The Dish With Kish

[tv echo]

Gregory Showcases The Simplicity of A Fish Boil | Top Chef | The Dish With Kish (S21 E10) | Bravo
Bravo   May 23, 2024

[Bastet]

I'm glad they explained why the boiling over that supposedly necessitated the kerosene didn't happen.  (And that Kristen said her reaction to the kerosene throwing was there's no way this needs to be how it's done, but then she decided some things stand the test of time for a reason.)  And why the fatty fish meant it could withstand the boil, so the chefs shouldn't have been so timid.

I still have zero desire to attend a traditional fish boil, mind you.

I enjoyed Gregory reminiscing on that dessert where he used a ridiculous number of ingredients just because he could.  And the casting guy trying to get them to stop posting pictures and talking about how the former cheftestants all ignore the "don't tell anyone" admonitions now that they're coming in as guest judges.

I liked how personal the brief wound up being for this one, rather than just what would you have done if you were there, since Gregory not only was there, he picked the ingredients, and the losing dish came from those ingredients -- since Soo lost, and didn't do what you'd expected based on what you bought him, here are all those ingredients ("We keep the receipts"), show me what you'd have done.

[mlp]

I am thoroughly enjoying this little show and Kristen.  I'm going to miss it as much as the main show when this season is over.  It always looks like the guest chefs are having fun with it too.

[caitmcg]

I love the peek behind the scenes it gives us, both the literal one as it's being shot and in the flashbacks and their commentary on them. A little peak behind the curtain, as it were.

[buttersister]

Kish, feel free to continue to dish after the season with your chef pals!

[Bastet]

I am SO excited for next week's episode; I've been wondering from the beginning if we'll see Stephanie (Cmar) as a guest chef rather than just in her BTS role and actually squealed a little when I heard that is happening.

As for this episode, Buddha is far from my favorite, but he's the perfect champ to have on for this challenge.

I laughed at Kristen, season 10 winner, telling him "You missed a good one" about stopping with season nine.  I thought he said during his first season he watched all of them, though.  (And the show got much better cheftestants as the series went on, so in terms of prepping for the show the later seasons are more helpful than the earlier ones.)

It annoyed me that the "blank canvas" wasn't blank, with that grey marbling.  It's subtle, and his color scheme worked well with it, especially when he just had all the dots down, but once he put the rest on I wanted to see it on a white surface instead, like the tables in the challenge.

[tv echo]

Buddha Lo Leaves Everything on the Table | Top Chef | The Dish With Kish (S21 E11) | Bravo
Bravo   May 30, 2024

[caitmcg]

20 hours ago, Bastet said:

I am SO excited for next week's episode; I've been wondering from the beginning if we'll see Stephanie (Cmar) as a guest chef rather than just in her BTS role and actually squealed a little when I heard that is happening.

Kristen's comment that they'll be "put to the test" makes me wonder whether it'll be some variation on the blind tasting challenge, since that was in the preview for next week's episode. That's always been a favorite to watch, along with the mise en place race. (OMG, now I'm retroactively wishing that they had done the blind tasting the season with Jackson, who'd lost his sense of taste from a bout with Covid but didn't tell anyone. Just imagine the snark!)

One of my favorite things about this feature remains the outtakes from the episodes, along with other BTS details.

[susannot]

Buddha's table was stunning and awe-inspiring.  I think Laura's in the main episode was almost as good.  She and Savannah are both talented chefs and I could see either one of them winning it.

[Rai]

The Dish with Kish is probably my favorite new thing in the post-Padma era, and I can't wait for her and Stephanie to be absolute giggle pots next week.

[buttersister]

I saw an episode earlier of Steph’s YT show (My Shitty Little Kitchen) in which Kristin shows up. They made a hodge-lodge dish from stuff Kristin brought over—ramen, mac ‘n’ cheese, poached egg, etc.—looked uh, not for me necessarily, but they were having college flashbacks and loving it!

[Bastet]

"Did you just make me eat butter?!"

I love them.  The Stephanie Cmar episode was fun from start to finish.  So much so I will have to watch it again to catch everything I adored.

