Wisconsin Foodie

- Welcome to a very special episode of Wisconsin Foodie.

Today, we've brought in three amazing chefs and given them this challenge.

They get $60, 60 minutes, and the entire Dane County Farmers' Market to shop for ingredients to prepare one dish that tells their story through food.

– Tory: Let's do it.

– Luke: Good luck.

– Tory: They grow up so fast.

– Luke: I know it's so exciting, isn't it?

[laughing] - I'll be able to walk into that farmers' market and be like, "Okay, let's see what we got today, "and hopefully, put something together that's gonna blow the judges away."

- I'm still thinking, "Why did you ask me to do this?

Like, couldn't find another real chef or something?"

- Who knows what I'm gonna come up with, or if it's all gonna go together.

I know I'll make it delicious, though.

- Where are we gonna cook these things at?

"Oh, we're gonna cook it at L'Etoile," like, you know, the James Beard-nominated restaurant, okay.

- And the time starts... now!

– Lauren: All right, this is about to get crazy.

This could be good or bad.

- I'm not really good at writing stuff down.

And then I just kind of decipher as I go.

- It's all muscle memory.

- Muscle memory and instinct.

– Luke: Oh, man, I can't wait.

- I'm a little concerned that Tarik has only been chopping chilies for the last 45 minutes.

So I think our dish is gonna be pretty hot.

[laughing] - Okay, chefs, you have five minutes left.

Let's think about it.

Chef Lauren.

– Lauren: Yeah, yeah.

I heard you.

Coming in with beans.

– Tory: 10 Seconds.

– Luke: It's actually 30, 30 seconds.

– Lauren: 30 seconds, you guys are terrible!

- Two, one, and that's it!

- I don't know what to expect.

- I don't either, and that's kind of the best part.

I'm gonna go straight Neanderthal on this thing.

- Oh, it's such a good bite.

But there can only be one favorite.

[upbeat music] - Luke Zahm: We are a collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet.

We're a merging of cultures and ideas, shaped by this land.

We are a gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.

[clinking glasses] [scraping knife] We are storytellers.

We are Wisconsin Foodie .

[paper rustling] Welcome to a very special episode of Wisconsin Foodie.

Today, I'm standing in the L'Etoile dining room.

One of the most accomplished restaurants in the entire state.

And behind me is the Capitol of Wisconsin, home to the Dane County Farmers' Market.

The Dane Country Farmers' Market is the largest and one of the most diverse markets in the entire country and today we've brought in three amazing chefs and given them this challenge.

They get $60, 60 minutes, and the entire Dane Country Farmers' Market to shop for ingredients to prepare one dish that tells their story through food.

The dishes will be judged by myself and James Beard-winning Chef Tory Miller.

Let's meet the contestants.

[upbeat music] - My name is Gregory Leon, and I'm the chef and owner of Amilinda, a small independently-owned, Spanish- and Portuguese- inspired restaurant in downtown Milwaukee.

So Amilinda has been around for six years, started off as a pop-up restaurant.

It's a place that, when I think of it, I think of it as a place that's full of joy and happiness.

And it's a labor of love.

One of the best things about cooking here in Wisconsin is the fact that we are able to connect with so many amazing farmers, and it's just a great feeling to have them show up once a week with these boxes of amazing produce and then, we just kind of open the boxes and decide, "What are we gonna do this week?"

- Thank you very much.

- You're very welcome, sir.

- You know, one of the things I love about owning a restaurant is being able to bring a little bit of joy and happiness to the people who come and visit us.

And it's nice to see that we can, for maybe an hour and a half of their day, make them a little bit happier.

Hopefully, help them forget about whatever bad things that happened to them during the day and just bring them a little bit of joy.

My first memories of cooking involve my family.

I come from a Jewish and Hispanic background, and so you couldn't get four family members together without it either being in the kitchen or around a table eating.

So, my earliest memories of food involve me actually with my family eating and watching my grandmothers and my parents cook.

So, growing up in Venezuela, it was an amazing experience.

It's an experience-- I didn't realize it was an amazing experience until many years later after I'd moved back to the US, and was an adult and I looked back and realized how lucky I was to have grown up in a different culture in a different country and be exposed to amazing different foods.

On a daily basis, we just kind of look and see what we have either in the pantry or the cooler or, again, what the farmers have brought us.

And so, I will probably zero in on one ingredient and then be like, okay, what can I do with it?

So, right now, I have in the oven some acorn squash roasting that we got from Amy's Acres yesterday, and that's gonna be the base for the chicken dish today.

So then, I'll start to think about what goes well with acorn squash and then start building from there.

So, the chicken will be roasted.

The sauce will be a base of honey and paprika.

And then, we'll just kind of build upon that.

[upbeat music] - My name is Lauren Montelbano.

I am a plant-based chef here in Madison, Wisconsin.

I'm also a holistic nutritionist and event and retreat caterer.

We do also a meal program that cranks out anywhere from 80 to 150 meals a week and disperses them through the greater Madison and also Delafield areas of Wisconsin.

So today, my assistant and I are making 130 meals.

So, this is a green salad.

So, we've got red rice, quinoa, lentils, wild rice, diced apricots, cranberries, toasted walnuts, kale, and then a rosemary vinaigrette, so it's really celebrating the season of fall.

I am vegan or plant-based, however you wanna say it.

I have been vegetarian since I was 18 and then vegan for the past eight years.

That's kind of, you know, it's been an evolution and a journey for me.

I do it for animal rights, but also, through that, I found out how much better I felt when I cut out the dairy and the meat.

And so, for me, I feel the most vital while I'm eating that diet and have kind of cured some other health problems with that as well.

And so now I love to help other people do the same thing.

I grew up in a big Italian family, but food was always a big part of me growing up.

However, my mom always used to kick me out of the kitchen.

My family would be like, "Ah, you're in the way, you're in the way."

So, as a rebellious person, I needed to find my way to get into a kitchen.

I actually started off my career in fashion, completely different from food, and after kind of taking a sabbatical and living in Australia for a year, working on farms and cooking, my "A-ha" moment, I was farming and I grew my first potatoes start to finish and then prepared them for the family I was living with.

And it just felt so good that I wanted that all the time.

So, immediately, I knew I wanted to be a chef after that.

[upbeat music] - I'm Tarik Moody.

I am currently now the Program Director for a upcoming new station for Radio Milwaukee.

