Mention It All - Biscuits & Ballplayers (Top Chef)

Episode Date: March 31, 2023

Back for another week of Top Chef, Dylan starts with some appreciation for this season’s truly special global cast. He gives his MVP award to Victoire, who fights through an allergic reaction and her hatred of baking, all in one episode. Then, he runs down this week’s challenges, from a double biscuit showdown to a football-style relegation situation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We're going to check me, both. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Mention at All podcast. I'm Dylan Hafer, and it is Friday, so you know what that means. We are talking about Top Chef. But first of all, can we just talk about the legal milestones that have been achieved on March 30th? Yesterday, of course, was the two-year anniversary of one Jennifer Shaw being arrested of the feds storming the Beauty Lab and Laser Parking lot. Gwyneth Paltrow was found not liable in her ski collision trial.

You know, this trial, I think, has really been a treat for those of us who think that Gwyneth might be like peak housewives casting in an alternate universe. I don't think it'll ever happen. I don't think it ever should happen, but like, can you imagine? And, of course, former President Donald Trump getting indicted. Something in the air on March 30th with those legal things happening. I don't know what it means. I don't know where we're all going, but an exciting day. But anyway, top chef.

How about it? This episode, victoire, She really is my MVP. She's great at cooking, for sure, you know, but this is not about her cooking. She is so entertaining, so lovely, has only been speaking English for a few months, apparently. I, okay, that is shocking to me and props to her for doing this whole entire show in English. She's having an allergic reaction during the elimination challenge. she literally gets whisked off the set to get an epi pen jabbed into her thigh and then she finds out her team has won and is immediately like, oh my God, I got to go celebrate with them. And they're like, girl, sit down. You're like coming down from your anaphylactic shock right now. But we also, to me, the sort of the center point of this episode that I loved so much has nothing to do with the cooking competition. And that is that,

the chefs get a rare full night off after the Quick Fire challenge, and we see them just hanging out. And with this cast in particular, the way they're so international from, you know, all different parts of the world, different backgrounds, different competition styles, it is such a joy to watch them just hang out with each other and share their experiences. and Victoire has me fully in tears. She, of course, was on Top Chef Italy, so that's kind of the background that she's coming into the show with. But she is from the Congo.

She's talking about leaving her country after the war and how much racism she experienced coming to Italy. And this is something that just on Top Chef in general, it's such a specific show. so focused on the cooking, that we don't get to hear too much about these types of things. And hearing Victoire talk about how competing on Top Chef and I believe winning Top Chef really was such a game changer for her personally, of course, but also for people in Italy to see her and have that representation and to be an inspiration to people, it really is,

it's pretty remarkable. And she is somebody that I, just think is so fucking cool and has obviously been through so much. She speaks like seven languages. I'm so glad that we have Victoire on this season. And I'm excited to get to see more of her cooking, of course. But just hearing about her life, I think that's so cool. We also learn a little bit more about Begonia, who, Begonia, the first couple episodes, I feel like I wasn't getting too much from. everybody knows she has the Michelin Star. That's like kind of the first and only thing that you hear about her, the first couple episodes. But she's saying that in Spain she lives with her mother, her son, and her ex-boyfriend, who is the father of her son.

And she's like, yeah, maybe it's weird, but you know what? It works for me. And can we do a sitcom about Begonia's life? I feel like this is ripe for development. Like, this is on Bravo. NBCU owns Bravo. Maybe NBC should do like a pilot that's like a woman who's a Michelin Star Chef lives with her mom, her son, and her ex. Ten seasons right away.

Get the Emmys ready. Polish them up. And, you know, pay Bagonia for her life story. But, like, fascinating stuff happening. And I haven't even talked about the cooking yet. God, I love all these people. Sarah says she played soccer in high school just so she could get stoned and smoke after school and come to practice. This is just pure joy, pure joy.

Backing up a little bit, I guess I should talk about the actual reason we're here, which is the cooking. For the Quickfire, Padma shows up in a little red mini dress and some red, shiny, knee-high, leather boots. She's feeling herself. She's in her London fantasy era. It's giving Twiggy. it's giving Edie Sedgwick. She looks good. I mean, Padma always looks good to be real.

