#2779 Top Chef Season S22: Cooking The Canada Cast

Summary

Watch What Crappens: Episode #2779 – Top Chef Season S22: Cooking The Canada Cast

Release Date: March 28, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode #2779 of Watch What Crappens, hosts Ben Mandelker and Ronnie Karam delve into the sizzling drama and culinary feats of Top Chef Season 22, focusing specifically on the Canadian cast. With their signature blend of praise, ridicule, and humor, Ben and Ronnie provide an engaging breakdown of each contestant, their backgrounds, performances in challenges, and potential trajectories in the competition.

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Overview of Top Chef Season S22: Canada Cast

Ben and Ronnie kick off the episode by sharing their excitement for the show despite being on tour for other Bravo programming recaps. They emphasize the difficulty in recapping Top Chef due to the plethora of culinary creations but decide to focus on a comprehensive cast roast to navigate through the initial episodes.

Ronnie [03:56]: "Yesterday we did a trailer trash for the Valley. What? God, that was fun."

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Cast Roasts and Culinary Critiques

Anya El Watar

Anya, a Russian-born chef from San Francisco, quickly becomes a favorite for her unique focus on cabbage and Russian-inspired cuisine. Ben appreciates her dedication to showcasing her heritage, while Ronnie admires her foraging skills and edible pine cone creations.

Ben [05:54]: "I like it. I think the evolution of Top Chef has been a remarkable one. The chefs are so talented now."

However, despite her creativity, Anya faces elimination early on due to her specialized focus, which the judges deem as a hindrance to versatility in challenges.

Ronnie [15:37]: "She got eliminated right away."

Paula Andara

Originating from Ecuador, Paula brings avant-garde cuisine with a blend of local Arkansas ingredients. Ben humorously critiques her restaurant name, Roots, while Ronnie questions her execution in the competition, noting her ceviche confusion and insufficient use of peanuts in challenges.

Ben [23:30]: "If we had read these before, I would've said she's gonna lose."

Corwin Heming

Corwin, a private and pop-up chef from Brooklyn, impresses with his strong culinary resume, including stints at prestigious restaurants like Pearl and Ash. Ben labels him as the competition's ringer, expecting him to advance far due to his extensive experience and technical skills.

Ben [55:46]: "He seems like he's really good. I think he'll probably make it pretty far in the competition."

Katiana Hong

Katiana stands out with her confident and somewhat aloof demeanor. Ronnie praises her for her biscuit dish despite her quickfire mishaps, noting her strong presence and superior culinary skills.

Ronnie [36:24]: "She seems really talented and she also seems kind of exasperated with the people around her and the competition in general."

Vincenzo Laceto

Vincenzo, with a robust background in French cuisine and multiple Michelin accolades, is portrayed as ambitious and somewhat bossy. While Ronnie is skeptical about his potential villainy, Ben remains optimistic about his chances, given his impressive resume.

Ben [55:50]: "He's kind of the guy we're being led to believe will win this whole thing."

Zubair Mohajir

Zubair, known for his award-winning chicken sandwich, garners positive attention from both hosts. Despite his flamboyant persona and previous controversial appearances, Ben and Ronnie express interest in his culinary creations and potential longevity in the competition.

Ronnie [59:46]: "He seems really talented, and I think that probably of all the chefs, his is the food that I want to try the most."

Cesar (Last Name Unmentioned)

Cesar, a shy chef from North Charleston with experience under Rick Bayless, receives mixed reviews. While Ben notes his respectable background, Ronnie empathizes with his nervousness and soft-spoken nature, hoping he gains confidence as the season progresses.

Ronnie [60:07]: "He just seems really nervous."

Massimo

Massimo, the loudest and most jovial chef from Quebec, is a double-edged sword. While his exuberant personality makes him entertaining, his over-the-top antics in challenges often lead to culinary disasters, much to the hosts' amusement.

Ben [65:12]: "Massimo, he's a lot. But he seems nice. Like, everybody likes him."

Bailey (Last Name Unmentioned)

Bailey's laid-back and somewhat disorganized approach contrasts sharply with her strong culinary background. Her focus on acquiring pots and pans over winning challenges earns her both sympathy and critique from the hosts.

Ronnie [70:40]: "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."

Samuel (Last Name Unmentioned)

Samuel remains a bit of an enigma with minimal exposure in the competition. Ben and Ronnie speculate about his potential based on his brief appearances, hoping for more impactful performances in future episodes.

Ronnie [63:32]: "I can't believe he was."

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Eliminations and Performances

Throughout the episode, Ben and Ronnie discuss various eliminations based on contestants' performances in both Quick Fire and Main Challenges. The hosts highlight instances where contestants either excelled or faltered, often attributing failures to overly ambitious or misguided culinary choices.

Ben [09:39]: "This challenge is a dish best served cold. Like revenge."

They emphasize the importance of balancing originality with practicality, noting how Anya's deep-rooted focus on Russian ingredients led to her downfall despite her creativity.

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Predictions and Wrap-Up

As the episode progresses, Ben and Ronnie engage in playful banter about future outcomes, attempting to predict the top contenders for the season. They weigh the strengths and weaknesses of each chef, considering their culinary prowess, adaptability, and personal dynamics within the competition.

Ben [78:03]: "Katiana, Zubair, and Massimo."

Ronnie [77:26]: "Top three. I'm going to say Schwai, Katiana, and Vincenzo."

The hosts conclude with light-hearted final thoughts, reiterating their anticipation for upcoming episodes and the evolving dynamics of the Top Chef competition.

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Key Takeaways

• Diverse Culinary Styles: The Canadian cast brings a rich variety of cultural and culinary backgrounds, from Russian and Ecuadorian influences to French and Afro-Caribbean cuisines.

• Importance of Adaptability: Success in the competition hinges not only on technical skills but also on the ability to adapt and innovate under pressure.

• Personality Matters: Contestants' personalities, whether amiable, aloof, or over-the-top, significantly impact both their performances and the hosts' perceptions.

• Judges’ Expectations: The hosts critique the judges’ decisions, especially regarding eliminations based on specialized versus versatile cooking approaches.

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Notable Quotes

• Ronnie on Anya's Elimination:

  "[15:37]: She got eliminated right away."

• Ben on Corwin's Potential:

  "[55:46]: He seems like he's really good. I think he'll probably make it pretty far in the competition."

• Ronnie’s Take on Katiana:

  "[36:24]: She seems really talented and she also seems kind of exasperated with the people around her and the competition in general."