Well, my love of sak actually began way back shortly after college, when I first had sushi, was introduced to sak and I was just like, "What is this?

This is just so beautiful."

Throughout the years, I'd joke, "Maybe I should have my own sak brewery."

It's just a joke, and then, like, even when I lived in Minneapolis, I DJ'ed at a sushi place called Fuji Ya.

I DJ'ed there not just for the money, for the free sak.

So every sak taste, I want to try to pair with a diverse place, but also different foods that most people don't eat sak with.

The whole goal is like to take sak out of the world of sushi and Japanese restaurants, you know.

I'm trying to sak into places where most people don't think sak is.

And so, we had pies.

So we paired, like, we had a sweet potato pie, we had a blueberry pie, and a key lime pie, and I paired the saks.

Those pairs are more subjective than more logical.

So the first one, again, it's my favorite one.

So Oze Rose Junmai Daiginjo has tasting notes of grapefruit, cranberries, strawberries.

I taste a lot of strawberries in it.

The first thing you're gonna do, just like any wine, take a sniff.

Well, growing up, I was a weird kid.

I was always-- I'm still a weird kid.

[chuckling] Who am I kidding?

I remember asking for a Easy-Bake Oven for Christmas.

And my dad, like, you know, this is back in the day when like gender roles were a thing, like a thing like, "You ain't getting no Easy-Bake Oven.

That's for girls."

But, like, but it's an oven; I wanna learn to cook.

Like, you won't let me cook, this is when I was little, you won't let me use the real oven.

[chuckling] I always watched my mom and dad, my dad had a specialty, my grandma, just watching them work in the kitchen, just moved me, and I wanted to do that.

That's how the cooking started.

And then, I just wanted to learn more and more.

It became, like, this meditative thing for me.

- You know, I think, the fact that we're constantly evolving our dishes here at Amilinda and changing our menu on a regular basis, probably more than most restaurants do, I think that's gonna give me a little bit of an edge.

I'll be able to walk into that farmers' market and be like, "Okay, let's see what we got today," and, hopefully, put something together that's gonna blow the judges away.

Like, I'm just literally gonna show up, see what the farmers' market has and just kind of let the ingredients guide me towards where I need to be.

- So coming into this challenge, it's going to be, it's sort of intimidating, honestly, coming in and cooking for Tory Miller and cooking for Luke, and some people might say it's a disadvantage to be preparing vegan food, but I have such fresh ingredients to work with that I'm really excited to just showcase all of those ingredients.

And I love to cook with color, and I love to cook with texture.

So I want somebody to take a forkfull of that dish and just have, like, fireworks in your mouth.

- My self-confidence is very, very low right now.

To be honest with you, like I'm still thinking, why did you ask me to do this?

Like, you couldn't find another real chef or something?

I'm just like, and then, "Oh, oh, where are we gonna cook these things at?

Oh, we're gonna cook it at L'Etoile" like, you know, the James Beard-nominated restaurant.

Okay, cool.

So yeah, my head... my head is not in the right space right now.

I'm excited, but I did look at, like, bus schedules [chuckles] to go back.

[man drumming] - Salesman: Monster cheese curds, biggest curds on the square.

– Luke: Welcome, chefs.

You are in the most amazing place in the entire state of Wisconsin to source local and crafted ingredients.

The Dane County Farmers' Market in beautiful Madison.

Today, we have a special challenge that we'd like to present you with.

Myself and Chef Tory Miller from L'Etoile and Graze, we are here to provide you with $60 and one hour to explore the Dane County Farmers' Market, the nation's largest producer-only market.

And we are going to ask you to create a dish that reflects both you, your cooking sensibilities, sense of style, and, of course, the food from these amazing producers.

Tory, what do you have for the chefs?

- Man, I've been coming out here for 18 years, 'cause I am that old.

If you have any wants or you know specific ingredients or any inspiration, I can definitely let you, you know, point you in the right direction.

I'm not here to, like, give anybody any cooking pointers, but when it comes to the market, I definitely know, like, if you want, the best pears, if you want specific varieties of cauliflowers, or if you want specific varieties of greens, all those types of things, we can, I can point you in the right direction and let you know where those are.

- So, at this time, I would like to provide you with the $60 and the directions to go nuts.

[Tory laughing] Find yourselves in the Farmers' Market.

And we'll meet back here in one hour and let the cooking competition begin, all right?

Then, the adventure starts now.

– Tory: This is exciting.

– Lauren: I know.

- $60, you guys can.

– Lauren: That'll go far.

- You guys can do a lot.

You can do a lot with that.

– Luke: All right.

– Tory: Let's do it.

– Luke: Good luck!

– Tory: They grow up so fast.

– Luke: I know, it's so exciting, isn't it?

[laughing] [upbeat music] - Woman: Hi there.

- Hi, can I get chilies and the ground cherries?

I just saw ground cherries.

I had ground cherries the other day, and I was like, I love the flavor.

And I see Thai chilies.

Have no idea what I'm gonna do with it; might not use it.

I have no idea.

[chuckling] But again, thanks for pairing with chefs, real chefs.

Thank you, thanks.

I learned to cook when I was, like, seven.

My grandma, my parents taught me.

I wanted to be a chef, but there's no Food Network at the time, right.

So I didn't think it was cool enough to attract girls, so I went to architecture school instead.

So, I was this close to going to culinary school.

Since my best friend is Korean and my goddaughter is Korean, I was like, so it's a mixture of like Korean and soul food.

Kind of what I like to cook.

- Korean and soul food, that's the same food I be cooking.

[laughing] You got any thoughts so far?

- The ground cherries and the chilies together somehow.

- Oh yeah, that's a really good idea, man.

[upbeat music] - I have zero ideas.

I'm gonna just kind of let the ingredients speak to me, and who knows what I'm gonna come up with or if it's all gonna go together.

I know I'll make it delicious though, 'cause that's my option.

These little eggplants, though, are looking pretty sexy.

I'm gonna take one of these Thai eggplant, please.

Those are calling to me, but the problem is that all produce calls to me.

So, I'm known for-- They're just called "Lauren piles."

[laughing] Which is, sounds really appetizing but just like massive piles of vegetables, just really a lot of robust color and texture.

So that's what I'm going for, 'cause that's what I do well.

I'm hoping that I have enough money left over for flowers just because.

[upbeat music] - So it's almost a little overwhelming today.

