Mention It All - Denise Is Back, OC Is In Purgatory, And Top Chef Is Perfect (Top Chef)

Episode Date: April 21, 2023

Dylan is back for a Friday catchup, and there’s much to discuss. First, he makes a strongly worded inquiry about the whereabouts of the RHOC trailer, then he gets into the news (?) that Denise Richards is returning to RHOBH. Later, he dives back into Top Chef recaps with a truly special episode. Check out our latest promo codes here: https://betches.com/promos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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See Home Depot.com slash price match for details. Betches Media presents Ha ha laugh funny Mention It All A Bravo by Betches podcast We don't say that but now we said it With me Dylan Hafer Heyver

Hey everyone Welcome back to the Mention at All podcast I am Dylan Hayfer And I am so excited to be back For another episode of Top Chef For another Friday I have missed these little

Friday chats for the last couple of weeks I'm all cut up on Top Chef I've finished this season of Ultimate Girls trip. The finale came out yesterday. I'm all caught up on Fanderpump. I'm all caught up on Jersey. We are back on track, baby. We're having a good time. There's lots happening on Bravo. There's lots in the works on Bravo. We are still waiting on an Orange County trailer. Who the fuck knows what's happening with that? You know, when I left for a 10-day vacation, if you told me that a week after I got back,

we would still be waiting for this Orange County trailer. What is happening over at Bravo? What is going on? Is there something I can do? Is there somebody I can speak to? Do I need to write a strongly worded email? You know, it felt, you know, a month ago. It was kind of like, okay, like, where's the OC trailer?

Like, should be coming any day now. I bet it'll be this week. It must be next week if it's not this week. That was like a month ago. Tamara's teasing it left and right on social media. Andy's saying it's worth the wait. Gina's tease, you know, like, we are now rounding the corner into May as soon as next week. I don't actually know when May begins.

but it's what, April 21st? I thought we were going to have this trailer by the end of March. Look, I don't know what's happening over there, but if you work at Bravo and you want to, you know, sneak me a little info about OC, we're getting desperate over here. The New York cast, you know, they're getting ready to come down the pipeline. Atlanta's starting in a couple weeks. Like, things are happening, but, like, at a certain point, you have to wonder, like, is everything okay?

What's going on? Speaking of what's going on, Denise confirmed to Variety this week that she is returning to the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, but I kind of felt like this whole report was a little misleading. Not in a way that anybody did anything wrong. But just, so Denise was promoting some project that she's doing. And during that promotion, she confirmed that she has been filming for the upcoming season of Beverly Hills, which began with her attending one event, I think Garcell's event, unbeknownst to the producers. Like, she was not like on a list or anything. They didn't call her. She was just, she showed up at a party.

And then she says she had a good time. After that, the producers did get in contact with her, invited her to a few more events. She's filmed a few times now. But this does not sound like she's not going to be a housewife, for sure. This sounds like the kind of thing where maybe depending how the rest of the season goes, depending how the edit shakes out, maybe she could be a friend of. But honestly, I'm not even counting on that. And given how many Beverly Hills alums we have had, you know, drifting in and out of the frame, it sounds like during filming this season, I don't really think any of them are in the running for a major role.

I mean, Kim has been around. Teddy, I'm sure, has been lurking at lots of Kyle's events. Denise now back in the picture a little bit. I think Camille filmed something. You know, at a certain point, it's like, these women are. men aren't like back on the show. They're just at a party. But Denise, I don't know. Denise's whole thing on the show was kind of weird. And I know her second season was marred by the Lisa Rina and the brandy hookup rumor of it all. But like, Denise is not somebody who left the show. And I was like, I can't wait until she comes back. I don't know. I just feel like all of this, you know, jockeying around of the old people and who's coming back and is anyone coming back and who's new, it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence about the future of that show, or at least of this coming season. So I'm hoping that something behind the scenes is happening that we're not aware of

and that there will be something exciting. But, you know, TBD on Beverly Hills, TBD on OC, TBD on pretty much everything except, you know, Vanderpump's great. I'm enjoying Jersey. Go listen to my other episodes from this week if you want to hear about, you know, you know, what Rachel Fuda's got going on. Allie being the whistleblower of Scandival. Lots of stuff happening. But today, I really just want to talk about Top Chef. Oh, this show.

When I was catching up on the episodes I missed, it just is, it just goes down easy, like a delicious, you know, cup of chicken soup. And not the kind that, um, not the kind that Dale tried to make in 30 minutes at this quick fire. like chicken soup that really had time to develop the flavor profile. Just delicious. Heartwarming. You know, sort of erases the stress and the tension in my life. Oh, the season of Top Chef is so good.

Last week was that big picnic episode. And at the same time, Last Chance Kitchen came to a culmination. Dale ended up coming back into the competition. Got to say, I was a little disappointed by that. I was really rooting for Bagonia. I just, I don't know. I mean, I'm always the kind of person where, like, I'm probably going to root for the girlies a little bit more than the, like,

seemingly toxic straight men, you know? It's just not quite my vibe. That clip, obviously, I've never watched Top Chef Canada. Maybe not, obviously. I have not watched Top Chef Canada. But that clip of Dale, when he was on the season before, like, fully fucking screaming in the kitchen, I'm like, I don't love that.