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Conclusion

Episode #2779 offers a thorough and entertaining analysis of Top Chef Season S22’s Canadian cast. Ben and Ronnie’s dynamic commentary provides both insight and amusement, making it a must-listen for fans eager to stay updated on their favorite Bravo culinary competition.

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Note: This summary excludes advertisement segments and non-content sections to focus solely on the podcast's main discussions and insights.

Transcript

[Ronnie Karam]

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[Ben Mandelker]

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[Ronnie Karam]

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[Ben Mandelker]

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[Ronnie Karam]

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[Ben Mandelker]

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[Ronnie Karam]

Watch what Happens Watch what crap is who cares what happens when there's so much happen? Watch what happens over little feature who cares what happens? There's so much that happens.

[Ben Mandelker]

Well, hello and welcome to Watch what Happens, a podcast for all the crap we love to talk about on y Old Bravs. I'm Ronnie and over there is the handsome and talented, gorgeous and thin Ben Mandelker of the Ben Mandelker womb of Carolyn Mandel's womb many years ago. Here he is.

[Ronnie Karam]

That is my old story. Hi, how are you? How's it going?

[Ben Mandelker]

Good. What's going on with you?

[Ronnie Karam]

You know, just, you know, I'm getting excited for the upcoming weekend and the adventures they're in. What's going on with you? How are you feeling?

[Ben Mandelker]

Oh, whatever. So we are traveling. That's what Ben is referring to. This weekend we're on the Mounting Historia. Historia. We're talking about history. We've become a history podcast. We're on the Mounting Historia tour. This weekend we are going to be in D.C. and Philly. In D.C. we're going to be doing Southern Charm Reunion. In Philadelphia, we're going to be doing Summerhausen. Which means those recaps are not going to be out to the weekend here on Watch what Crappin. 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. What? God, that was fun. And normally those are bonus episodes over on our Patreon. So if you want to join Patreon and get stuff like that, plus our White Lotus recaps and Traders recaps and stuff like that, go over to patreon.com watch it crappens. It's also where you get video like today's hello. And you can see all the. The stuff we're talking about in trailer trash and some of these cast members and stuff like that, because we are putting them up on the screen. Okay, Guess what, Patreon? I mean, watch what happens is also where you get ticket links to the shows In Philly, Washington, D.C. boston, Massachusetts, Detroit, Chicago, Austin, Dallas, Las Vegas. Those are all available on Watch what Crappens do.

[Ronnie Karam]

Pretty cool.

[Ben Mandelker]

Wow.

[Ronnie Karam]

Wow.

[Ben Mandelker]

Great stuff.

[Ronnie Karam]

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 gonna do a little video action. Fun. We're gonna actually.

[Ben Mandelker]

You know, we have. We definitely have the option to show people what these. These suckers actually look like, because here we are on the website.

[Ronnie Karam]

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 the show? What do you think?

[Ben Mandelker]

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. They opened a James Beard house just for me over this chicken sandwich. So that's what I'm entering into the competition. 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 miss that element of it, but for the most part, it's pretty good. I like it. How are you feeling about it?

[Ronnie Karam]

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. 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 that 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 persnicketiness, which I really like a lot, and I've enjoyed the. 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 quick fire. The quick fire is like a traders 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. I don't like an advantage. Yeah, I agree.

[Ben Mandelker]

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.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah. I think it's also like the. The. The elimination challenge already has its own stakes. If you. If you fuck it up, you get sent off the show. So they've just taken the stakes out of the quick fire. And I just. I don't. 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. The prize for winning felt inconsequential to the audience. But I don't know. I just think. I think the quick fire is just. I don't know, they need to. I think they need to go back on that one or find some way to make it more relevant.

[Ben Mandelker]

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, because you did, but you shouldn't just change game rules because you want to kick people off.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah. Or at least, like, make the fire be part of, like, the quick fire should be part of the consideration for the elimination then, you know, but, like, if the issue. I think you brought up a good point, which is that they probably want to kick off enough people. Tom probably got annoyed. He's like, you know, probably a 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 in a different part of the show instead, you'll solve the same issue.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah, well, as far as the Kristen thing, you know, I felt like this last year too. Like, I can't blame you. Can't blame Kristen 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 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 fire. Maybe that's why they were mad about the quick fire challenge when they did that, like, 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.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah, yeah. I don't know if you. I don't know if anyone at home heard, but, like, we. We definitely heard Padma. You know, we actually heard her voice during the show. It was really strange. So, yeah, you know, we'll be. Of course we'll be incorporating that. Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

This week they had a hockey challenge, and 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.

[Ronnie Karam]

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. Of the puck. But other than that, it was a lovely time.

[Ben Mandelker]

Butter makes everything edible, doesn't it, Gail? 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 guy really did a good job with his maple syrup. Whatever. 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.

[Ronnie Karam]

What do you think? We love, subscribe, like and 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. That's. I just need someone to be. To be not supportive to the chefs, and I'll be happy.

[Ben Mandelker]

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.

[Ronnie Karam]

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, in 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.

[Ben Mandelker]

Oh, yeah, yeah. She's not doing that this year. She's like.

[Ronnie Karam]

She's not choked up.

[Ben Mandelker]

I'm a veteran now. Fuck you guys.

[Ronnie Karam]

I know how to hope ghosts.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah.

[Ronnie Karam]

So, yeah, let's dive into this cast, shall we?

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah, we don't need to go too far into the judges just because, I mean, duh, we already know the judge.

[Ronnie Karam]

We don't know. Right.

[Ben Mandelker]

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.

[Ronnie Karam]

I mean, is it mustard or is it. Or is it egg yolk? Because, you know, Gayle loves an egg. And knowing Gail probably would crack an egg on herself. What'd you say?

[Ben Mandelker]

Finally, Gail's getting feedback from her attempt at finding a date for the Valentine's dance.

[Ronnie Karam]

Actually, fun fact, this was a white dress. Gail just spilled all her eggs on it because she's stupid.

[Ben Mandelker]

Unfortunately, the teenagers on the block thought that Gayle was the creepy house, so they just went at her. But that's an egg.

[Ronnie Karam]

It's also mustard. Who am I? Who am I kidding? If there's a choice between two foods, when it comes to Gail, the answer this.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah. So let's start with Anya. El watar. Anya. Now, Anya, I think, was both of one of our favorites, because, listen, we love a Russian lady chef. We love it. We love it on below deck. Great adventure. No, wait. No, below deck, Mediterranean, where they lost a chef, and they had to get Dushka from the boat next door. And she just kept coming on, and she didn't know much English, so they'd be like, hey, Dushka, do you know how to make soup? And she'd go, I'm Dushka.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah, yeah. Anytime that there's, like, a chef who's, like, from, like, an eastern block 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, all she would talk about was cabbage. She's like, I'm going to make cabbage, and I will add 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 gonna make a cabbage poutine, won't she? Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

And there was a. They were presenting their food, and they were working as a team, and she had made cabbage as part of the dish, 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.

