With Love, Meghan Episode Seven: Elevate the Everyday

WITH LOVE, MEGHAN: ELEVATE THE EVERYDAY

Original Airdate: March 4, 2025

Special Guest: Vicky Tsai

Mentions of "Joy": 0

Passive Aggressive Moments: 1

Gushing Praise for Markle: "I love coming to your place to eat because you always make it feel like a home, and a community".

Who needs JOY when you have Tsai? "Founder and friend" Vicky Tsai comes over in Elevate the Everyday, our seventh With Love, Meghan episode. There at least was a lot of love in Elevate the Everyday, at least expressed towards Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. The word "joy" may not have been heard. However, I suspect that Meghan experienced a great deal of joy being high flying, adored by her neighbor.

Meghan Sussex is waxing rhapsodic more than usual about the person stopping by for a bit of a nosh. This Vicky Tsai must be extremely important. Unlike past With Love, Meghan guests, the Duchess actually takes time to tell the audience who Tsai is. We learn about her company Tatcha, her line of Asian-inspired skincare products. We learn that Tsai was also one of the first contributors to Mrs. Mountbatten-Windsor's earlier lifestyle website, The Tig, as a de facto foreign correspondent. Meg is so excited that she almost burns down her rented kitchen/studio when making a creamer for her coffee-addicted BFF.

Even before we see the sight of Tsai, Vicky is enraptured with Meghan Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Offscreen, we hear a female voice say, "You're always the hostess with the mostest. Always. Always". The gushing from Tsai is nonstop. "I was new in town, and you welcomed me with one of your beautiful cornucopias of vegetables from your garden", this titan of industry tells us. 

At this point, I would not be surprised if Meghan had offered up her husband, Prince Harry, inside said cornucopia. 

After getting some eggs from the henhouse of her son, Prince Archie, the girls will now make potstickers. Vicky marvels at how good Meghan is at shaping the potstickers despite not being Asian herself. She reminds the Duchess that "Things that have lived and been dropped and put back together again are more beautiful". This brings Meghan close to tears.

The praise for the hostess with the mostest continues unabated. "I love how you're young and hip, and you also love things like mahjongg". The potstickers are finally made, though not without a few stumbles on the crumbles. We also go on to learn How to Make Chili Oil and then polishing masks before sipping some traditional Japanese tea. We conclude Elevate the Everyday with the knowledge that, and I quote, "I would never have made it here without you. I'm so grateful to you".

One guess as to who said it to whom.

I had once thought that Delfina Figueras from Love is in the Details had won the "It's the Joy of My Life to Be in Your Presence, Meghan" Contest. Being a fair man, I see that Vicky Tsai has overtaken our Argentine polo queen in terms of giving our grande dame rather grandiose ebullient praise. Tsai's comments went far beyond gushing and straight into laughable. If Tsai is to be believed, Meghan is beyond royalty into almost downright divinity. 

The cacophony of adoration is downright astonishing. I have already mentioned many of Ms. Tsai's words of worship. However, there are more doozies to serve up along with those potstickers. Upon seeing just how well Meghan's potstickers were, Tsai tells her, "I am very impressed. I give you an A++++". She sounds out each "plus". I counted four. There may have been five. Tsai's delight at Mrs. Sussex's culinary acumen reminded me of A Christmas Story. All those "pluses" made me flash back to when Ralphie imagined his teacher giving him all those pluses after reading his essay of his wish for a Red Ryder air rifle. That scene was deliberately played in an exaggerated manner. It is meant as a joke.

This scene in Elevate the Everyday was presumably played straight. Later on, Tsai cheerfully proclaims, "You're so much fun!" and I began to wonder if Tatcha was in safe hands. This is especially true given that her "YOU'RE SO MUCH FUN!" line came after the Duchess threw shade at the Foundress.

As Vicky was explaining some mixture for the potstickers, she called the concoction "a slurry". Meghan looks more than puzzled. "I've never heard that word", the hostess with the mostest proclaims. Finding "slurry" amusing, she soon after sings "slurry with a fringe on top" while going through her spice rack. Meghan is clearly evoking The Surrey with the Fringe on Top from Oklahoma! Yet that whole scene is a bit cringey. 

Slurry is a perfectly acceptable word. It is not some esoteric word that just came into existence. Slurry is something that people do use in cooking. One can give Markle a little leeway in never having heard the word "slurry". It is her reaction, or to my mind overreaction that makes her claims to Elevate the Everyday ring hollow. It is one thing to say that you have never heard the word "slurry". It is another to harp on the word "slurry", down to quoting Rodgers & Hammerstein in a surprisingly obnoxious and arrogant way. 

I found it all tacky to downright meanspirited. Given how Tsai was almost psychotic in giving Markle such almost worshipful praise, it all came across as Meghan doing her best to belittle her guest.

None of those rhymes were intentional.

One element in Elevate the Everyday did catch my attention. Tsai, in her endless gushing, remarked how remarkable it was that despite being "young and hip", Meghan loved mahjongg. However, Vicky Tsai was noticeably absent in The Juice is Worth the Squeeze where Meghan's other gal pals were playing mahjongg. I thought it odd that Tsai delights in how Meghan can be simultaneously trendy and traditional yet was not included in Meghan's reindeer games. Yes, presumably Tsai and Sussex have played mahjongg together with two other people. However, there was no mention of the mahjongg game that occurred in a previous episode. 

There may be a logical reason for all that. It just seems curious how the episode prior to Elevate the Everyday focused around a mahjongg game but Vicky Tsai was nowhere to be found.

To be fair, Elevate the Everyday did give Vicky Tsai a lot more background than any past With Love, Meghan guest. We got to hear about her background. We even learned that Tsai's Taiwanese mother puts fajita seasoning in her potstickers because she lives in Texas. That is an endearing revelation that charms the viewer. I do wonder why Vicky Tsai got more background than past guests. My sense is that Tsai was enraptured around Meghan. I also think that her beauty products might make for good cross-marketing with whatever Meghan, Duchess of Sussex wants to peddle to others. 

Elevate the Everyday has little to offer anyone in terms of actual knowledge. "It's always nice to decant your condiments on the table. You don't need to have a large jar sitting in the middle of a beautiful table spread", Mrs. Sussex tells us early on. All I could imagine was putting ketchup from a store-bought bottle into a clean bottle. Hardly seems worth the effort. This episode may be worth watching if you like seeing Meghan, Duchess of Sussex coming close to tears when compared to something that was broken and made more beautiful. You might also watch to marvel at how the most innocuous compliment can overwhelm our former Suits star.

After being told, "I love how you're young and hip and you also love things like mahjongg", the Duchess looks deeply moved. "That is the most generous thing anyone's said", she replies. I guess that was more generous than being told how getting some of your jam was "the most glamorous moment of my life". 

Elevate the Everyday did elevate Meghan Markle's day. Whose day wouldn't be elevated by the endless adoration that she got?

2/10