hockey slang. Of course there is. Gail's a cocky sister, didn't you hear? She named half the slang in the game.

One thing Gail never gets to play, tonsil hockey. God bless her. Well, as we all know, a licorice snub is when you wrap tape on the end of your hockey stick and...

And a tootsie roll wrapped around a Twizzler is when the puck goes flying out of the rink and hits Gale in the face. Sorry, this is from Beyond the Grave, all right? Sorry, this is just Ghost Padma giving some insight about hockey puns.

So she has a passion for sustainability and all that blah, blah, blah stuff, which I think chefs have to say these days. I don't think people want a chef who's like, you know what I love? Corn syrup.

So that, yeah, there probably will be one. There's going to be one who comes on because every now and then there is a chef who is like this, like a high low chef. Who's like, my whole thing is I love corn syrup. I put it in everything. It's so good. It's one of the most misunderstood ingredients there is. Yeah. One time my mom was showing me how to make a pecan pie.

And I was like, corn syrup, use corn syrup. And she said, anybody who tells you you can substitute corn syrup for anything else and have it be half as good is lying to you and don't eat their food. Yeah. Yeah. Pecan pie is like, I think pecan pie is the, is like the most corn syrupy. Like, like that's where the corn syrup, I have corn syrup in my house and I pretty much is for the once a year, one time a year around Thanksgiving when I make pecan pie. Yeah. Yeah.

So Tristan Epps is next. He's from Virginia beach. Uh, he's living in Houston now and he works at Epson flows culinary, which is cute. Oh, that's see, I love that. He has a pun in his title. That's great. He's so cute. He's so nice. Um,

Um, so he is a Caribbean American chef who focuses on Neo African, uh, Afro Caribbean cuisine in a fine dining format. And he, uh, we see that he's like really close with his mom. He, this episode in the middle of the episode, he like called his mom on FaceTime early in the morning. And, uh, for a moment I thought, is that his girlfriend? And then I thought, no, this is definitely a mom. Like he's definitely someone who calls his mom. He loves his mom and he loves his stepfather.

Yeah, his mom was like, you could smile a little bit. He's like, sorry, I just woke up. And then the stepdad comes on the camera and I was like, how do both of these parents look younger than Tristan? That's crazy. There's that too. I was like, what are they just spend date night moisturizing each other? Because they look like they're 20. Yeah.

So, yeah, so he went to Johnson and Wales for culinary school, and then he got Michelin recognition at Red Rooster with Marcus Samuelson, the guy who just loves a tiny hat. And he got Rising Chef Award. So he has all these awards. And so he has a really good resume.

Most of these people are tied to celebrity chefs, which we've noticed for the past few years. But it's an interesting way to get in the top chef now. There's no just getting off your shift at Applebee's and auditioning. You know, you better work for fucking Marcus Samuelson. Okay. Yeah. Well, did you speak of celebrity chefs? Did you hear the latest celebrity chef gas? That's very related to Denise Richards and her wild things.

Brooke? Oh, yes. Brooke Williamson and Bobby Flay, officially a couple. Oh, gross. First of all, sad and gross. I thought Brooke was married. When she came on to Top Chef, wasn't the whole thing that...

She and her husband ran a restaurant together in like Playa del Rey. And I guess maybe they, I guess they broke up. That was like probably like eight or 10 years ago, but Bobby Flay, really? He's so cheesy. He's so ridiculous. He's so dead looking like Bobby Flay looks like he died 10 years ago and they're just, he's like animatronically moving. I don't even believe he looks like he's like on Quaaludes or something like he's out to lunch.

He's like, uh, he's like claymation Ray Liotta, I feel like. And I just, I don't know. I feel like there's like, dare you bring Ray Liotta into this? I'm sorry. I said he's the claymation version. So it's like the not like, you know, claymation version is never going to be as good as the real one in

And yeah, you know, he just looks out to lunch, Bobby Flay. I mean, he looks like I don't even know if he can clock himself in anymore. He's just I don't know. I don't like Bobby Flay. I don't like him setting himself up to always win on his show. You know, he always does. Remember the time he stood on the counter when he did Iron Chef America? Oh, I hated that. And then the time when January Jones got pulled over for like a DUI because January Jones was like at a Lakers game with Bobby Flay.

And then they, she got pulled over, but then Bobby Flay came over and like somehow defuse the situation. And I'm like, okay, so you guys were like having an affair and you got her off of like, you got her out of like a DUI scandal. And I was like, that's, that's, I don't know. I feel like, I feel like there's something shady there. Well, that would have made me like him more getting January Jones out of a DUI. You're not, stop trying to make me like him. She deserved her DUI.

I'm driving while inherently fabulous, even though I can't act. I love her. So Tristan, so he seems like he's pretty good so far. But again, there's 90 million chefs and it's hard to tell. But so far, I like him. I like him a lot. He's so nice. Okay, let's go to Ying.

Oh, okay. We have not met Ying because Ying is actually on Last Chance Kitchen. I haven't watched Last Chance Kitchen, but they introduced two chefs that have like started off in Last Chance Kitchen and are just trying to get into the show. That happened last season too. There was a guy who they just like for half the season, he was just off camera toiling away. So she's one of those.

Oh, okay. Yeah. I was like, who's she? But she's from Whistler, British Columbia, which I don't trust anyone from a town named Whistler because that's just trying to imply happiness on my day. Like, I don't want to be from a place like that, you know? No. Like I'm from El Paso and that's very fitting for me because I'm always just kind of passing through, you know?