I know he says he's grown up or whatever since then, but I'm like, no, I don't, I don't want my chefs screaming and cursing. I want my chefs to be like sweet little cuties. I want like Gabri and Victoire crying about their dishes. I want, you know, Charbel and Ali and Amar being the Habibis. Oh, Charbel and Ali and Amar. Wow. What a little group.

God, this season is so good. I know I keep saying it, but like, this week's episode is all centered on chef Gagan Anand, who is a really famous chef who's known for doing, you know, lots of different crazy creative things. People like Buddha and Tom are like extremely excited to be working with him this week. He does both the Quickfire and the Elimination Challenge, which I love when they have a guest judge that's really like down to be around for the whole week. The Quickfire, it's emoji themed, which.

which I never thought I would be saying, talking about Top Chef, but everybody has to choose an emoji from this board and make a dish around it. I do think there's a little bit of strategy going in here, and Buddha points out that picking an emoji that is already a food item is not only sort of limiting in then what you can do with it, but it also feels like a little bit of a cop-out creatively. Like, if you're supposed to be really coming up with something clever and unique and meaningful, if you take the emoji for duck and you're just cooking duck, like, yeah, you, you, you did the assignment. You understood the brief.

But it's like, okay, yeah, like, it would have been kind of weird if you didn't make duck. Like Amar kind of twists a little bit. He takes the banana emoji and he makes that plantain dish, which looks really, really delicious. Poor Victoire. She wanted the flames. She gets stuck with the sushi. I don't think that lady has ever made sushi a day in her life, which, I mean, same. Her like fish and rice, she does scallops.

It's just not, you know, if you're going to have the sushi emoji, I feel like you really just need to execute sushi. Buddha wins the challenge. It's a 30-minute quick fire and he's bringing out the liquid nitrogen. as one does. He's serving like coconut shells with, you know, all of this different coconut sorbet and powder and puffy air. And, you know, it looks like a cloud with a little skull in the middle. And it just, I literally don't know what's going on in that dish in the best way. Because honestly, if something's happening on Top Chef, like, if somebody's presenting their dish, and I take my little notes, but like, if I can,

describe your dish super easily, it probably means it's not quite up to par. Like for Dale, I just wrote chicken soup. And that's what it is. Like, perhaps we should have been thinking a bit more outside the box here. Whereas Nicole, I'm writing like crispy meatball green on outside, something else happening on inside, very flavorful. Like, I don't know how to describe it in a way that means. you you got to a place of creativity and technicality that is really what we're going for in Top Chef.

So the bottoms for the quickfire are Dale, Ali, and Victoire. Again, RIP, sushi emoji. The tops are Nicole, Buddha and Amr. Buddha wins the challenge, which means he gets immunity so I can, you know, breathe a little easy for the rest of the episode because, you know, my boy Buddha has had a couple of little stumbles. in the last few weeks. So I'm glad to know that he's not going to be in the bottom this week.

Not that he would deserve to be in the bottom, but, you know, just a little bit of safety. So good, so good. Everything you want for summer is at Nordstrom rack stores now and up to 60% off. Stock up and save on the brands you love like Vince, Sam Edelman, frame, and free people. Join the Nordi Club to unlock exclusive discounts,

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It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. For the elimination challenge, we're getting even more creative. We see Gagan Anon's dish that's like the rainbow world. That's all different color powders made out of natural things and fruits and whatever. And you have to lick it. And that's how you eat it. And it looks delicious.

And, you know, people are licking the plates and just trying to like get all of that. flavory goodness. It is kind of funny. This challenge, so they're supposed to make a dish that you can eat with no hands, or not with no hands, you can eat with no utensils. It's visually stunning, and it has a message. And this is, I think, probably the most conceptual challenge that we've had yet on this season. And, you know, when we get into challenges like this on Top Chef, you can always kind of tell that for some people, it's very like, oh, fuck yeah, I'm going to. And I'm going to to get in here, really do something interesting, play around, get technical, do whatever. And there are some people who are kind of like, I mean, I guess, like, I'll, I'll, like,

cook something good and, like, tell you that there's a message with it. But, like, you know, not everybody is Buddha who brought a thousand dollars worth of random molds from home and is literally making a pair of hands in 3D on his place. to hold his little cup of dip. You know, Sarah, she makes basically a fried rib, and she delivers it beautifully. Like, it looks stunning. I mean, it sounds like it's absolutely fucking delicious.

But, you know, her message is like, I cooked the rib slow to inspire everyone to slow down a little bit. Like, that's not winning a Nobel Peace Prize. I want to eat it. It's definitely enough for her not to be in the bottom. But, like, you can kind of get a sense for her. who is really, like, thriving in a challenge like this and who is kind of like, um, I mean, I guess you could say that it's like a thing about, um, like, maybe like, uh, don't be ignorant.

