‘TOP CHEF: WISCONSIN’ GETS INTO A SUPPER CLUB IN A DRAMATIC WEEK FOR THE AUSTIN CHEFS

Top Chef Season 21 airs Wednesday nights on Bravo, and Eater Austin is recapping the home team’s progress in Wisconsin each week. In last week’s Elimination Challenge, the contestants built Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired dishes. Amanda Turner of Southern restaurant Olamaie cooked an opulent scallop pasta, while Kévin D’Andrea of French bakery Foliepops presented a simple chocolate mousse. Despite praise from the judges, both Austinites landed in the middle of the pack. Good news, since it was a double elimination week.

In Top Chef’s fifth episode, the contestants embrace another Wisconsin icon: the supper club.

Shopping for a mystery Quickfire gets saucy

As the chefs wake up in Madison and reflect on making it to the top ten, they get a bright-and-early message from host and Arlo Grey chef/partner Kristen Kish. “It’s always something,” D’Andrea moans.

Kish tells the chefs to head downstairs to Dane County Farmers’ Market. There, they’ll shop for ingredients to use in the Quickfire Challenge. Except, she’s not gonna tell them what the Quickfire Challenge is yet.

The chefs rush the stalls. D’Andrea explains he likes to make shakshuka with his girlfriend on Sundays, so he’s snagging those ingredients. Turner sees Asian produce and gets hyped.

The contestants meet Kish on the hotel roof, along with comedian W. Kamau Bell and chef Tory Miller of L’Etoile. Kish tells the story of Carson Gulley, a pioneering Madison chef. In the 1950s, he and his wife became the first Black couple to host a cooking show.

Gulley also published a cookbook in 1949. For this week’s Quickfire, every chef will get one of ten different sauce recipes created by Gulley. They need to make that sauce using the ingredients provided, and then pair it with a dish that uses their farmers market haul.

“Do you,” Kish urges, echoing her advice to the chefs last week.

D’Andrea gets mushroom sauce, which reminds him of a veal schnitzel recipe his mother used to make. He decides to make a poached egg with tzigane rahmschnitzel. “Mom, this one’s for you,” he says.

Turner gets egg sauce, which calls for hard boiled eggs and fish stock — not exactly the most modern taste profile. She whips up Thai salad with coconut egg sauce and sweet pickles.

D’Andrea and Turner’s creations are among the judges’ least favorite dishes. The former’s food is critiqued as having no texture, and the latter’s sauce is called gloppy and salty. New Orleans chef Charly Pierre wins the Quickfire — and $7,500 — with his Creole chicken.

It’s supper time in Madison

For this week’s Elimination Challenge, the chefs will explore the wonderful world of supper clubs, one of Wisconsin’s most beloved traditions. Dating back in the 1920s, supper clubs traditionally have a set menu each day of the week.

The chefs split into two teams, each tasked with creating an elevated supper club menu. (Wouldn’t it be fun, just once, not to elevate something? We digress.) Each menu must include a relish tray, a fish dish, a chicken dish, a beef dish, and a dessert. Turner lands on the green team, and D’Andrea is on the purple team.

The contestants take a trip to Harvey House, a modern supper club built in a former train depot, to gather ideas over a delicious meal. Y’all see that grasshopper pie? Booking a ticket to Madison, stat.

D’Andrea, ever faithful to his French bonafides, wants to make the beef dish so he can finally cook jus. Turner sees an opportunity to pull out an ace: chicken katsu with cabbage salad. It’s her signature dish, which Austinites know from her 2021 Dungeons & Dragons-themed pop-up.

In the kitchen, Turner sees that North Carolina chef Savannah Miller is going in a Japanese direction, too. The Olamaie chef is not worried — no one makes this chicken katsu like she does. D’Andrea continues bro-ing down with Denver chef Manny Barella, who’s also cooking steak. Remember last week, when they dubbed themselves the Power Bottom? We sure do, and we always will.

Turner shines with katsu and D’Andrea slips with a moo

Supper’s on. Turner offers the judges hot chicken katsu, szechuan mala spice, and apple miso mustard sauce with red cabbage and sauerkraut relish. Miller, the L’Etoile chef, says she crushed the buttery sauce. Judge Tom Colicchio praises the juicy chicken and well-seasoned cabbage.

Back in the kitchen, Turner says, “I just feel so weird.” It seems she’s fallen ill.

As soon as D’Andrea brings his beef tenderloin with sherry jus and confit potatoes to the table, the judges have a cow, literally. “It’s going moo!” Bell cracks at his plate of rare beef. The judges agree: This tenderloin is undercooked.

Time for Judges’ Table. Turner’s missing. Her team explains that she’s under the weather, but she’ll be okay. Thank goodness.

The purple team made the judges’ favorite food of the week. Milwaukee chef Dan Jacobs’ relish tray is the pickle of the litter, and he wins the Elimination Challenge and immunity for next week. For those of us with vested interest in the progress of a certain French chef who keeps disappointing the judges (hello), this is excellent news. D’Andrea and his cow are carried into next week.

The green team is on the bottom, but Kish tells them that the absent Turner actually cooked the best dish of their group. Sadly, Pierre is sent home for his overcooked fish. At least he won $7,500 earlier.

Next week: Turner is back in the kitchen, and so is The Bear star and chef Matty Matheson, as the contestants embrace chaos. Whatever that means — don’t they do that every episode?

2024-04-18T15:50:29Z dg43tfdfdgfd