I don't want a whistler. Get the fuck out of here. But who knows? She was born in Beijing and she grew up in her family restaurant and her love for family cooking was fostered by her grandmother. She moved to Ottawa, Canada to refine her skills. She worked at 18. I hate this restaurant. E number 18 and then H-T-E.

So instead of 18 spelled E-I-G-H-T-E-N, it's E-1-8-H-T. So like the 18 takes over the G-D-I. And I just, I hate that. I hate the concept of this. I hate what's going on. It's stupid. It's like, look, we're being so clever because it's 18 and there's an 18 in it.

Yeah. I hate it. Me too. Terrible. So side door kitchen and North and Navy. Then she went to blue water cafe in Vancouver and she helped launch a Lisa steak as a sous chef.

She also worked for Riley's Fish and Steak. I'm sorry. I'm like laughing at the idea that the steak has got, oh, Elisa Steak. What's Elisa Steak? Oh, have you gone to Elisa Steak yet? Hey, she launched Elisa Steak. Wow. That sounds like something Gail does every day for breakfast and lunch. So she specializes in French and Chinese inspired cuisine, utilizing local seasonal fare.

not a lot of personality in this one um well she looks annoyed she actually looks like she doesn't even want to be on the show she's like i will do the show because i know you need someone from canada but um i would rather just be back at elisa's stake launching stake also she's going to be coming in doesn't she work at a place called side door

Can I just read that? Side door kitchen. Yeah, she's going to be coming in through the side door. I like how you're working, Ying. I like how you're working. Yeah, I feel like she'll be good if she makes it in. All right, so then we get to Corwin Hemming. Wow, I never guessed this guy's name would have been Corwin Hemming. He doesn't seem like a Corwin Hemming.

I know hemming sounds very like Scandinavian, but this is Corwin. He is in he's in Brooklyn. His occupation and profession is that he's a private and a pop up chef, which means you could be walking through a hallway and I'm like, ha, I'm a chef. He just pops up, which is exciting. Won't you make him food? Like, whoa, I'm just trying to find the bathroom, buddy.

So he is from Augusta, Georgia, home of the Masters and Sutton Strack. But now he's in Brooklyn and he's inspired by his Jamaican heritage and he has his army parents and everything. He went to Howard University and he pursued a degree in marketing and he was working at restaurants, I guess, doing marketing stuff. And that's what made him want to become a chef. Yeah.

So if your steak seems to know its brand, that's why. Korn made it. Okay. Yes. I love a secret pop-up chef. I'm never going to forget that when I'm watching him. He's a pop-up chef. They're like, wait, is that guy working on hashtags on the... No, he's cooking something. This is crazy.

We only had 11 chefs here, but this one just popped up. I like Corbin a lot. His whole thing, when he made a Jamaican patty this week, I kind of felt bad because he's like, well, all the fryers are taken and all the ovens are taken. So I'm going to be clever and I'm going to cook my Jamaican patty.

in the pizza oven. And so he cooked in the pizza oven, he got char on it and like no one cared. Like he wasn't in the bottom, he wasn't in the top, no one commented on it. It was just a charred Jamaican patty that just went by the wayside. - Well, those beef patties were insane anyway.

90% of them weren't even closed. You know, they couldn't even get the suckers. They were, some of them were real disasters. Yeah. But apparently they tasted okay. Cause the judges weren't as horrified yet, but the judges are still in that space where they're like, look, I talented. Everyone is look, look like they're not even mentioning the half. The patties aren't closed, you know?

So let's move on here. Next up, we've got Katjana Hong. So she's kind of my favorite right now. Yeah. Because she's got this simmering attitude of like, "I hope you all die." She's got like this kind of low energy personality and she's extremely gorgeous. And she's just kind of like, she doesn't act better than everybody, but she's just got this attitude about her. I don't know how to describe it. She doesn't act better.

the attitude is I have a super hot and trendy restaurant in Los Angeles and you guys don't. And so therefore I can't believe I have to deal with you people. Like she doesn't act like an asshole, but it's just like a very understated, like we all know I'm better than you. Right. Right. She has this, she's like, we all know that when this show is done, I go back to LA and you like, you're going back to like Bumblefuck wherever. Right. She sort of has this vibe of like,

yeah, I'm going back to like the glitz and the glam. And she's like, why are you making me pose in front of a bunch of jarred food? You fucks. Cause the backgrounds on this are different. They don't give them the solid background. They're doing some like, Oh look, it's a, it's a kitchen, but we're going to put the background in sepia and then just have you guys stand in front of it. She's like, why, why am I standing in front of pepperoncinis? You fucks. Why do I have to stand in front of bread and butter pickles? Yeah. Other than this, I have a restaurant in LA. Yeah.

She, yeah, she does. She is, I think my favorite. She seems really talented and she also seems kind of exasperated with the people around her and the competition in general. She's like, I mean, I guess, I guess I'll do this. I'm like, fine. Yeah. This week she won both the quick fire and the main, right? Um, did she win the quick fire? I don't remember who won the quick fire. I met, she did win the main though, for sure. I think she won both of them in a row. So she was born in Korea, raised in upstate New York. Um,

American Hyde Park, UNLV. She got a job at two-star Michelin restaurant, Melissa, who's jealous of Teresa and met her.