[Ronnie Karam]

My only motto is cabbage. And then in last week, she made a little something. She brought tiny, little edible pine cones, which are so cute, and she served them to. 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's 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 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.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah. You know, and I found it ironic because she meant 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, finally, pine cone. You know, I thought 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 was like a powdered version of something and also pine needles.

[Ronnie Karam]

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. 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. We 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 for her.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah, you're from Russia. You should know how to make cold.

[Ronnie Karam]

Make some beets or some salmon or, I don't know, dill.

[Ben Mandelker]

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 mess. And she also had a rough time in the quick challenge. The quick fire. Right.

[Ronnie Karam]

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.

[Ben Mandelker]

Was it maple syrup thing?

[Ronnie Karam]

I remember last week.

[Ben Mandelker]

It wasn't.

[Ronnie Karam]

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.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah, 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. 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've say she's gonna. I would say she's gonna lose.

[Ronnie Karam]

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, it 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 step of central Russia. So, like, I've been like, oh, she's so charming and lovely and so wonderful, but if I'd realized she was gonna, like, she was forcing a pine needle and pine cone agenda because it was, like, about the healing properties of them, I would have been like, oh, this lady.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah, yeah. If we're going to talk about healing properties of food and we're not going to mention, like, 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.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah, I'm glad that the pine cone can heal me, but you know what? To heal me better, properly made cake.

[Ben Mandelker]

And medicine, you know what I mean?

[Ronnie Karam]

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.

[Ben Mandelker]

I think sometimes on this show especially, they really highlight our differences. Right. Because this shows a lot, 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 gonna 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.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah. I mean, even the judges said that. They said you, like, you kind of abandoned the challenge, and instead of doing, like, what you're supposed to in the challenge, you tried really hard to show your background, and that was to your detriment. Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

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 thought, why are you putting people through that cabbage? You know what I mean? I know.

[Ronnie Karam]

It's like, come to Project Butterfly and everyone's gonna expect, like, this lovely, delightful thing. Garbage. You got the garbage.

[Ben Mandelker]

Baby pine cone.

[Ronnie Karam]

You eat baby pineapple now.

[Ben Mandelker]

Garbage powder berry. It's time for a commercial. It's time for a crappin's commercial.

[Ronnie Karam]

The days are getting longer. The sun is out more. I just went up to my garden box, and she is blooming. And it made me realize spring produce is now here. And I am so excited for cooking with fava beans and fresh herbs.

[Ben Mandelker]

Whole Foods Market has what you're looking for. With great everyday prices at Whole Foods.

[Ronnie Karam]

Market, you can save every day. Look for the yellow, low price signs that help you save money without compromising the quality you expect from Whole Foods.

[Ben Mandelker]

Find responsibly farmed Atlantic salmon. No antibiotics ever, ground beef, and boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Plus more throughout the store.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yellow really means savings at Whole Foods Market because their sales signs are also yellow. So basically, whenever you see yellow, you know you're saving money.

[Ben Mandelker]

I use Whole Foods all the time for little parties that I have to get, you know, little charcuterie plates put together. They have the best ingredients. I just love this place.

[Ronnie Karam]

Save on the best of spring with great everyday prices at whole foods market.

[Ben Mandelker]

Hotels.com knows that planning your book club's.

[Ronnie Karam]

Annual field trip can get chaotic. Rhea, the romance reader wants to stay.

[Ben Mandelker]

In Prince Charming's castle. Self improvement.

[Ronnie Karam]

Steve needs a hotel gym. Leela and Jeff, the horror fans ghosted the group. Chat about budget. And you've read enough true crime to.

[Ben Mandelker]

Know that murdering them isn't a real option.

[Ronnie Karam]

With the Hotels.com app, invite all your.

[Ben Mandelker]

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[Ronnie Karam]

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[Ben Mandelker]

Book all in one place. Find your perfect somewhere with hotels.com. all right, next up, we've got Pala and Dara. Let's see.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yes, she's from the Honduras. And is it not Working. Oh, there it is. Yeah, Here we go. So.

[Ben Mandelker]

Oh.

[Ronnie Karam]

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

[Ben Mandelker]

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

[Ronnie Karam]

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.

[Ben Mandelker]

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? They're like, ma'am, this is a restaurant. God damn it.

[Ronnie Karam]

Very confused people. Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

No, 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.

[Ronnie Karam]

She's okay. Well, she was in the bottom this week because she made a ceviche, and they were like, is this a soup? Is this a soup or is this sauce? Like, 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? Just gonna be, like, leading a band somewhere? I don't get it. Doesn't make sense.

[Ben Mandelker]

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, we wanted. 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, barely kill a child who's allergic to it on a plane. Okay.

[Ronnie Karam]

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.

[Ben Mandelker]

One thing. Gail never gets to play tonsil hockey. God bless her.

[Ronnie Karam]

Well, as we all know, a licorice nub is when you wrap tape on the end of your hockey stick, and a Tootsie Roll wrapped around a Twizzler is when the puck goes flying out of the. Out of the rink and hit scale in the face.

[Ben Mandelker]

Sorry. This is from behind beyond the grave. All right.

[Ronnie Karam]

Sorry. This is just ghost pad, like, giving some insight about hockey puns.

[Ben Mandelker]

So she has a passion for sustainability and all that blah, blah, blah stuff, which I think chefs have to say these days.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

I don't think people want a chef who's like, you know what? I love corn syrup.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yes. There probably will be one. There's gonna be one who comes on. Because every now and then, there is a chef who is like. There's 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.

[Ben Mandelker]

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.

[Ronnie Karam]

You.

[Ben Mandelker]

And don't eat their food. Yeah, okay.

[Ronnie Karam]

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 it pretty much is for the Once a year, one time a year around Thanksgiving when I make pecan pie.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah. So Tristan Epps is now from Virginia Beach. He's living in Houston now. And he works at Epson Flows Culinary, which is cute.

[Ronnie Karam]

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. So he is a Caribbean American chef who focuses on Neo African Afro Caribbean cuisine in a fine dining format. And he. 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 for a moment, I thought, is that his girlfriend? And then I thought, no, this is definitely a moment. Like, he's definitely someone who calls his mom. He loves his mom, and he loves his stepfather. Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

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.

