S1E5: Band-Aid Gate, Immunity Pin & Stadium Showdowns w Emilia Kim

The real competition begins!

Heidi and Finley are joined by special guest Emilia Kim as the top 20 home cooks enter the MasterChef kitchen for the first official challenge—elevated stadium food representing four global territories.

We break down the top dishes (a South Indian potato bonda, a Spanish tortilla, yaji chicken tenders, and a Jamaican beef patty), the bottom dishes, and the moment that had everyone talking: Band-Aid Gate. Plus Heidi reads an excerpt from her brand new release Scars So Lovely, and Finley teases her upcoming June release A Perfect Pairing.

Roses and wooden spoons all round (but this time, not for Joe). 🌹🥄

Check out Emilia's awesome food-filled channel at @theemiliakim

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:08

This is episode five of Wicked Appetite. She's Finley Brown. She's Heidi Stark. And this podcast is what happens when you put two dark romance authors in a room of strangers. They find each other immediately and decide to create a podcast about all things food, dark romance, and Master Chef related. Today is an extra special episode for a few reasons. We've spent the last four weeks going through qualifying rounds to see the top five chefs from each region. So this time the competition is officially starting on Master Chef Season 16, Global Gauntlet. The top 20 home cooks are going to enter the kitchen together for the first challenge in Wednesday's game day gourmet episode, representing four global territories Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Americas, officially competing for the title of Master Chef, a trophy, and most importantly, a $250,000 grand prize. In addition to that, this episode is extra special because we have a special guest joining us, Amelia Kim. And when we first started this podcast, Finley and I both immediately said that Amelia needs to be one of our first guests. So welcome, Amelia.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Hi, everyone.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Tell us a little about yourself.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Well, my name's Amelia Kim. I am originally from Puerto Rico, and I am a professional world traveler. I used to be a digital nomad, and now I do content creation. I had like a 10-year career in finance, specifically in compliance, but got married, was not willing to do both. So I told my husband you have to choose either you have a housewife or a career woman. And if you want a career woman, it's not me. So I am sassy like that, but moving forward, I've been to over 50 countries. So this specific season resonates a lot with me because it's definitely a season that I'm very familiar with. And I've been to every single continent except Antarctica. So thank you so much for having me in the show. I am very happy to be here.

SPEAKER_03 2:22

Awesome. Nice to have you. So nice to have you. Well, like usual, we're going to recap the episode and we're going to get Amelia's hot takes on things as well as we go through. Um, again, this is the first time that we're really seeing the teams get into it after the qualifying round in action and an actual challenge. So very exciting for us. We'll talk books at the end a little bit as well. And of course, we've got our rose and wooden spoon. But to kick off with, just a reminder for those of you, I know not everyone has watched the show yet, but I'm assuming that most of you have. But just as a recap, although the cooks are competing as part of a team representing their region, each chef's still essentially responsible for their own individual dish. So the judges are going to taste what they believe to be the top plate from each territory, and then the home cook behind the best dish overall will earn the season's first ever immunity pin, which of course is huge. That will keep themselves safe in the next challenge. It will also protect their whole team from elimination. So a lot on the line here. Once the top team members have been announced, the weakest dishes from the losing teams are going to be announced, and the judges will eliminate one home cook from the entire competition. So nobody wants Vita First to go home, right? How how would you be thinking if you were in this first challenge?

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Oh my god, just very overwhelming. Just walking in the kitchen, there's it looks different now because all the stoves are out there, all the stations. Um, I I think I'd be surreal.

SPEAKER_03 4:04

I think so too. And and that's the thing. I think when we were there, there were a couple of stoves and there was a lot of space because there were so many people that suddenly everything's kind of lit up. You were in a row. Pete got a little confused, which we can mention later. But um, you know, like you're trying to figure out where's my station. There's just like a lot going on that wasn't there before. Yeah. Well, um, first of all, let's talk about the rush to the pantry. So there's a little bit of a countdown, and then everyone just like runs. And I don't know about you guys, but I would be freaking out because I'm like a casual shopper and I like to take my time and crop stuff off my list. How would you have been feeling racing into the kitchen and the pantry?