Met her culinary partner and future husband, John. She moved to Napa and worked at a line chef at Christopher Costow's The Restaurant at Meadowood. I already hate the name of that restaurant. Because I feel like, don't you feel like the title says Christopher Costow's The Restaurant at Meadowood? It's too much. Choose one thing. Just call it... Well, also, like...

The Restaurant at Meadowood. Just call it that. The fact that you add your name to it, it's like Tyler Perry's The Restaurant at Meadowood. I just don't know. We don't need to have... We get it. There are credits. People know who you are. Just be secure in your creations and just call it The Restaurant at Meadowood. Well, maybe it's not called that. I'm just kind of assuming it is because of how it's written. It just sounds like it would be because it's such a snotty top chef thing, right? Like, I work at Christopher Costow's The Restaurant at Meadowood.

Maybe it's just the way the bio is written. Yeah, I think it's just the way the bio is written. But also the restaurant in Meadowood is just so up your own ass. You know what I mean? Like there's really no other restaurants. Come on.

Well, maybe there are. Maybe there's like three restaurants. They're like, are you going to Christopher Costas restaurant at Meadowood? No, I'm going to Janice Perkins restaurant at Meadowood. Oh, okay. Well, have a great dinner. Well, I made the mistake of pressing more on her bio and it would take the entire recap to read this. This girl's done a lot. My God. Yeah. Bon Appetit's top 50 best new restaurants list food and wines. Best new chefs had a daughter. Who cares? She's like, I had a daughter. Put that in small letters. Put that in small letters.

Yeah, Yang Bang. Yang Bang. Definitely. I haven't been there. And my friends were trying to do a group dinner there. And I just didn't go because I just was too lazy. But that is apparently it's gotten so much hype and publicity here in L.A. And it's definitely like one of the buzzier restaurants, although it's been a few years now. So maybe the buzz has subsided a little bit. But now I'm sure maybe it's going to come back now that she's on the show. Well, she's my favorite so far, but she does seem up her own ass. Listen to this.

Yang Ben offers a multidimensional autobiographical experience. Oh, really? Autobiographical? Really? Yeah. I feel like it's so funny when restaurants do that. That's an autobiographical experience. I can't even imagine what my autobiographical experience would be. It's like, okay, this dish is called the Dynamanoff, an influential figure in my childhood.

Followed by the room of Clannahan. My first review would be the chef really needs to stop complaining about his mother. Like literally every dish. If you didn't like it, it's my mother's fault.

This is an interactive dish where we will be rolling a bowling ball and you're gonna try to get out of the way. Yeah, mama got pregnant in the rolling rack lane, you know. Okay, so Lana Lagomarsini. I love that name.

she is like, I'm a team player. Every time they're like, okay, guys, it's quick fire. She's like, guys, it's quick fire. Do great, everybody. I like Lana. I love her Bronx accent. It's so great. She's been a little bit more in the background so far. This week, I feel like the only thing I noticed about Lana is that she had to cook things in a little frying pan and she was flipping them in the frying pan and she's doing it really swiftly and sharply and doing a really good job. Did you notice that? She was like...

I was like, okay, I appreciate those pan skills, but we don't really get to see much of her. Uh, she is the chef and owner of Lana cooks. So, um, glad she's a sex worker. Well, I'm, I'm glad that she's a cook also. Cause that'd be really awkward. A lot of fucking, uh,

Yeah, I like her. She's really supportive of everybody else. She's coming off as kind of a beta on the show because they'll literally be like, okay, cook something. She'll be, you're cooking with weed from your hometown. That's amazing. So that's kind of her thing for me. She does seem talented. She's putting out good food. She was a journalist before she was a cook. Yeah. So there you go. Okay. So she believes in truth and appetizers. This one.

she it says that she worked in at grammar she tavern isn't that tom calicchio's restaurant grammar tavern am i wrong one of the one of the celebrities my friend alan used to work there so i used to get to eat there for free loved it hmm i'm like hmm i feel like it should yeah it was it is owned by danny meyer um originally co-founded by meyer and tom clickio so maybe she came in post tom clickio

I don't know. So she learned open fire cooking on Francis Malman's private island in Patagonia. So she learned how to cook in Patagonia. That's so awkward for all the other people who were shopping there. People like, wait a second. Hi, I need to get a book bag, but someone is cooking a barbecue in the middle of the store. Why is there a zipper on My Fried Calamari?

This is a very interactive experience. What you're going to do is you're going to open up this parka and inside you will find sausage. She won a Culinarian Award from Black Women in Food Awards. She was also recently a part of the summer cohort for the James Beard Foundation's Chef Bootcamp for Policy and Advocacy.

That sounds fun. And then recently she's been exploring her voice as a woman of color, organizing pop-ups of all kinds. I guarantee she can't pop up the way Corwin pops up. I know. I sense an alliance. He professionally pops up. Yeah. I sense an alliance of two people just popping up from behind refrigerators.

Yeah. She describes her cuisine as soul food through a fine dining lens and is passionate about learning more about the connection between food throughout the African diaspora and its influence on staple foods in America. All right. Well, I like it. Can I just eat? I like her so far, but we haven't seen much of much of her. Here comes one right now.