We have so much to pick from.

My mind's kind of racing.

So we're trying to figure out, you know, our key ingredients and then just narrow it down to one dish.

- Chef, how are you?

- I'm good, how are you?

- Good, how's the shopping going?

- So far, good, so good.

- Excellent.

So you are putting together something like, do you walk into this type of experience with a dish in mind, or do you just kind of let the ingredients speak to you?

- So what we do at the restaurant is our menu constantly evolves, so we just kind of see what the farmers bring us, and then we kinda stand around the boxes and figure out and have-- let the vegetables speak to us.

So, that's kind of my plan here.

Just see what we have and then go from there.

- Do you feel like when there's so many beautiful ingredients, it's hard to kind of narrow down in your mind, like, how you want to construct?

- Sometimes.

- The plate, yeah.

- 'Cause you want to use everything.

Everything looks so great, and you're like, "Oh, I want to use everything."

- Right.

- So then you have to kind of edit yourself 'cause you don't have to put a lot of stuff on the plate.

- Oh, I know, I know.

Deliberate, intentional food made with love and care.

– Gregory: Is the best.

– Luke: I know it's the hallmark of your restaurant.

– Gregory: Thank you.

– Luke: I can't wait to see what you crank out here, man.

– Gregory: I'm excited.

– Tarik: I'm into those mushrooms, you said.

– Tory: Shrimp of the woods.

Have you ever had that?

– Tarik: No.

– Tory: They look funky.

- Really?

- And they, they actually do have, like, a real shrimpy texture, like, when you pick them.

- Really?

- This is the shrimp of the woods.

- Oh, wow.

– Tory: And I don't know if you ever cooked with these, but they're delicious if you're into that sort of thing.

– Tarik: Yeah, yeah.

- All right, money's, money is-- I know they said $60 was gonna go really far, but not if you buy every single ingredient that you see.

I've been through just one little bit, but since I don't use meat and I don't use cheese, that cancels out, definitely, some of the vendors here for me.

But I think that it really gives me an edge because that is my world.

All of these vegetables I have cooked in so many different ways and it gives me a ton to work with because that's my main focus.

So, I'm gonna take all of these different textures and different colors and combine them to make something really, really amazing.

And, look at these beautiful beans.

I'm gonna go ahead and take one of these dry beans.

I've got eggplant, I've got brussels sprouts, I've got broccolini, caulilini, which I've never used before and I'm really excited to, and this beautiful head of Frise and a watermelon radish.

And now, I've got beans.

I don't know what that equates to, fiber, lots of fiber.

- So, check this out.

- This is the chili place.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Look at the habaneros.

– Tarik: Can I get four Scotch bonnets?

- Do you wanna taste one around the spot?

- No, I'm good, I'm good for now.

[upbeat music] - Tory, so this is definitely your stomping ground here.

- Yeah, man.

- Tell me what it's like to be able to walk around here and see all these purveyors.

How much does this influence your cuisine?

- Being able to talk directly to the farmer and to the person that grew the food is like essential to us to, like, tell the story all the way.

I always wanna just put the farmer out there and be like Jen and her farm made, they grew this awesome kohlrabi, and I'm doing this with it.

I already know Wisconsin has the best food growing and that's like real talk.

With the terroir we have in the Driftless region, you know, the food coming out of the dirt there just tastes better.

And that's why our grass tastes better, that's why our cheese tastes better.

And then we have these great innovators that are working with affinage and finishing these amazing cheeses.

And I'm not wearing a cheese hat on, but I've always been, you know, just so in love with this state and the people of it.

And to me, I love, I love it.

I love working here and I love to see it growing.

– Luke: All right, my man.

- Yeah, buddy.

- Thank you so much.

- Yeah, brother.

- Let's go find these chefs and see what they're up to.

How about that?

- Yeah, I can't wait to see what they do.

- Yeah, I know, right?

- So now we're on a mission to find some goat cheese.

So, hopefully, we can find some and some bread.

So, starting to form an idea of what this dish is gonna be like.

So, let's see what we can find.

I'm looking for goat cheese.

– Woman: Goat is right over here.

– Gregory: And these are the samples?

So, these are all goats?

– Man: These five right here.

– Gregory: These five, okay.

– Man: These are mixed.

- That one, that one it is.

So, I think we're gonna go with the "Lend Me Your EAR" goat.

It's nice, and it has a little bit of an aged flavor to it.

I think it's gonna go really well with the vegetables we've picked up.

So, thank you very much.

– Man: Thank you.

- We look forward to using it.

So we've got rhubarb, radicchio potato, some goat cheese.

Now we're gonna grab some bread.

I need something crusty that I can slice and cook on a grill.

What do you have?

– Man: There you go.

– Gregory: Thank you.

– Man: Yeah, have a good one.

- You too.

Money-wise, I still have 30 bucks.

So, I've done pretty well.

I'm gonna do one more lap.

See if I can find one other thing but I think I'm almost there.

– Tarik: I think I'm pretty much done 'cause I have no idea what this is, but... [laughing] I'm just feeling the mushrooms are the main kind of thing.

So I'm sitting around thinking around mushrooms, I'm guessing.

'Cause yeah, I'm just looking at those ground cherries and Thai chilies, that's some kind of sauce.

Well, I got my exercise in, got my footsteps in.

Yeah, I got enough money for a beer, so.

– Tory: Hey, if you got money left over, don't tell Arthur.

– Man: Thank you.

- I'm hoping the ingredients are just gonna kind of talk to me and tell me what they're gonna become.

So that's kind of how I cook.

I don't get too technical with it.

I just let them speak for themselves.

So, it makes my job really easy.

Do you think that any of these vendors will barter with me for flowers?

$6 each, this is my place.

Do I have $6?

I have $7.

This was meant to be.

Thank you so much.

This is gonna make me happy all day long.

Look, if this isn't happiness, I don't know what is.

- Good morning.

I'm putting a dish together in my head.

I'll take one of those, please.

So now, we're getting some ground cherries that-- my guess-- will end up being pickled.

So, I've got some rhubarb, some ground cherries, radicchio, we got some bread.

So I'm thinking maybe this is gonna end up being, like, an open face sandwich, perhaps vegetarian, probably use the potatoes to make an aioli for it.

Pickle the ground cherries, the rhubarb.

Maybe mix it with the radicchio and the cheese.

We'll see.

It can all change once I get into the kitchen.