SPEAKER_02 4:49

So did they know the dish and and um apologies if I'm mistaken. Did they know the dish before cooking it or like were they uh told afterwards? So they were in that position without um knowing which ingredients to grab, right? Or did they know?

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Oh well, I I think they let they were let out. We should probably go back just a second. They were told that they are doing elevated stadium food, so food that you would find, you know, if you're at the football match or whatever, but elevated. So yeah, that's what they have to go shop for all of a sudden.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

That's all they have in mind. So yeah, extremely challenging um having to rush and also like kind of hit elbows with other people, you know, and see what it is. What if two people want the same ingredient? I mean, I cannot imagine being there. Yeah, goodness.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

I love Brittany because as our rel wrestler, she said, I I can get in here and throw some elves.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

She was comfortable in that environment. But yes, to your point, Finley, I didn't read my notes in the correct order, so I do apologize. But the challenge officially is reinventing stadium food through the lens of their culture and heritage, elevated gang day dishes that showcase the flavors of each territory. And Tiffany encouraged everybody to create something authentic to where they come from. So I've read on Reddit in previous seasons, and we can take Reddit with a grain of salt, or there might be merit to it, that contestants on the show do get a little bit of a heads up, maybe a lunch break or something to think about the dish. Obviously, the way that it's cut in production, they are immediately racing to the pantry. In either case, I don't think they get a lot of time. It's not like an iron chef where they tell you it could be these three ingredients and you have a week to think about it, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know it was chaos. And there, um, I think a bottle broke something. Somebody, I don't know if it was by Daniel, broke a bottle, maybe. There was glass and liquid on the ground. Oh my gosh, dangerous. It's like an action movie.

unknown 6:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

I am so like uh I'm a very empathetic person, you know, so I'd probably be like, yeah, just go ahead. Just it's okay.

SPEAKER_03 7:08

I'll get whatever is left over. It's fine. The thing is, the pantry's so it looked like it was so well stocked. You know, in some shows, you look at something like next level chef, and you literally there's one of a protein and one of everything, and then the platform literally moves out of the way. Like there's a little bit more chill. Despite the hustle, you can actually not run out of everything in most of the challenges, it looks like.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

Yeah, yeah. I've seen others that the pantry and the area where people go get ingredients looks very, very crowded. This one, in my opinion, didn't look as crowded. It looked pretty, pretty spacious. Of course, when there's 20 people there, yes, but at the same time, I've seen other spaces that I'm like, my gosh, I claustrophobia or something.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

I also liked I noticed that the teams would share elements or food foods too, like somebody needed cabbage, and somebody on the team said, Oh, I have cabbage over here. I need an onion. So they were good, it seemed like within their teams of helping each other out if they forgot to grab something and didn't have time to run all the way back to the kitchen.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

Yeah, but I remember in one, and this is not this season, but I remember on TikTok there are clips of someone that refused to share an ingredient.

SPEAKER_03 8:22

It might have been um, is that the show? There's a show that had, was it Martha Stewart and Jose Andreas as the judges? And I think and this one chef that they basically cast problematic chefs because of their personality, the way they were known for treating their staff. And this guy literally went and took all the eggs, he wasn't even using the eggs in his dish, and he stole them all. And people would go and ask him, and he would say no. That's that's hilarious. It's like if I'm not winning, no one's gonna win. I encourage anyone to like go down that rabbit hole if we're talking about credit.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

I have watched it, I know the exact thing about he was a character.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

All right, well, let's talk a little bit. Um, we can talk about who the top dishes were, but first, any kind of comments on any surprises in terms of what people chose to cook or the way that people were cooking, or was it pretty much how you expected it to go?

SPEAKER_00 9:25

For their first time in the kitchen, I feel like it was pretty much how I expected it to go. I didn't see too many challenges, and I think stadium food is an easy in for your first challenge. That's very relatable. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

You can get away with a lot when it comes to, you know, fast fried food or stadium food. I mean, you can make uh what's that called here in the US? A funnel funnel cake?

