‘TOP CHEF: WISCONSIN’S BAR SNACK CHALLENGE IS SALTY-SWEET FOR AUSTIN CHEFS
Top Chef Season 21 airs Wednesday nights on Bravo, and Eater Austin is recapping the home team’s progress each week. During last week’s premiere, Austinites got plenty of screen time as the season kicked off in Wisconsin. There’s Amanda Turner of Southern restaurant Olamaie and Kévin D’Andrea of French bakery Foliepops. And then there’s the new host, Kristen Kish, who is also the chef/partner of downtown restaurant Arlo Grey.
In the second episode of Top Chef, Turner and D’Andrea hop to it, but the sodium curse strikes the Austin delegation yet again.
The Quickfire is back and as stressful as ever
The chefs walk into a very green-filled kitchen: more hops than you can shake a Clydesdale at. Kish and guest judge/Season 15 winner/Chicago chef Joe Flamm explain that brewing beer is a cornerstone of Milwaukee life. So the chefs will have to prepare a dish using hops.
Kish asks if any of the contestants have cooked with hops before. Turner raises her hand and explains that she used to work at a brewery — Jester King in the Hill Country — where they used spent hops and grains in baked goods. “Hops are like oregano on steroids,” she says. “They’re soapy and bitter if you use too much. They also smell like weed when you’re cooking,” she laughs.
D’Andrea immediately thinks of dessert — he would — so that he can control the hops’ bitterness. He tells viewers, who get a glimpse at Foliepops’ tartelettes, that he hopes winning Top Chef can boost his business.
Turner is first to serve, presenting cured rainbow trout with hop dashi, grapefruit, and blood orange. When it’s D’Andrea’s turn to walk up, Kish sees his dish and immediately says, “He has a pastry background. I can guarantee that.” The French native serves roasted blackberries and raspberries with a fleur de sel crumble, whipped cream, and hops-infused oil. Kish looks pleased with her bite.
D’Andrea earns a spot in the top three dishes, and Flamm compliments his oil infusion trick. However, San Francisco chef Laura Ozyilmaz wins the cash prize with her rice pudding.
Have no fear, the beer is here
Kish drops a little Milwaukee beer trivia to introduce this week’s elimination challenge, explaining the history of the famed Miller Brewing Company. For a dinner in the brewery’s underground cave, the chefs will split into two teams and cook a seven-course meal using salty bar snacks.
Each team must create their dishes using popcorn, pickles, pretzels, mixed nuts, potato chips, olives, and toasted corn kernels. It’s Champagne taste on a beer budget, as Flamm points out (and Miller High Life is called the Champagne of beers).
D’Andrea and Turner end up together on the red team. He uses olives to create a tapas-style starter. Turner has an idea for a dessert using pretzels, even though Chicago chef Kaleena Bliss has already claimed the sweet course for a popcorn take. No matter: the team agrees they should serve two desserts, with Turner’s working as a palate cleanser.
The chefs cook with the speed of a heated game of flip cup. D’Andrea explains that his dish will start the dinner with a big punch of salt. Then Massachusetts chef Valentine Howell Jr. leads the team in what we can only describe as a “French laugh” in D’Andrea’s honor.
Meanwhile, Turner is avoiding too much sweetness in her pre-dessert dish. It’s inspired by her best friend and Dungeons & Dragons dungeon master, who describes the role-playing game as “beer and pretzels” when people take it too seriously. Her nerdy side continues to shine.
Salt is every Austin chef’s kryptonite
It’s time to eat fancy snacks in a beer cave. An ideal situation, honestly. For every course, the red and yellow teams send an emissary for head-to-head match-ups. D’Andrea is the red team’s first representative. He presents his canape trio: olive tapenade and toast, tempura olive stuffed with bell pepper, and green olives with a Parmesan cracker.
Kish asks D’Andrea if he did anything to tame the salt, but the chef says he wanted to start with that flavor out front. As it turns out, Kish was asking what we in the biz call a leading question. All the judges confess that this trio was like jumping into a pool of Morton’s, Scrooge McDuck-style. For those of us watching the Austin chefs closely, this felt like deja vu from the first episode.
Eventually, it’s Turner’s turn. “My dish is weird,” she says, but she’s confident. Her Beer & Pretzels sweet is with pretzel beer foam and miso with beer and lime granita. Judge Gail Simmons thinks this dessert is better than most so far. Colicchio earlier expressed his disdain for two dessert courses in a meal; after his taste, he still agrees.
The bad flashbacks continue until the end
Kish announces that the yellow team is on top, which is bad news for our Austin chefs. New York chef Rasika Venkatesa wins with her barley pretzel cake with pretzel granita and honey mustard sabayon, claiming $10,000 and immunity for next week.
Turner is safe, but D’Andrea lands in the bottom group with Howell and New Orleans chef Charly Pierre.
“Is that the best thing you can do with olives?” a palpably disappointed Colicchio asks D’Andrea. “Certainly no,” he replies. Simmons comments that the dish was one note, and that note was salt.
However, Howell’s too-thick corn soup is his end point and he has to pack his knives. For the second week, an Austin chef narrowly dodges elimination. This can’t be good for our blood pressure.
The preview for next week promises cherries, cheese, and D’Andrea saying the words, “My ass is on the fire.” Can’t wait.