‘Top Chef: Wisconsin’ Episode 6 recap: Dairyland delights and pure chaos in the kitchen

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Top Chef" Season 21, Episode 6, which aired April 24, 2024.

We’re back in Milwaukee after a stop in Spring Green and last week’s trip to Madison for a salute to Wisconsin supper clubs. And although we said goodbye to three chefs in that time, this week, two more walked back into the Top Chef kitchen.

That would throw a wrench into the competition, and as if it wasn't chaotic enough, this week on “Top Chef” the contestants were told to embrace chaos and thrive on it.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around this week’s Elimination Challenge theme — and the surprising elimination of one of the competition’s most talented chefs. But before I get too far, here’s a peek at some of the sites and celebs shown in Milwaukee this week.

Wisconsin’s spotlight moments from “Top Chef,” Season 21, Episode 6:

What in MKE did we see?: The Mackie Building (home to The Grain Exchange), a view of the Deer District (including Fiserv Forum and Usinger’s Famous Sausage), Mo’s Food Market, El Rey, Adom African Market, “Brady Beach” between Nomad World Pub and Club Brady.

Celebrity sightings: Chef/author Christina Tosi of Milk Bar; chef/restaurateur/actor Matty Matheson of “The Bear”; chef/author/host Sophia Roe; Phillip Foss, chef/owner of Chicago’s EL Ideas

Where was the challenge set? At the Top Chef Kitchen in Milwaukee

How did Dan do? Fantastic! After faltering in the Quickfire Challenge, he brushed it off for the Elimination. Dan challenged himself with a savory spin on an okonomiyaki funnel cake, impressed every judge, and ended up with one of the top dishes — in the week he had immunity! He’s moving on to another week.

Best Wisconsin-related quote: “In all my free time when I’m not here with you chefs, I have made it a personal mission to try as much frozen custard around town, and I’ve had a lot. A lot of good ones, and a lot of great ones.” — “Top Chef” host Kristen Kish 

Cozied up at their home base in Milwaukee, the eight remaining chefs got together over morning coffee (and a strategically placed bag of Milwaukee’s Colectivo coffee) when they were interrupted by a familiar face: Kaleena is back! After being sent to Last Chance Kitchen on Episode 4, she battled it out to win her spot back in the “Top Chef” competition.

Everyone was elated to see her, but what's the deal with that nice dude helping her with her bags?

Surprise! The secret 16th “Top Chef” cheftestant would be coming back with her. Soo Ahn, a Chicago chef and former professional golfer, started his journey on Last Chance Kitchen after Episode 2 and won five straight challenges to earn his way into the proper competition.

And, another surprise: Dan already knows him from his past life in Chicago.

If you haven’t followed Last Chance Kitchen this season, Soo has impressed judge Tom Colicchio every episode, bringing personality and precision to each dish. Plus, he just seems like a good dude. Let’s see how he fares when the stakes are even higher.

The Quickfire Challenge: Dairy delights

Host Kristen Kish welcomed the chefs back to Top Chef Kitchen, where there was another surprise: Now that two chefs are back in the competition, that means two chefs could be eliminated at any time from this point forward.

Everyone has to step it up from now on.

But with that harsh reveal, there was a sweet finish: Star baker Christina Tosi, famous for founding the Milk Bar bakery chain, was there with a table full of Dairyland sweets to announce the Quickfire Challenge theme. And yes, cream puffs and kringle were prominently shown on the table, as were cheesecake, cheddar-topped apple pie, cannoli and more.

Kish said she was already partial to Wisconsin’s frozen custard, which she mentioned to the Journal Sentinel while taping here last summer.

“In all my free time when I’m not here with you chefs, I have made it a personal mission to try as much frozen custard around town, and I’ve had a lot," she said.

“What’s your favorite one so far?” Dan, the eager Wisconsin chef, asked.

“I can’t tell you that right now, Dan; there’s going to be a war on social media if I do,” Kish replied. Smart lady.

There wouldn’t be time to make custard, but for the Quickfire Challenge, the contestants would need to create a dairy-based dessert in 45 minutes.

Not every chef was excited, like Manny, who said dessert usually isn’t his thing, but he’d try to prove himself by making homemade churros.

And while Danny excels at crafting gorgeous fine-dining dishes, it’s his wife who’s the pastry chef of the family.