[Ronnie Karam]

There's that, too.

[Ben Mandelker]

I was like, what, do they just spend date night moisturizing each other? Because they look like they're 20.

[Ronnie Karam]

So. Yeah. So he. So he went to Johnson and Wales for culinary school, and then he got Michigan 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.

[Ben Mandelker]

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 into Top Chef. Now there's no just getting off your shift at Applebee's and auditioning, you know, you better work for Marcus Samuelson. Okay.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah. Well, did you speak of celebrity chefs? Did you hear the latest celebrity chef Goss. That's very related to Denise Richards and her Wild Things Brooke.

[Ben Mandelker]

Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

[Ronnie Karam]

Williamson and Bobby Flay, officially a couple.

[Ben Mandelker]

Oh, gross.

[Ronnie Karam]

First of all, like, sad and gross. I. 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 ten years ago. But Bobby Flay, really? He's so cheesy. He's so ridiculous.

[Ben Mandelker]

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. Yeah, he looks like he's, like, like, on Quaaludes or something. Like, he's out to lunch.

[Ronnie Karam]

He's like, he's like Claymation Ray Liotta, I feel like. And I just. I don't know. I feel like there's, like.

[Ben Mandelker]

Dare you bring Ray Liotta into this?

[Ronnie Karam]

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.

[Ben Mandelker]

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.

[Ronnie Karam]

You know, he always does. Remember the time he stood on the counter when he did Iron Chef America? 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 diffused 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. I was like, that's. That's. I don't know. I feel like. I feel like there's something shady there.

[Ben Mandelker]

Well, that would have made me like him more. Getting January Jones out of a dui. You're not stopped trying to make sure.

[Ronnie Karam]

She deserved her dui.

[Ben Mandelker]

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.

[Ronnie Karam]

I like him a lot. He's so nice.

[Ben Mandelker]

Okay, let's go to Ying.

[Ronnie Karam]

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 year's 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.

[Ben Mandelker]

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?

[Ronnie Karam]

No.

[Ben Mandelker]

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 out of here. But she, 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.

[Ronnie Karam]

I hate, I hate this restaurant.

[Ben Mandelker]

Number 18 and then H T E.

[Ronnie Karam]

So instead of, instead of 18 spelled E I G H T E e n, it's e18, h t. So like the 18 takes over the chain and I just, just, I hate this. I hate the concept of this. I hate what's going on. It's stupid. It's like, look at, look, we're being so clever because it's 18 and there's an 18 in it. Yeah, I hate it.

[Ben Mandelker]

Me too.

[Ronnie Karam]

Terrible.

[Ben Mandelker]

So Side Door Kitchen and North and Navy. Then she went to Blue Water Cafe in Vancouver and she helped launch Elisa Steak as a sous chef. She also worked for Riley's Fish and Steak.

[Ronnie Karam]

I'm sorry, I'm like laughing at the idea that the steak has gone. Oh, Elisa Steak.

[Ben Mandelker]

What's a Lisa Steak?

[Ronnie Karam]

Oh, have you gone to Elisa Steak yet? Have you? Have you? Hey. She launched Elisa Steak. Wow, that sounds like something Gail does every day for breakfast and lunch.

[Ben Mandelker]

So she specializes in French and Chinese inspired cuisine, utilizing local seasonal, fair. Not a lot of personality in this one.

[Ronnie Karam]

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 I would rather just be back at Elisa Steak launching steak.

[Ben Mandelker]

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.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah, I feel like she'll be good if she makes it in.

[Ben Mandelker]

All right, so then we get to Corwin Heming. Wow. I never guessed this guy's name would have been Corwin Heming. He doesn't seem like a Corwin Heming.

[Ronnie Karam]

I know Heming 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 like, ha, I'm a chef. He just pops up, which is exciting.

[Ben Mandelker]

Won't you make him Food like, whoa, I'm just trying to find the bathroom, buddy.

[Ronnie Karam]

Shalak Corwin. So he, he is from Augusta, Georgia, home of the Masters and Sunstrack. But now he's in Brooklyn and, you know, 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.

[Ben Mandelker]

So if your steak seems to know its brand, that's why corn made it okay. Yes. I love secret pop up Chef. I'm never going to forget that when.

[Ronnie Karam]

I'm watching him, he's a pop up chef.

[Ben Mandelker]

They're like, wait, is that guy working on hashtags on it? No, he's cooking something. This is crazy.

[Ronnie Karam]

We didn't. 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, he, he. 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.

[Ben Mandelker]

Well, those beef patties were insane anyway. 90% of them weren't even closed. You know, they couldn't even get to the suckers class.

[Ronnie Karam]

They were. Some of them were real disasters. Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

But apparently they tasted okay because the judges weren't as horrified yet. But the judges are still in that space where they're like, look how talented everyone is. Look, look, like they're not even mentioning the house. The patties aren't closed, you know, so let's move on here. Next up, we've got Katiana Hong. So she's kind of my favorite right now 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, she's just got this attitude about her. I don't know how to describe it.

[Ronnie Karam]

Doesn't act. 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.

[Ben Mandelker]

Kind of 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?

[Ronnie Karam]

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.

[Ben Mandelker]

And she's like, why are you making me pose in front of a bunch of jarred food, you fucks? Because 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 gonna put the background in sepia and then just have you guys stand in front of. She's like, why? Why am I standing in front of Pepperoncini's, you fucks?

[Ronnie Karam]

Why do I have to stand in front of bread and butter pickles? I'm better than this. I have a restaurant in la. 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.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah. This week she won both the Quick Fire and the Main, right?

[Ronnie Karam]

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.

[Ben Mandelker]

I think she won both of them in a row. So she was born in Korea, raised in upstate New York. American Hyde park, unlv. She got a job at two star Michelin restaurant Melissa, who's jealous of Theresa and met her, met her culinary partner and future husband John. She moved to Napa and worked at a line chef at Christopher Costa's the Restaurant at Meadowwood. I already hate the name of that restaurant because I feel like. Don't you feel like the title says Christopher Costa's the Restaurant at Meadowwood?

[Ronnie Karam]

It's too much. Choose one thing. Just call it. Well, also, like the Restaurant at Meadowood.

[Ben Mandelker]

Just.

[Ronnie Karam]

Just call it that. The fact that you add your name to it, it's like. It's like Tyler Perry's the Restaurant at Meadowood. I just don't know. Like, we don't need to have, like, we get it. There are credits. People know who you are. You're like, just be. Be secure in your creations and Just call it the restaurant at Meadowood.