Like, Dale's dish. Dale. First of all, this man is basically like, yeah, I thought Mexican food was dumb as hell. and then one day ate a moly and i was like oh this is it it's kind of good i guess like that's not that inspirational so his message is basically like don't assume that food from other cultures is shitty just because you haven't eaten it yet i don't think that's really giving like inspirational in the way that maybe he thought it was it's it's okay yeah there are lots of things i haven't eaten and i don't just like assume they're bad because

they're not McDonald's. I don't know. Also, it's just like, I mean, the mole apparently was pretty good, but it does feel like a strange time to choose to cook something that is very much outside of your wheelhouse. When, you know, Sarah points out, Gabri already was in the top this season for making a mole, which is like very much in his wheelhouse. every week he's churning out Mexican food that A, you maybe have never heard of, B, looks incredibly delicious, and C is like technically very sound. So being like, yeah, I guess I'll

throw together a mole to teach people not to be ignorant. It's like, okay, I guess. I really felt for victoire in this challenge. I don't know. Her dish just didn't quite come together, but I really loved the concept and the idea that, you know, the African continent has so much culinary, you know, so much culture happening. The gastronomy, she loves the word gastronomy, which I love that she loves that because it sounds beautiful when she says it. But that, you know, it's a continent with such technical precision, so many fruits and vegetables and things that you don't find other places. And that that isn't necessarily appreciated on the global scale, the way that European or other

cuisines might be. And I was sad that her dish didn't quite come together because I thought that she had one of my favorite kind of thesis statements of the week. And that cassava canoli looked good. But I get what the judge's issue was with the rest of the dish coming together. Let's see. Who else? Who else? Who else? Who else? Who else? Poor Tom. I don't really like Tom. So it's not like poor Tom. Not Tom Colicchio. Like Tom, the German dude. He's making this pumpkin-shaped moose concoction with other pumpkin things. It just wasn't frozen enough. It was falling apart as the judges were trying to eat it.

And he kind of tried to like bullshit a little bit and be like, oh, yeah, like your hands are supposed to get dirty. It's like scoop it all up, whatever. And it's like, no, babe, that was supposed to be like a truffle that you could pick up and just like pop into your mouth. Don't pretend. I really don't like it on Top Chef when something goes. wrong and people kind of try to like fudge it to the judges and be like, oh, yes, I'm glad you noticed

that the texture is runny. That was a choice. It's like, no, they wouldn't be asking if they liked it. So you, I feel like you look worse trying to lie and like you make yourself seem like a worse chef because it's one thing to have a solid concept and for something to go wrong. but to kind of explain it away, then it feels like, oh, so you just don't have a good sense of like what the texture should have been. I don't know. I feel like it's better to be loud and wrong than, you know, silently mediocre. That's the philosophy, right?

Okay. The tops for the week end up being Charbel, Ali, and Amar. The Hobby V's, they're so excited to me. together. Sharpelle's little Lebanese flag with the, uh, the filo dough made out of Zatar felo. That looked delicious. And I liked the meaning behind that. Ali choosing to do a traditional Middle Eastern dish, but with, uh, vegetarian ingredients instead of lamb. I thought that was amazing. Um, Amar really representing, I don't know, it was interesting that he went like a tie route with this seafood sausage and a deconstructed papaya salad. That's, he,

seemed like a risk for him that really paid off. A fun top three. Ali wins the challenge. My Jordanian prince, he's so hot. Congratulations, Ali. Well, in the meantime, the bottoms of the week are Dale, Victoroire, and Tom. No big surprises there. Dale does get sent packing again just a week after returning from Last Chance Kitchen.

I, you know, I'm on the fence of whether I would have rather Dale or Tom went home this week. but I think Dale was probably the right choice, which brings us to Last Chance's Kitchen. Sylvia is back. Dale is back. The challenge is to make an omelet in 15 minutes. They could not have gone more different routes. Dale goes for a very traditional French omelet,

basically with just some mushrooms and spinach puree on the side. Whereas Sylvia is doing this specific omelet dish that they make at the Savoy Hotel. that is like inspired by somebody and has smoked fish in it. And most notably is partly cooked on the stove in like a little cast iron skillet. And then you put Hollandeys on it and then you bake it in the oven. Tom seems confused by this. Me as, you know, novice chef of the world, I was confused by this because an omelet is one of the only things that I feel like I could make myself. Look, it looked delicious. You know, like I like an egg bake thing.

I would never call down an omelet. I believe her that it's a thing. Overall, she gets at home because the eggs are overcooked, not because the concept was wrong. But, you know, I think simpler probably would have been better. Dale just makes up a good little omelet, and that's enough. And I think that's enough for me for this week. I will be back next week, of course, with lots more Bravo content.

So make sure you are following the show. Subscribe to wherever you listen so you never miss an episode. You can follow us on Instagram 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 Sousmaqat. Editing by Jorge Morales Pico. Social media by Dylan Hafer, guest booking by Dylan Hafer and Ali Friedlander.

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