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Uh yes, a funnel cake.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

Like a carnival food, you know. I think that uh as a strategy, anything deep fried works.

SPEAKER_03 10:00

And again, I think it's that thing it really depends on the judge's expectations around it, because Tiffany did talk about representing your culture, um, and what does that mean? Because people are coming from such diverse backgrounds, and there's different sports that are played in different countries and different foods associated with them. So, for example, I think the South African sausage sounded absolutely delicious, but it's something that you'd probably be less likely to find in an American baseball game. I guess hot dog would be the closest thing.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

Well, let's talk about the top dishes then. So from the Asia Pacific team, we had Aishu, and she created a South Indian potato bonder with coconut chutney and a cilantro mint chutney as well. No protein in that one, interestingly. Yeah, she said vegetarian. Yeah, that was did I thought that was brave of her. It was confident, showing confidence in the cuisine and the flavors.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Yeah, no, I and I think it she stayed true to her roots because a lot of Indian food it can be vegetarian. So I think that that was good.

SPEAKER_03 11:06

100% absolutely give some runway to like ramp up with the protein as well. So it's kind of a choice.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Yeah, and the judges didn't seem to mind the fact that it didn't have a protein, so very respectful towards her dietary needs, you know. And I I think she mentioned she's not necessarily a vegetarian, but she likes to incorporate right parts of the vegetarian. Well, so I've been to India, and in India, I mean, I would say a good chunk of restaurants are veg only. Yeah, and one of the things that I really love about India is the fact that here in the US, we eat vegetables like steamed veggies with salt, pepper, but over there they may get, you know, like blends and grains, and it's just like amazing what you can do with veggies.

SPEAKER_03 11:56

Oh my gosh. So when I was in San Francisco living there, there's this beautiful restaurant called Becheram, and it's a great story. Uh, the chef became a chef later in her life. She'd grown up supporting her husband, and they had a convenience store together, and she got into cooking, and it's the most beautiful restaurant aesthetically, but the food is all vegetarian and it's slammed with flavor. It's amazing what you can do with Indian cuisine. Yes, yeah. The judges agreed. So Gordon said things like, It's delicious, you got it nailed, you're on the money. Um, Tiffany said it's a snack she's gladly indulgent. And Joe really enjoyed the coconut chutney. The thing that he liked the most is that balance that Aishu managed to achieve between the sweet and the savory. So strong contender there from Asia Pacific.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Yes, she started out strong for sure. Yeah, yeah. Okay, the second top was from Europe, Team Europe, and it was Agata. And she did a Spanish potato tortilla with caramelized onions and red pepper aioli. And she referred to it as a Spain and just a little bite is, I think, how she referred to it. And it's like an Gordon described it as like a quiche almost. It's got egg in it, it looked beautiful, it was plated beautifully. Um Tiffany said the potato was perfectly cooked, um, and it tasted really good flavor-wise. Gordon said it was done well. And I liked Joe's comment because I think they always ask, elevate it, elevate it. And so people try to think, how do I elevate it with an ingredient? I'll throw some caviar on top or you know, something like an ingredient. And he said what elevated this dish was that the technique was so well done. So she elevated it with her technique, which is definitely skills. I mean, that that just doesn't come from slapping something pretty on top of it.

SPEAKER_02 13:59

So I grew up eating that specifically in Puerto Rico. So um part of the cultural influence of Puerto Rico has is from Spain, right? It used to be a Spanish colony. So we have a lot of bakeries that are Spanish bakeries, and that specifically, tortilla y patatas is extremely, extremely common in the north side of Puerto Rico. I I grew up eating it, so I know that the original one is kind of not as firm in the middle because you're supposed to be like a make a big, big, big one, and it's kind of raw in the middle, but I think she did an excellent job because she made it like bite-sized, and then also put, I believe it was like prosciutto on top and made it really like something that you could eat at a game. Yeah, so I think she did an amazing job with that. One of my favorite dishes of the entire night. Um, I would have probably drenched that in some sort of sauce, just me, like a spicy aioli or something, but she motivated me. I think I'm gonna make it this weekend.