But, like, I feel like she's having a little bit of a moment. The Quick Fire Challenge is Biscuits. We have a guest judge who's a pastry chef and chocolatier. And also, according to Gabri, very yummy himself, Gabri is very funny, too. Everything I learn about these people's personalities, I am just enjoying them more and more. But anyway, the Quickfire is to make one sweet

and one savory biscuit. And this, of course, is like a classic English biscuit, like a hard, crumbly cookie. So this should not be like a scone. As Buddha says, American biscuits are just scones. And, you know, shame on us. I love a biscuit of either kind, you know. So they only have 45 minutes to make two biscuits. And, you know, they're instructed that they can either make one dough and use it in two different

ways or make two completely separate ones. And Padma, you know, wink, wink, she says, don't crumble under the press. her love a pun, you know, love that for her. Of course, a lot of the top chef contestants always are mad about baking. You know, being a pastry chef is a completely separate kind of thing. You know, Tom hates baking, so he's doing some weird kind of dough that you freeze and using nitrogen with it. Uh, Victoire says they don't bake in Congo, so she's using cassava flour. And when you bite it, it's elegant, just like her. Love that. Oh my God. Wait, Buddha, Buddha's dog, who he says has more rolls than a bakery.

Ha ha. He used his top chef prize money to pay for his dog's eye surgery. Can't... What? I'm a mess. Like, I... It just... Oh, my God.

It makes my, it makes my poor little heart hurt. Anyway, the biscuits, you know, varying degrees of... whatever. I mean, some of them are not so good. Tom, with his nitrogen frozen technique, basically makes a little cake, not a biscuit. Victoire also, you know, all the people who say they hate baking, basically didn't do a great job. But Nicole, Ali, and Luciana do the best. Ali, who was like staring longingly into the oven to make sure that his biscuits don't get

overcooked. Good for him, because I feel like when I stare into the oven, nothing ever happens. Like, it just takes forever and ever. and ever, but he got it done. Nicole also, Nicole makes a caccio a pepe biscuit. I want to eat that. Just so we're clear. I would like to try. Make every get-together chill. This Memorial Day, get up to an extra thousand dollars off select top brand appliances like LG. Plus get free delivery at the Home Depot. Tackle pool towels and camp laundry with a large capacity washer. And host and style with a fridge serving craft ice, mini craft ice, cube dice, and crushed ice.

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they go to Tottenham Hotspur's Stadium, the largest club football stadium in London. It's a beautiful stadium. It's like, it opened in 2019. I looked it up. It's like kind of brand new. Beautiful. The field is so big. I mean, good for them.

But so for this challenge, they are going to be splitting up into four teams of three. And they're doing a little relegation, bracket, challenge style type of thing, where in the first round, two of two. Me trying to explain brackets, which I did just win my March Madness bracket, by the way. Four teams of three, three rounds of 45-minute matches. So it's, you know, two and two. And then the losers of that round face off against each other. And then the losers of that round, the three people within that team face off against each other, the loser goes home. It's really not that complicated. I just did probably a pretty paltry job of explaining it. But, you know, the first round is all about cheese. So one of the face-offs is using Stilton. The other is using Wensleydale. These words sort of mean nothing to me. I guess Stilton is sort of like a blue cheese. And Wensleydale is a much milder. cheese. Buddha seems to really like it. But unfortunately, he doesn't do a great job cooking with it. So, uh, the winning teams in the first round are Amar, Nicole, and Victoire, victoire, of course, having her allergic reaction to the walnuts that they're putting on their

dish. She's like in a confessional. She's like psyching herself up. She's like, she's like, all I'm saying to myself is finish your dish, then you can die. God, these people, I could never. The other cheese challenge, the Wensleydale, Charbel, Sylvia, and Sarah win, which, you know, cool for them. I don't know. This challenge, I think, because the format has so much going on, it's a little more about the team play than the actual food. You know, some of these challenges I'm looking at the food and I'm like, that looks delicious, that looks delicious. This I'm kind of just like, yay, compete, win, fight, go, team. Bracket.

It's giving bracket. The next round face off, it's, they're using Bramley apples, which looks like Granny Smith's. But Gail says they're even more tart, which to me sounds nasty to each their own. I am not a Granny Smith apple kind of person. I feel like I liked them when I was a kid, but now I'm like, no, I want tart, but sweet. I really like a pink lady apple, which is like, they're pretty big, and they're sort of like yellowish red. perhaps pink even, but like really crisp to bite into. There's nothing to me more displeasing than a mushy apple.

