‘Top Chef: Wisconsin’ premiered tonight. Here’s a full episode recap, plus Milwaukee sites in the show

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Top Chef" Season 21, Episode 1, which aired March 20, 2024.

When it was announced last summer that “Top Chef” Season 21 would be set in Wisconsin, folks across the state were excited for the chance to show that we're so much more than cheese, beer, sausage and farmland (never mind that the first images we see on the show are bucolic countryside and a couple dairy cows full-on mooing into the camera).

The show wrapped its filming here last September, and on March 20, Wisconsin's time in the spotlight arrived with the premiere of “Top Chef: Wisconsin.”

Over the next 14 weeks, I’ll recap every episode while highlighting Wisconsin’s spotlight moments.

I’ll also share a few insider exclusives, like interviews with locals who appeared on the show, and some behind-the-scenes intel from a handful of episode tapings I attended.

And, of course, I’ll have an extra-sharp focus on our hometown hero, Dan Jacobs, one of the 15 “cheftestants” and the only Wisconsin-based chef competing this season. Dan lives in Milwaukee and is a chef-owner of restaurants DanDan, 360 E. Erie St. and EsterEv, 2165 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.

Need a refresher? Here’s what you need to know about the new season of “Top Chef: Wisconsin.”

Milwaukee’s spotlight moments from 'Top Chef,' Season 21, Episode 1

What in MKE did we see?: So many icons right off the bat. The Milwaukee Public Market? Check. The Milwaukee Art Museum? Check. The Hoan Bridge? Oh, yes — both in daylight and lit up at night. There was also a Pere Marquette Park sighting and loads of drone footage soaring over downtown Milwaukee.

There was a shot of the George Miller Mansion on the lower easter side, as well as its neighbor, the former Judge Jason Downer mansion (now home to the Milwaukee Art Museum Research Center), a Victorian Gothic stunner in Cream City brick.

Contestants drove through the Third Ward (Hi, Cafe Benelux!), shopped for groceries inside Whole Foods on the east side, made a toast at Blu in the Pfister Hotel, and set up shop at Lupi & Iris.

We were also introduced to this season’s title card; the backdrop behind the “Top Chef: Wisconsin” title is an image of Milwaukee's skyline from Lake Michigan with the art museum in the foreground.

Celebrity sightings: Two Milwaukee culinary superstars sat on this week’s judging panel: restaurateur Paul Bartolotta of the Bartolotta Restaurants and Adam Siegel, chef-owner of Lupi & Iris.

Where was the Elimination Challenge set? Lupi & Iris, 777 N. Van Buren St. in downtown Milwaukee

How did Dan do? It was a great first impression! While he didn't land in the top three for this week’s challenge, his dish, an Asian-inspired tomato and fennel broth with seafood, impressed the judges. He’s moving on to next week.

Best Wisconsin-related quote: “That Midwest nice (expletive) is 100% legit.” — Dan Jacobs

Chefs are introduced to Wisconsin and 'Top Chef' twists

In the first glimpse of Milwaukee's "Top Chef" kitchen, 15 contestants were greeted by new host Kristen Kish, winner of "Top Chef" Season 10. This was her first episode as host after Padma Lakshmi stepped down last summer.

“Hi, chefs. Welcome to Wisconsin and Season 21 of ‘Top Chef,’” Kish said in her first words as the show’s new host.

Contestants like Chicago’s Kaleena Bliss shared their excitement about Kish hosting but said having a former contestant as the host could be a “double-edged sword,” as Kish understands what it takes to excel and will notice anyone cutting corners.

Kish will oversee a group of talented chefs from across the country — six of whom are James Beard Award nominees, including Dan. Six of the contestants have also worked at a Michelin-starred restaurant.

This season has some serious competition across the board.

And — record scratch — there is a previous “Top Chef” contestant among the ranks. Kévin D’Andrea of Austin, Texas, was a finalist on “Top Chef France” in 2015. Will his previous experience give him a leg up over the others?

We’d have to wait to see the chefs' work, because Collichio dropped a bomb on the contestants immediately, revealing there will be no Quickfire Challenge to start. (Traditionally, the Quickfire is a race against the clock to make dishes based on a specific theme. The winner is granted immunity for the Elimination Challenge later in the episode.)

For the rest of the season, Quickfire wins won't mean immunity. Instead, the winner will receive a cash prize. Immunity will come instead from the Elimination Challenge, where the winner will be granted immunity the following week.

Elimination Challenge at Lupi & Iris

In this week’s Elimination Challenge, contestants were split between the three judges who each chose a different theme: roasted chicken (Tom Collichio), stuffed pasta (Gail Simmons) and soup (Kish’s choice, an homage to her first challenge in Season 10).