SPEAKER_03 15:09

I want to see for sure. You're so good at recreating dishes. I want to see what you do. I thought this dish, I thought it was elegant and just elegant. And if you meet Agatha, like she's elegant and European, and here's this elegant European dish. So it was like she put herself on a plate, and it was interesting because Joe said he's been to many a bar and sat there with a drink, and we don't usually find a drink without one of these specific dishes sitting right beside it, and this was a good one, so it was a good compliment.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Yes, definitely.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

All right, moving to Africa, we had Peter and he made a Yaji Spice Chicken Tenders with fries, magic ketchup aioli, and creamy mustard sauce and nuggets. I think Daniel made nuggets too. They were kind of well, Tenders nuggets, same kind of thing. It was a chicken bite-sized thing for the evening. What did what did you two think of the dish?

SPEAKER_00 16:05

I thought it was well done. I know that Tiffany went over to him and they talked about the Suya spice being, you know, not being heavy with it on his last dish, but he guaranteed to her that the spice was gonna be there for this one. And it's stadium food. I expect that. I don't mind that it's chicken tenders. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

Yeah, the way that he was able to combine both, you know, the American food concept with his roots from Nigeria was great. I mean, he did an excellent job marinating that. And um, I I forget the exact name of the spice he used this time around. I don't know if you guys have it handed.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

It's a Yaji spice, I believe. Yaji, yeah, it was Yaji.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

Yeah, which I have never tried before, so I have to see what that's all about.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

Please report back because it's I mean, it looked amazing. It sounds amazing.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Yeah, they look crunchy. I love crunchy chicken tenders, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:02

Who doesn't love that? Not only was it crunchy chicken tenders, but this solves the sauce craving that you had there, Amelia. He had two sauces that uh Gordon said really helped elevate the whole dish.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

Yeah, he did great.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

He didn't overall didn't he double fry his fries like he put them in the fryer once and then did the double fry on them. Joe pointed that out, which was his technique once again is also there.

SPEAKER_03 17:29

Always, he's very technique-driven.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Yeah, very talented guy. So then we go on to the Americas and we have Takaya, and she did a Jamaican beef patty with cabbage carrot slaw, a cheddar mornay sauce, and a barbecue sauce that was her mother's recipe. And I'm sorry, the cheddar mornay sauce looks so good. Yeah. And so the Jamaican beef patty, it looks like a pie. And so it's surrounded in a dough, and it was so beautiful. And Tiffany said it was golden brown, crust looks proper. And when she tasted it, it was buttery and crisp. And, you know, they were worried did the filling match the dough, or was it going to be underfilled, but it looked good to me. And Gordon said the spice is there that it was definitely a good job. And Joe loved the crust, so this was definitely about her executing a really, really beautiful crust for the beef patty.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

I wonder how that crust must taste like. I mean, I I notice it's a little bit like yellowy, right? So I don't think I've ever had a Jamaican like turnover. Yeah. And the ones that we have in Puerto Rico, which is also in the Caribbean, are more flour-based. So I'm not sure if she used like a flour-based or maybe a corn-based. I'm curious to know. I wish I could recreate it and try it, but I did think the ratio of meat to pastry was great because as someone that has done turnovers herself, putting in too much meat, it breaks. So I played it safe, you know, and and that's admirable. And she seems to be one of the favorites from now and Reddit, as well as you know, by the judges. So I would not be surprised if she makes it long into the yeah, I love watching her.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

She cooks with such heart and soul and with her family. I mean, last time she talked about her grandmother, this time it gives me the chills as I'm talking about her because it she just cried so much. She's just so I love watching her cook. You can see the passion when she cooks, and you can see the love for her family and her roots. And I think translates onto the plate, which is beautiful to see.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

Well, I will say I'll keep this short about Takaya's dish. I totally agree with what you both have said. And she and I, you'll be shocked to hear we bonded over meat pies and the fact that both of our cultures had our own version. So I was very excited she made that. All right, moving on to the bottom dishes of the evening. Obviously, no one wants to be in this position, but they had to pick someone from each region. So starting with Team Europe, unfortunately, Julia earned bottom place in this episode. So her dish was loaded crispy polenta fries, and they were accompanied with a blue cheese mousse candy panchetta and fig coolie. What did you two think of this dish?