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All right. Henry Liu. You know, Henry Liu, I like him and I feel like he should be so good, but I've noticed that he kind of is not great. His food is usually kind of, he's usually messing up and usually at the bottom. I'm kind of waiting for his moment to actually be really good.

He also got a much better background. He got like olive oils for his background and you know, Katya and I was like, oh, so I get stuck with pickles, but he gets full on olive oil. Thanks. Yeah. Yeah. I guess some olive oils and I think some balsamics as well. Yeah. So yeah, he made that like a bandit in this suit.

So he's from the Bronx. He's in Houston now. He worked at his parents' Chinese restaurant. And after getting a degree in art history, he enrolled in the French Culinary Institute. Can I just ask colleges what we are doing to our young people? That everybody's like, "Fuck this. I'm going to cooking school. Fuck you. I'm learning nothing from marketing or journalism or, in this case, art history. So teach me to make a pancake."

I can't believe he was not able to turn that art history degree into a successful and lucrative career. So he started working in some of the most renowned kitchens in Manhattan, including a stint set at Pearl and Ash, which is such a New York City restaurant named Pearl and Ash. And then he also worked at a place in Williamsburg called...

which received two stars from the New York times. I don't know why that cracks me up. That's just, again, it seems so Williamsburg. Are you going to go to llama in? It's like, yeah, no. Uh, he spent three years. God, these guys have so many credits on here. It's insane for men. Happy hospitality group, which is weird for happy men. We're going to go to the llama in.

We're not angry. We're happy men. And listen, let's brand ourselves as four happy men. That sounds like trouble. Yeah, four happy men. Yeah, I don't trust it at all. I brand myself as a terrible, miserable person. So people are always pleasantly surprised when I show up and I'm nice. Like, wow. So he does, let's see. He was featured in Eater New York's 2018 Best Dishes and Food and Wines 2019 list of things you won't want to miss. But do you pop up? Yes.

Do you pop up? And can you actually cook llama? Because if you work at the llama inn, is the llama in a place where you go to get llama? Or is it a place? Is it an inn for llamas who are visiting New York City? It's like a safe space for llamas to spend the night. Well, I mainly just...

I just mainly just cooked hay and just gave it to llamas, but we got two stars from the New York times anyway. But wait a second. He is also working with Evelyn on Brooklyn also spelled weird. Oh no. By kin, by kin, a Southeast Asian inspiring, inspired catering. What is it? Pop-up. It's a pop-up, but this time it's with Evelyn. He gets Evelyn cred because we loved Evelyn.

Okay, so then he was named 2025 James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef Texas. Wow. What an honor to be one of the 4,500 people who get a semifinalist birth in one of the 300 categories for the James Beard Awards. The James Beard semifinalist for Beaker Work...

on French fries in a small town. - In the regional southwest of Texas, Houston division. It's like, there's so many categories. - They've got a whole factory at James Beard of just coming up with award ideas. - They make the best fried chicken chef with an ear infection, this side of the equator, but south.

Paris. And now announcing the semifinalists for chefs who live three feet from a tree and are also playing Sellers of Catan at this moment. I would like to point out that on the side here, the ad is...

is a dog who looks like he's been licking restaurant floor tiles, like Ben just was subjected to a couple of weeks and has now thrown up, which I think was what Ben was waiting for that dog to do. How rude did they put in this top chef section of Bravo that Google Ads decided to serve this ad of a dog lying down amongst its own vomit. It says, stop doing this to a healthy dog. And you see this dog is like, ah, like a lady.

There's a lady who's leading down to be like, there, there, there, there. Stand up and let's leave this vomit for someone else to clean up because I'm a dog person. This is what I do. It's my fault. I should have told you not to lick the restaurant floor next to bed. The story of this dog has been just dropped a little cyanide pill. And this dog is, I was just, I was sitting at the table next to that vomit being like, you're not going to clean up, will you? Cause you're entitled. Aren't you lady? You're entitled.

And the ad says, this can make a world of difference to your dog's energy levels, digestion, and healthy aging. This is what happens, dot, dot, dot. But I have to click on it to find out. And I ain't no sucker. No. No. Definitely not. Stupid dog. Okay.

So now we go to Vincenzo Lussetto. Vincenzo. He's a little Zach Braffy, huh? He's kind of like a... He's sort of like a... If you took Zach Braff's face and put it into a square, you kind of get Vincenzo. So Vincenzo, I thought, was going to be our big villain this season because in the first episode...

um, he, they had, they had a team challenge and he wanted to plate his challenge in an apple. And he was like very, he is very into taking these apples and like scooping out the center and putting whatever it was inside the apple. And he was like really bossy about it. And everyone's like, why would the apples? And he was like, no, I'm going to make the apples. And he's like a little bit of a, he, he is someone who's ambitious last week. Danielle Balloud was like,

He's a little bit of a, how you say, a...

Brown noser, you know? Yeah. So that's kind of- Because I had to make some French food for Balood and Balood was like, oh, you know, I love French food. I love this. I love this souffle. You know? So he's like, I'm making a souffle for Balood. And they're like, whoa, souffle is so difficult. And he's like, I'm doing it anyway. And so Balood was like, oh, a bit of a nose brown, yes. But that's kind of fucked up of Balood because he literally went out of his way to be like, you know what I love for brunch?

A souffle. I love a big souffle. Like souffle. You know what I say? You know what I say? I don't even say. I say souffle. I don't even say the word souffle. So when I, I don't, anything that rhymes with souffle, I will use the word souffle instead of it. That's how I live my life. And they're like, okay, I'll make them a souffle.

