Mention It All - Risk It For The Brisket (Top Chef)

Episode Date: April 1, 2022

For this week’s solo episode, Dylan starts by shouting out the two excellent current seasons of Below Deck. After that, he recaps Last Chance Kitchen before diving into BBQ week on Top Chef. Meanwhile, an unexpected format bait-and-switch has the contestants reeling, and Dylan’s mouth watering. Later, he names his next official nemesis of the season, and explains why making good food is not enough to impress the judges. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Ha ha, laugh, funny, Mention It All, a Bravo by Betches podcast. We don't say that, but now we said it with Dylan Hafer. We're going to check me, though. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Mention It All podcast. I'm Dylan Hafer, and as always, I am back for another solo mini episode. We are going to be talking about the latest episode of Top Chef.

And also, I want to talk a little bit about Below Deck because I know I have not been talking about Below Deck on the main podcast episodes. And let's face it, not everybody watches. is there's a lot going on. I mean, just this week alone, I feel like has been 3,000 years long. If you relate, I don't know. I feel like everybody relates. But there are two seasons of below deck happening right now that are low-key, extremely good. First of all, we have below-deck sailing yacht, which is back for its third season, and I have to say season two was high drama, very intense, lots of good stuff going on. Season three, I wasn't sure what to expect. We kept Daisy and Gary and

Colin and Captain Glenn. You never know what you're going to get from the newbies. I have to say season three, stellar, outstanding. We have inter-cru stew drama. We have hookup drama. We have boat drama. We have, I mean, drama from every direction. I have to say, really have been enjoying it. Ashley, who is the third stew, is, how do I put this nicely? Out of her fucking mind. And I just live for it a little bit. Because part of the joy, of watching reality TV, I think, and some people have trouble appreciating this, is that people out there in the world are absolutely delusional. And while those people can be exhausting to interact with in real life, watching them create chaos on a weekly basis, oh my God, it is, it's beautiful.

It's like chef's kiss, top chef's kiss, you could say. But then also, over on Peacock, we have below deck down under. And I will say, when they announced that there was going to be another top chef spin-off coming, not top-chef, God damn it, another below-deck spin-off, can you tell my brain is pride? When they said there was going to be another below-deck spin-off coming to Peacock, I was a little bit like, you know, I enjoy below-deck for the most part. You know, I'm into the idea of it, but you have to wonder, do we truly need? Is this going to bring something enriching to our lives?

You could argue that none of this brings something enriching to our lives. we have a little community here going, and I would like to think that we've all enriched each other's lives. Let me know in a five-star review, five enrich your life. But below deck down under, it's pretty, pretty, pretty entertaining. Another great crew, the accents are just, you know, again, top chef's kiss. But yeah, it's great. There's a hot captain, which we've never really had before. There's a hot bosen. There are hot stews. Everybody's hot. I got to say, I think it's one of the hotter top chef crews we've had. But overall, I would say top chef, God, I literally.

One of the hotter below-deck cruise that we've had. But if you had to pick, if you're going to pick one, if you're not like a below-deck head, I would say pick sailing yet. But if you're looking for something with no kind of catch-up time necessary, below-deck down under, it's giving. It's good. But anyway, that's my little plug for below-deck. because I know I haven't been giving it enough love as of late.

But let's talk about Top Chef, because that, of course, is the reason we are here. And clearly, I said Top Chef instead of below deck like three times already. So that's where my brain is at. I just watched this new episode. But before I did, I watched last week's Last Chance Kitchen, where we have both Sarah and Robert entering the kitchen alongside Leah after their double elimination. They are tasked with making two dishes, each one savory once we, in 30 minutes. Brooke Williamson is the guest judge. Tom will be judging the savory ones,

and Brooke will be judging the sweet dishes, and they each get to pick somebody to stay. So I kind of like this format. I like when they switch it up a little bit. Leah, her sweet dish, she's doing ricotta donuts, or as some people I follow on TikTok would say rego donuts, I don't get that, but. So she's making donuts with the rega and then she's making a pork chop. Sarah is being clever and using some of her same prep ingredients, like fruits and coconut, and she's making a pudding, and then a jerk Chilean sea bass, which sounds like something a housewife would order. I'm here for it.