- Hello!

- Good to see you.

Any good apples today?

So, I got three of the Calville Blanc... How do you pronounce it?

– Woman: d'Hiver.

– Gregory: d'Hiver?

It's one of the great things about coming to a farmers' market is that you get exposed to all sorts of different kinds of produce that you wouldn't normally see in your local grocery store.

So, right now, we just came across a stall that had five different types of radishes.

I know it's crazy to get excited about radishes.

We all think of those little red things that we see in salad bars, but there's an amazing world of radishes out there.

We've got Black Spanish, we've got two different varieties of Daikon, and then we got a watermelon radish which I think is all gonna add a nice little spiciness to our dish when we get back into the kitchen and start cooking.

– Lauren: Luke!

- How's it going, Chef?

What does the market do for you?

Does it provide a sense of inspiration?

- Absolutely, it is very stimulating.

I mean, I just go in, and I see all of the color and all of the texture and all of the possibilities and won't fully kind of actualize them until I have everything spread out.

I keep looking into bags to put other things in there, and I'm like, "Oh, I bought that."

[Luke laughing] I totally forgot that that was in there.

So again, I'm just in, in the mode of being excited.

- Sure.

- And I have no doubt that will translate into a dish.

- Yeah.

- But I feel like I've gotta walk away because I keep getting excited, and I have zero monies.

- Yeah, that's the, I mean, I can see where that's a problem.

Do you feel at all, like maybe you have too many ingredients?

- Never.

- Never?

- No, I have so much color and so much texture, I feel like there might be one ingredient that I just got excited about, and I don't know how it's gonna translate.

- Sure.

- But I'm gonna work it in, and it's not gonna be a problem.

However, I feel like I might need your help.

- Okay.

- Do you wanna be a mule?

- Do I wanna be a mule, you mean?

- Pass this on.

[Luke laughing] - Exactly.

This is the beauty of, you know, PBS, the lack of production assistants.

We do all this DIY.

So, this is my role for the rest of the market.

I get to be a Sherpa.

- Gonna wash my hands, yes.

- I've always wanted a Sherpa.

Actually, could we maybe dress you?

[Luke laughing] - This already feels better to me.

I feel lighter.

Thank you.

- Emotionally and physically, all right.

– Lauren: I'm ready to cook.

I love that I'm not carrying anything.

Hands-free, baby.

– Luke: Yeah.

– Gregory: Yeah.

- You made it.

- Yeah, I made.

– Luke: How goes is it?

- He did great.

How are you guys?

– Luke: Yeah, I'm good.

How was the market?

- It was incredible!

You saw some good stuff?

- Yeah!

- I'm excited to see what you got.

- Although again, I feel bad 'cause I only have one bag.

He's got three.

She has twelve.

[Lauren laughing] I'm a little nervous.

– Lauren: Some bag envy.

- I'm a little nervous, but we'll see.

- Lauren, talk me through the flowers for a second.

- They make me happy.

– Luke: They make you happy, okay.

- I want to bring happiness and joy.

Just everywhere I go, but also while I'm cooking, these are gonna go on my cutting board, and they're gonna inspire me.

- This will not fit in our kitchen.

- Yeah.

[laughing] - I'm telling you that there are no happiness and joy, but no, I'm just kidding.

[laughing] - Oh, my God, I can't work under these conditions!

- Tarik, how'd you find the market.

Is this your first time at the Dane Country Farmers' Market?

- First time, yeah.

- Okay, what'd you think?

- It's nice, it's really nice.

It's kind of, like, I like the variety a lot.

You know the fact they have meats and like all the vegetables and the cheese.

Is it cheeses or cheese?

Plural, I don't know which to say.

- We say cheeses.

- Cheeses, yeah.

All the cheeses.

- Thank you, cheeses.

So I think at this point, should we head into the L'Etoile kitchen?

We're gonna cook together.

- You guys have at one hour to shop and get your brains going, but now it's when the real drama begins.

'Cause you're gonna be in my house, and I can't wait to see what you guys do, really, this is gonna be so exciting.

– Lauren: I don't like drama.

– Luke: You don't like drama?

– Lauren: No.

– Luke: Well, you came to the wrong show.

– Tory: Yeah, exactly, exactly.

– Lauren: Keep it out of here!

[upbeat music] - Tory: Back to the ranch.

– Lauren: Oh, yay.

– Tory: Let me get that.

– Lauren: Thank you, I don't have any hands for that.

– Tory: Welcome.

– Gregory: Thank you.

– Luke: Thanks, Chef.

– Tory: Oh, yeah.

[high-five] [chatting in background] - We are in L'Etoile's kitchen.

- That's right.

- With Chef Tory Miller here and the contestants have brought back what they've purchased at the market.

Now for this challenge, they have one hour to complete a dish that's representative of them, as a human and the ingredients that they brought back with them.

You provided them with a couple staple ingredients, correct?

- Exactly, exactly.

Just like oil, salt.

With Lauren, she had more of a shopping list, but it's fine.

– Luke: Yeah, Lauren definitely had more of a shopping list.

[Lauren laughing] That's for sure.

- As we saw at the market, she's a little extra.

- Exactly.

- I have a lot of needs.

- That's right.

But if you need less, go someplace else.

[Tory laughing] That being said, we have a timer.

One hour, one dish, three individual chef contestants.

And the time starts now.

[energetic music] - There's no witty banter happening now.

It's just crunch time.

All people for themselves.

- I'm about to cut some ground cherries, put those in the pickled rhubarb, and then start cleaning radishes.

- What are you thinking for your dish?

These are some of my favorite ingredients already, so.

- So I'm gonna do an open face sandwich, focus on all vegetables and fruit.

So, we're doing a mixture of apples, rhubarb, some ground cherries, braised radicchio, some dill, an aioli that's gonna have some potato mixed into it.

- Ah, nice.

- And then, we're gonna finish it with an aged goat cheese.

- Fancy, all right, well get to work.

It sounds delicious, can't wait.

- So it's a take on a sweet and sour chili sauce.

So the sweetness comes from the ground cherries, a little bit of sugar, and we have Thai basil, some Thai peppers, Scotch bonnets, so a little bit of sweetness, the vinegar.

Hopefully, it reduces down.

Then I'm gonna use immersion building to make it a sauce for these shrimp of wood mushrooms, which, hopefully, I will be frying later.

