Mention It All - Meat Me In The Desert (Top Chef)

Episode Date: May 27, 2022

Dylan is back for another Top Chef recap, as the season approaches its big finish in Tucson. He’s jealous of the chefs’ two-week break, but then they’re right back in the thick of it, working with dried meat, cactus, and a very exclusive pepper. After breaking down the judge’s critiques, Dylan finishes with his predictions of who will prevail at the finale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Betches Media presents. Ha ha, laugh, funny. Mention It All. A Bravo by Betcha's podcast. We don't say that, but now we said it. With Dylan Hafer. We'll go and check me, though. Hey, everyone.

Welcome back to the Mention at All podcast. I'm Dylan Hafer, and it is Friday, and we are here talking about Top Chef. We are rapidly approaching the end of this season, and can I just say, it has been a joy. It's been a joy to watch. of course, love Top Chef. But it's also been a joy to, you know, sit here every Friday morning, sometimes Thursday afternoon if I get the screener on time, and just, just chat, just chat with all of you about Top Chef. And, you know, as we head to Tucson for this big finale, it is, it's really feeling like we're at the end of the road here. This week we start the episode with a

very dramatic montage of everyone arriving in Tucson. Of course, course in their BMWs, you know, they're talking about their journeys in the competition. They're talking about how bad they want it. And they all say, in unison, I am. The next top chef. Hell yeah. We've got Tamar, we've got Buddha, we've got Sarah, we've got Evelyn. What a group. What a crew. They had two weeks off before the finale. Buddha says he did a lot of studying of Native American cuisine, of Mexican cuisine because, you know, they're in Tucson, so we made a guess. I love that they give them two weeks off. Everybody needs two weeks off. Where's my two weeks off? Just kidding. No, but it's nice they got to go home. They got to see

their families recharge a little bit, do a little bit of studying. We always see on, I don't know if any of you watch Great British Bake Off, I'm sure some of you watch it, but how they get to go home between the weeks, like they only come on the weekends. And they're always like, hey, will I spend so much time this weekend practicing my cakes and my breads and my biscuits? And it's kind of fun that Top Chef gets to do the same thing before they come to Tucson for this big stressful finale. But here they are. And we are firing up for the quick fire. And they arrive at the country's oldest Mexican restaurant. Super cool. I want to go there. And they are known for Carnes Seka, which is dried meat that they hang in a cage to dry, literally on like a rope and pulley system

hanging in the air. I don't, I have never seen this before. I've never heard of this before. But let me tell you, I want to eat this fucking meat. It looks delicious. They have to like walk up the stairs and like crank the cage down. It holds 300 pounds of meat. And the way this woman is explaining the meat. I am, I'm like salivating watching it. It looks delicious. They grind it up. They rehydrated. They mix it with all the garlic and spices and stuff. Oh my God. I just, I just want it. Anyway, their challenge is to make a dish using this carne sicka and, you know, they can do whatever they want, but obviously they have to highlight the beef. And Sarah is honest, she's for Michigan. She's used to eating jerky. She's like, this is what I do every day. Um, every day. Um,

I like the takes we see here. Buddha is doing an upside-down tostata. Evelyn is using some grits. Sarah is using Morel mushrooms because she's a Michigan girl. Damara is doing like a little grilled avocado thing. All of these dishes actually look amazing to me.

I'm not a big mushroom person, but everything comes together for the most part. I don't necessarily understand the upside down toastata thing. Like that wasn't one of them. I feel like Buddha has a lot of like inspired creations. And an upside down tostata is just kind of like, just feels like it's like harder to eat. Because the whole thing about a tostada, at least in my mind, is like,

the tostata is almost like a little mini plate. Like it's, it's crispy enough that it can be kind of like a, it's like a platform for toppings. And therefore you can kind of like pick it up and bite into it. And it's like crunchy, make it. with all the stuff on top and just like delicious and good. So the upside down thing, I feel like it's just kind of like in the way of all the toppings, but they're like the bottomings? I don't know. Whatever.