He's like, okay, well, I guess I'll make him a souffle. He's like, oh, brown noser. Yeah. But chefs love brown nosers. Because, you know, when you're a chef and you have people working under you, that's all you want. So maybe that was a compliment. He'll probably give them five restaurants now. You know, chefs are upset these days because, yes, chef has become a popular thing that people say because of the bear. Yes, chef. Yes, chef. And they are now chefs are upset because they're

it's like a sign of respect and you earn it. You earn being able to be the chef that someone says yes chef to. And like, so for people, for like the masses just to come in and start saying yes chef, it's kind of like, it's taking away something special. It's denaturing something special for the chefs, which is by the way, the most chefy thing of all time, right? I can't believe you take away

This simple phrase that we make people say in order to enforce a power dynamic in the kitchen. Yeah, whatever. It's so stupid. I still say yes, chef, though, because once you're trained in that, when I see the chef around town, I'm still like, hi, chef. How are you doing? Yes, chef. I'm still very respectful because I'll get a pan thrown at my head. He doesn't care if it's the Abbey. He'll find something to throw at me.

So once that's bred in you, it never leaves. So this Vincenzo guy seems a little like a douchebag, but he's been okay so far. He hasn't been the worst. I've been expecting him to throw people under the bus, you know, use people's oil on purpose, do stuff like that. But he has not done it yet. But I think he's going to. Yeah, I agree. I think we have an eye on him for sure.

Yeah, but he's got a lot going on here. You know, I mean, we spend 20 minutes reading all of this, but he's got a lot going on. He's got a restaurant. He works with Chef Tessier as chef de cuisine at Press Restaurant in Napa, where he's known for elevating local farm produce with precision and technique. Let me tell you, romaine has never been touched like this man has touched it. So, yeah, he's big on California food, which, you know, California cuisine to me is just too...

Not to sound like Lisa Barlow. It's too fresh. It's just like, wow, here's some lettuce we grew in the backyard. You might've grown it in the backyard. It's still lettuce. Can you fry something? Fry something and send it out. Yeah. Yeah, this guy has a good resume. I mean, Eleven Madison Park is like a top restaurant.

And he, I guess he says he made his way into the kitchens of Daniel Hum and James Kent at the Nomad, which I guess was a big deal. So he seems like he's one of the better, he has one of the better resumes in the group. And he seems like he's really good. I think he'll probably make it like pretty far in the competition.

Yeah, I think so too. Right now, he's the ringer, right? He's kind of the guy that we're being led to believe will win this whole thing. So then we go to Zubair Mahajir. I love Zubair. Zubair's really talented. He's the one that was making that chicken sandwich that was like...

He won an award in Chicago or whatever for it. Oh, but I'm already... Okay, already two red flags from his bio that I see right away. He worked at... So Jean-Georges is like a legendary chef, but Jean-Georges... I didn't realize that Jean-Georges has a restaurant called Pump Room. So that already gets some stink on Zubair because anything named Pump is...

you know we know we know the we know lisa vanderpump is somehow involved which is going to be a problem but also it says that he um he was working uh with gagan gagan anand uh to be an apprentice with him do you remember when this guy came on to the show last was it last season or two seasons ago gagan came out come out came out and was like i want you all

to paint the colors of humanity or something like that he was so ridiculous this guy tried to be like all like i'm down with the people he came out with likes for like this outfit that was ridiculous and he's like yeah it's cool i'm just one of the people i'm gaga and of course you have to spend 500 i had to come to one of my restaurants you know oh yeah here he is

He's like, I'm posing with a knife handle in my mouth because I'm Gagan, Gagan Anand. Wait, do a search for Gagan Anand Top Chef so you can see what he looks like. He wore like, I think a bucket hat or something like that. Okay, let's see. Let's see if it comes up like a... This one with a knife in his mouth comes up on everything. Oh, there he is. See there, there, look, there he is with Padma. See, look, there's like an app.

Oh, remember the stupid challenge? Oh, the emoji challenge. Yes. You have to cook as an emoji. That's what it was. Oh God. I couldn't stand this guy. He was so ridiculous. So where's this like, I'm just silly. I'm just, you know, it's going to be emojis. It's going to be fun. I'm like, yeah, but you probably charge so much money. Like it's my favorite thing is when chefs,

love to act like they're one of the people, just some blue-collar guy or whatever, and then they charge the most expensive prices for things. It's like that, like, just lean into it. Just be like, yeah, I cook rich food for rich people. And then it's like, okay, but like, pretending to be like, down, down with the peeps, but then you're really just making food for like, the rarefied masses. Like, get over yourself. Yeah, Padma's like, welcome, Gargananand, to make asshole food. Yeah.

Just like be honest, you know. As you can see, we have a wall of emojis behind me. On the top row, we have fire, donut, Gail Simmons, and a rainbow. All of these emojis have one thing in common. None of them want to date Gail. Wow.

Make of that what you will, chefs. Oh, look, there's a unicorn emoji. I guess I would associate that with the one plate of food that Gail doesn't eat. LOL. She's like circling this emoji. She's like crying, laughing. Okay, so yeah, that's problematic. I love this guy, Zubair. He later worked at Gaghan in Bangkok. So he's really a Gaghan fan.