[Ben Mandelker]

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 Costau's, the restaurant at Meadowood in association.

[Ronnie Karam]

Maybe it's just the way the biobug.

[Ben Mandelker]

And, yeah, I think it's just the way the bio is written, but also the restaurant of Meadow Wood is just so up your own ass. You know what I mean? Like, there's really no other restaurants. Come on.

[Ronnie Karam]

Well, maybe there are. Maybe there's like three restaurants. You're like, are you going to Christopher Costa's restaurant at Meadowood? No, I'm going to Janice Perkins restaurant at Meadowood. Oh, okay. Well, have a great dinner.

[Ben Mandelker]

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.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

Bon Appetit's top best New restaurants list. Food and Wine's 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.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah. Yang Bang. Yang ban. 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. It's gotten so much hype and publicity here in la, 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. Maybe it's going to come back now that she's on the show.

[Ben Mandelker]

Well, she's my favorite so far, but she does seem up her own ass. Listen to this. Yang Ben offers a multi dimensional autobiographical experience. Oh, really?

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

Autobiographical. Really?

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

No, I just.

[Ronnie Karam]

I feel like it's so funny when. When restaurants do that. That's an autobiographical biographical experience. I can't even imagine what my autobiographical experience would be. It's like, okay, this dish is called the Dina Manoff, an influential figure in My Child Followed, followed by the Room Mcclanahan.

[Ben Mandelker]

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.

[Ronnie Karam]

This is an interactive. This is an interactive dish where we will be rolling a bowling ball and you're gonna try to get out of the way.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah. Mama got pregnant in the rolling Rack Lane. You know him. Okay, so Lana. Lana Laga Marcini. Laga La Marcini. 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 quickfire. Do great, everybody.

[Ronnie Karam]

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 like, like, cook things in a little frying pan. And she was flipping them in the frying pan and she's doing it, like, really, like, 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. She is the chef and owner of Lana Cooks.

[Ben Mandelker]

So glad she's a sex worker.

[Ronnie Karam]

Well, I'm. I'm glad that she's a cook also, because that'd be really awkward if that's him for business.

[Ben Mandelker]

But, 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.

[Ronnie Karam]

Okay. So she.

[Ben Mandelker]

Wait, she believed truth and appetizers.

[Ronnie Karam]

This one, she. It says that she worked in at Gramercy Tavern. Isn't that Tom Colicchio's restaurant, Gramercy Tavern? Am I wrong?

[Ben Mandelker]

One of the. One of the celebrity chefs, my friend Alan, used to work there, so I used to get to eat there for free. Loved it.

[Ronnie Karam]

I'm like, I feel like it should. Yeah, it was. It is owned by Danny Meyer, originally co founded by Meyer and Tom Colicchio. So maybe she came in post Tom Kalikio.

[Ben Mandelker]

I don't know. So she learned open fire cooking on Francis. Francis Marman's private island in Patagonia.

[Ronnie Karam]

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.

[Ben Mandelker]

Why is there a zipper on my fried calamari?

[Ronnie Karam]

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.

[Ben Mandelker]

She won 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 boot camp for policy and advocacy.

[Ronnie Karam]

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 because he's there.

[Ben Mandelker]

I know. I sense an alliance professionally.

[Ronnie Karam]

Pops up. Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

I sense an alliance of two people just popping up from behind refrigerators.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

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.

[Ronnie Karam]

All right, well, I like.

[Ben Mandelker]

Can I just eat?

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah. I like her so far, but we haven't seen much of much of her commercials.

[Ben Mandelker]

Here comes one right now.

[Ronnie Karam]

Have you ever wondered how a circus performer could become the most powerful woman in the Byzantine Empire? Even the Royals is a podcast from Wondery that pulls back the curtain on royal families from ancient empires to modern monarchs to show you the darker side of what it means to be royalty. Before she ruled an empire, Theodora was a teen sensation in circus shows featuring dancing bears, burlesque performers, and blood soaked chariot races. But when her star came crashing down.

[Ben Mandelker]

She clawed her way from rock bottom to the very top, using everything from comedy to espionage to get there.

[Ronnie Karam]

Empress Theodora didn't just survive. She revolutionized women's rights across the Byzantine.

[Ben Mandelker]

Empire, like changing laws to let women.

[Ronnie Karam]

Divorce men own property and bring abusive men to justice. For all her work in pioneering, she's remembered as the most powerful Byzantine empress in history. Follow even the Royals on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to even the royals.

[Ben Mandelker]

Early and ad free by joining Wondery Plus.

[Ronnie Karam]

Hello, I'm Dax Shepard. And I'm Monica Padman and we are in our seventh year of hosting actors.

[Ben Mandelker]

Musicians, athletes, presidents, CEOs, scientists and professors.

[Ronnie Karam]

Monica and I do three weekly shows with celebrities on Monday, experts on Wednesdays, and crazy stories from listeners on Fridays.

[Ben Mandelker]

It's got an ample dose of irreverence, humor and vulnerability.

[Ronnie Karam]

We regularly get sides of our guests that were previously unknown and it is.

[Ben Mandelker]

A celebration of all the messiness that makes us human. We like it here.

[Ronnie Karam]

We love it here. We're chatterboxes and it's a good excuse to talk. Also, we're friends, barely hanging on by a thread. We're so excited to officially be a.

[Ben Mandelker]

Part of the Wondry network. So follow Armchair Expert on the Wondry.

[Ronnie Karam]

App or wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to armchair expert on YouTube.

[Ben Mandelker]

All right, Henry Lou.

[Ronnie Karam]

I like him and I feel like he should be so good, but I've noticed that he kind of is not great great. His food is. He's 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, Katiana's like, oh, so I get stuck with pickles, but he gets full on olive oil. Thanks.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah, yeah, I get 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 enrol in the French culinary institute. Can I just ask colleges what we are doing to our young people that everybody's like this. I'm going to cook school. You?

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

I'm learning nothing from marketing or journalism or in this case, art history. So teach me to make a pancake.

[Ronnie Karam]

I can't believe he was. He was not able to turn that art history degree into a successful and lucrative career. So he. Yeah, he started working in some of the most renowned kitchens in Manhattan, including a stint at Pearl and Ash, which is such a. A. That is such a New York City restaurant named Pearl and Ash. And then he also worked at a place called in Williamsburg called Llama Inn, 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, you're gonna go to Llama Inn? It's like in.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah. No, he spent three years. God, these guys have so many credits on here, it's insane. Four men Happy hospitality group, which is weird for happy men. We're not angry, we're happy men. And listen, let's brand ourselves as four happy men. That sounds like trouble.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah, four. Four happy men. Yeah, I. I don't trust it at all.

