***You can hear more on the latest Top Chef episode Thursday night on WTMJ’s What’s on Tap!
TOP CHEF TAKEAWAY – Digging Indigenous Dishes
How did Wisconsin look? Is Milwaukee Cheftestant Dan Jacobs still in the competition? Is there any cheese in this episode?
COMPETITIONS
Rule Changes: While standing in a vat of cranberries wearing waders, Top Chef judges Kristen Kish, Tom Coliccio and Gail Simmons announced two new rule changes. One, no more immunity granted to Elimination Challenge winners. Two, a Quickfire finish toward the bottom will be now taken into account when determining eliminations.
Quickfire Challenge: We’re informed that Wisconsin produces the most cranberries of all the states. Thie Quickfire Challenge required cranberries to be featured in an unusual way. I laughed when the cheftestants literally rushed to the fake bog the judges were standing in and scooped out cranberries with their bowls.
Elimination Competition: Create a dish using ONLY indigenous ingredients. These foods are very natural, direct from the earth. This meant that many cheftestants were going to be cooking with foods they have never tasted or combined before. This also meant no flour, no dairy, no cane sugar, no citrus, no beef, no pork. There was no shopping. Instead, the cheftestants were able to get their ingredients in a pantry stocked with indigenous foods. The introduction to this challenge included a summary of Wisconsin’s Native American tribes including the Potowatomi, Odawa and Ojibwa.
What did we see of Wisconsin?
+ Cranberries!
+ Miller High Life was sipped by cheftestants while cooling off after creating in the kitchen for the Elimination Challenge.
+ All Milwaukee locations this episode. Drone shots of Milwaukee City Hall, Fiserv Forum, plus views of the Riverwalk, the Domes, and the Riverside marquee.
+ Il Cervo, the Italian restaurant on the top floor of The Trade hotel, was the location for the Elimination Challenge cooking in their kitchen and a dining room with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the city was where the judges ate the specially prepared meals.
WHO WAS IN THIS EPISODE?
Guest Judges:
+ Rochelle Biegel Hoffman, a 5th-generation cranberry farmer at Dempze Cranberry Farm in Wisconsin Rapids
+ Elena Terry, Ho-Chunk chef and founder of Wild Bearies (a non-profit working to bring ancestral foods to communities). She spoke Ho-Chunk in her greeting and introduction.
+ Sean Sherman, 3-time James Beard award winning chef and founder of North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (a non-profit organization).
Guest Diners:
+ Jessica Walks First, Executive Chef and owner of Ketapanen Kitchen (Chicago’s 1st Native American Pop-Up Kitchen)
+ Bryce Stevenson, chef / owner of indigenous restaurant, Miijim, in La Pointe
Chef Dan Jacobs Moments:
+ Milwaukee Chef Dan Jacobs has a nickname, “Grandpa”
+ Dan’s cranberry Quickfire dish, that included red curry, got compliments from Gail Simmons after getting some side-eye from Kristen Kish as she asked, “It is YOUR state fruit, right?… Do you cook with them often?” – to which Dan replied, “No.”
+ After the Elimination Challenge is announced, the cheftestants enjoyed a feast of indigenous food to introduce them to ingredients and learn about the cuisine. Dan said, “There’s no better way to get to know a culture than through its food.”
+ A brief, a bit awkward exchange of with Bryce Stevenson when serving his competition dish. Dan knows Bryce and called him “awesome”, but they hadn’t seen each other in so long that Bryce’s hair had grown long.
+ Commanding use of a cleaver while chopping meat for sauce.
+ He admitted to tiring during this challenge as he precariously was cutting a sunflower. “Legs drag, fingers don’t work” when his Kennedy’s disease gets worse as he gets tired. Not a complaint from him, more of a recognition as the task was getting more difficult.
+ SPOILER: Chef Dan did NOT pack his knives. We get to cheer him on another week.
Wondering what indigenous ingredients WERE used?
Bison, duck, goose, sumac, chokeberry, elk, mushrooms, apples, gooseberry, squash, wild grapes, pheasant, egg, wild rice, sunflowers, aronia berries were just some of the foods used.
Next week’s Wisconsin elements:
Meat raffle! Fish boil!
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