So then he, he launched a pop-up called was one before opening his first brick and mortar in 2021, despite Lindsay's complaints. And then he made it into a two concept lilac tiger highlighting South Asian street food and the coach house is fine dining restaurant. Okay.

All right, fine. I like him a lot and he seems really talented. And I think that probably of all the chefs, his is the food that I want to try the most. Okay. So let's see. Let's see what Zubair ends up doing right now. He's coming up with, I think just because he used that fried chicken recipe. I was like, okay, let's see how you do when you run out of your recipe, sir. Yeah. That's a lot of people come in with their things. I'm like, we'll see in a few weeks how you're doing.

That could definitely be like a concern. So now we have Cesar.

Yes. Cesar, he seems nice. He's a little skittish. I feel like he's one of those Italian greyhounds that you need to put a sweater on. Yes, he's very shy, like, "Oh my God, I'm thinking of doing it this way." And then he messed up something and got really angry. And I was like, "Ooh, I like it. Let's see where Cesar goes." I just want to give him a hug. He just seems really nervous.

Well, it's funny that you say that because he was born in Chihuahua, which is fun because those are dogs that need little sweaters because they're always shaky. But he was raised in Dallas and he loved the kitchen from an early age, guys. Okay. He worked under Rick Bayless because how else do you get on this show? You know, this show is really starting to get a little bit too clicky for me. I don't like that everybody on the show has had to work for somebody who's been on the show before. That's not fair.

Well, Anya didn't have to. Anya just used the power of cabbage to get herself onto the show. He's done a lot of great stuff here. Actually, my goodness.

He worked at Nopalito and Cochina Latina, and then he returned to Chicago, joining the staff of the fine dining restaurant Grace as a sous chef, where they earned three Michelin stars during his tenure. After three years, he climbed the culinary ladder and moved to Sepia, which is coincidentally how all of these shots were done in the cast bios, where he found his culinary voice.

Now who's going to name, why do you name your restaurant? Sepia? Sepia means like faded out old fashioned. It's a picture, a picture that has not stood the test of time in a sense. So it's like, yes, I'm going to name my food that I don't know. But then he winds up working at North pond in 2020, uh, which was just a pond. Actually, he just was cooking food up by the side of a pond because it was the pandemic. Um,

Um, and so his dishes blend his heritage with the restaurant's farm to table philosophy using ingredients from his rooftop garden and surrounding nature. So he's like someone who likes to bring in nature. I mean, the thing is this, all the chefs say this, what chef is going to be say, you know what? My thing is that I just like to go to a low end supermarket, uh,

and see what lettuce is on sale, and I'll just get that and some canned shit. Like, they all want to bring in from nature. They all want to bring in from their local garden. Yeah, I know. Well, this chef is really specializing in whatever's on sale at Target, and he's doing great. When a bunch of Michelin stars doing it. He says, when not hiking through nature, you can also catch Chef Cesar running along Lake Michigan training for the next marathon.

Oh, God. One of those. That means I'm going to talk about it. So we're lucky because we have not had the scene with him yet where he says, running for marathons is just something that I do. I do it every year. It just gives me focus. It's this thing that I just never thought I'd be able to do. And I just think if I can run a marathon, I can be a top chef. Like that scene's going to happen and we're all going to have to sit through it. And it's just going to be so annoying. All right. Next up is Samuel. Samuel.

Or Samuel, I'm not sure. I don't remember this person.

And there's no potatoes behind me. Should I be standing in front of some jarred things or it's like, no, I just came in to drop off this box. Oh, I'm gonna be on top of that. I automatically like him because he's got like a one paragraph. I know intro instead of like, this is, he's not masturbating all over us, which is nice. Um, but maybe he hasn't done much. I don't know. He's from a Dutch Nigerian household.

He was Institute of Vancouver educated. After graduating, landed a job at Relais and Chateau in British Columbia, where he honed his skills in modern French and British vine dining for many, many years. Yeah. By the way, every bio says, and this is where they honed it. He honed his skills here. She honed his skills there.

They're clearly like sending these bios through like, you know, chat GPT to get it, get them nice and smooth and out there. So, cause it's the same language, every single one. Um, so yeah, he has, his, his paragraph is not that big, but I think that's kind of exciting. Well, we can see maybe he's like a young upstart and, uh, we're going to see, see what happens. But he, he did get into the Michelin guide for two years, but then his restaurant shut down.

Um, but he is currently focused on launching a new concept with his business partners. Nothing else said. Yeah. He doesn't even have pop-up chef or, or private chef on his bio. He's just, I don't think he was just like a guy. I think he laughed and they were like, listen, if you don't give us a bio, we're going to have to get it from Wikipedia. Okay. He's gone. Let's just write something. We'll make something up. Next up is Massimo, the loudest and most jovial of all chefs this season. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Massimo! So Massimo, he's actually from Quebec, but he's also Italian. So he's Italian-Québécois. So he cooks Italian food, I think. I think that's like his vibe.