[Ben Mandelker]

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 in Food and 2019 list of things you won't want to miss. But do you pop up?

[Ronnie Karam]

Do you pop up? And can you actually cook? Llama because if you work at the llama in it. 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 in the New York Times. Anyway.

[Ben Mandelker]

But wait a second. He is also working with Evelyn on Brooklyn. Also spelled weird. Oh, no. By Ken. By Ken. A Southeast Asian inspiring, inspired catering. What is it?

[Ronnie Karam]

Pop up? It's a pop. But this time it's with Evelyn. He gets Evelyn cred. Because we loved Evelyn.

[Ben Mandelker]

Okay, so then he was named 2025 James Beard semifinalist for best Chef Texas.

[Ronnie Karam]

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.

[Ben Mandelker]

The James Beard semifinalist for beaker work on french fries in a small regional.

[Ronnie Karam]

Southwest of Texas Houston division. It's like, it's. There's so, so many whole factory at.

[Ben Mandelker]

James Beard of just coming up with award ideas like they best. They make the best fried chicken chef with an ear infection this side of the equator, but south of Paris, it's.

[Ronnie Karam]

And now the se now announcing the semifinalists for chefs in who live three feet from a tree and are also playing Sellers of Catan. At this moment.

[Ben Mandelker]

I would like to point out that on the side here, the ass 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.

[Ronnie Karam]

How rude that they put a in this Top Chef section of Bravo that Google Ads decided to serve this ad of a dog, a dog lying down amongst its own vomit. It says, stop doing this to the healthy dog. And you see, this dog is like, ah, it's like a lady. As 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.

[Ben Mandelker]

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.

[Ronnie Karam]

I was just. I was sitting at the table next to that vomit, being like, you're not going to clean up, will you? Because you're Entitled, aren't you, lady? You're entitled.

[Ben Mandelker]

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. But I have to click on it to find out. And I ain't no sucker.

[Ronnie Karam]

No, no. Definitely not stupid.

[Ben Mandelker]

Okay, so now we go to Vincent Vincenzo Laceto. Vincenzo.

[Ronnie Karam]

He's a little Zach Braffy, huh? He's kind of like a. He's sort of like, if you took Zach Raph's face and put it into, like, minute. 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, 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 with the apples? And he was like, no, I'm gonna make the apples. And he's like, a little bit of a. He. He is someone who's ambitious. Just last week, Daniel Boulud was like, he's a little bit of. How you say, brown noser. You know, so that's kind of.

[Ben Mandelker]

Because I had to make some French food for ballud, and Ballud was like, oh, you know, I love French food. I love this. I love the souffle, you know, so he's like, I'm making a souffle for Ballude. And they're like, whoa. Souffle is so difficult. And he's like, I'm doing it anyway. And so Balud was like, oh, a bit of a. Notes brown.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yes.

[Ronnie Karam]

Like, but that's kind of up a ballud. Because he literally went out of his way to be like, you know what I love for brunch?

[Ben Mandelker]

A sule?

[Ronnie Karam]

I love a big souffle. Like, souffle. You know what I say? You know what I say? I don't even say. I say sule. 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. They're like, okay, I'll make a. He's like, okay, well, I guess I'll make him a souffle. He's like, oh, brown noser.

[Ben Mandelker]

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 him five restaurants now.

[Ronnie Karam]

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, like, 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 Chevy thing of all time. Right? I can't believe you take away this. This simple phrase that we make people say in order to enforce a power dynamic in the kitchen.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah, whatever. It's so stupid. I still say, yes, Chef, though, because once you're trained in that, I still. When I see the chef around town, I'm still like, hi, Chef. How are you doing? Yes. Yes, Chef. I'm still very respectful because I'll get a pan thrown in my head. He doesn't care if it's the abbey he'll throw. 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. Going to.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah, I. I agree. I think we have an eye on him for sure. Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

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 have grown it in the backyard. It's still lettuce. Do you have. Can you fry something? Fry something and send it out.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah, yeah. This guy has A good resume. I mean, eleven Madison park is like, a top restaurant. And he. 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. 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.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah, I think so, too. We're. Right now. He's the ringer. Right. He's kind of the guy.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

That we're being led to believe will win this whole thing. So then we go to Zubair Mohajir.

[Ronnie Karam]

I love Zubair.

[Ben Mandelker]

Zubair is really talented. He's the one that was making that chicken sandwich that was, like, famous.

[Ronnie Karam]

Amazing.

[Ben Mandelker]

He won a award in Chicago or whatever for it. So this.

[Ronnie Karam]

Oh, but I'm already. Okay, already two. Two red flags from his bio that I see right away. He worked at. So Jean Georges is like, a legendary chef, but Jean Georg. I didn't realize that Jean Georg has a restaurant called Pump Room, so that already gets some stink on Zubair because anything named Pun 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. He was working with Gagan. Gagan Anand to be an apprentice with him. Do you remember when this guy came onto the show last? Was it last season or two seasons ago? Gagan came out, come out, came out. He 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, like, sort of like this outfit that was ridiculous. And he's like, yeah, it's cool. I'm just one of the people. I'm Gaga. Nand. Of course you have to spend 500 ahead to come to one of my restaurants.

[Ben Mandelker]

You know, Here he is. He's like, I'm posing with a knife handle in my mouth because I'm goggin. Goggin. Enough. Wait.

[Ronnie Karam]

Do it. Do. Do a search for Gaga Anand Top Chef so you can see what he looks like. He wore, like, I think a bucket hat or something like that.

[Ben Mandelker]

Okay, let's see.

[Ronnie Karam]

Let's see if it comes up like a.

[Ben Mandelker]

This one with a knife in his mouth comes up on everything.

[Ronnie Karam]

Oh, there he is. See, there, there, look, there's. There he is with Padma See, look, there's like an app. Remember the stupid challenge?

[Ben Mandelker]

Oh, the emoji.

[Ronnie Karam]

Remember this?

[Ben Mandelker]

Yes.

[Ronnie Karam]

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 he wears this. Like, I'm just silly. I'm just, you know, it's going to be emojis. It's gonna 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, 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. But, like, pretending to be like, down, down with the peeps. But then it's hard. You're really just making food for, like, like the rarefied masses. Like, get over yourself. Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

Padma's like, welcome, Gog on and on to make asshole food. Just like, be honest, you know, as.

[Ronnie Karam]

You can see, we have a wall of emojis behind me. On the top row, we have fire donut, Gail Simmons, and a rainbow.

