This story contains spoilers, in case you haven’t yet watched the latest episode of “Top Chef.”
The first episode of “Top Chef: Wisconsin,” which aired Wednesday night on Bravo, provided the frenetic drama typical to the 18-year-old reality cooking show along with postcard-perfect shots of Milwaukee.
Milwaukee shows off
The Pfister Hotel, where the contestants went downtown for a meet and greet and drink, was in all of its glory, as were the views of Lake Michigan.
The show started with new host Kristen Kish, the “Top Chef: Seattle” season 10 winner, introducing herself to the “cheftestants” and saying the applause gave her goosebumps.
She told the group of 15 chefs that she grew up on the other side of Lake Michigan, in Kentwood, Michigan, a suburb of Grand Rapids. “So this kind of feels like a homecoming in more ways than one.”
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‘Cheftestants’ compare awards
Many of the contestants talked about how many times they’d been nominated for a James Beard Award. Dan Jacobs, the chef/co-owner of Milwaukee’s DanDan and EsterEv restaurants, the first Wisconsin contestant in the show’s 21 seasons, said he was nominated for a Beard “Emerging Chef” award and has been a five-time Beard semifinalist for “Best Chef: Midwest.”
The contestants were asked if they’d ever worked in a Michelin-starred restaurant and many of them raised their hands, but Jacobs didn’t.
Contestants face immunity ‘plot twist’
Kish told the contestants that first impressions are important in the competition, but that they wouldn’t be making one that day because they were scrapping the normal lead-off quickfire challenge, something introduced in season 12.
Quickfire is the first competition in an episode when contestants square off and the winner gets an advantage in the elimination round, which is the second part of the episode when they face off against other competitors. The loser packs their knives and goes home.
In this episode, the immunity normally given for a quickfire win was to instead go to the winner of the elimination challenge, which one competitor called a “plot twist.” Immunity means that the winning contestant can’t be sent home in the following challenge.
“It just gives you more incentive to keep cooking gangster food the entire time,” Kish said.
One soup, one pasta, one chicken
Contestants drew knives with the three judges’ names on them to divide into teams. One team needed to make a soup. Another, stuffed pasta. The third had to roast a chicken.
The contestants were given $200 each and 30 minutes to shop at Whole Foods Market. The next day they had two hours to cook.
They served their dishes to the judges at Milwaukee’s Lupi & Iris restaurant. The local Milwaukee judges, joining Kish, and longtime star judges Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons, were Paul Bartolotta, co-founder and owner of The Bartolotta Restaurants, and Adam Siegel, executive chef and owner of Lupi & Iris and a Beard Award winner.
“He does Italian food. Good luck, guys,” Jacobs piped in.
One chef appeared to be struggling
David Murphy, chef/co-owner of Shuggie’s Trash Pie + Natural Wine in San Francisco, was the contestant who seemed to be struggling the most.
Kish asked the Texas native with the cowboy hat, necklaces, and arm and neck tattoos if he had a plan for his dish as he scurried around the kitchen.
“I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t have a vision for the dish,” Murphy said as he produced a bowl with poached shrimp, Sungold tomatoes, a coconut-cilantro broth with a green curry sauce.
A warning: Keep things simple
In the judges’ discussion, Colicchio said the chefs needed to keep things simple. “I’m surprised there’s still so much going on in these dishes.”
He described Murphy’s dish as “stuff that he just put in a blender,” and gave a whirl to see what happens.
Kish gave the final decision: “David, please pack your knives and go.”