The teams would compete at Lupi & Iris, the downtown Milwaukee Mediterranean restaurant that was a finalist for a Best New Restaurant James Beard Award in 2023.

Lupi & Iris chef-owner Adam Siegel would be a guest judge, as would The Bartolotta Restaurants' Paul Bartolotta, a chef with four James Beard nominations and two wins.

“I know him!” Jacobs said when Bartolotta’s name was announced, and of Siegel: “He does Italian food. Good luck, guys,” while looking in the direction of Team Stuffed Pasta. No pressure.

Dan Jacobs welcomes fellow contestants to Wisconsin

On their way to Whole Foods, where the chefs would have 30 minutes and $200 to buy groceries, they chatted about their season taking place in Wisconsin.

“How’d y’all feel when y’all were told we were going to Milwaukee?” Charly Pierre of New Orleans asked his car-mates.

After a pregnant pause, Kenny Nguyen of Athens, Georgia, chimed in: “I was down for it,” he said. “I feel like every city’s got something to give.” 

Thanks, Kenny. We can’t wait to show you what we’ve got.

It’s then revealed that Dan is a local. “Mr. Milwaukee,” Charly dubs him. “Tell us about your city.”

We cut to Dan's car, where, at the wheel, he said, “That ‘Midwest nice’ (expletive) is 100% legit.”

Later, at Blu, the rooftop bar of The Pfister Hotel, he welcomed everyone to town.

“I’m the only chef from Wisconsin that's here, so I just want to welcome you guys to Milwaukee and to Wisconsin,” Dan said, raising a glass.

(I also spotted quite a few Miller High Life bottles raised. How’s that for Milwaukee representation?)

Kaleena is from Chicago and said the two of them will have to keep in touch. It appears they did: She recently participated in Jacobs' Dim Sum and Give Some event on March 3.

“The food here is cheese, beer and it’s definitely meat and potatoes,” Kaleena said. “But I mean that in a good way!”

Grocery games at Whole Foods

At Whole Foods, the contestants hinted at the recipes they were planning, many paying homage to their roots, like Boston's Valentine Howell Jr., whose cooking reflects his eclectic upbringing from his mother’s Italian-American ancestry and his father’s Jamaican heritage. 

Contestant David Murphy, a self-proclaimed “sustainable sexy baby,” said he’s used to creating dishes from scraps, as he’s the chef-owner of Shuggie's, a food-waste-focused restaurant in San Francisco.

Dan sidled up to the seafood counter and asked for littleneck clams for his bouillabaisse. “I’m from Wisconsin, so help me out here,” he pleaded with the counter worker. Nice schmoozing, Dan.

Things get cooking in the first Elimination Challenge

On Elimination Challenge day, the contestants arrived at Lupi & Iris, where they quickly got to work on their dishes.

First up was the pasta group: David Murphy of San Francisco, Kévin D’Andrea of Austin, Texas; Alisha Elenz of Chicago; Rasika Venkatesa of New York City and Michelle Wallace of Houston, Texas.

Michelle was concerned about making pasta, a simplistic dish, but one that has a huge margin for error. As a barbecue chef, she’s not exactly an expert.

She wasn't the only one feeling a little uneasy. Alisha and David both planned a stuffed gnocchi, a dish that raised a few eyebrows from their competitors. Rasika is Indian, and said India doesn’t really have pasta; she’s making a “Rasika-fied” version that stays true to her South Indian roots.

The soup team joined the kitchen next: Dan, Charly, Manny Barella of Denver, Laura Ozyilmaz of San Francisco and Amanda Turner of Austin, Texas.

Dan used his knowledge of Lupi & Iris' Mediterranean menu to his advantage and planned a Mediterranean-inspired soup with some Asian flair as an homage to his Chinese-American restaurant DanDan, just a couple miles away in Milwaukee’s Third Ward.

Manny took a risk by making chicken stock, something he’d normally never attempt with a time limit under two hours, but he knew a store-bought chicken stock wouldn’t cut it on “Top Chef,” so he was willing to go the extra mile.

Amanda wasn't taking any shortcuts, either — she was working on a soup that includes roast chicken and pasta (biscuit dumplings, she said), combining all three challenges. That's a lot to take on.

Finally, the roasted chicken group came in: Kenny; Valentine Howell Jr. of Boston; Kaleena Bliss of Chicago; Danny Garcia of Brooklyn, New York; and Savannah Miller of Durham, North Carolina.

As they entered the kitchen, the judges discussed how roasted chicken is deceptively difficult.

“In its simplicity, it’s tough,” Bartolotta said.

“It’s a basic food that every chef should know, but it’s amazing how many don’t,” Colicchio added.

Danny leaned into the simplicity with a classic roasted chicken; but as the clock wound down, he realized his chicken was still raw in the middle. He cranked the oven up to speed up the process without sacrificing his dish.

