‘Top Chef: Wisconsin’ Embraces Chaos Cooking as Austin Chefs Struggle to Stand Out

Top Chef’s season 21 airs Wednesday nights on Bravo, and Eater Austin is recapping the home team’s progress in Wisconsin. Last week, the contestants hosted an old-school Wisconsin supper club. Amanda Turner of Southern restaurant Olamaie shined with her chicken katsu. Kévin D’Andrea of French bakery Foliepops stumbled with undercooked beef tenderloin. Luckily, his team won the overall challenge, and they’re both still in the game.

In the sixth episode, the chefs enter Matty Matheson’s multiverse of madness and embrace “chaos cuisine.” Don’t worry — most of them were confused, too.

The Quickfire is very much not dairy-free

The producers focus on D’Andrea at the top of the episode. The French chef was unhappy when he first came to America, he explains. He did some soul-searching, bought a plane ticket, and ended up in Austin, where he found fulfillment at Foliepops.

As he tells the story, D’Andrea and competition bestie Manny Barella get sweaty in the hotel gym. “That’s the Power Bottom training,” D’Andrea says, keeping the duo’s team name from episode four alive. We hope they make matching T-shirts.

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We head to the kitchen. Chicago chef Kaleena Bliss, eliminated in the fourth episode, returns after winning in the Last Chance Kitchen companion show. She brought a friend: fellow Chicago chef Soo Ahn, the surprise 16th contestant, who was also in the same side-series this whole time.

“I know nothing about you,” host and Arlo Grey chef/partner Kristen Kish jokes to Ahn. “I love when shit gets shaken up.” But then she tempers the happy moment. Two people back in the kitchen means that the judges might send two people home at any point.

Our host welcomes Christina Tosi of Milk Bar to introduce this week’s Quickfire Challenge. The chefs will make dairy desserts. Kish says she’s been on a frozen custard spree while in Wisconsin. (Maybe she’s now a fan of the Culver’s drive-thru in Austin?)

Turner starts working on a biscuit recipe. New York chef Rasika Venkatesa asks if she’s made these before. Turner emphatically says yes. Austinites can confirm that Olamaie chef de cuisine absolutely knows her way around biscuits.

“I want to be the very best, like no one ever was,” unabashed nerd Turner says, invoking the Pokémon theme song. “That’s the kind of energy I’m trying to channel.”

Turner lands in the top three for her cheddar biscuit shortcake with banana pastry cream and vanilla chantilly. Kish enjoys the salty cheese. D’Andrea is in the middle of the pack with a shortbread cookie with strawberry and basil jam, cream cheese vanilla chantilly, and a butter tuile. It looks fun — the judges crack it open with a spoon like a creme brulee.

However, Houston pitmaster Michelle Wallace wins the Quickfire with her corn cake dessert. At least it’s a Texas win.

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Turner is the queen mother of chaos cooking

Celebrity chef and The Bear star Matheson heads into the kitchen to introduce the Elimination Challenge. Turner, obviously a fan, looks stoked. “This is the best day of my life,” she says.

This week, the chefs will “let loose and embrace chaos cuisine,” Kish says. They’re tasked with making dishes that break the mode of culinary convention.

“I want you to do whatever you feel. Dream the biggest dream,” Matheson says.

And listen, the brief is confusing. Dare we say ... chaotic. The chefs struggle to grasp what’s being asked of them.

“I feel like this is my wheelhouse,” Turner says. Chaos cuisine is all about cooking without borders and bringing disparate foods and techniques together on a plate, she says.

Kish is thankful for the clarification. “I’ll come cook. We switch,” the host jokes.

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The chefs go on a shopping spree to specialty markets before returning to the kitchen, now untethered from the laws of order and reality. D’Andrea peels potatoes for something that will look like “a massive big atom.”

Turner’s working on a black garlic pasta dough. “Chaos cuisine is the brand that has been put on my food,” she says. She thinks of it as modern fusion.

Are our Austin chefs slipping into the background?

Despite the ever-steadying presence of judges Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons, chaos reigns at Judges’ Table.

First up: Turner serves her black garlic pappardelle with cumin lamb ragu, XO sauce, celery leaf, and shrimp chips. Kish thinks the pasta has the wrong pasta texture — it’s too snappy. Simmons questions whether the admittedly delicious pappardelle was actually chaotic in any way. Matheson agrees; it’s just a nice pasta dish.

Aspiring nuclear physicist D’Andrea heard chaos and thought “Big Bang,” and it’s a true joy to hear him say those words several times. He plates up a bed of sweet mashed potato topped with tarragon and a white chocolate sphere filled with raspberry coulis. The judges seem unsure what to make of it — the taste is raspberry, but the texture is potato. They respect the swing. Kish says this dish finally helped her understand the challenge. Colicchio’s happy that D’Andrea really went for it.

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The moment of truth arrives. Neither Austin chef makes it to this week’s top four. Brooklyn chef Danny Garcia notches his second win with an immaculate, mousse-filled chou farci.

We have a bottom two this week: Venkatesa and Wallace. Both have done well throughout the season, so it’s a shocker. Ultimately, Kish sends Venkatesa to pack her knives, due to a slimy, flavorless, crab-stuffed eggplant.

Heading into next week, let’s be real. The herd is thinning. Despite some praise in the Quickfire rounds, Turner and D’Andrea have both been either safe or in the bottom every week so far. The Austin delegation needs to put points on the board, and stat. We’ll pray to Willie Nelson or the Mexican free-tailed bat god or whomever to make it happen.