Sounds delicious. She grew up in the Caribbean. Who knew? Meanwhile, Robert is doing a shrimp crudo and a blueberry pancake. That pancake, I mean. He accidentally puts cream instead of buttermilk in the batter. And while I constantly am touting my lack of skills in the kitchen, I do feel like this is something I would have picked up on.

I know that cream and buttermilk are like in the same family of visuals, but like I know what buttermilk looks like, right? I don't know. Maybe I'm being overly confident here, but like I just feel like I would have caught this. And also he's like, I don't have time to make another batter. Isn't that the quick part? Like making a batter, it doesn't have to like sit. It doesn't have to like prove or anything.

Like you just throw the stuff in the bowl and mix it. Like I feel like this was a cardinal mistake. And of course, Robert ends up being. You know, the last place finisher, he doesn't get chosen by either Tom, neither Tom nor Brooke picks him. So Tom picks Sarah and Brooke picks Leah. They will both be moving on to the next week of Last Chance Kitchen. We'll check in on them next week. Ready to soundtrack your summer?

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them that they will be meeting Brooke Williamson. Brooke really getting a lot of screen time this week. They're meeting her on location for the challenge. And it is the barbecue challenge. This is something I feel like we've all been waiting for since we knew we were going to be in Texas. You've got to do barbecue. As Brooke says, it is all about the perfect breakfast.

Brisket. She lists off like different things that people are doing with brisket. And she's like, Brisket fried rice. Brisket fah. Immediately, my mouth is watering. I was sitting at my desk watching this. And literally, I'm like trying to keep my eyes open because I just want to like nod off and dream about these brisket dishes. So their challenge is to flip the script on brisket. They got 30 minutes to get their brisket prepped and into the smoker. And then they go to shop. And then they have till midnight to get their dish done. but surprise, surprise, surprise, when they get back from shopping, they have a quickfire. I actually think this is like a super fun little twist on the format because, of course, they've already skipped a quick fire one week this season, I think, when they did the night

market, I want to say. But so they're like coming in, they're like, wow, no quick fire again. I guess this is cool because we got to get a lot of prep time. You know, they have till midnight to get their shit ready. But then they're like, you know, like, it's a good chance to show. off and obviously then if somebody gets immunity, that's like a cool little perk. But anyway, there is, in fact, a quick fire. Tom and Brooke are waiting back at the barbecue place after they get back from shopping and they are doing a Texas toast challenge. This whole episode, I just want to eat

everything. I feel like sometimes on Top Chef, the food is almost like a little too gourmet for me where I'm like, okay, like that would be cool to try. Like I would have a bite of that, a bite of this. But this week's challenge is the Texas toast, the brisket, I want to eat it all. Like, every single thing that's being put out, with the exception of maybe a couple, you know, the judges don't like all of them. So obviously, I don't want to eat them. I'm sure like bad. But like all of these brisket dishes, all of this toast looks delicious. The winner gets immunity and $10,000. And Buddha, Buddha, who now that Sam is out of the competition, I've said he's my new top chef boyfriend, And Buddha says that his pug needs eye surgery because he's going blind.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I, wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Sadly, Buddha does not win the challenge. The tops are Nick, Joe, and Jackson. Jackson, Mr. No Taste Buds. After North Dakota Stephanie, Jackson was my next nemesis of the season.

He unfortunately does well. But Nick is the winner. He makes a BLT on his Texas toast. That looked pretty delicious. The bottoms are Luke and Monique. Monique, I am sorry to say, I am going to designate her as my official third nemesis of the top chef season. Monique is simply not doing it for me. I find her to be a little bit annoying.

I find her to be a little bit underwhelming in the kitchen for her brisket dish. They tell them to flip the script on brisket. They're talking about brisket fuh, brisket fried rice. You know, like all of these different cuisines that they're bringing into the brisket, we have people making curry. We have people making pasta. And Monique is like, you know, I think I'm just going to make the biscuit the star of the dish. And, you know, you can just do like veggies on the side. And I just have to say, I feel like on Top Chef, obviously it is important to serve a dish that tastes good, that looks good.

