“I can’t have a vegan, I would kill myself.” – Stefan Richter
The Millionaire Matchmaker, Stefan Richter & Brian Minter: client intros
David, one of Patti Stanger’s underlings, introduces Stefan Richter, 41, a “celebrity restaurateur” as the first client of the episode.
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Patti’s reaction is to hang her head and say, “Ohhh, Top Chef Stefan?” replete with a long sigh. “No. No. Mr. Wannabe Famous?” she adds.
Also: “He sleeps with everyone I know.” And: “He thought he was the fame s—t.”
“He didn’t even win Top Chef, and he was on twice,” she goes on. So Patti’s got lots of opinions on this guy, clearly.
Meanwhile, Marisa introduces Brian Minter, 32, who is from Michigan and worth $3.5 million from running bars and restaurants. These days he’s a real estate investor and lives in Las Vegas. He’s also a Mensa member, and he’s weary from having a series of relationships with women who have gotten caught up in the “Las Vegas lifestyle.” We see a picture of Brian in a t-shirt, and Patti says of his tattoos (I guess?), “It says, ‘I’m a man and I have a penis.’”
So there’s that.
The Millionaire Matchmaker, Stefan Richter & Brian Minter: Patti meets the clients
As Patti heads over to meet Stefan, we learn that he’s been in the U.S. for 15 years after growing up in Finland and living in Germany. He lives in Santa Monica these days, and credits Top Chef Season 5 for “changing everything.”
These days, he owns a number of restaurants in the U.S. and Finland. While he lives in Los Angeles, he’s looking for a woman that’s not “too L.A.,” and who likes cooking sausages over an open fire, plus other nature-related things presumably.
“I can’t have a vegan, I would kill myself,” Stefan adds.
He also enjoys having a beer in the sauna that’s in his backyard, which honestly seems pretty great, though I’d maybe go red wine there.
As soon as Patti meets Stefan, she continuously uses a “kid in a candy store” analogy with him, something to the effect that he’s a serial dater.
When Patti tells Stefan that he’s “not a ten” so therefore he can’t “get a ten,” he fires back reasonably, “Do you crush men all the time?”
“I’m the grim reaper of love,” Patti replies.
It’s at this moment that I realized that Patti likes to “neg” the clients that she doesn’t like or get a good vibe from – at least at first – with the benefit for her, I suppose, that it can potentially help guide (read = manipulate) them to date a wider pool of people than they might ordinarily.
Meanwhile, Patti then calls Stefan a “douche” for dating a number of women (or something).
Which means it’s time for a gimmick: Patti brings out a couple of old guys, who relay the perils of ending up old and alone. I’d say it’s very much up for debate as to whether or not these guys are actors, but let’s set that aside for the moment.
Patti then meets Brian at a bar. On route, Brian brags about his super bland looking 5,300 square foot house, and I laughed a little when he mentioned that he has 14 TVs in it. As though rapturous applause would surely follow of the well you sure did win the most televisions in one house contest with FOURTEEN, my guy!
He also goes on and on about how the ladies of Las Vegas are not for him. “Everything’s fake” in Vegas, he explains in Patti.
Patti’s mission for him is to break his habit of dating “party girl waitresses” who are interested in him because of he owns bars and restaurants.
The Millionaire Matchmaker, Stefan Richter & Brian Minter: the recruiting session and mixer
Highlights of the mixer include:
- A few European gals were passed through to the mixer as potentials for Stefan, including Irina, 40, a Ukrainian photographer who loves camping, and Anna, 30, a Russian ballroom dancing instructor.
- Patti asks one woman, “Are those the housekeeper’s shoes?”
- Aubrey is considered ideal for Brian as she’s from Vegas, runs her own line of beanies and t-shirts, and prefers a “lowkey” lifestyle, while Chloe, a professional dancer who lives for the nightlife, will be his “test”
Before the mixer, Patti gets quite annoyed with Stefan, ordering him to wear an earpiece so that she can chastise him “when” he makes mistakes chatting with the ladies, and finally says, “I just want to slap your ass right now.”
During the mixer, Patti gets snippy when Stefan won’t directly obey the orders she’s feeding him through his earpiece. It’s super distracting as someone watching the show, so I could only imagine how annoying it would be for Stefan to contend with.
“It’s like a f—ing crazy person in your head,” Stefan says at one point, before removing the earpiece. This causes Patti to race up to him and have a full-on meltdown in the middle of a group of women. Eventually, things calm down, but I kept wanting Pauly D from Jersey Shore to slide in with one of his patented, “Awkward!”