Buddha and Damar end up as sort of the bottom two. They do really like Evelyn's grits, but Sarah is the winner. I think she, I think the thing that really won this for Sarah was that she kind of had the most creative interpretation and the most unexpected. because Evelyn, to her credit, everything they do in this episode, Evelyn is the only person who's ever cooked with these ingredients before. She's like, oh, yeah, I grew up eating in carne seca. I love capolis, cactus, like the chiltipine.

Evelyn is like, oh, yeah, like check, check, check. I know. Sarah is like very unfamiliar, but I think does like a really inspired job of creating something that fits with her aesthetic. So she wins. She's going to get 30 extra minutes in the elimination challenge. And then they bring in Ms. Maria from last season. You all know, I love seeing the all stars. And especially it's fun seeing them come back from last season because it's like their first time back on Top Chef as an all star. We've seen Dawn. We've seen Shoda. We've not seen the person who won that season, who has turned out

to be a little bit problematic. But I love seeing Maria back. I kind of forgot how much I liked her. and she is like the perfect person to be there in Tucson. I guess she lives there. I don't really know. But for their elimination challenge, they are going to be working with classic Tucson ingredients, which are cactus and this chilte bean pepper, which is apparently the only pepper that's native to the United States. Who knew? I don't know that much about peppers, but I want to taste it. We're told it has like a very front of mouth, like up in your face kind of heat. I don't know. Sounds into it. Can they make like a chiltapine-flavored, like chip, like a Dorito or something? That sounds good. I don't know. Maybe I would hate it. I don't even know. I've never tasted this. But they're using these two ingredients

and they have to make two dishes, one sweet, one savory, and of course, at least one, like one dish has to use cactus. One has to use chiltapine. And like I said, Evelyn's the only one who has really worked with these ingredients, but they go to this farm, garden type of place that just looks like beautiful and luscious. And this is making me want to go to Tucson. even though last week I was like, why are we going to Tucson? But they're tasting, they're like learning about the chiltapine. They're learning about the different kinds of cacti. And I love that, I love seeing them, like, excited about learning.

Like, I don't know. I feel like in my everyday life, I don't get to be, like, excited about learning enough. Like, I'm, like, a Wikipedia addict. Like, I'm always looking up, like, random things and, like, reading about things. But, like, I want to go on, like, a field trip. Like, I want to go on like a half-day trip to some farm garden type of place and just like learn about ingredients. Why is that not like a thing that we get to do? I'm going to send a message to somebody at matches.

Can we go to a farm? That will go well, I'm sure. But anyway, back in the kitchen, everybody is kind of trying to figure out what to do with these ingredients. Sarah right off the bat decides that she's going to make a, you. cactus ice cream. Buddha is putting the chiltapine pepper into a tom yum, which, fuck yeah, that sounds amazing. It is cool. I feel like everybody's creative neurons, synapsis, brain words, everybody's feeling like very creative. And I think we're down to the wire here. We're close to the end. And, you know, they all are kind of like, they're all like, you know,

if I do even like a pretty good job on this challenge, I could be in the finale. And I'm sure that's very stressful, but it's also very exciting. Sarah does like a lamb moment for her savory dish with the chiltapine. Evelyn is making a no pal reaeno. She's the only one, I think, that uses cactus in her, in her savory dish. No, actually, because DeMarre makes a pork shoulder with the barbecue sauce. Okay, I will say I was a little confused because I kind of thought the challenge was that like you had one sweet, one savory, one cactus, one chiltapine. But then like definitely they're getting a little bit like lucy goosey with like it's like, oh, there's like a barbecue, a chiltapine barbecue sauce, but then like a cactus relish or like whatever.