So he's loud. His whole thing that he's loud and he's extra, like in the first episode he was cutting so hard he broke his cutting board in half. And then this last night's episode, he literally just like went and just crashed into his table and spilled salt everywhere and broke glass. He's actually like, he's just way out of control. Yeah, he's a lot. But he seems nice. Like everybody likes him. He's a jovial fella. And he's worked with Daniel Balud, of course.

and René Redzepi in Copenhagen. And then he returned to Montreal to join Le Mousseau as an executive chef. And now he has his own fine dining restaurant called Cabaret L'Enfer. Oh, really? Tried you the cabaret thing? Well, get in line, boys. I'm the real star here. Now, he worked under Daniel Boulud, and they didn't even have a moment where... Who hasn't worked under Boulud, am I right? Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

But like, we did not have a moment last week where Danielle Balloud was like, "Chef, nice to see you again." Because normally that's what they do when they acknowledge that there's like a conflict of interest. And at this point, I guess all these chefs have worked with all these judges. So they just have given up on trying to address the elephant in the room, right? Yeah. They're like, "It's my ringer. What are you gonna do?" So he focuses on, let's see, "Sowcases his bold cooking style celebrating local season ingredients, hospitality, and the arts."

So he's like, I mean, so he's good. He seems good. He really flopped this week. He messed up his quick fire and his main dish. His main dish, he tried to make ice. His whole thing was his ingredient was gal. It was muffins and...

And he was trying to move muffins, put muffins into everything. So he's gonna make like a muffin ice cream. And he's like, everything's going to be muffin, muffin, muffin, muffin. It'll be ice cream that tastes like muffin. - Did they mean muffins, like actual muffins, like the baked good?

Yeah, I think so. Oh, because he was talking about muffin like it was some separate kind of ingredient thing. And I was like, well, there are so many different kinds of muffins. What do you mean you're going to make it taste like a muffin? I didn't really get that whole muffin part.

Yeah, so he made this weird ice cream with muffins. I think he soaked the muffins in it or steeped them or let them dissolve into it. But then he couldn't get the ice cream to set up. And so then he tried to do liquid nitrogen, but he was too sparing with it. So it was just like a big puddle of ice cream. It was like a really bad episode for ice cream. I think almost every ice cream that was served was just a puddle this week. So you were using liquid nitrogen for your ice cream and you couldn't freeze it? And he's like, nope. And she's like, but...

Liquid nitrogen is like the easiest thing to do. If it doesn't freeze, you just keep pouring more on top. And he's like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. He just has this very selfish way. He's like, mm-hmm, yes, mm-hmm, I hear you. Whatever, stupid. Stop, muffins. I said muffins 20 times. I should stay because I've said muffins the most.

Yeah, and because he was so out of control, and he spilled salt into his butter, so therefore he couldn't make his little muffin tweels, which he was excited about. And then in the end, he just had this...

puddle of muffin muffin milk and then he had these like weird structures it looked like a building collapsed in on top of muffin ice cream and it just was very meh and the judges were unimpressed and earlier in the day for the quick fire he made an oxtail um uh patty but he was like i'm gonna change it up and i'm going to grind up the oxtail and

and then served that. And it apparently was terrible. But it's like, yeah, I think- Their face when they ate that oxtail, one guy went, so this is all oxtail? And he went, yeah. And he went, like he made a grimace. And he's like, yep, all oxtail. I believe in oxtail. So nothing, no other ingredient. Mash it up, put it in. He's like, ew. Listen, if oxtail, if they'd found a way to make oxtail without having to braise it,

We would have known about it by now. Like you're not going to, you're not going to like innovate on oxtail on a quick fire challenge. Okay. It's like that guy who a season or two ago decided that he was going to innovate potatoes and he grilled potatoes. Remember he sliced potatoes and grilled them. He grilled them. And they basically were just like raw potatoes with chars on it. Char on it. And everyone was like,

This just rocked it. You're not going to change. These ingredients have been around for a long time. You're not going to suddenly be the ones like, oh, wait a second. I never thought I would apply a very basic cooking technique to this and it would change everything. People tried. It's happened. Oh, gosh. Okay, so next we have Bailey. So Bailey...

God bless her. You just knew she wasn't going to go far. She looks kind of like a cartoon character. She's real like, you know, she's got her glasses and her hair and she was just very much like, I'm going to try it. But, you know, we just don't. You knew she was going to be a disaster. She just had that written all over her. And so did the person who got kicked off first. What was her name?

Uh, her name was Mimi. Mimi. Yeah. He's like, let's say, you know, I got a girlfriend. I just want to win a couple of quick fires. Cause I just need to get some pots and pans. I got one. That was a real story. Mimi's whole thing was that she wore a little hat and her girlfriend broke up with her and took her pots and pans. She's like, I just want to get some pots and pans. Really? All I need is a pot and a pan. So she did win the quick fire that day, but because the rules had changed, um,

She lost the main challenge, so she got kicked off and she was very happy to at least get her pan. She also worked at a place called Cat Face Cafe, which I thought was really funny because it's very much like cafes.

Yeah. I would have liked to have more of Mimi just because I was really rooting for her pots and pans journey. Everyone is normally like, I've got a child. She means the world to me and I just want to provide for her. Or my parents just want to get back. Or my restaurant. I really want to get my restaurant. I want to make this a reality. And she's like, I just want some pots and pans. I just want some pans. I got one pot. Saffron.

Cuisinart. I'll take anything. Just like, honestly, give me a $50 gift certificate and I'll just go to Target right now. I just need something. Bailey was also kind of a disaster. You know, she did a little bit better, but she was eventually out.