For the mini-date round, Brian selects “frontrunner” Aubrey and Hunter, while Stefan goes for Emma and Anna while Patti oddly chants “the penis does the picking,” to help him decide.
The Millionaire Matchmaker is just one wacky show, shall we say?
For the master date round, Stefan goes for “fun American, cool and chill” Emma, while Brian opts for Aubrey, who he finds beautiful and also it turns out they are both hockey players.
The Millionaire Matchmaker, Stefan Richter & Brian Minter: Brian and Aubrey’s first date
Brian has Aubrey meet him at RockSugar Pan Asian Kitchen, and he greets her with a bouquet of flowers in hand.
The two have an easy rapport as they sample Asian food and talk about hockey, career, and how they’re both over the Las Vegas scene-y lifestyle.
Up next for these two is something far more strenuous: a stop at Hangar 18, an indoor rock-climbing gym. Sidenote that I tried rock climbing at Yosemite one time and found it a hellaciously miserable experience.
Meanwhile, Aubrey tells the camera that she hasn’t told Brian two things: “He’s really good looking, and I’m scared to death of heights.”
However, she takes to rock climbing like more than a natural – she’s a flat-out savant, flying up the rock wall. She also liked that he checked in on her and made sure she was okay during the experience.
The Millionaire Matchmaker, Stefan Richter & Brian Minter: Stefan and Emma’s first date
Stefan goes for something “a little different” with Emma, picking her up in a very much not new Volkswagen camper bus. “I didn’t want to go to a bulls— restaurant,” he says in a way that could confuse him for Roman Roy from Succession for a moment.
They head up the California coast to Malibu and eventually find a fairly secluded spot to set up a beachside barbeque. However, things go awry when the fire gets super smoky. Emma seems not completely thrilled with the goings on but hangs with the program.
They eat sushi using a cooler as a table, and it seems a missed opportunity for him to not show off his renowned cooking skills for her, but what do I know.
And then the segment cuts off really quickly, so either things were really boring from there or we’re missing something significant.
The Millionaire Matchmaker, Stefan Richter & Brian Minter: post-dates upshot
Patti and David call Emma, who says very tactfully, impressively so I’d say, that she “had a good time” but not “a good date.” She didn’t feel special at all with him.
Patti says this is B.D.B., or Bad Date Behavior.
“My personal opinion is I don’t think he’s ever courted anyone,” Emma says. She may be right, but also my take is that he may just be looking for someone who embraces something very low key like barbecuing on the beach and looking out at a gorgeous ocean scene.
Stefan then stops by the office, where Patti immediately tells him that the date made him look “cheap.” They then quickly start yelling at each other, which is pretty predictable at his point. They end on a hug, whereupon Patti orders him to “make it happen.”
Marisa and Patti then call Aubrey, who says the date was “awesome.” She ends by saying she definitely wants to date Brian again. Via video chat, Brian agrees that he’s interested in pursuing a relationship with Aubrey, and that he’s quite different than the women he normally dates in Vegas.
The end of episode captions then tell us: “Stefan and Emma have been in touch with each other. But Emma has not yet agreed to another date with Stefan.” And: “Brian and Aubrey have been seeing each other steadily. Brian has entered a new, happier Groundhog Day cycle.”
The Millionaire Matchmaker, Stefan Richter & Brian Minter: where are they now
The only thing, personal life-wise, that I was able to sleuth out is that Stefan Richter is a “Grateful Dad of 8 year old son” these days, via his Insta.
Some stats and info about The Millionaire Matchmaker – “Kid in a Candy Store and Groundhog Day”
TV SHOW – The Millionaire Matchmaker
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 7, Episode 8
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – Bravo
AIR DATE – January 23rd, 2014
GENRE – Reality TV, Dating Shows, Trashtastic TV
STARS – Patti Stanger, Stefan Richter, Brian Minter
GOOGLE PLAY DESCRIPTION – Patti’s first millionaire is her friend, 41-year-old celebrity chef Stefan Richter. Stefan was born in Finland, but now lives in Santa Monica, and has competed on “Top Chef” twice. Ever since Patti has known him, Stefan has acted like a kid in a candy store when it comes to women. Can Patti get Stefan to change his ways so he can actually have a lasting, meaningful relationship? Patti’s next millionaire is real estate entrepreneur Brian Minter. Brian is 32 years old, lives in Las Vegas and has a net worth of 3.5 million dollars. The problem is that he finds himself dating the same party-girl type over and over. Can Patti break Brian out of “Groundhog Day” and get him to connect with a woman who doesn’t live the Vegas party scene?