Kenny opted to bring his Vietnamese heritage to the forefront, amping up his chicken with pho seasoning.

The judges select this week's winner

When time was up, the groups brought their dishes to the judges, who had been watching them cook.

The stuffed pasta group presented first.

Kévin made a squid ink raviolo stuffed with lobster and shrimp, David made mushroom-stuffed gnocchi with speck and chicken liver gravy, Rasika made a keema-stuffed kozhukattai with kurma, Alisha made a ricotta gnocchi stuffed with mushroom bechamel and truffle goat cheese, and Michelle made a ricotta and lobster stuffed pasta with charred corn sauce and chorizo.

The judges raved about Michelle’s pasta, with Siegel pointing out its fantastic flavor profile with charred corn. But they were let down by David’s gnocchi. “I don’t know if that was even a gnocchi,” Bartolotta said. “And it wasn’t even really stuffed.”

Michelle’s was the favorite, making her eligible for the overall challenge win. The least favorite was David’s, putting him on the chopping block for elimination.

Next came the soup group.

Charly made a corn and ham soup with pickled shrimp, Manny made a green pozole with chicken and charred salsa verde, Dan made tomato and fennel broth with seafood, Laura made a yuvalama mint yogurt soup with bulgur meatballs and mushrooms, and Amanda made chicken and dumplings with citrus gremolata.

The judges loved Manny’s green pozole. “To make a Wisconsin bowling analogy, he rolled that thing right down the center,” Bartolotta said, with Kish saying his dish was everything she wanted.

There were positive remarks for Dan’s dish, too, and he buttered up Chef Siegel a bit when presenting. “I love this restaurant, and I wanted to do your restaurant respect,” Dan said. In deliberation, Siegel said "the seasoning was incredible" in Dan's soup, while Gail added that “every bite presented something new to me.”

But Manny’s soup was the group's winner, while the least favorite was Amanda’s, the judges noting that her gremolata was overly salted.

Finally, the roasted chicken group stepped forward. But there was a major issue: Kenny didn’t have time to plate the dark meat with the white, and the contestants had to serve both to the judges to complete the challenge.

He still brought what he had to the judging table: a pho butter roasted chicken with coconut carrot mashed potatoes. Kaleena made roasted chicken over a spiced curry with corn and mushrooms, Danny made fines herbes-roasted chicken with brown butter sherry vinaigrette and carrot miso puree, Savannah made a roasted chicken with avgolemono sauce and chicken skin gremolata, and Valentine made a roasted harissa chicken with corn puree and warm shishito salad.

Danny’s chicken earned high praise, with Collichio saying it was "beautifully cooked" and Siegel adding that the bright sherry vinaigrette was a nice touch. But the judges were disappointed in Kaleena’s dry chicken, saying it was more about the sauce than the meat. And, of course, they weren’t happy that Kenny left out the dark meat, although they loved the inventiveness of his pho seasoning.

After deliberation, Danny’s was the favorite and Kenny’s was the least.

After the top three contestants were announced, it was time to select an overall winner. Drumroll, please ... Siegel announced Manny as the winner, giving him immunity for next week’s Elimination Challenge.

But the eliminated chef wasn't announced right away. The bottom three chefs competed in a last-chance cook-off to determine who would go home, with the challenge being simply to “make a good plate of food.”

The contestants had 20 minutes to make that good plate, using only the ingredients leftover in the kitchen after the main challenge.

The contestants scrambled and grabbed whatever they could find, which, for David, meant a lot of disparate ingredients. He confessed that he had no idea what dish he was trying to make.

David presented a poached shrimp with tomatoes over a green curry and coconut cilantro sauce. Kenny served a Vietnamese cabbage salad with sake and tamari shrimp, and cilantro lime gremolata. Amanda showed a snapper crudo with hominy puree and tortilla pieces.

Who was sent home on ‘Top Chef’ Season 21, Episode 1?

After the cook-off challenge, the least favorite dish was David’s, and he was asked to leave with Kish delivering the show’s iconic goodbye: “Please pack your knives and go.”

It was a shock, as creating impressive food using leftover ingredients is the exact concept of the restaurant he runs in San Francisco.

David will head to "Last Chance Kitchen," where he’ll face off with the next eliminated chef for a chance to return to the competition.

Maybe he shouldn’t have poked fun at Colicchio’s “hat game” earlier in the episode, but maybe he should have stepped up his cooking game with both chances he was given, as well.

How to watch 'Top Chef: Wisconsin'

"Top Chef" airs live on Bravo at 8 p.m. Wednesdays and streams the next day on Peacock, BravoTV.com or the Bravo app.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 'Top Chef' Season 21 premiere: Milwaukee sites and a local cheftestant