SPEAKER_00 20:35

I just um I mean, well, the the polenta fries looked definitely undercooked to me.

SPEAKER_03 20:42

They were pale, weren't they? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

Yeah, and and then the uh panchetta looked obviously it got burnt. Um I it just I maybe the concept in her head was just didn't translate to the plate. So I just think technically maybe she struggled with getting all the elements out properly.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

And I was nervous. The first the first challenge, it's it's different from the audition. The stakes are higher, you're in. I imagine that they probably it's almost like it's a practice round, but the stakes are way too high for a practice round if it makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

Yeah, I mean, I have never cooked with polenta before. I'm gonna be honest with you guys. So it's not something that we really use in the Caribbean polenta. Um, so say for example, if she had double fried the polenta fries, I'm not sure if they would have broken or if they had gotten crispier. I don't know that. But I mean, I'm excited to see what she has coming on in the next episodes. Um hopefully she gets to pick up right after this one, which was not well liked by the judges.

SPEAKER_03 21:53

Yeah, 100%. And and you know, Gordon said that the flavor of the polenta itself was delicious, it was more the execution and the burning. The panchetta at the end. Tiffany didn't understand the vision of the dish. She thought the moose was over whipped. She made the comment that you can't just put that on a plate, which is a little bit harsh. And Joe said that he understood what the concept was going for, but again commented on the fries and the panchetta. He was rude and said the execution fell short on every level, which is a bit overdramatic, I think. But I think this is a testing less. I would rather, I would personally rather kind of have uh big mess up at the beginning and show resilience and like learn from it and put my job rather than kind of claim out right at the end of the competition.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Rather than the opposite, exactly. Exactly. So then we have Jake and he was cooking for the Americas for Mexico, and he did a filet mignon with a beer consume, cojita corn puree, and a burrilla tortilla chips. And he got this concept off of the queso beer and steak taco. But he was definitely trying to elevate it and definitely give the judges something bigger than you know than just a taco. Um, I will say when I first saw his dish, I thought, how would you eat that at a stadium? Because you literally would need a knife and bark. And when I think of stadium food, I think of something I can pick up with my hand or yeah. So I don't, I, I, I didn't quite get the concept. I loved the flavors, and the flavors sounded amazing. It was just more like, was that stadium food? The judges said he took a big risk that didn't work out. Gordon said it visually was not as appetizing as it sounded. Um, the cook on the steak they were worried about, and it did turn to be above medium. He was looking for a medium rare, and he didn't seem surprised at that. And the tortilla, the sauces were delicious there. Like I said, I think all the flavors were there. It just didn't technically come out okay. And they said, stop overthinking it. He's definitely put a lot of thought in there, like, maybe don't overthink it so much. And just said, you can't have uh you can't get by on big ideas and then forget about the details.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

So yeah, I definitely see him. Um so for the audition dish, I think he made some sort of mole. And mole is like a combination of a bunch of dried peppers, so and sesame seeds, right? So for this time around, I I think he wanted to overly compensate with the ingredient amount, but I think he has uh room for improvement and like focusing on the main idea will help.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Yeah, no, I definitely think he can go far. I think that he's definitely got his heart in there for sure, and we can tell that he loves cooking. Uh, he doesn't look afraid either when he's in the uh behind a station. I love his confidence too. I just think you know, like the judge's critique is good critique, actually. This is what we want to be hearing because this is how it's gonna get better.

