7 takeaways from 'Top Chef: Wisconsin' episode on 'Chaos Cuisine' (2024)

This story contains spoilers, so if you haven’t watched the latest episode of “Top Chef” but still plan to, you might want to come back later.

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The sixth episode of “Top Chef: Wisconsin,” dubbed “Chaos Cuisine,” aired Wednesday night on Bravo. It’s also streaming on Peaco*ck.

Colectivo gets a plug

This week’s program, set in Milwaukee, began by showing the buffest two contestants, Manuel “Manny” Barella and Kevin D’Andrea, working out. Other contestants lounged over coffee with a bag of Milwaukee’s Colectivo coffee prominently placed.

Former ‘cheftestants’ welcomed

“Cheftestant” Kaleena Bliss, axed on a past episode, was able to return through “Last Chance Kitchen,” which airs after “Top Chef.” On it, eliminated chefs compete to get back on the show. Also, Soo Ahn, executive chef at Adalina in Chicago, was brought in after competing on "Last Chance Kitchen." With those two additions, 11 chefs competed on this episode.

Kish welcomed Christina Tosi as a guest judge for the quickfire challenge. Tosi is a James Beard Award-winning pastry chef, cookbook author, and founder of Milk Bar, a group of bakeries started in New York City.

The chefs were tasked with creating “a dairy-forward dessert.” Tosi told the chefs that dairy-based desserts are “very popular in Wisconsin, as you can see.”

The camera lingered over a giant dessert table with kringle, a pie with cheddar cheese slices, cream puffs, cannoli and cookies.

Host Kristen Kish told the chefs that in her free time, she’s made it a personal mission to try as much frozen custard as she can around Milwaukee. Text on the screen noted that Milwaukee is the frozen custard capital of the world.

Kish said she’s had a lot of good and great ones. Milwaukee’s Dan Jacobs, the first chef in the show’s history to work as a chef in Wisconsin while also a contestant, asked her what her favorite custard had been so far. Kish wouldn’t say, adding that there’d be a war on social media if she did.

Chefs asked to make ‘legend-dairy’dessert

The chefs had 45 minutes to make a “legend-dairy“ dessert, Kish said. French contestant Kevin D’Andrea responded, “that was cheesy,” to laughter.

A carton of milk from Organic Valley, based in La Farge, was shown in a fuzzed-out way.

Jacobs wound up in the bottom three contestants for his dark chocolate pudding with macerated plums, basil and fried baguette pieces on top.

Kish said it had “that mouthy peanut butter texture” and needed something to help lighten it up. To which, Jacobs said “heard.”

Michelle Wallace, who has racked up some wins this season but never for a quickfire, won the challenge with a corn cake with mascarpone cheese, basil cream and lemon zest. She got $7,500 for the win.

Tosi said she was impressed that Wallace made a cake in 45 minutes and said she “utilized dairy in a really thoughtful way.”

‘The Bear’ actor joins as judge

For the elimination round, Kish was joined by Matty Matheson, a chef, restauranteur and actor on the hit show “The Bear,” set in a Chicago sandwich shop.

The contestants were excited. “This is the best day of my life,” Amanda Turner said. Savannah Miller said that she’s a huge Matheson fan, has his book, watches all of his videos on YouTube and loves “The Bear.”

“His character on the show is who he is in real life,” Miller said.

‘Let loose and embrace chaos’

When Kish revealed that the challenge was “to let loose and embrace chaos cuisine,” she got a big smile from Jacobs.

Matheson said, “The world is turning around us right now and the speed is getting faster. Life is wild, right? How crazy can it get? Chaos is an amalgamation of where did you come from? What have you learned? Where are you going? What’s your culinary voice? Chaos is every single day. My mind is just absolute chaos. I want you to do whatever you feel. Dream the biggest dream.”

He told the chefs to use techniques they’d never used before. Kish said they were looking for dishes that break the mold of culinary convention.

The chefs got 20 minutes and $150 each to shop at a specialty shop. The next day they would cook in the Top Chef kitchen with access to the entire Top Chef pantry.

Jacobs, chef/co-owner of the Milwaukee restaurant DanDan, and a few others were filmed shopping at a store called Mo’s Food Market. Jacobs said he regularly shops there for his Chinese-American restaurant.

Jacobs’ okonomiyaki earns praise

The judges raved over Jacobs’ Japanese okonomiyaki, a savory pancake dish he called a funnel cake. It had 19 ingredients, including seafood, bacon, pickles, caviar and herbs.

Matheson said it could be on the menu in a lot of restaurants. Celebrity judge Gail Simmons said the funnel cake was a great vehicle for all the chaos.

Jacobs was among the four singled out for having the best dish, but Danny Garcia won for his scallop chou farci, a cabbage roll, with yuzu kosho foam (a spicy Japanese condiment). Kish called the dish technical and luscious.

It was Garcia’s first solo win. Before, he’d only been part of a team victory. Tom Colicchio, who has been a judge from the beginning, said it was one of the better dishes he’s had in his 21 years with the show.

When Rasika Venkatesa, who’d had a good run of wins, was eliminated, she said she was “gutted.”

Next week: Ballpark sausage race

A preview of next week’s show had the contestants at American Family Field in Milwaukee competing in a sausage race and cooking on the field with sausage.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to correct that this is the first time Soo Ahn has competed on Top Chef.