The experience of eating it is important, of course. But also, one of the most important things on Top Chef is to do the fucking assignment. And if the assignment on Top Chef is not just, it's not just cook a brisket dish that tastes good, it's flip the script on brisket. You have to flip the script. The script has not been flipped. She's standing there making her brioche and there's going to be some potatoes. If your idea of flipping the script on brisket is like,

I'll put some like French bread with it. It's like, uh-uh. Uh-uh. No, no, no, no. We have people doing all sorts of things. We have Evelyn's brisket curry. From the first moment she says it, that sounds delicious. Jay is doing a Cajun thing with kimchi, ju, tomato.

It's like Korean and Cajun. That is brilliant. Buddha is doing a beef bourguignon thing, like with a potato croquette that looks fucking incredible. Jackson, much as I don't like the guy, is doing this stuffed pasta that looks delicious and Padma likes it too. And so I just feel like on Top Chef, like the number one, the two most important things are it being like a good dish

and it being the dish that they asked for. And I feel like anybody who's doing a challenge like this, we're in, what is it, week five now, you have to be taking risks. And I think that's something also we see Joe kind of fall into a trap with this is that she sees this as an opportunity like, oh, I really like making pasta. That's what I do at home. I'm going to make a pasta here with the brisket. It's almost like Monique went too basic with it, whereas Joe was like, okay, forget about

the brisket. I'm going to do what I want. I'm going to make this thing that I've been thinking about for a long time. And then there'll just be like brisket there. And both of those are wrong. Like you have to highlight, you know, I'm like blinking my hands right now. Like you have to, there has to be like flashing lights around the brisket. They can't miss it. They can't like, there has to be the flavor. It has to be. be good. You know, everything has to be, like, correct with the brisket, but also, like, it has to be interesting. It's a delicate balance. The tops of the week, we have Buddha, we have Evelyn, we have Jackson. Again, I don't understand how Jackson can be in the top of all of these challenges.

Like, it really scares me because I'm watching week after week, and Jackson is, for the most part, doing well. And I'm like, what am I going to do if Jackson, God forbid, wins this competition? I don't want to be, like, too harsh on Monique and Jackson, but it's just like, it's really for when you're watching a show like this and the person that you can't stand does well. Monique doesn't do that well this week, though. She's in the bottom both times. I would have sent her home. I think you can probably tell I would have sent her home.

But Evelyn wins the challenge. This is super exciting because she is a Houston girl through and through. She knows a lot of the pit masters that are judging the competition, which is just like, I literally, when Padma, or when actually Brooke announced that she was the winner, I literally was like getting choked up. Like I was sitting at my desk in the office, in the middle of the day, just full watching TV and crying. I know people say my job is hard, but I got to say this was not a bad one. Anyway, so Evelyn wins. I'm very happy for her. The bottoms of the week are Monique, Ashley, and Joe.

Ashley, I feel like she didn't do anything like spectacularly wrong. It wasn't one of those things where, you know, you forget to put something on the plate or it's like woefully cooked poorly, you know, like grilled potatoes, Sam Alu, RIP, it was more just like everything was kind of not great. They said the brisket was sliced too thick. It was under seasoned. All those things just didn't come together for her. And I feel like in a challenge like this, obviously the brisket at the end of the day was still kind of the most important element. And Ashley just kind of seemed like she had the worst brisket. And I liked Ashley. So I'm sad to see her get sent home, especially when Monique, is standing right next to her in the bottom, but, you know, she'll have a chance in The Last Chance Kitchen.

Apparently Last Chance Kitchen is going to be like two parts next week. I don't know. Sounds intense. Can't wait to break it down. But yeah, Ashley, so long. I'm really glad that Joe didn't get sent home, though. I like Joe a lot. And I feel like she has a lot more potential and just kind of got lost in the sauce this week,

or lost in the Papadelli, if you will. But anyway, thanks for listening. Hope you had a good one. Have a great weekend. Don't forget to rate review. follow the show wherever you do listen. 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. 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 vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th, and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th.

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