[upbeat music] - Tory: So, Thai eggplant.

– Lauren: Thai eggplant.

– Tory: You like Thai eggplant?

– Lauren: I do.

– Tory: I love it.

- I think eggplant is a seriously undervalued food.

I think a lot of people are turned off by the texture and the flavor, you know, it's not for everybody, but it also is a really nice canvas to kind of make it taste like what you want it to.

- Yeah, no, I think it's great.

I love Thai eggplant.

I love eggplant in general, but that sounds really good.

Do you have an idea for your whole dish?

- I do.

- Is it a secret?

Chefs love to do the secret thing.

Like, oh, I don't know what I'm gonna do, except you totally know.

- Kind of.

- And then it's like, the big reveal is like, "Oh, yay!"

– Lauren: Yeah.

– Tory: Look at what I did.

– Lauren: Yeah.

- So it's ground cherries, rhubarb, and then a pickling liquid made out of soy, vinegar, salt, and sugar.

And then there's a little bit of Spanish olive oil.

– Man: You cook with these before?

– Tarik: Nope.

Imma coat these and fry 'em, and then, that's what sauce is for.

So, I hope it comes out.

I have no idea what it's gonna taste like.

[laughing] Well, it was recommended by Tory over there.

He makes a scampi with it, 'cause apparently has a kind of a texture like shrimp, and it takes on any flavor you add to it.

So, I thought I'd make like, like a spicy kind of sweet and sour shrimp dish, shrimp of the wood mushroom dish, vegetarian dish.

- All right.

So, I have some brassicas getting ready to roast.

I am also going to char some leeks and tomatoes and red peppers for a vinaigrette.

So, it'll be fun.

I've never charred on a French top before.

So we're gonna see how that works out for me.

All right, incoming with beautiful things.

All right, this eggplant almost there.

We want just a little bit more caramelization on those eggplants.

- Okay, chefs, so you guys have 40 minutes remaining.

Forty minutes left to finish your dishes.

How you feeling?

- Good.

[Tory laughing] - Feeling hot.

- One good, one hot.

[Lauren laughing] Tarik, you just making spicy food?

– Tarik: Yeah.

- You're feeling hot, too?

– Tarik: I'm always hot.

- You feel good in 40 minutes?

– Tarik: I think so.

- Have you started to think about your plates?

What you would like to be plating onto, into?

- So, right now, I'm cutting all sorts of different types of radishes on a mandolin.

So, watermelon, green Daikon, Black Spanish, and purple Daikon.

- All right, this is about to get crazy.

This could be good or bad.

Putting these little bad boys on here and like praying and hoping that they stay in their homes, and they don't run away from me.

These tomatoes are really behaving a lot more than I thought they would.

I thought they would roll all over the place, but I think they really want me to win.

We're working as a team, team veg!

Although this is not a meat-centric challenge.

There's not a lot of meat involved, but why would you?

Like, there's so many good vegetables.

[upbeat music] [immersion blender whirring] - Just the sauce, kind of puree it down.

Vinegar, sugar, ground cherries, Thai chilies, Scotch bonnet, part Scotch bonnet, little lemon juice, white parts of the scallion.

- Okay, chefs, we are at the halfway mark, halfway point.

Thirty minutes remaining.

How are we feeling?

- Whoo!

- How are those beans?

- I'm nervous about the beans.

- I'm nervous about my beans, too, but we're not gonna-- - Tory: I'm sure they're gonna be delicious.

- We're not gonna talk about it.

- We won't talk about it.

- They're gonna be good.

- Just create a little bit of bean drama.

- I'm dropping the shrimp of the woods mushrooms.

It's coated in cornstarch to keep them crispy with the sauce.

- What am I doing, and what's in here, you ask?

Well, I'm making my own tahini since tahini was not gonna be given to me.

Chef Tory says, "Not allowed."

But, you know what?

It's better if you make it yourself anyway.

It's got a really nice sesame flavor.

How's my sprouties?

[pan sizzles] Oh yeah, they are looking real good.

- So, the aioli, I just added some dill to it.

And then, I think I'm gonna add my potatoes now.

That is really good.

I know that sounds-- I sound surprised.

[machine whirring] - Tory: It's what we always talk about between like restaurant chefs and home chefs.

We always are constantly tasting everything all the time.

Gotta taste the food.

– Tarik: How much time we got?

How much time?

- I don't know where our clock went.

- Chefs, we're at 20 minutes, 20 minutes 'til plates.

How we doing?

– Gregory: Good.

- You seem to be as cool as a cucumber over here.

– Gregory: Yeah, I just, I came in with a plan.

– Luke: You came in with a plan?

– Gregory: Came in with a plan, and I'm just executing my plan.

- That's the other hallmark like the tasting of food.

Tasting of food is, like, one way that you can always tell the difference between a professional cook and a home cook.

The secondary way to tell someone who's a professional versus someone who's kind of moonlighting is when they actually hold tongs.

Because if you notice, when Chef Tory picked up the, exactly, it's like two clicks minimum.

I can't pick up a pair of tongs and not just like, da-da-da like it's a pair of caracas or whatever.

It's definitely part of the game.

So when you say you walk into this with a game plan, like, do you execute by writing it down, or is it just kind of all intuition at this point?

- It's all intuition.

It's usually all in my brain.

I'm not really good at writing stuff down.

And then I just kind of decipher as I go.

- It's all muscle memory.

- Muscle memory and instinct.

– Luke: Yep.

It's the hallmark of a good chef.

Oh, man, I can't wait to taste.

– Gregory: Thank you.

– Lauren: It's time to make a vinaigrette.

– Luke: Lauren?

- Luke?

- How's it going over here?

- Real good.

- What part of the process are we in now?

- We're in sauceland.

- Sauceland, okay.

- Sauceland, so, I've actually done most of my vegetable cookery.

- Okay.

- I've done my grains.

Holding out for my beans.

And now, I am just making, like, my base puree and my vinaigrette.

- Awesome.

- Throw it all together, fist full of flowers.

Nah, just kidding.

[Luke laughing] Done.

- Done.

[rumbling] [mushrooms sizzling] Chef, what do you see going on here?

There's a lot of activity.

- Man, with like 15 minutes left.

I feel pretty good about where everyone's at.

I'm a little concerned that Tarik has only been chopping chilis for the last 45 minutes, so I think our dish's gonna be pretty hot.

