This is it – the last episode of “Top Chef: Wisconsin” Season 21. The three cheftestants are cooking, competitively, for the last time. Everything is riding on their last challenge. There’s no Quickfire in the Finale. All of their energy is going to go toward the Elimination Challenge. Before I get into it, here’s where we left off: Danny, Savannah and Dan – Milwaukee’s Dan, if I have to remind you – are the last cheftestants left. Laura was sent home in the previous episode. The whole cast is on a cruise through the Caribbean. Last week, the cheftestants were served a meal by an Iron Chef. But we’ve got to wind this thing up.
Be warned, spoilers ahead. OK, let’s go:
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
1. Of the three chefs, any one of them could win. Danny has been a force since the beginning. The dish he made in the “chaos cuisine” episode when Matty Matheson was a guest judge – a variation on stuffed cabbage – so impressed the judges, I started picturing what the Finale episode would look like, with Danny in it. I You wouldn’t have expected, watching the earlier episodes, that Savannah would blossom as she has, but the moment she served her squash and maple jelly cake in “The Good Land” episode, her confidence soared. “I’m a totally different girl than I was in Wisconsin,” Savannah says, at one point. And Dan, our Dan. He says he tried out for “Top Chef” 11 times. Here he is. He’s had some tough moments and a near-elimination, but he’s persevered. “When I was diagnosed with Kennedy’s disease, it gave me a sense of urgency to compete,” he says.
2. “We want you to make the best four-course meal of your lives,” says host Kristen Kish. They can make whatever they want. “Just blow us away,” says Colicchio, smiling. No pressure though! The judges for this meal include a bevy of notable guests but Colicchio leaves one name to be revealed later…
3. The cheftestants get a little help from their friends. Six chefs from their cohort are back – Michelle, Laura, Amanda, Manny, Soo and Kaleena – and each of the final three cheftestants can pick one to be their sous for this challenge. Danny goes for Manny, Savannah picks Michelle, and Dan reunites with Amanda – DAMANDA is back! “I want to show who I am right now,” says Dan. “It’s a culmination of so much work.”
4. Four courses coming right up. Two hours to shop at various markets and access to the ship’s pantry. Five hours to prep and cook the day before service, and an additional 2.5 hours the day of. “I’ve been doing this for 21 seasons,” says Colicchio. “And I have to say, it just gets better and better. Make it hard on us!” And Kish: “I know exactly what it feels like to be right here. Have fun and tell us why you deserve the title of ‘Top Chef.’ “
5. Each cheftestant has a solid plan. While they’re prepping in the cruise ship kitchen, they get a visitor – that previously unnamed guest judge. The one, the only, Emeril Lagasse. Once they get over being starstuck – “Emeril “F-cking” Lagasse. I mean, the guy’s a culinary icon,” says Dan – it’s back to work.
Here’s what they make:
First course:
Savannah: Cornmeal fritter with saltfish, sweet potato puree and pickled mussels
Danny: Scallop leche de tigre with breadfruit and nori tuile
Dan: Tuna tartare with black garlic, labneh and garlic chips
Second course:
Savannah: Lobster agnolotti with lobster broth
Danny: Smoked mussels and fines herbes puree
Dan: Grilled snapper, smoked dashi, soba cha and grilled pumpkin
Third course:
Savannah: Roasted grouper with uni
Danny: Spiny lobster with salsa macha and chaaza sauce
Dan: Oxtail pikliz, yeasted dumpling and fried brussels sprouts
Fourth course:
Savannah: Hummingbird cake with rum mascarpone ice cream
Danny: Melon sorbet with avocado yogurt and candied seaweed
Dan: Yogurt mousse with grilled pineapple compote
Some notes: For this momentous meal, the chefs are inspired in various ways – Savannah, by her early cooking experiences and time living in Boston and North Carolina; Danny – for one of his courses – the first dish his wife made for him. And Dan gives a nod to Danny for one of his courses, incorporating soba cha (buckwheat tea, which Danny made in the “Restaurant Wars” episode). “Dan, I just never know what he’s going to cook,” says Savannah. “He has a ton of little hidden surprises. His food has pretty consistently been top-notch.” Dan is most excited about his dessert: “I want to know that I’ve gave it my all and become the next Top Chef.” He also wants to make Emeril proud: “I hope he tastes my food and says ‘Bam! This is great.’ But I don’t know if he’ll say, ‘He should have kicked it up a noych.’”
Service: It’s not seamless but when is it ever? Danny pushes Manny to go a little faster in the kitchen. “The intensity is hot,” says Danny, who wants to do compressed melon balls for his dessert. But Manny uses all of that fruit for juice. Punting time! “I just need acid in this dessert,” he tells Manny. He pivots to a lemon relish. Savannah’s dishes earn the fewest accolades. The judges don’t love her pasta. But the other chefs’ dishes aren’t perfect, either. In Dan’s first course, the similar (“jammy”) texture of the tuna and the grapefruit is intentional, but the judges aren’t having it. (“It’s weird,” Colicchio says.) Danny’s scallops need salt and his mussels course is plated in such a way that’s difficult to eat. But there’s much more to like – Dan’s oxtail, Savannah’s hummingbird cake, Danny’s candied seaweed with his melon sorbet, to name a few.
The judges’ table: The judges have great things to say about all of the chefs’ dishes, and though every one of them presents something from their hearts, there’s one chef who takes elevation and storytelling to a different level. And it’s Danny, the judges conclude. When asked by someone off-camera, how he feels, Danny can only spit out, “Stoked.” After which, he finally breaks down in tears.
The conclusion is no slight to our home boy. He did what he set out to do – cook fantastic food and share his platform as an individual living with a serious neuromuscular disorder. Neither he nor Savannah really lost. They just didn’t win a boatload of money and the official title of “Top Chef.” To be honest, I thought Danny and Dan were neck and neck, and wondered if there’s ever been a time that they’ve named two Top Chefs. They should have, goldarnit! But OK, OK. Congrats to Danny!
Stand tall, Dan! You’ve done us proud. You are forever Wisconsin’s hero.
