'Top Chef: Wisconsin's Rasika Venkatesa Was "Gutted" By Her Surprise Elimination
Rasika Venkatesa
Top Chef is back in the kitchen! Every week, Parade's Mike Bloom interviews the latest chef told to pack their knives and leave Wisconsin.
You can't spell Rasika Venkatesa without "risk." Through the first half of Top Chef: Wisconsin, Rasika had surged to the front of the pack through her out of the box thinking. Whether it was creating a mustard-themed dessert or pairing onions and cherries, her risks paid off successfully, as she netted three wins in the first four episodes. And so, when the cheftestants were given a vague challenge to create a piece of "Chaos Cuisine," it theoretically should have been another home run for Rasika. She once again took a big swing, trying to create chaos by pairing crab and eggplant in a roulade. But it was a surprisingly major whiff, with the judges stunned by how flavorless and slimy her dish ended up being. And so, in a fitting bit of mayhem, someone who many saw as the leading candidate to take it all was suddenly eliminated and sent off to Last Chance Kitchen.
Read on to hear Rasika's thoughts on her time in the game, and check out Last Chance Kitchen to watch Rasika and other eliminated chefs fight for redemption and a chance to get back into the competition.
Related: Everything You Need to Know About Top Chef Season 21
How did you end up getting onto Top Chef, and what was your preparation to get on, if any?
Top Chef casting agents actually reached out to me to see if I wanted to apply for the show! I did not think I was ready for something like this, especially being so young and inexperienced compared to the chefs who usually get selected. But I think I was ready for a big challenge in my life. I trusted my cooking instincts and felt prepared to have a platform to showcase it.
I did some preparation for the competition. A big one was to study about Wisconsin and what the food culture is like there. Also, I practiced and memorized a lot of the basic recipes (a lot pastry related) that I use in my cooking that would come in handy in a Quickfire/Elimination challenges. The time pressure is very real, so timing yourself with technical tasks is also important so you can actually pull it off in the moment.
Your style was all about Tamil and South Indian people and cuisine. Talk to me about the emotions you had with both wanting to represent them on the plate, and having it be received so well.
I think that coming on this show, because it was such a big platform, my main goal was to try to get as many opportunities to cook food from my culture. Before the competition, I was developing recipes and menus that had more of a Moroccan/French/Asian influence to fit the framework of every restaurant I was working at since I was still gaining that necessary experience. But for some reason, I did not just want to showcase the cuisines I was trained in, but to meld that with what I grew up with. And that resulted in some dishes that were very successful and actually gave me the confidence to realize that this is exactly the kind of food I want to represent as my cuisine. I also think representation matters a lot, being Tamil and queer. Tamil people want the culture to be more well-known, and we just need a platform! I'm truly grateful that a couple of dishes I made in the competition resonated with so many people, not only Tamilians, but people from different cultures. I hope to keep doing that even out of the competition.
You were one of the first big standouts of the season, winning three challenges nearly back-to-back. How did that early success inform the way you approached the season?
Honestly, I was just very, very surprised! I don't think anyone expected me to grab those wins or make the food I was making. If I think about how I approached the challenges at the start, I didn't overthink or over-complicate what I was making. I was less in my head about things because I really didn't have anything to lose. I always trusted my first gut instinct and tried to build on that to fit the mold of the challenge.
You and Danny started the Top Chef 21 Run Club. Talk to me about your relationship. What was it like to win the Frank Lloyd Wright challenge together?
Danny has become such a great friend and is just an amazing person and chef! He is supremely talented, and I think what bonded us initially was the fact that we loved knife cuts and running. We'd have great conversations about Indian cuisine since his wife has an Indian background, and he could really resonate with the flavors I constantly talked about. Pairing up, conceptualizing, and winning the Frank Lloyd Wright challenge was definitely a pinnacle moment of the season. Winning aside, we really had such a great cook together. It was like we had cooked together before and understood each other's approach to what we wanted to put on the plate.
It's clear you loved to think outside the box and cook risky. Was that always a quality of yours, or did Top Chef bring that out of you in your cooking?
That has always been a quality of mine, regardless of Top Chef. Whenever I conceptualize dishes in a restaurant or make menu changes, I always try to create dishes that are new and exciting and that people haven't eaten before using flavors that are familiar and warm. I think it either really works in my favor at the get go or something I'd have to try a couple of times to get the desired outcome. If I was playing it safe, that just wouldn't be me.
That being said, considering that mindset, what was your thinking going into the "chaos" challenge?
Well, the first time I had actually heard of "Chaos Cuisine" was on the day of the Elimination Challenge when it was announced. I didn't know what to make of it because it seemed to have very wide parameters of what we had to do to hit the challenge. It was pretty confusing because we did not know the judges' expectations other than that the food obviously had to be delicious. When I thought of chaos, it immediately made me think of how I usually cook "out of the box and risky" and tried to build on what exactly is risky enough to fit the challenge.
Talk to me about your approach to this week's dish. Were you surprised when the judges said you had a lack of flavor and a "sluglike" texture?
It's really disappointing to have your food described in that way. I'm not going to lie. I had also tasted one of the roulades before putting it on the plate to make sure it was worthy of being on there and trusted that all of the roulades would be consistent. But clearly they were not. Considering the fact that I had made this dish before (it's been on the menu of a restaurant and has gotten great feedback on the same dish), I was gutted to know that I didn't execute it the way it should've been done. There were moments when I should've pivoted and turned the dish on its head. But you're so in the moment with a one-track mind, thinking it will all work out. It's all a mental game.
Were you surprised to be eliminated over Michelle?
I'm not surprised to be eliminated over Michelle. We were both some of the top contenders at the start of the season, and for both of us to have performed badly was hard. Not only for us, but also for the judges to make a decision as well. Top Chef has always been cutthroat in that aspect. None of your past challenge wins matter. It's all about what you make now and how you perform that week. I think either way it went, both of us would've been shocked to see the other go. I really adore Michelle. Her food is delicious, and personality infectious. I'm honored to have gotten eliminated standing by her side.
You just watched Soo and Kaleena come into the competition from Last Chance Kitchen. Did that give you any sort of mindset as you entered LCK yourself?
LCK, I would say, is tougher than Top Chef because it is mostly head-to-head. So kudos to Soo and Kaleena for getting through. It's so badass. I'm going back to the drawing board and to the mindset I had before coming on Top Chef. Cook my food and showcase Tamil food the best way I can. I think I lost track of that mentality last week. I'm going to make as many traditional dishes as I can in the time that I have. And obviously, raid the spice rack!