[laughing] And, you know, I'm also excited, you know, I'm excited to see if those beans get cooked and also, like, to try something vegan and see like how our actual vegan chef, like, puts their dishes together and things like that.

Sometimes, like, when we make vegan food in the restaurant, because like we try to, we do do a vegan tasting menu at L'Etoile, and I'm always, like, second guessing myself, you know, to be like, is a vegan person gonna like this?

Are they gonna like how this is put together or the textures and things?

So, I'm really excited to see that.

But I think overall, everyone's looking pretty, pretty much well handled with 15 minutes left.

– Luke: Ten minutes chefs, ten minutes.

– Gregory: I am ready to start plating.

– Luke: Definitely, with 10 minutes left, you definitely wanna be plating, thinking about your plate.

- I'm pretty much, I've gotta do these mushrooms quick, and then I'm ready to plate.

Get that nice and hot.

I gotta check my beans.

- Ten minutes left.

How you feeling?

You looking good, Tarik?

- Much better.

- It smells delicious over here.

It smells spicy, though.

[upbeat music] - Lauren: Lion's mane.

So, these are such a cool mushroom.

Again, looking at them.

You would not think that they were a fungus, but they are.

And they actually do grow here in the state of Wisconsin, as well.

This is brain food.

Look at these little hairs, see all these little hairs right here.

This is gonna pick up on that oil, and they will get crispy; crispy and delicious.

- I'm looking at Chef Lauren's beans here.

And I can see that those skins are starting to firm up a little bit.

One of the ways in which this could be hastened is if there's like a bouquet of herbs or anything else to weight those beans down in the water as they float.

But these are starting to get real close to being done.

And the way that you know that a bean is done is when you bite into it, and they're creamy.

These have just a couple minutes left but if I was a betting man, I would say these are gonna to make it.

– Lauren: Yay.

– Luke: Carry on.

- Gonna get a nice little swoosh.

This is our nice creamy bed.

While next, we're gonna be pouring the vinaigrette into here, put that all together.

I'm gonna try some, see how it is, adjust the seasoning.

I could actually use a little more.

- Okay, chefs, you have five minutes left.

Five minutes!

If it's not on the plate, let's think about it!

Chef Lauren?

- Yeah, yeah, I heard you.

Coming in with beans.

And I like to get in with my hands.

All right, I'm gonna taste it, though, real quick.

It's tasting pretty good.

Honestly, I'm feeling pretty good about it.

– Tory: Ten Seconds.

– Luke: It's actually 30, 30 seconds.

– Lauren: 30 seconds, you guys are terrible.

– Luke: 30 seconds, you got this.

Get it on the plate.

– Lauren: Oh, my God, he's yelling at me.

- I wanted the authentic L'Etoile experience.

– Lauren: Ugh, I don't.

[laughing] - Tory: Let's go, we got hands coming.

301 needs their food.

Eight seconds.

– Luke: Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

– Tory: And that's it!

– Lauren: Plates!

- Yay, finish plates.

– Luke: Good job, good job everybody.

[Tory and Luke clapping] Awesome, awesome!

– Luke: We're in the L'Etoile dining room, and this is amazing.

– Tory: Thanks, man!

I'm happy to have you guys here.

This is like a culmination of everything that we do every week.

So, it's really exciting to actually, like, see other people go through it and that walkthrough of like, we're going to the market, we're gonna buy food.

We're gonna go back to L'Etoile, we're gonna cook it, and some people are gonna eat it.

And I'm really excited to see what these chefs came up with and like, actually, to show the audience like what, what that aspect of it's like because that's what we go through every week, so.

- When you are faced with something like this, where you're actually analyzing and tasting, do you have specific things that you look for right away?

- My only criteria is that it's seasoned and balanced.

Like, that's always my thing.

I love to get those textures being, you know, crispy, salty, sweet, sour, spicy.

Like, those are my faves.

So, I'm excited to see what everyone-- Everyone's style is so different.

I'm just excited to try everything.

- Yeah, okay, so I think our first chef that's gonna bring their dish out is Chef Lauren Montelbano.

– Lauren: Hi, chefs.

– Tory: Hi, how are you?

- I'm doing really good.

– Luke: It looks so good.

- Oh, this is beautiful.

It looks exactly what I thought, like, this dish would look like, coming from everything you had in those bags.

- And also, my bouquet of flowers that I drew my inspiration from.

– Tory: Exactly, exactly.

– Luke: So, Lauren, talk us through.

What do we have in front of us?

- So, on the bottom there, we've got like a creamy baba ganoush almost with those Thai eggplants, homemade tahini, little bit of lemon juice.

And then, we have all of these different vegetables coming together.

The different brassicas, the roasty creaminess of the squash, the creaminess of the beans, that were done just right, hopefully, and just sort of some fun crunch with the radish on top.

– Luke: Excellent, thank you so much.

– Tory: Thank you.

– Lauren: Enjoy.

– Tory: Can't wait, yeah.

– Luke: I mean, it's often said that you eat with your eyes first, and this is vibrant.

- Yeah, it's beautiful.

It smells delicious.

It looks amazing.

I like that there's a bunch of different textural things happening, even visually.

So, I'm excited to see what happens.

- Excellent, well, here we go, first bite.

- The vegetables are done nicely.

Like, this is how I like it when you have everything that's like cooked individually and then brought together with a really nice sauce.

– Luke: Talk to me about that baba ganoush.

- I mean, I really like the Thai, that she chose to use Thai eggplant.

I was really worried when I first saw 'em 'cause I know how bitter they can be, but it's a nice texture.

To me, I think she nailed that.

The rest of the dish is also well balanced.

I like the acid in it, and it's like, well seasoned, which I love.

- Right.

Next up, we have Chef Gregory Leon from Amilinda in Milwaukee, and I gotta say, like, watching Chef put together his dish, I was just overwhelmed with, like, the amount of Zen, right?

- Yeah.

He's always more chill than you think, like, I, I always have noticed that about him when he's setting up his dishes.

I've only ever worked with him at events so it's really cool to see him in action.

But he's just exactly the same.

Like, "Oh, I don't know, I'm just gonna make a thing and I'll put it on toast."

[Luke laughing] I'm excited to see what Chef has put together.

– Gregory: Hey, gentlemen, how are you?

– Luke: Great, how are you?

– Tory: Great, Chef.

Oh, it looks beautiful.

– Luke: That's gorgeous.

