'Top Chef' Wisconsin wrapped Wednesday night, sending Milwaukee chef and restaurant owner
Dan Jacobs home without the title. Jacobs, who was the only chef from Wisconsin this season, was one of three contestants (narrowed down from 15) who made it to the final round of the competition -- and he fought hard to get there.
The 21st season of Bravo's hit cooking competition show filmed last summer over a span of six weeks in Milwaukee and Madison, and briefly in Door County. The two-part finale was set in Curaçao. Over the past 14 weeks, the show's airing has generated lots of local buzz as viewers across the state tuned in to cheer on Jacobs, catch glimpses of the city's skyline and other iconic landmarks, and maybe learn a thing or two about
Wisconsin's rich culinary culture.
Jacobs and his business parter, Dan Van Rite, own Chinese-American restaurant DanDan in the Third Ward and high-end tasting menu concept EsterEv, which
relocated earlier this year to Bay View. Their work at EsterEv has landed the duo five consecutive James Beard Award nominations, including this year as finalists for Best Chef Midwest, which they ultimately lost.
Following the finale of 'Top Chef' Wednesday, Jacobs
posted a video on Instagram thanking the community for their love and support: "I just can't wait to see what's next in store. ... It's been such a wonderful journey and I'm so happy to have done it with all you guys watching," he said.
Earlier this week, BizTimes associate editor Maredithe Meyer caught up with Jacobs about his experience competing on the show and what he's been up to since.
The following is a transcript of parts of their conversation, edited for clarity.
BizTimes: What were your biggest takeaways from being cast on season 21 of 'Top Chef'?
Jacobs: "First of all, I'm happy Milwaukee and Wisconsin, and Madison, were shined on in such a great way. I think the production did such a great job showcasing the city and the state in such a great light. And that was, one of the things that I really, really was happy about – more so than anything else. Secondly, and really not far behind that, it was great to be able to meet like 14 new best friends. We joke around about calling it trauma bonding. But like, I might be closer with some of these people than I am with people that I've worked with and lived with over long periods of time, just because of that intensity of how that relationship was built. It was truly wonderful. I have really made some great friends. ... You know, the real bonus of doing a show like this is really just meeting very like-minded people that are as intense and love food and restaurants as much as I do."
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Jacobs (left) with Top Chef finalist Savannah Miller and winner Danny Garcia.[/caption]
It looks like a lot of those friendships have carried over into your work here in Milwaukee as well as, with Chef Kaleena and Chef Amanda participating in your guest chef series at EsterEv. How did that come about?
"We've always done a guest chef series at DanDan and EsterEv and part of that is to showcase the city of Milwaukee, to bring chefs in who may not have any experience with Wisconsin, just to show them, you know, how great things are. I mean, I love it here and so I love being able to show that to other people. For us during production, we definitely got to see a side of (the city), but not the whole, you know? And I think bringing people back to really show them the parts that I really, really love that I want to show them has been really gratifying, but yeah, it just kind of made sense. We're in this room together. It's like, 'yo, we're going to cook together.' And it's not like me just bringing people here -- I know that I'm going to end up going out there and cooking with them."
Do you have plans to cook at any of the other chefs' restaurants soon?
"I'll actually be in Raleigh next week on Tuesday doing a dinner with Manny, Savannah, Soo and Kevin."
You’ve been open about your battle with Kennedy’s Disease and the strain it puts on your body. Can you talk about how you worked through some of those challenges throughout production? The competition seemed to get pretty physical at times.
"It is physical. For me, I really had to think about how I was going to do stuff. Like I had to, you know, really maximize my movements where it was like, if I was going to grab something, I had to drop two things off and pick up three more things on my way back. But it was cool in the way that I'm still as sharp as a pencil and my brain still works at a very high level, especially with food. And no matter what kind of condition my body’s in, it just shows that I can still hang with the kids and still really excel at this. I loved it. It was such a cool experience. I did have to definitely take care of my body and think about what I was doing and how I was doing it. But I think I did really well for a guy who's, you know, wearing two braces on his legs to keep walking around and can't run if somebody put a gun to my head."