SPEAKER_03 25:09

Exactly. I would love to have known what his video tasted like with the filet mignon as well. I eat video with my cat every Wednesday before we watch master chance. And there's a little food truck just around the corner, and it's 35 pesos for a video taco. They do cater video, they do the whole thing. And I will come home with my tacos and I'll sit there and I'll feel someone watching me, and my cat will be sitting there, and I have to hand feed him pieces of the beef. So I know how delicious it can be. So Jake needs to share his with us at some point. We'll have to get together. Okay, cool. So the last bottom dish. So just for clarity, team Asia Pacific, because Aishu did win the immunity pin, she actually kept everybody in Asia Pacific safe. So we only had three people in the bottom three dishes. Gordon did allude to the fact that potentially Shampa would have been at risk and that she should be grateful to Aishu for being able to go up the top and watch everyone, but that must have been a huge relief for the whole team. Nora, Team Africa. So Nora cooked, lots of things we'll get to. Um, paddock and Makuda sandwich with chamula mayonnaise and Mediterranean salad. Now I met Nora, obviously, and she is a wonderful person, and she's usually very poised. I mean, she's a model, she's she's usually very, very poised, but on the show, she was incredibly frazzled. What did you think about how she came across and her dish?

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Well, uh Jocelyn, you go ahead. Um, I agree with you. I I mean, in my interactions with Nora all the way up into that point, uh, she is confident. She is so well put together, love her, and she did look like she was stressed out. She ran a couple of times, had to run back to the kitchen to get ingredients. I think I I know she obviously got cut a few times. She was definitely more frazzled that I've seen her. I don't know if she just wasn't comfortable with the concept of stadium food because she alluded to she, you know, her region that she cooks for is Morocco, and she said they don't typically have stadium food at the stadiums when they go to games that they bring their own. Um, but she said this was a sandwich that she would have brought. I love a fish sandwich, so uh um I thought it I would have loved to have tried it. I agree with the judges that I think it needed all the she deconstructed it a little too much, but maybe all the flavors together it would have been delicious.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

Yeah, it just looked like um a lot was going on. I mean, of course, the surprise at the end. Uh there being a band-aid on the um on the sandwich was definitely a surprise. And but aside from you know the the band-aid itself, I think the the sandwich was uh she was trying to fit in too much into it, but I get it because at the same time she was explaining how that's how they do it over there, right? They take food from home and then just pack it into a bread and then boom. So I think that other than the mistake of the band-aid, I think if she stuck to where she's from, I think she did pretty good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:38

I think so too. And I think she really tried. I think that it's hard when you're cooking as well when the judges are coming and talking to you. You know, I think when she was asked by Tiffany how her dish was elevated, she she just stopped and said, because it's delicious. Like I think that was her response. So I think that was just the state of mind thing of like, this is a lot, there's lights, there's cameras, a food to your point, Amelia, that might not have been as as comfortable or natural for her. Obviously, we know she can cook amazing, delicious food. So unfortunately, what that meant was Nora was ultimately eliminated in this challenge, making her the first one to go home. But she was, you know, Joe in all of his articulate kindness said that's about as gross as it gets when they found out about the band-aid. But interestingly, the pieces that the judges actually sampled were the pieces without the band-aid, so they could be thankful for that. But I'm glad they got to try her meal. She was very humble about it and said, I served a bandage to Gordon Ramsay. What do I expect? And beyond the bandage, I wasn't satisfied with how I executed the dish, but I'm still proud of myself.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

Yeah, she owned her mistake. So we'll, you know, that's self-awareness, it is great, and we'll, you know, she owned it.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

That's I I respect her so much from that as somebody who, you know, obviously made a big goof and fed Gordon Ramsay raw salmon. Like you just own it. If you own it, it will be fine.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

And she she is definitely the personality that she owned it. It happened. So, you know, she's still a great cook. She still got her apron, she still made it on the show.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

She's still she'll be fine.

SPEAKER_03 30:22

And so that concluded the first full episode beyond the qualifying round. So we're in the thick of the competition. Now people are getting eliminated. It looks like the next episode is going to be our first mystery box. I always love a good mystery box challenge. I shoe's going in with an immunity pin. Um, she says she's gonna start knocking down enemies. I don't know how enemies would have been formed at this point. Maybe there's nothing that we don't know about.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

I I was I caught on to that too, and I was like, hmm, already. It might be the professional wrestler. I'm kidding.

unknown 30:58

Possibly.

