This story contains spoilers about episode 9 of “Top Chef.” Read more of our “Top Chef: Wisconsin” coverage here.
As the weeks go on, “Top Chef” is increasingly turning up the heat. That brings us to episode 9, “The Good Land.” The cheftestants’ first taste of this next set of challenges is meeting host Kristen Kish and judges Gail Simmons and Tom Colicchio standing inside a tub of water-logged cranberries. Immediately some new rules are laid out for the chefs:
- From here on, there will be no immunity for Elimination Challenges.
- Simmons and Colicchio will now co-judge the Quickfire Challenges with Kish.
- The Quickfire Challenges will figure more prominently in deciding who is sent packing.
“It’s a whole new show now,” says Kish, smiling.
Here’s what you should know from episode 9:
1. Cranberries have their time in the sun. As the wader-wearing judges proved, the Quickfire Challenge focuses on cranberries. The cheftestants are asked to make an “original” dish using the tart Wisconsin fruit. They all – well, not quite all – run to the tub and each scoop out a colander of cranberries. Per usual, our man Dan Jacobs takes his time. “Here comes Grandpa walking around,” he says. Also per usual, the dishes are a mixed bag of inspired and not. The favorite dishes: Danny’s cranberry-poached sea bass (the judges liked that he juiced the cranberries), Dan’s cranberry red curry with scallops, and Michelle’s cranberry-beet soup. At the bottom: Laura’s “gritty” cranberry, walnut and pork stew; Manny’s pork tenderloin with cranberry and brandy sabayon; and Amanda’s fried chicken with a cranberry and corn hoe cake and cranberry-maple sauce. And the winner? Danny takes the prize this week.
2. Wisconsin’s Native American tribes take center stage for the Elimination Challenge. The cheftestants get a crash course in the rich culinary traditions of Native communities. Guest judges for this portion of the show are Sean Sherman, a Native chef, author and activist from South Dakota; and Elena Terry, a Wisconsin chef and member of the Ho-Chunk tribe whose mission is to educate through indigenous foods. The Elimination Challenge is maybe the toughest yet: modern dishes that use only indigenous ingredients. That means no pork, no dairy, no chicken, no beef, no cane sugar and no wheat flour. For this, the chefs are to use only curated ingredients from the “Top Chef” pantry. But before they start, they sit down to an Indigenous meal with Sherman, Terry, Kish and the two judges.
3. The cheftestants are again pulled out of their comfort zone. Pretty much all of them are using ingredients they’ve never used before and can’t fall back on ones they use all the time.
4. The challenge also forces them to face their fears. Sherman and Colicchio visit the kitchen – of the Deer District hotel Il Cervo – to find out how the chefs are doing. “I love the creativity,” Sherman says. “I see lots of different styles going on back there.” Here’s what they make:
- Amanda: elk tataki tartare with duck fat tortilla
- Soo: wild rice “gnocchi” with huitlacoche (an edible fungus) puree and roasted butternut squash
- Manny: duck breast with braised mustard greens, wild rice cake and ancho
- Laura: duck tamal wrapped in mustard greens with charoset (a fruit-nut mix served at a Passover Seder meal)
- Danny: pheasant crepinette with sunchokes
- Michelle: braised rabbit with acorn squash polenta cake and smoked onions and mushrooms
- Dan: braised goose with aronia berry puree and sunflower “choke”
- Savannah: squash and maple jelly cake with aronia berries, grapes and plum jelly
5. Some chefs understand the assignment. Some don’t. The judges are looking for originality but dishes that also make sense and honor the ingredients used in them. Judging takes place in the dining room of Il Cervo and features two additional guests – chef Bryce Stevenson from restaurant Miijim in La Pointe, Wis.; and Jessica Walks First, executive chef/owner of Ketapanen Kitchen in Chicago.
6. There just might be a surprise winner. In previous weeks, we’ve seen a familiar pattern of chefs like Danny consistently winning challenges and chefs like Manny and Amanda struggling to hang on. But this time, Danny is not among the favorites. Those notable dishes belong to Dan, Soo and Savannah. Dan’s dish, which is topped with a foam from the goose stock, prompts Kish to say, “For the first time, I see the purpose of a foam.” Soo’s “gnocchi” is a hit, though Colicchio tells him it should be called a “dumpling.” And Savannah just totally gets it and wins her first challenge. “I was watching her in the kitchen,” Sherman says. “She was letting the ingredients tell her what they wanted to be.”
7. The bottom of the heap isn’t a nice place to be. That’s where Michelle, Laura and Amanda land with their dishes.
8. In the end, two cheftestants are let go. Laura and Amanda – which means unless she wins “Last Chance Kitchen,” this is the end of “Damanda,” Dan and Amanda’s dynamic cooking duo.
9. Next week, it’s more staples of Wisconsin cuisine. Episode 10 promises to feature both a meat raffle and a fish boil.