[Ben Mandelker]

All of these emojis have one thing in common. None of them want to date Gail. Wow. Make of that what you will, Chefs.

[Ronnie Karam]

Oh, look, there's a unicorn emoji. I guess I would associate that with the one plate of food that Gail doesn't eat.

[Ben Mandelker]

Lol. She's, like, circling this emoji. She's, like, crying, laughing. Okay, so, yeah, that's problematic.

[Ronnie Karam]

So he love this guy Zubair.

[Ben Mandelker]

He later worked at Gagan in Bangkok, so he's really a Gagan fan. So then he. He launched a pop up called Wazwan 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 food, and the Coach House, his fine dining restaurant.

[Ronnie Karam]

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.

[Ben Mandelker]

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.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

You know, because a lot of people come in with their things, I'm like, well, will see in a few Weeks.

[Ronnie Karam]

How you're doing that could definitely be like, like a concern.

[Ben Mandelker]

So now, Cesar.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yes, Cesar. He seems nice. He's, like, a little skittish. I feel like he's like one of those, like, Italian greyhounds that you need to put a sweater on, you know?

[Ben Mandelker]

Yes. He's very, like, shy. Like, oh, my God. I think I'm thinking of doing it this way. And then he messed up something and got really angry, and I was like, oh, I like it. Let's see where it says ourselves.

[Ronnie Karam]

I just want to give him a hug. He just seems like he's. He just seems really nervous.

[Ben Mandelker]

Well, it's funny that you say that because he was born in Chihuahua, which is funny 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 this show before. That's not fair.

[Ronnie Karam]

Well, Anya didn't have to. Anya just used the power of cabbage to get herself onto the show.

[Ben Mandelker]

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 studio 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.

[Ronnie Karam]

Now, who's gonna 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 wounds up working at North Pond in 2020, which was just a pond, actually. He just was cooking food up by the side of a pond because it was the pandemic. 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 say, you know what? My thing is that I just like to go to a low end supermarket Market and see what lettuce is on sale. And I'll just get that and some canned. Like, they all want their. They all want to bring in from nature. They all want to bring in from their local garden. And that's.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah, I know. Well, this. 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 is. He says, when not hiking through nature, you can also catch chefs Sr. Running along Lake Michigan training for the next marathon.

[Ronnie Karam]

Oh, God. One of those. That means he's gonna talk about. So we are. We're lucky because we have not had the scene with him yet where he says running for marathons, just something that I do. I do it every year. 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 gonna happen, and we're all gonna have to sit through it, and it's just gonna be so annoying.

[Ben Mandelker]

All right, next up is Samuel. Or Samuel. I'm not sure. I don't remember.

[Ronnie Karam]

I think it's Samuel. I think this is another person who we will have not met yet, who is toiling away at over in Last chance kitchen. So this is kind of fun because we know nothing about him except that he looks a little surprised to be caught on camera getting his photo taken.

[Ben Mandelker]

And he's like, there's no potatoes behind me. Should I be standing in front of some jarred things? Or.

[Ronnie Karam]

He's like, no.

[Ben Mandelker]

Sorry.

[Ronnie Karam]

I just came in to drop off this box. Box. Oh, I'm gonna be on Top Chef now.

[Ben Mandelker]

I automatically like him because he's got, like, a one paragraph.

[Ronnie Karam]

I know.

[Ben Mandelker]

Intro instead of like, this is. He's not masturbating all over us, which is nice, but maybe he hasn't done much. I don't know. He's from a Dutch Nigerian household. He was Institute. Institute of Vancouver educated. After graduating, landed a job at Relay and Chateau in British Columbia, where he honed his skills in modern French and British fine dining for many, many years.

[Ronnie Karam]

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, chatgpt to get it. Get them nice and smooth and out there. So. Because it's the same language every single one. 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 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.

[Ben Mandelker]

But he is currently focused on launching a new concept with his business partners. Nothing else.

[Ronnie Karam]

Unemployed. Unemployed, yeah. He doesn't even have popup chef or. Or private chef on his bio. He's just.

[Ben Mandelker]

I don't think he laugh 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.

[Ronnie Karam]

We'll make something up.

[Ben Mandelker]

Next up is Massimo, the loudest and most jovial of all chefs this season. Hahahaha.

[Ronnie Karam]

Massimo. So Massimo, he's actually from Quebec, but he's also Italian. So he's Italian Quebecois. 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. Board in half. And then this la, last night's episode, he literally just like went and just crashed into his table and spilled salt everywhere and broke glass. Like he's, he's actually like, he's just way out of control.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah, he's a lot. But he seems nice. Like, everybody likes him. He's a jovial fella. And he's worked with Daniel Ballud, of course, and Rene Red Zeppe and in Copenhagen. And then he returned to Montreal to join Le Muse as an executive chef. And now he has his own fine dining restaurant called Cabaret L'Emphere.

[Ronnie Karam]

Oh, really? Try to do the cabaret thing. Well, get in line, boys. I'm the real star here. Now. He worked under Danielle Boulud and they didn't even have a moment where.

[Ben Mandelker]

Who hasn't worked under Ballud, am I right?

[Ronnie Karam]

But like, we did not have a moment last week where Danielle Boulud 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.

[Ben Mandelker]

Right?

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

They're like, it's my ringer. What are you gonna do? So he focuses on, let's see, Showcases his bold cooking style, celebrating local season, ingredients Hospitality and the arts.

[Ronnie Karam]

So he's like. I mean, so he's good. He seems good. He really flopped this week. He messed up his quickfire. His. His main dish. His main dish. He tried to make ice. Like his whole thing was his. His ingredient was Gail. It was muffins. 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 would be an ice cream that tastes like muffin.

[Ben Mandelker]

You have a. Do they mean muffins? Like actual muffins? Like the baked goods Good.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah, I think so.

[Ben Mandelker]

Oh. Because he was talking about muffin, like it was some separate kind of ingredient thing.

[Ronnie Karam]

And I was like, concept.

[Ben Mandelker]

There are. Yeah, 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.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah. So he made this weird ice cream with muffins. I don't know. I think he soaked the muffins in it or steeped them or let them dissolve into it, but then he couldn't get them the ice cream to set up. And so. So then he tried to do liquid nitrogen, but he was like, too sparing with it. So it's 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.