It was cool to hear from the woman who created that website about TC stats (had no idea it existed); it's not just a great resource for fans, the production team relies on it.

I love when Kristen gets uncomfortable with Stephanie calling her "Chef", and this time it was funny to hear her say she has a hard time introducing her as Stephanie, since she's just "Boo".

[tv echo]

Stephanie Cmar On The Intricacies Of Blind Tasting | Top Chef | The Dish With Kish (S21 E12) | Bravo
Bravo   June 6, 2024

[Bastet]

I wasn't sure if this would be the usual fun little dollop on the end of a TC night, as I'm bummed about the episode of the regular show and am not fond of Mustache Joe, but decided to go for it anyway.

I should have known it would still be cute (hell, I've already watched Marcel and Buddha).  Kristen's face when he said his number one hate is dark chocolate was great.  Same, sister, same.  I also liked her warming her uncovered back by opening the oven.  And not pretending to be transformed by her presentation of smoked salmon - it's an ingredient that is just not for her, even though she understands his dish is great.  And her asking him if he made pasta during his season.  Oh, just a few times.

I have never been of the "fish and cheese, hell no" persuasion if for no other reason than I grew up loving tuna melts.  It's not a combo I cook/order frequently by any means, and it's more often with shellfish than fish, but there are plenty of seafood and cheese combos I enjoy.

I'm not excited by caviar as so many are, but I'd have definitely tried that chip and dip dish.  I'd have been all over the lobster raviolo*.  And, of course, the tuna melt; that made me hungry on a comfort food level.  The stuffed potato, no, but not because of the smoked salmon Kristen hates; I hate potatoes and cream cheese.  The edible silver leaf had me rolling my eyes at first, but as a mini baked potato it did make me chuckle a little.

*It was weird to see a sheet of multiple unseparated ravioli referred to as a raviolo, when I'm used to a raviolo being one large individual piece.  I prefer the norm; this looked awkwardly sized (and would have been even more weird with a sauce, I think).  But it was interesting to learn about just using a mist of water to allow the pasta to seal.

[tv echo]

"This is the Dish with Kish... and fish."

Joe Sasto Unites Fish & Cheese To Make Four Dishes | Top Chef | The Dish With Kish (S21 E13) | Bravo
Bravo   Jun 13, 2024

Edited June 13 by tv echo

[caitmcg]

16 hours ago, Bastet said:

Kristen's face when he said his number one hate is dark chocolate was great.  Same, sister, same. 

I love dark chocolate, but I am pretty much with Kristen on smoked salmon. Cooked salmon, raw salmon, all good, but I have never cared for smoked salmon. It's not my number one fish dislike, though — that would be any kind of cooked tuna, so a tuna melt will never appeal to me, The lobster ravioli was the winner for me (definitely agree it wasn't actually a raviolo).

[Rai]

Well, it had to happen. There was finally a guest who wasn't made more charming by being on the Dish with Kish. For all that Marcel was weird and precious about his hair and food, he's mellowed out a whole lot. Mustache Joe is still everything that was exhausting about him on his season of Top Chef, and so while it's authentically him, he's still someone I would avoid like the plague at a party. But the food did look good even though I hate all seafood (except ironically, smoked salmon. I love dark chocolate too!).

Anyway, this little thang has honestly been my favorite part of the whole season and whether Kristin continues as host or not, they should DEFINITELY continue this production. 10/10, no notes other than less Sasto.

[tv echo]

I will miss The Dish With Kish...

Top Chef Winner Mei Lin Shows What it Takes to Win | Top Chef | The Dish With Kish (S21 E14) | Bravo
Bravo   Jun 20, 2024

Edited June 20 by tv echo

[KristenR]

I'm not sure what happened but it looks like they took down the last episode for some reason. I can't find it anywhere.

Edited June 21 by KristenR

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, KristenR said:

I'm not sure what happened but it looks like they took down the last episode for some reason. I can't find it anywhere.