Like they're definitely using both ingredients or like all the, I don't know. I mean, what I'm saying is I was taking my notes and I'm like, okay, which one is the cactus dish? And sometimes here's the thing. Sometimes they're both the cactus dish. And I love that. People can be whatever they want. Dishes can be two things at once. So good, so good.

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But yeah, they like Sarah and Buddhas, savory dishes the most. DeMars is a little rough. The barbecue sauce, it just nothing comes together. I think it was like, I don't know, it just wasn't quite happening. They do really love Evelyn's take on a reno, but we,

Now we have to go back to the kitchen for these sweet dishes. Buddha's using liquid nitrogen to make a snow. I'm not familiar with just like a cactus snow. I'm like, okay. Sounds good. Sign me up. He says this is sponsored by liquid nitrogen because Sarah also used it. But the thing is, we know it's not sponsored by liquid nitrogen because if it was, Padma would be telling us that it was furnished by liquid nitrogen.

And she's nowhere to be found. So that's how we know. Sarah is over here with these like melting ice cream caramel Sunday moments and she's like Buddhist dessert looks like it was made in a museum which honestly that's like that's like Buddha's whole thing. Everything looks like it was made in a museum and I have to say his dessert looks gorgeous but Sarah's looks delicious like Buddhist is very pretty and I'm sure it tasted good

they liked it but Sarah's looks like oh I want like a bowl of that And I don't know how cactus ice cream tastes, but like it looks delicious. Back at Judge's table, I already, I already feel like DeMar's going home. His cake that he made for the dessert looked really good. But I just feel like Damar is the one out of these four whose like body of work is a little bit, one like notch lower. You know, Sarah, I think coming back from Last Chance Kitchen, I do feel like that puts you at a little bit of a disadvantage just because the judge,

aren't like familiar with you in the same way, especially because she went home pretty early. But Sarah has a great day for the most part, especially the lamb. Kristen Kish is like, I hate lamb and I loved this. So bonus points, I guess. You know, they did, Damar's Kate Gill says she liked his figgy bud, which, LOL. But you know, the thing is we're just like getting down to the wire here and seeing them back in the like backstage area.

while the judges are deliberating. I just, I love this group so much. And Damar says that he doubled his friend group in this competition. And, you know, that makes me happy. But the thing is, it's a competition. And somebody has to go. And that is Damar. Demar gets sent home.

And like I said, I saw it coming. I think it was the right decision. Evelyn wins the challenge. Evelyn, I'm not keeping track, which perhaps I should be. I feel like Evelyn has won the most things, perhaps. Going into the finale, Evelyn, Buddha, Sarah, I definitely feel like Buddha and Evelyn are the top two. Yeah, kind of.

I think so. Sarah, underdog, could be, who knows? Could be who knows. but I think, I don't know, I'm having a real, I'm trying to predict, trying to predict Buddha versus Evelyn. I don't know. In the preview, we see Buddha with these leaves that are changing colors. That's the thing.

Buddha's like, I've got a lot of stuff left in my arsenal that they've not seen. And I totally believe him. Like, I believe that he's going to pull out some technique that he just, like, invented in his two weeks at home. And I'm excited to see that, but I feel like Evelyn has been cooking from. the heart. And she's done really well with a lot of these challenges that draw on her Mexican cuisine knowledge and background. So I'm sure she's going to bring that into her final challenge. I don't know. It's going to be a banger. I'm sure. Can't wait. We'll be back next week.

Have a great holiday weekend. We have a very fun episode coming out on Monday with none other than Caroline Stanbury. So I'm very excited for that. Make sure you rate, review, and follow the show wherever you listen so you don't 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 Sean Kilby and Jorge Morales Pico. Editing by Sean Kilby. Social media by Dylan Hafer. Guest booking by Nicole Pellegrino. Be sure to follow at Bravo by Betches on Instagram and Twitter. All. Pay off your home. Travel for life. Drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly, Big Board Buckslot Machine by Aristocrat Gaming,

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