- Thank you.

So what we have here today is a grilled multi-grained sourdough bread.

Then we kneed in aioli, and I added a mashed potato to that to give it a little bit more texture and density.

A braised radicchio that's been cooked with sherry vinegar, olive oil, salt, and some sugar.

Then we have different radishes.

We have purple and green Daikon, Black Spanish, watermelon.

We have some really nice apples that we got at the farmers' market, and then over it, we've shaved an aged goats' cheese.

- Excellent, thank you, Chef.

- Excellent.

- Enjoy, thank you.

- How do you approach a dish like this?

- I always tell people to pick everything up and eat it if I want 'em to.

But I'm also, like, in L'Etoile's dining room, so I always understand, like, if we serve people a chicken wing, someone a chicken wing in L'Etoile, they cut it with a knife and fork.

[Luke laughing] So I'm gonna knife and fork it, but you know, I really love this presentation.

I love tartines.

I love things on toast.

I'm super excited and really dig the fact that he put potato in that aioli.

That's an OG move.

And I love that I can smell that cheese right off the bat.

- Right.

- I'm like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do a dainty bite first.

- Oh, good for you.

- You know, one on the end.

Oh, man.

- I'm gonna go straight Neanderthal on this thing and get after it.

It's toast!

- It's delicious.

I love that the ground cherries are just like, what they are.

They add, like, such a uniqueness to that flavor.

- Talk to me about that apple.

- Really great use of the acid and the natural textures of the vegetables and fruits.

This rhubarb is just in here.

- Yeah.

- And using rhubarb as an acid, oh!

It's such a good bite.

- Yeah.

- That's a really good bite.

[Luke laughing] - Oh, that's exciting.

- But the thing that I like the most about this is the use of these vegetables and fruits as they're in their natural state, 'cause they're so flavorful on their own.

But like, when you eat them together as part of a dish, it really balances out the whole thing.

- And that ground cherry, like, that combination between the acid and the sweetness of the ground cherry and the richness of that aioli and the heartiness of that bread, combined with that little bit of a funk, you know, that you get from that goat cheese.

- Yeah, really delicious.

- All right, now it's time for the wild card.

[Tory laughing] Right?

- I'm excited, and I don't know what to expect.

- I don't either and that's kind of the best part.

- When he's like, yeah, my style is Korean and soul food.

I was like, whoa!

On paper, that's my language.

[Luke laughing] I was like, same.

– Luke: Yeah, exactly, that's my jam.

- How have we not hung out before, but yeah.

After watching him cut chilis for a very long time, I'm a little concerned, but I'm excited at the same time.

- Yeah.

– Tory: I got that nervous anticipation.

- Right, exactly, and I think that that is a part of the dining experience sometimes, right?

You're a little bit uneasy, unsure of what's gonna come out next.

And I think with Tarik's dish here because we know that there is sometimes an understood difference between a home chef.

- Right.

- And a professional chef.

And you see these axis of, you know, people who have great creative ideas, but they don't necessarily execute 'em that well.

That's kind of like a new chef thing.

- Exactly.

– Luke: So, I'm over the moon.

- I'm excited he's here.

I'm really, really impressed with the ingredients he chose.

So we'll see what he's got.

– Luke: Oh, man.

Hey, chef.

- Call me cook.

[Luke and Tory laugh] - Chef for the day.

- Chef for the day.

Tarik, what do we have here?

- Basically, it's a dish-- I use shrimp of the woods mushrooms I got at the farmers' markets.

Tory kind of introduced me to this mushroom I never had, never cooked with.

I decided to fry it in a dish.

And I was thinking like, what kind of, what do I like?

It's kind of like this kind of sweet and sour sauce I wanted to have, but I bought a bunch of chilies, Thai peppers, Thai chilies, Scotch bonnets, all types of chilies in there.

And I made a sauce with ground cherries, the chilies, little bit of vinegar, and sugar, reduced that down and blended it to a sauce, and coated the mushrooms with it.

And then, also added some sauteed, more chilies and onions in the mix.

- Oh good, more chilies.

[Luke laughing] Excellent, but are there any chilies in it?

- Exactly.

- So, I'm excited to see what you got for us Chef, Cook Tarik.

- Appreciate it, thank you.

– Luke: Thank you so much.

All right, moment of truth is on.

Are you ready to sweat?

– Tory: Smells delicious.

It looks beautiful.

- Right?

- I'm excited that he fried mushrooms.

I really love them.

– Luke: Yeah.

- That way.

Okay, moment of truth.

– Luke: Yep.

– Tory: It's delicious.

Not as hot as I thought it would be.

– Luke: No way.

- I was being a big baby.

- I mean, it almost has elements of, like, the General Tso Chicken, you know, how it's-- - Tory: That sweet taste, salty, spicy.

- Yeah.

- You know, what I love, like, in the bowl context, you can smell the chili, but then when you taste it, you get like the idea of it, But not the like, you're having chilis.

Really delicious.

I love the Thai basil.

- Mm-hmm.

- I mean, I think the exciting part about this dish for me is taking a risk, a humongous risk.

[Tory laughing] This is a product-- The mushrooms are something he'd never used before.

You know, you kind of talked him through that a little bit at the market, preparing him in a technique that he had never done before.

- Exactly.

- And putting it together on television, which is a whole 'nother level of stress to make something that is-- - Tory: In our kitchen.

- Yeah, it's super captivating.

- Yeah, I mean, I really dig it.

I think this is a very successful dish, especially for someone that is like, you know, "Oh, I'm just gonna make a version," and that's very chefy to be like, "Oh, I was thinking sweet and sour, you know.

"I'm gonna turn something into something that it isn't, but give people the idea of that thing."

– Luke: Yeah.

- I think that's great.

It shows that he's very thoughtful with this cooking and, you know, I give him a lot of props for, for even being here, to be honest.

It's hard not to just crush this thing, but I just got a huge bite of the Thai basil, and it's just-- - Luke: Right?

- Amazing.

- It's a totally different dish with that Thai basil.

- Eating chili, are you eating chili?

- Yeah, I was.

- What, am I not eating chili?

[laughing] - Luke: Exactly.

- If Luke's eating chili, I gotta.

– Luke: I got emotionally prepared to, like, eat a load of this.

- It was a mistake.

I made a mistake.

I admit that a little bit of machismo got ahold of me.

[Luke laughs] And, shouldn't have done that.