So then, and she's also worked at Parachute Sheets, which I hear has delicious food. - Bailey was not good. She did, I think she tried to do, did she try to do risotto? I think she attempted to do risotto the first episode. It's like Bailey. - Yeah, and they're like, "No." - You're trying it, no. - You're trying it. - And she even said like, "This is notoriously difficult on Top Chef." And I'm like, "Yeah, you didn't."

do this any better. So then we get Kat Turner. Kat is who I think looks like Anna Gasteyer. She's like a Anna Gasteyer character. I think she's so funny. She also seems like kind of a disaster, but then she always hangs on. And like, she does something really good. Right, Ben?

her, her, well, her quick fire was a disaster. Her dough didn't come together. So she was in the bottom, but then she had a really good, um, like a biscuit. I think hers was biscuit, uh,

dish that they really liked a lot. I was surprised she wasn't in the top the way they talked about it, but I guess maybe some were just a little bit better. I like her. She's somewhere for me, she's got Ana Gasteyer face, but there's some Angelica Houston in there too and Diablo Cody hair. So it's this great combination for me. And she always looks kind of like

She's bracing to be eliminated at any given moment because she's a private chef. She works well, or she was a private chef for like Billy Corgan and stuff. And now she does have a place called Highly Likely, which I kind of want to go try because it's relatively close to me. And she's, but like, you know, she definitely, her vibe feels a little bit more like,

um, outsider vibe because everyone else is doing all these, like has all these high accolades, like James Beard nominations and Michelin stars, Michelin guide, yada, yada, yada. I mean, she has a good resume. I mean, she did work at blue Hill, which is like a top restaurant, but, um, but you sort of get the sense that like,

like she's a little bit of an outsider with this group. And so I'm kind of rooting for her. - Her big thing is that she's a celebrity chef. So she's like, you know, every time I'm making something, I have to think like, what would Billy Corgan think of this? It's like a huge deal. And this week she messed up her patty and she's like, oh my God, my patty's a mess. Look at my dough, my dough's a mess. And Anya was like, don't say that. And she goes, but it is, you can see it Anya. - Add garbage.

But she's like, so I guess Kat was trying to make her name in Hollywood as an actress and burlesque dancer, which makes sense because she looks like two actresses. And she also looks like definitely someone who would do burlesque. I wonder if I saw her at that burlesque place in Hollywood. I feel like I have. Jumbos? No, no. The one that was like all like 1920s.

I'm sure you went there they had like a big train car in the back I forgot the name of it oh yeah yeah it's a cool place um yeah but yeah there was like a high class burlesque place and she looks familiar so I'm wondering if she was a dancer there now that I think about it yeah um maybe um so although it looks like her career as a I mean it looks like her career as a chef has been for a long time now it looks like she's been doing it I mean if she was she's cooking for Billy Corgan and stuff

But yeah, that's her whole thing is that she was a private chef, but now highly likely is its own restaurant. And so I think people like that place. I haven't been, but we'll have to check that one out. But I really like her a lot. And I was actually worried that she might be in trouble because she did so badly with the quick fire. So the fact that she came back in the elimination challenge made me very, very happy.

Yeah, it made me happy too, because I just did not see that for her. I was like, oh, disaster incoming. Then our final chef is Shui, Shui Wang. And he's from Queens, lives in North Charleston, South Carolina. And he is the chef owner at Jack Rabbit Philly and King.

Yeah, I think like the rule is if you're going to open up a restaurant in Charleston, you have to have like Jack Rabbit somehow in there. Like something sort of like folksy, like Jack Rabbit. So he seems like he's really good. I think he's going to make it to the end as well. He does well every single week. And he seems like he has a really good reputation.

like a really good approach to everything. And, uh, yeah, he also has like a really big resume. So unlike poor cat, this guy has like a million things. He was a eater, young guns, 2016. And he was nominated for a James Beard award for rising star chef, uh,

Of course, the category was in North Carolina and has once was in the proximity of Patricia Altschul. So but either way, I mean, a nomination is a nomination.

Yeah, is that bad if it's in Charleston? They have a good restaurant scene, don't they? I was lying. I was making a joke about the hyper region. I said the category was Charleston and in proximity of Patricia Elchul. It's not a real category. I'm so sorry. I started actually making the mistake of reading his old bio and my brain started to mush out of my ears. There's so much here. Good God. Edit down, people.

So, yeah, he was named South Carolina Chef Ambassador 2025. So I like him, too. I think he seems really talented. Let's make some predictions. Let me put on the top of my page so I can look back at these. Let's pick a top three. Top three. I'm going to say Shwai, Katiana, and hold on. I need to look at the rest of this group. Shwai, Katiana, and...

Like I want to say Zubair will be there, but I feel like Zubair may like flame out before top three. Well, he might get to top four. I'm going to say Katjana, Zubair. And let me see here. Oh, don't forget about Tristan. Tristan might do well. Let me see. Mimi. Just kidding. I lose right off the bat. I'm going to say.

I'm going to go crazy and say Massimo. I don't think this will happen. I know that that's a long shot, but just to have like a dark horse. So you say Shuei, Katiana, and Vincenzo. I say Zubair, Katiana, and Massimo. Yeah. So let's see. If one of us gets one of these top three, we win $150,000 sponsored by...

Saratoga Spring Water. All right, everybody. Thanks so much for being here. We will be back next week to talk a bit of Top Chef. And we'll be back to whatever. We'll be around. We love you guys. We'll talk to you next time.

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