[Ben Mandelker]

So you were using liquid nitrogen for your ice cream and you couldn't freeze it? And he's like, nope. She's like, but liquid nitrogen is, like the easiest thing to do if it doesn't freeze, you just keep pouring more on. On top. And he's like. He just has this, like, very self assured way. He's like, yes, I hear you. You whatever, stupid. Shut up. Muffins. I said muffins plenty times. I should stay because I've said muffins the most.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah. And because he was such. He was so out of control and he spilled salt into his butter, so therefore he couldn't make his little muffin tws, which he was excited about. And then in the end, he just had this puddle of muffin, muffin and 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 patty. But he was like, I'm going to change it up and I'm going to grind up the oxtail and then serve that. And apparently was terrible. But it's like, yeah, I think their face.

[Ben Mandelker]

When they ate that oxtail, they. 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, whoa.

[Ronnie Karam]

Listen, if oxtail. If they had found a way to make oxtail without having to braise it, we would have known about it by now. Like, you're not gonna. You're not gonna, 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 char on it. And everyone was like, this is just wrong. You're not going to change. Like, these. 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. Like, people tried. It's happening. Happened.

[Ben Mandelker]

Oh, gosh. Okay, so next we have Bailey. So Bailey, God bless her, you just knew she wasn't gonna 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 gonna try it. But, you know, we just don't. You knew she was gonna be a designer. She just had that written all over her. And so did the person who got kicked off first. What was her name? Her name was. God. Mimi.

[Ronnie Karam]

Pots and Pans Mimi. Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

He's like, listen, you know, I got a girlfriend. I just want to win a couple quick fires, cuz I just need to get some pots and pans. I got one pot.

[Ronnie Karam]

That was her whole story. Her. Mimi's whole thing was that she wore a. A little hat and her girlfriend broke up with her and took her pots and pants. She's like, I just want to get some pots and pans.

[Ben Mandelker]

God, 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, she did not. 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 her face.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah. Yeah. She. I would have liked to have more of Mimi just because I was really rooting for her pots and pans journey. Like, everyone is normally like, I've got a child. She means the world to me, and I just want to provide for her. And, you know, or like, my parents just want to get back. Or my restaurant. I really want to get my restaurant. I want to make this a reality. Reality. And she's like, I just want to pounce. And pants.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah, I just want a pants.

[Ronnie Karam]

You know, I got one Safflon Cuisinart. I'll take anything. Just like, yeah, Honestly, give me a 50 gift certificate. I'll just go to Target right now. I just need something.

[Ben Mandelker]

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.

[Ronnie Karam]

She was. Bailey. Bailey. Bailey was not good. She did. I think she tried to do. Did she try to do risotto? I think she. She attempted to do risotto the first episode. It's like, bail. Yeah. And they're like, no, you're trying it. You're trying it.

[Ben Mandelker]

And she even said, like, this is notoriously difficult on Top Chef. And they're like, yeah, you didn't do this any better. So then we get Kat Turner. Kat is who I think looks like Anna Gastire. She's like a Anna Gastire 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. She does something really good, right, Ben?

[Ronnie Karam]

Her. Her. Well, her quick fire was a disaster. Her dough didn't come together, so she was in the bot. But then she had a really good, like, biscuit. I think hers was biscuit 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. A little bit better. I like her. She's somewhere for me, like, she's got anagaster. Like, she's got anagaster face, but there's some Angelica Houston in there too, and Diablo Cody hair. So, like, it's this great combination for me. And. 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 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. 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.

[Ben Mandelker]

And the 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 Corrigan 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.

[Ronnie Karam]

Anya add garbage. But she's like. So I guess Cat was trying to make her name in Hollywood as an actress and burlesque dancer, which makes sense because she looks like, like two actresses. And she also looks like definitely someone who would do burlesque.

[Ben Mandelker]

I wonder if I saw her at that burlesque place in Hollywood. I'll bet. I. I feel like I have. 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. But yeah, that was like a high class burlesque place. And she looks familiar. So I'm wondering if she was a dancer there.

[Ronnie Karam]

Now that I think about it, yeah, maybe so. Although it looks like her. 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. 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. I haven't been, but we'll have to check that one out. But I really like her a lot and I. I was really. I was actually worried that she might be in trouble cuz she did so badly with the quick fire. So the fact that she came back in the elimination challenge made me very, very happy.

[Ben Mandelker]

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 Sh. Shway Wang. And he's from Queens, lives in North Charleston, South Carolina, and he is the chef owner at Jack Wab. Jack Wabbit. Jackrabbit Filling King Barbecue.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah, I think, like, the rule is if you're going to open up a restaurant in Charleston, you have to have like, Jackrabbit somehow in there. Like something so, 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. He seems like he has a really good, like a really good approach to everything. And 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 James Beard Award for writer Rising Star Chef. Of course, the category was in North Carolina and has once was in the proximity of Patricia Altschool. So. But either way, I mean, a nomination is a nomination.

[Ben Mandelker]

Yeah. Is that bad? If it's in Charleston, they have a good restaurant scene, don't they?

[Ronnie Karam]

I was. I was lying. I was making a joke about the hyper reach. I said the category was Charleston and in proximity of Patricia Elks Rule. It's not a real category.

[Ben Mandelker]

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.

[Ronnie Karam]

Top three. I'm going to say Schwai Katiana and. Hold on, I need to look at the rest of this group. Schwai, Katiana and Vincenzo. 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.

[Ben Mandelker]

I'm gonna say Katiana Zubair and let me see here.

[Ronnie Karam]

Oh, don't forget about Tristan. Tristan might do it.

[Ben Mandelker]

Let me see. Cat Turner. Mimi. Just kidding. At least right off, right off the bat, I'm gonna say I'm gonna go crazy and say, massimo, I don't think this will happen. I know that that's a long. A long shot, but just. Just to have, like, a dark horse. So you say shway. Katiana and Vincenzo. I say Zubair. Katiana and Massimo.

[Ronnie Karam]

Yeah.

[Ben Mandelker]

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 talk. Talk chef. Talk chef. And we'll be back to whatever we'll be. We'll be around. We love you guys. We'll talk to you next time.

[Ronnie Karam]

Bye. Watch what happens. Would like to thank its premium sponsors. Ain't no thing like Allison King.

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[Ben Mandelker]

She ain't no shrinking violet Cootar we love you guys. If you like, watch what crappens. You can listen ad free right now by joining Wondery plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short [e-mail] survey are you looking for a new job or want a career change? Look no further than monster.com need a little help standing out out? Our expert resume writing services will make sure you shine. Want to brush up on your interview skills? Engage with our AI Interview prep tool. Want some advice on negotiating your new salary? Visit our salary tools and extensive library of career advice articles and you'll have all the tips and tricks you'll need to succeed. Visit monster.com today and take the first step towards your career. Monster.com find your right job fit.