Top Chef recap: Let the gouda times roll

It was only a matter of time before Top Chef season 21 would dig into Wisconsin’s reputation as America’s Dairyland. (Frankly, the wait was way longer than we expected.) But before Wednesday’s edition could stick its knife into all of the bries, bricks, and BellaVitanos of the state’s artisan-cheese culture, the QuickFire Challenge instead focused on that other delicious Midwestern trademark: cherries.

Supplied with heaps of tart, fleshy Door County drupes, our dozen remaining cooks were instructed by host Kristen Kish to blind-choose a mystery ingredient from behind a mini door that they would need to feature in a composed plate alongside the stone fruit. Their cherry-picked guest judges? An iconic duo of Top Chef alum Carla Hall and Top Chef superfan/actor-director Clea DuVall. (Rasika, like this writer, was incredibly excited about this week’s judges: “I did watch But I’m A Cheerleader! when I first realized I was queer…and then, you know, Carla!”)

Some of the picked ingredients paired naturally with the fresh cherries, like Charly’s chocolate (“It’s a little too easy, I want to go outside the box”) and Alisha’s serrano peppers, which would effortlessly meld for a sweet-and-spicy situation. But others were worrisome for our chef-testants, like Kaleena’s canned salmon and Savannah’s chicken liver (“Not my wheelhouse”). That’s not to mention the added fuss of having to de-pit the fiddly fruit while trying to get something plated in under half an hour. (“It looks like a murder scene on my cutting board!” cried Michelle.)

Despite her initial concerns, Savannah’s chicken liver mousse and panzanella salad with shishito peppers and bing cherry vinaigrette was a hit with our judging trio. Joining her in the top three were Monsieur Kévin with his poêle of cherries and black garlic over a beef tenderloin (bless Kish for this: “Did you say a poêle? Should I know what it is?”) and Rasika with her cipollini onions with tart cherries, charred pepper relish, and berbere spice. In the end, it was a back-to-back win for Rasika—she already came into the ep with immunity from last week’s Elimination—who added another $5,000 to her growing money pot and extra scrutiny from her competitors: “I definitely feel like the others are looking at me now.”

Ironically, Kristen, Carla, and Clea were less sweet on some of those “easier” ingredient pairings. Alisha’s undercooked cabbage with cherry-serrano reduction, Charly’s disjointed beets with chocolate-cherry demi, and Kenny’s S’mores-inspired toasted marshmallows with rum-cherry sauce and fried cinnamon rounded out the QuickFire bottom three.

And now for the big cheese: The week’s Elimination Challenge was all about the curds and whey. Spotlighting the wares of some of Wisconsin’s top cheesemongers, the chefs were tasked with feeding Kristen, Carla, Tom, Gail, and 100 other cheese-loving diners at an outdoor Top Chef Cheese Festival. And in a switch-up from previous episodes, the winner of this week’s challenge would be crowned by the crowd, while the judges would determine the bottom three and who ultimately went home.

Discomfort with their designated ingredients—Mexico-born Manny would have obviously rather been dealing with the mild, meltable Oaxacan cheese that Savannah ended up with, instead of those salty, squeaky cheese curds—plus exceptionally sweaty weather were already cause for worry. But the biggest blunder of the episode was that seemingly half of the cooks were all frying up croquettes. (“Another really nice…fried ball,” said Gail during tasting.)

There was Danny’s 15-year cheddar fritter with cheddar-lime mornay, Manny’s potato croquettes with cheese curds and beer gravy, Charly’s yucca versions with Canela cheese and tomato-mango sauce, and Kévin’s double-breaded brie croquettes with ham and truffle. “It suddenly turned into Top Chef Croquette Fest, and I’m happy to not be a part of it!” joked Rasika, who instead opted for a Dunbarton Blue paniyaram (rice cake) with braised chicken korma.

And not all of those cheesy croquettes were created equal, with Michelle’s saag paneer-inspired collards with a Pleasant Ridge Reserve potato fritter and Dan’s Sancho Cruz manchego potato dumplings with cheese foam earning much praise. The crowd was also cheesing for Kaleena’s BellaVitano mac and cheese, shrewdly paired with merlot mushrooms that echoed the cheese’s wine-soaked rind. Ultimately, Michelle’s “fucking fantastic” dish—per Kristen—stood out among the croquette crush and earned the pitmaster immunity in next week’s episode.

Kévin’s overly breaded option landed him in the bottom, joined by Manny’s curdy creation and Kenny’s overloaded crab rangoon salad with gorgonzola crema and Luxardo-cherry relish. “It was a celebration of so many things; I don’t know what they were,” Carla bemoaned after tasting the latter dish, and its lack of a cheesy focus sadly sent Kenny packing.

What did you think of this week’s fromag-focused installment? Did it live up to Wisconsin’s cheddarhead reputation? And are you surprised that we’re already getting a double elimination next week?!

Stray observations

• As with last season’s World All-Stars edition, we’re always interested to hear how the international adaptations of Top Chef measure up to the original series. Per Monsieur Kévin, the American version is “way harder than Top Chef France” and will require the Oloron-Sainte-Marie native “to focus for sure.”
• With its hot burners and sharp corners, the Top Chef kitchen can historically be a dangerous place, and it almost was this week for Dan, who nearly injured himself in the most Milwaukee way possible: by slipping on cheese sauce.