[Luke laughs] But thank you for pushing me to my limit.

– Luke: Yeah, there it is.

- It is actually really delicious, though.

Like when you go back in for the bite with that extra hot.

Oh, another one, oh man.

- It carries it.

- You gotta go one-to-one.

- It balances it.

I mean, you get that, like, deep, deep heat.

But I feel like, in the context of what I expected when I entered the dish, and then, you know, being able to experience a little bit of that pain, it carries through so well.

It's delicious.

– Tory: It's super good.

- We have our work cut out for us.

- Yeah, it's gonna be intense.

I don't know.

They're all so different.

They're all very well done.

I think that they were all really delicious.

I think to me, I kind of have one in front of the others only because of the utilization of all of the market ingredients and seasonality and as well as well-balanced flavors and a well-thought-out dish.

So, I think to me, like, that, that going into it is usually my criteria of, like, do I know what I'm eating?

And does it taste like what it is, but does it also transport me to something else?

- Sure, I think if we are on the same wavelength here, we probably have the same dish in mind.

[Tory laughing] - Yeah, I think so.

- And I think the thing that was so apparent for me in that dish is number one: it was executed amazingly.

Like, there just-- There wasn't really any shame in that game whatsoever.

- Right.

- But then, as the dish progressed, I kept finding new textures and flavors that you didn't necessarily eat in combination with the first couple bites.

- Right.

- And then, it just kept sending you to that place over and over.

- Kept going, and I really, you know, I'm really impressed with all of them.

And I, it was such a, a treat to be able to see that, like, their own styles come to the plate and be brought out and to see the finished dishes.

It's like you get to know everyone, like, as people, and then when you see how they cook, it just kind of changes, like, how you know them.

It's like, you know them in a different way now.

- Completely, all right.

So I'm gonna go back and get the chefs out of the kitchen right now, and then we'll bring 'em out, and we'll reveal the winner.

How's that sound?

– Tory: Sounds great.

- All right.

Chefs, all that food was popping.

There was not one sleeper of a dish that was like, "Eh, that's an easy discard."

So, honestly, thank you so much for what you brought to the table.

It's fantastic.

And it paints a wonderful portrait for the entire state of Wisconsin.

How was this experience for you, Tarik?

- It's fun at the end of it.

Like, I do get a high off of stress and anxiety at the end of a project.

So, it's a lot of stress, but now I feel good that it didn't burn or taste like something you probably throw away right away.

So, I'm happy.

That was my goal.

And not to make a fool of myself, and keep this as white as I could.

- Yeah, that looks good.

It looks like you know what you're doing.

- At home, it's different.

I'm just like, whatever, it's everywhere so... [Luke laughs] - Awesome, well, thank you so much.

Greg, how is this for you?

- It's fun.

- Yeah?

- It's really enjoyable.

It's always nice to come see somebody else's kitchen.

Chef Tory was very gracious and helpful.

And I think I've come up for a new dish for our menu this week, so... - Awesome.

– Gregory: It's a win-win situation.

- Yeah, that sounds like a win-win-win because I know from my perspective, we got to enjoy that dish too.

And it was, it was playful, it was inventive.

It was really, really delicious.

- I'm glad you enjoyed it.

- Thank you.

Chef Lauren, how was this experience for you?

- I work a lot by myself, and so it's really nice to have this fun, collaborative energy in the space and get to feed off of one another, have some like, banter, have some, like, a little chaos behind a restaurant line again 'cause I don't get that anymore.

And so, I really enjoyed myself.

It was good time, good times.

- Good times, good times.

- Good times!

- I like the good time.

[Lauren laughing] Oh, with that being said, let's go back out into the dining room, and we'll reveal the winner of the cook-off, all right?

Sounds like fun?

All right, come on, here we go.

[upbeat music] Chefs, the moment of truth is upon us, and I cannot stress enough, thank you so much.

There was not one dish that stood out as being an easy castaway.

This decision was really, really difficult, and we had to deliberate about it for some time.

- You guys all did such a great job.

I know for you guys, especially coming from Milwaukee, not being at the Dane County Farmers' Market all the time, you know, to represent all of the farmers out there.

Obviously, Lauren, like, you know what you like to cook with, and you were able to get so many vegetables and fruits and, of course, the flowers for your station, but for the guys, you know, like, you really, not only showcase what was at the Dane County Farmers' Market but what season it is, what the taste of this place is right now and what's really, really growing in Wisconsin.

So, really, really great job.

But it can only be one favorite.

Our favorite dish today came from Chef Greg.

- Oh, awesome, thanks.

[clapping] [Luke laughing] - I felt like it was really well balanced, and I really liked that you used a bunch of different raw vegetables and fruits in there and were able to, like, showcase them for the natural flavors.

It was just a really tasty dish.

- Chefs, again, thank you so much for everything you brought to the table today.

I think Wisconsin's a better place for all of your efforts.

If I haven't said it before, I'm gonna say it now, forever forward because you are the ones pushing the flavors and farmers and food producers of this place forward.

– Tory: Everything was so good.

- Yay!

[applause] - Flowers!

- Good job.

[laughing] - Luke: Talk to Arthur.

Thank you so much, Tarik.

– Man: Tory, you come in there, a little bit closer, there, you guys.

- Yeah.

– Man: Nice.

- Is this too close?

How about this?

– Tory: Do you like this?

- Does this look good?

YEAH, oh, gosh!

Heart to heart, you like that?

[Luke laughing] Hi.

- I've always wanted this, this date to happen.

All right, let's not make it weird.

- No, let's make it weird.

I live in that space.

So we're in the... [gibberish] - Announcer: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters: - The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[crowd cheering] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- At Organic Valley, our cows make milk [cheery whistling] with just a few simple ingredients.

Sun, soil, rain, and grass.

[bubble popping] And grass, and grass.

– Cow: Yee-haw!

[angelic choir music] - Organic Valley Grassmilk, organic milk from 100% grass-fed cows.

[banjo music] - Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends only in Wisconsin since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin, and see where your beer's made.

[upbeat music] - Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin.

To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site high-quality butchering and packaging.

The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore, know your farmer, love your butcher.

- Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin is the largest local hunger relief organization in the state.

With your help, we ensure your neighbors in need don't have to worry where their next meal may come from.

Learn more at FeedingAmericaWI.org.

Additional support from the following underwriters: also with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.