Wisconsin Stars in the Next Season of 'Top Chef'

Get ready for cheese curd challenges, elevated relish trays and creative spins on the Friday night fish fry.

Top Chef producers recently announced that the upcoming season of television's popular cooking competition will be set in Wisconsin, giving America's Dairyland the chance to show off its food and farms to millions of viewers.

"Milwaukeeans know that the culinary scene we're lucky enough to experience every single day is on par with any of the best food cities in the country, but for others to finally realize that too is really exciting," said Claire Koenig, communications director for Visit Milwaukee.

The move marks a long-overdue return to the Midwest for the Bravo series that capped off its 20th season earlier this year. The last—and only—time Top Chef took place in this part of the country was in 2008. That was Season 4 in Chicago.

Filming is slated to start in a few weeks in Milwaukee and Madison, where a yet-to-be-unveiled roster of contestants will duke it out for the title of Top Chef.

Wisconsin isn't the only new ingredient in Season 21. The Emmy Award-winning series is welcoming a new host: Top Chef Season 10 champ Kristen Kish, who's taking the baton from veteran Padma Lakshmi.

Kish is no stranger to the Midwest. The Korean-born chef, cookbook author, TV personality and restaurateur grew up in Kentwood, Michigan, and studied at the now-shuttered Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago.

"Top Chef is where I started my journey—first as a competing chef, then a guest judge and now as host I have the honor of helping to continue to build this brand," Kish said in a Bravo press release. "It feels like coming home."

When it comes to foodie bragging rights, the Badger State has been on a roll. Wisconsin boasts back-to-back James Beard Award winners in the Best Chef: Midwest category, with Itaru Nagano and Andrew Kroeger of Fairchild in Madison getting the honor this year. Milwaukee's Dane Baldwin of The Diplomat nabbed it in 2022, when the state's biggest city set a new record with nine Beard Award semifinalists. Earlier this year, Midwest Living dubbed Milwaukee the Best Culinary City in the annual Best of the Midwest list. Landing Top Chef is the cherry on the brandy Old-Fashioned.

"As a destination, it's a rite of passage to get a Top Chef season — you walk a little taller," said Holly Clapham-Rosenow of Houston First Corporation, a marketing organization that helped bring the series to Houston for Season 19.

"I would make that decision a million times again, and not just because it's an exciting product," Clapham-Rosenow said. "The producers really put the time in to understand the destination and create a storyline that's authentic … it solidified our global reputation as an international food city."

For a long time, Wisconsin's food reputation revolved around beer and brats. It's a cliché—one that Koenig of Visit Milwaukee hopes Top Chef will help dispel.

"Cheese curds, beer, frozen custard — we know those are the gateway drugs to Milwaukee," she said. "We used to have a bunch of German and Polish restaurants. Now the scene reflects how Milwaukee's immigrant population has changed. We have tons of Mexican restaurants. Our Hmong restaurants are growing. The Caribbean restaurants—I tell my team 100 times a year, if we don't start a jerk chicken trail, someone else will."

Most of the Top Chef action is expected to unfold in and around Milwaukee and Madison, whose Dane County Farmers' Market on Capitol Square ranks as the largest producer-only market in the U.S.

Bravo hasn't disclosed what other parts of the state will make a cameo, but it's hard to imagine the latest crop of chef-testants not being dispatched to scenic spots like Door County, for example. Cherry challenge!

"It's going to raise the state's reputation as a food producer," Koenig said. "Some people know we're the biggest cranberry producer, but not everyone. Yes, people know about the cheese. But they might not realize the quality here is unparalleled. I also hope they learn where some of our culinary traditions come from, including Native American stories that are still part of the food scene."

We'll have to wait until Season 21 airs, most likely March of next year, to see Top Chef's take on Wisconsin. But the series' signature blend of education and entertainment is bound to be enlightening.

"We love cheese and beer as much as anyone, but there's so much more here," Koenig said. "That's why we're doing the show."