Like I, if I'm holding it and I press a little bit with my thumb and my thumb can like sink into the apple skin, that's nasty to me. It has to be hard to, to the touch, crisp to bite into, like crunchy almost, tart with a little bit of sweet, but not sour. Is this interesting? I don't know. But let me know in a five-star review what kind of apples you like to eat. Anyway, so this round is Tom, Buddha, and Ali versus Luciana, Gabri, and Bagonia. The latter team is making a crab and apple canalone.

They've basically used like a mandolin to thin slice the apples and use, that as like the pasta shell. The thing is they have it sitting out for 45 minutes so the apples are all turning brown and they're like squeezing lemon juice onto the apples to try and stop it from turning brown and then like rolling it up into this pasta shape. And I mean the second the apples were turning brown, I knew that they were going to lose the challenge. Because it's just like that, that's nasty.

Nobody wants to like cut into a brown apple and then have like crab filling on the inside. even if it tastes good, it just is a little bit like, like, ugh. So Tom, Buda and Ali are safe in that round with their apple tart. And in the final round, they're using English peas. Bagonia right off the bat is very confident. She says that she was nominated for like best vegetable restaurant in Spain or in Europe or something. And that she's really good at using all of the different flavors of the vegetable and bringing them out and preparing them in different ways.

Good for her. She's like, I can do a really nice plate just with peas. Personally, I don't know if I believe that that exists. A really nice plate just with peas. Like, be for real. But I mean, she does a good job. She's safe. Gawbrie is safe. Unfortunately, Luciana gets the boot. She just did, she did this like scallop tartar. And I don't think anybody really wanted to eat a raw scallop. Does that sound good? No, it doesn't. So Luciana gets the boot, and then we are straight into Last Chance Kitchen, where it is Luciana facing off against May and Dale. And in a fun little twist, who would have guessed? They have to use all three of the ingredients in one dish. So they're using cheese, apples, and peas in the same dish, and to make things a little more complicated.

Also, Rabbit. Not to be confused with Rarebit, which we also saw again earlier in this episode, But yeah, they have 30 minutes to make one dish highlighting all four of the ingredients. I would like to question how many ingredients can you truly highlight in a dish? Highlighting four ingredients in one dish sort of feels like, you know, sometimes in college or whenever, when you would be going through your reading and you're like highlighting the things that seem important and you realize you've just highlighted an entire page and then suddenly that technique is no longer helpful because you're like, well, yeah, I just wasted two minutes choosing to highlight every line

when I could have just said, yeah, this page is important. It feels highlighting four ingredients in one dish feels a little bit like that, but, you know, they all take different routes to get there. Luciana is not happy about having to put rabbit with cheese. I don't disagree. I don't know that I've really eaten rabbit much in my life, but I don't know. May is used to seeing rabbits as pets, so she's a little bit, uh, put off by that. Dale is using feta to make an espuma and also shallots. Are we saying shallots now?

I've always said shallots. Am I being dumb? Can you say it both ways? If I'm being dumb, you don't have to tell me, but I feel like people say shallots. Is that, am I being dumb? I know, I can't. I can't. But anyway, Tom tastes the dish. I like the Tom is basically like, well, you all three kind of fucked up a little bit. He's like, there were issues with every dish. When he eats Dale's dish, and he's like, so did you think that the fetta would be enough seasoning for the whole dish? And Dale's like, no, I mean, I did season it. Oh, that's devastating. But not as devastating as May's dish. Tom's least favorite. She gets the chop. Luciana has the best dish, by the way. So Dale, you know, comes in in the middle, but he gets to fight another day. And Tom gives us a little tease. that next week's last chance kitchen is going to be a big one.

It might even be an opportunity to reenter the competition. Ooh, we'll see. Can't wait. This has been another thrilling Top Chef recap. I am going to be out next week, so I won't be recapping next week's episode on Friday, but I'll be back a couple Fridays from now, and we'll kind of catch up on where we are with the season. But don't worry, while I am out there will be more mention

all content. There's going to be plenty of stuff to listen to. So don't forget to rate review and follow the show so you don't miss anything. You can follow us on Instagram. You can follow me at Dylan Hafer. Follow us at Bravo by Betches. And until next time, be cool. Don't be all like uncool. Mention It All is produced by Dylan Hafer, Sean Kilby, Jorge Morales Pico, and Rebecca Sousa McCatt. Editing by Horley Morales Pico. Social media by Dylan Hafer, guest booking by Dylan Hafer and Ali Friedlander. Be sure to follow at Bravo by Betches on Instagram and Twitter. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful

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