Yeah, I was completely off schedule last night and didn't even watch the regular show until late, so was saving Kristen's show for today.  Except it's not on Peacock or the Bravo site (and I can never find it on the Bravo app in its entirety, just clips).  It must have been on YouTube at some point since the video was posted here, but not anymore.  @tv echo, were you able to watch it?  If so, was there anything - in content or technical issues - that would explain why it has been removed?  I need my final fix of the season!

[tv echo]

I watched The Dish With Kish episode on YouTube and it was perfectly fine. I have no idea why it was deleted.

Mei Lin made this gorgeous looking dish. They also showed brief clips of a few past winners talking about preparing their finale dishes.

Maybe they wanted to re-edit this episode.

Edited June 21 by tv echo

[Rai]

Huh, I watched it on Peacock yesterday. Weird! It was a fun episode, and I'm so happy to see Mei get more of a spotlight. She's one of my favorite winners, and it feels like she's overlooked a lot of times.

[Yeah No]

55 minutes ago, Rai said:

Huh, I watched it on Peacock yesterday. Weird! It was a fun episode, and I'm so happy to see Mei get more of a spotlight. She's one of my favorite winners, and it feels like she's overlooked a lot of times.

I haven't watched "Dish with Kish" but I can tell you that while Mei Lin has not gotten much of a spotlight with "Top Chef", she is not overlooked by Food Network and Guy Fietti.  She won his "Tournament of Champions" in 2023 and semi-regularly appears as a judge on "Guy's Grocery Games" and "Supermarket Stakeout". I think she's also appeared on other FN shows too. A lot of TC alums seem to be popping up over at FN these days like Mustache Joe, Tiffani Faison and more.

[marybennet]

The last episode of The Dish with Kish is now up on Bravo. Mei Lin makes Danny’s dessert, which has a nearly Katsuji-level number of ingredients. Looks great! Episode fun. 

[KristenR]

Thank you!

Weirdly, it is still not up on Peacock so I'm grateful for the heads up. 

[caitmcg]

It's now back up on YT.

 

[susannot]

That was a fantastic rec-creation of Danny's dessert.  But where did the shaved ice, or piragua, come in?  He talked about his inspiration as walking down the streets of Brooklyn and stopping for shaved ice with his grandfather.

Edited June 22 by susannot
more

[caitmcg]

41 minutes ago, susannot said:

That was a fantastic re-creation of Danny's dessert.  But where did the shaved ice, or piragua, come in?  He talked about his inspiration as walking down the streets of Brooklyn and stopping for shaved ice with his grandfather.

I think it was just that, an inspiration. He said his meal was inspired by his food memories, so he took that memory of a Puerto Rican treat with his grandfather and used it as inspiration for a haute frozen dessert.

[Yeah No]

2 hours ago, susannot said:

That was a fantastic rec-creation of Danny's dessert.  But where did the shaved ice, or piragua, come in?  He talked about his inspiration as walking down the streets of Brooklyn and stopping for shaved ice with his grandfather.

It's a part of my history too although I'm not Hispanic.  I grew up in the Bronx and for as long as I can remember vendors would stand on the street in the Summer selling shaved ice out of carts that looked like the one on this page:

https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/hispanic-heritage-month-2021/2021/09/14/dominican-shaved-ice-carts-part-of-the-fabric-of-washington-heights

They're kind of like slushies.  It's just plain ice with flavored syrup in it. 

What Danny made looked to me more like "Coco Helado" which actually means "Coconut ice cream" but it isn't a true ice cream nor is it always coconut either.  It's kind of a cross between sorbet and ice cream or at least it tasted that way to me. The Bronx is home to a home grown company called "Delicioso Coco Helado" which is legendary for the stuff. I haven't had it in a long time but just talking about it is making me want it!

 

Edited June 22 by Yeah No

[snarktini]

On 6/21/2024 at 5:55 AM, Rai said:

Huh, I watched it on Peacock yesterday. Weird! It was a fun episode, and I'm so happy to see Mei get more of a spotlight. She's one of my favorite winners, and it feels like she's overlooked a lot of times.

I'd guess Mei doesn't want too much more spotlight -- she has never seemed very comfortable on camera, or being a TV personality.

I really like this little show! It's one of the best parts of having Kristen as a host.