SPEAKER_03 31:00

Okay, well, this week, what have you got on the in the book world, Finley?

SPEAKER_00 31:05

Oh, I'm just still in in the depths of getting my new release on June 16th coming out. A perfect pairing based on my time at Master Chef, but not Master Chef related. Just this is a dark dark stalker romance that takes place during a food competition. So, and I believe you promised us a little excerpt.

SPEAKER_03 31:31

Yes, I'll read a little excerpt. I tried to find one food in it, but Scar's So Lovely came out this week. It is getting lots of reviews that are pouring in, which is awesome. It's on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. But here's a little scene between the main characters, Soren and Ivy. And they're sitting at a restaurant. We've got to have it at a restaurant. So I'm glad you came, he says. I look up and he's already looking at me like he never stopped. There's something in the steadiness of his gaze that makes me more aware of myself in a way I wasn't a second ago, of how I'm sitting, how I'm holding the glass, how much of me is visible across the table. He doesn't fill the silence after, it doesn't soften the statement, it just lets it sit between us. Yeah, I say, me too. It's true, but saying it now feels different than it did earlier. Like the meaning has shifted slightly without me fully understanding how. A few hours ago, this felt like an out. Now it feels like something I've stepped into. He nudges the plate toward me to try it. His hand stays on the edge of the plate, his fingers resting there just long enough that I notice them before I look away, before I can think too much about why I noticed them at all in the first place. I hesitate. It's small, but it feels bigger than it should, like the moment stretches just slightly, like he sees it. So I take the bread because it's easier than sitting in that pause and letting it turn into something I can't name. That was very dark.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Very good, very good. I am halfway through Scar is so lovely. I am loving this. I want everybody to go out and purchase this book. If you like dark romance, you will have a new book boyfriend in Soaring. I promise.

SPEAKER_03 33:14

Yes, even people are like, I didn't know about him at the start, and now I'm judging myself because I'm in love with him.

SPEAKER_02 33:22

My cookie arrives today.

SPEAKER_03 33:25

Amelia has purchased the book, it's coming in. Well, let's wrap this up with our usual fun thing that we do: the rose and wooden spoon. So let's start with the rose. Amelia, who are you giving your rose to today?

SPEAKER_02 33:37

Uh Agatha. I think she did a very good job sticking to her roots while elevating.

unknown 33:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

Beautiful. I am giving it to our Nora because of how she handled it and she took ownership. And it's not an easy place to be in, and it's not an easy place to go home to when you know you've kind of made a mistake, but I love her, and you know what? She gets a rose.

SPEAKER_03 34:06

Perfect. I love that too. I'm giving mine to Takaya, and it's completely biased. Meat pie club, because she was able to bring a meat pie that represented her roots, and I thought that that was really cool. Yeah. Um wooden spoon, Jocelyn.

SPEAKER_00 34:23

I'm giving the wooden spoon to Nora to who she gets drone because the band-aid, come on. So she gets the wooden spoon, but then she gets a good job.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

Perfect. Amelia? Same here, same here. Nora.

SPEAKER_03 34:38

I agree. I've also given Nora that, but it's in the kind of way we talked about below deck last week. Um, and you know, Captain Jason likes to give out the disco ball helmet to someone who had a bit of a clanger of an experience. Um it's in that good, good spirit. I think she bounced back really well. Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, thank you everyone for listening. We'll be back next time with the first mystery box challenge. Again, Aishu has the immunity pin and she's ready to take down her enemy, so we'll see what happens. Huge thank you, Amelia, for being our first ever guest on the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 35:12

Thank you for having me. I had so much fun with you guys. Thank you so much for inviting me. Invite me again, I'll come. Yes, awesome.

SPEAKER_03 35:20

For sure. You can be one of our regulars, and we will uh put your socials up for people because you do such a beautiful job on those. Thank you. Awesome. Well, thank you everyone for listening. And until next time, take care. All right, thank you. Bye. Bye.