Dan’s seemingly mounting feud with Laura got in the way of his dish when he searched high and low for dark chocolate to balance his cream cheese-based pudding and found it sitting at her station.

“Just sitting here asking for it forever...” he muttered as he grabbed it to finish his dish. Ooh, will things boil over soon?

When it came time to judge, Manny, Danny and Dan served the bottom three dishes, but there were three standouts.

Kaleena made a great first impression back with her salted caramel and rum custard, Amanda surprised with a cheddar biscuit shortcake with banana pastry cream, and Michelle’s corn cake with mascarpone cheese, basil cream and lemon zest was a sweet and savory stunner.

Michelle’s dish was revealed as the “cream of the crop,” and she won $7,500 in her first Quickfire win.

The Elimination Challenge reveal: Find beauty in chaos

Tosi said "goodbye" and in walked Matty Matheson, a chef, restaurateur and actor who’s a recurring cast member on the Emmy-winning dramedy “The Bear.”

And for reasons I’m not sure have anything to do with Milwaukee or Wisconsin, Mattheson announced this week’s Elimination Challenge would be to, uh ... embrace “chaos cuisine.”

It seemed to elicit a lot of confusion around the room, even for Kish, who needed some help explaining what “chaos cuisine” even means.

“Do whatever you feel,” Matheson said. “Take something, create it, destroy it, build it up again, throw it on the floor, throw it up onto the ceiling. Grab things ... use techniques you’ve never used before.”

“It’s cooking without borders or limitations to marry cuisine styles together and bring it all to the plate,” said Amanda, who got it from the start. “I feel like this is my wheelhouse."

OK ... that’s a little more clear.

The chefs shopped for ingredients at Milwaukee specialty markets

The chefs would get $150 and 20 minutes to shop for ingredients at three Milwaukee-area specialty stores of their choosing, then they’d prep, cook and serve at the Top Chef Kitchen.

I’m so glad they could branch out to local markets to show them some love, rather than turning to trusty ol’ Whole Foods for the sixth time.

Dan, of course, loved it, too. He went to Mo’s Food Market, 2404 W. Clybourn St., an Asian specialty market that he's all too familiar with.

“We go shopping for the restaurant at Mo’s three times a week,” he said. Talk about home-field advantage.

The majority of the cheftestants joined him there: Soo, Savannah, Amanda, Danny, Laura and Michelle.

But Manny, a native of Mexico, was happy to shop at El Rey, 916 S. Cesar E. Chavez Dr., one of the locations of the local Hispanic grocery store chain.

“We should come to this store more often, y’all!” he said while gathering groceries.

Kaleena joined him to pull ingredients for her take on pasta stuffed with burrito flavors.

Rasika and Kévin opted for Adom African Market, 8084 N. 76th St., a shop specializing in African and Caribbean-made goods.

The Elimination Challenge: A chaotic cook in the Top Chef kitchen

After grocery shopping, the chefs took their purchased ingredients back to the Top Chef kitchen, where they’d prep the next day’s dishes supported by the ingredients stocked in the kitchen’s pantry.

While they were prepping, Colicchio and Matheson dropped by to get a sense of what chaos meant to the chefs.

Soo, feeling the pressure of his first Elimination Challenge, shifted his dish idea a few times while planning. “General Soo’s chicken,” he told Colicchio and Matheson, before eventually landing on “General Soo’s shrimp.” (Do cute names earn bonus points?)

Dan, who had immunity this week, was going wild with ingredients: bacon, seafood, salad, chili oil, crispy stuff ... he was throwing it all at his savory spin on an okonomiyaki funnel cake.

For Savannah, the challenge meant a shot at redemption. About a decade ago, she was working in a restaurant when Matheson called the chef over Facetime and mocked her use of mustard greens in a dessert.

She reminded him of the encounter over a tray of preserved mustard stems, which she intended to include in her potato souffle dessert with tropical fruit and golden milk. Kudos to her for taking that risk!

“It’s gonna be a trust fall,” Colicchio said about all the chefs’ chaotic dishes.

“We’re trust-falling hard,” Matheson replied.

The next day, the judges gathered at a dining table in the Top Chef kitchen “stew room,” a space typically used by the contestants between serving the judges and learning who won and lost each challenge.

Joined by Kish, Colicchio, judge Gail Simmons and Matheson were chef/author Sophia Roe and chef/owner of Chicago’s EL Ideas Phillip Foss.

The 10 chefs brought out their dishes in pairs, starting with Laura and Amanda, whose dishes didn’t quite capture the spirit of the challenge. Laura’s Persian tahdig with yuzu kosho sauce and quail eggs was bland and too orderly to be considered chaotic, and Amanda’s black garlic pappardelle with cumin lamb ragu had delicious flavor, but was more of a standard pasta dish than outside-the-box idea.

Kévin’s dish, which Kish said tasted like raspberry with the texture of potato, nailed the concept, but may have been a little too out there. “This is chaos because I’m confused,” said Matheson.

But on the other end of the spectrum, Michelle, who grilled up the stuffed shrimp and pork pitas she prepped the night before, received a “meh” from Colicchio after tasting her dish. It was simple and overcooked, the judges said.

Plating proved chaotic for Soo, whose salsa verde wouldn’t form the perfect circles his salsa roja did. But after smearing the salsa verde across the plate, he served his dish to high praise from the judges, who said they loved the crispy texture of the shrimp, and found it fun to eat, whether using your hands or fork.

Dan’s long list of ingredients meant he needed plating help from Danny, who was patiently waiting for the right time to cook his dish. The teamwork paid off, with Roe saying, “I’m obsessed with it,” and Matheson adding that Dan’s Japanese funnel cake “could be on a menu at a lot of restaurants.”

Danny‘s patience paid off, too. His stunning scallop chou farci with yuzu kosho foam was a piece of art. It was luscious and technical, and Colicchio likened it to a duck, all calm and beautiful above water while frantically paddling its legs just below.

And Savannah, who said her potato souffle with mustard greens was “the riskiest dish I’ve made in my career, period,” left the judges wide-eyed with wonder after serving her dish.

“She did it!” exclaimed Colicchio, with Matheson nodding in agreement. "It's nice!" he said.

Who won immunity on “Top Chef: Wisconsin” Episode 6?   

When it was time to deliver the best and worst dishes, Savannah’s redemption arc was complete when hers was announced as a favorite.

“It shows the growth and maturity that you have, and it's really amazing to see,” Matheson said.

Soo, Dan, and Danny were also named the top-performing chefs this week.

Of Dan’s dish, Kish said, “I’m pretty sure there were five of us that will probably try to do that at some point and sell it somewhere.”

I’m crossing my fingers we’ll see it on his EsterEv menu soon. (It opened in its new space last week, by the way.)

But just one of the four could win outright, and it was Danny, whose patience and reverence for his dish helped him nab immunity for the first time.

“I thought it was one of the best dishes I’ve had in 21 years,” said Colicchio.

Who was sent home on ‘Top Chef: Wisconsin’ Episode 6?

Only two chefs were named as the least-favorite dishes this week, and they have been two of the strongest competitors this season: Michelle and Rasika.

Michelle’s stuffed pitas ranged from raw to overcooked and the idea was too simple, said the judges, who expected more wow factor from her.

“Clearly I didn’t understand the challenge,” Michelle said to the other chefs back in the stew room.

The judges also couldn’t get over the texture and blandness of the crab and eggplant with mushroom conserva served by Rasika, whose last-minute idea to sous vide the eggplant rather than sear it made it slimy and “very one-note, both texturally and from a flavor point of view,” said Simmons.

That misstep led to Rasika being asked to pack her knives and go.

To this point, she had won the most challenges (three) and had never fallen in the bottom, proving that on “Top Chef,” chaos can flip the script at any moment.

“I’m very disappointed in myself for not producing a better dish, and I have produced dishes that the judges have loved,” Rasika said. “But that’s the beauty and the ugliness of this competition.”

She’ll head to Last Chance Kitchen next week, when she’ll learn who her competitor will be in the first challenge following last week’s mid-season finale.

Speaking of next week, it's time to play ball! The chefs cook at American Family Field, home of the Milwaukee Brewers, where their challenge is to create a dish centered around the ballpark’s Famous Racing Sausages ... who I’m sure will set record times running as fast as they can from those skilled chefs’ knives.

How to watch 'Top Chef: Wisconsin': TV channel, streaming

Viewers can watch live on Bravo on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. or stream the next day on Peacock, BravoTV.com or the Bravo app.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: ‘Top Chef: Wisconsin’ Episode 6 recap: Pure chaos in the kitchen