Have you gotten any support or outreach, even just on social media, from others who are battling the disease or face similar challenges?
"Literally the best part of this whole thing was every week or so, I'd get like three to eight DMs about how I had inspired somebody or how they have an experience that they wanted to share because of my experience. And it was so heartwarming and so just wonderful. It was just a great little bonus for all of this."
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Dan Jacobs competing on a recent episode of Top Chef. Credit: Bravo[/caption]
You’ve talked about how competing on Top Chef has always been a dream of yours. How many times over the years had you tried to get on the show?
“It's a lot. I'm not even really sure the amount of times, probably more like 11, I don't know. In the beginning I tried out, like I would send in stuff, and then I'd say the last like six to eight times, they've approached me to come on the show. I think I got pretty far on the Colorado season and Houston season, but it just didn't work out, you know? There's some sort of algorithm or something they use to decide who goes on the show and who doesn't, and I didn't make it. But then, me and my wife Kate had talked about this, like, this is gonna be the last time, this is it. I'm gonna try this one last time. And she was incredibly supportive, even though she knew that the physical part was gonna be tough. But I always wanted to, I always thought I would do really well at this. And, you know, I'm just glad that I got the opportunity and I did do really well at it. It was an incredible, incredible experience and I couldn't say enough about it."
What kinds of skills – or maybe mindset – had you developed throughout your career that ultimately set you up well for Top Chef's cutthroat competition?
“It luckily is not as cutthroat as I think people think it is. I really feel like we all want to beat each other on our best. I hate beating somebody when they're just having a bad day or they miss a plate on something. That sucks. ... I'm a chef, but really I'm a problem solver. I just solve problems. Like, that's all I really do on a day-in-day-out basis. And I think being able to think quickly on your feet and be able to pivot, I think that's an asset that I've always had.
"We have people come in (to EsterEv) where it's like, they walk in the door and they're like,’ Hey, I'm lactose intolerant, or ‘Hey, I'm gluten free.' It's like, alright well, now we gotta rework the whole menu and figure out how to do stuff for them. And I always feel like there's a little bit of fun in that, and for some reason that always brings out some really cool creativity … and I think there's something about that that really works well inside competition cooking, which is completely different than actually cooking in a restaurant.”
How has business been since the season premiered? What kind of inspiration have you brought back to your restaurants?
"Business is killing it, it's awesome. We just had the best month ever in the history of DanDan. And we've been around for eight years and we've been a popular restaurant for eight years since we opened up, but we just had the best month we've ever had. It’s introducing new people to it, bringing old people back. It's just been a lot of fun. We have the opportunity of putting DanDan into Summerfest, which starts this weekend. And that's going to be wild.
"I think you see the inspiration from Top Chef, I think you see that more in EsterEv than you would in DanDan I think part of what makes Dan Dan so special is the fact that people come back to those things that they truly love, and there's something about a Chinese-American restaurant that like, if there's that familiarity, then you don't want the menu to change that much, whereas at EsterEv, we change the menu all the time. In fact, one of the dishes on the show – the sunflower dish from the indigenous challenge – is actually on the menu at EsterEv right now. To me, that was such an important challenge just to showcase indigenous foods, which is something that just doesn't get showcased enough. And it was probably my favorite dish that I cooked the whole season, even though I didn't win with it, it was still my favorite."
It probably wasn’t too long after filming for Top Chef ended that you and Dan (Van Rite) decided to reinvent EsterEv by moving it to its own location in Bay View. You both said that was something you’d wanted to do for a while. What was the spark that set that project in motion?
"Well, I mean, there's a couple things there. I think it's gotta be the right place at the right time, and it felt like both of those things happened at the same time. The old Ceviche space on Kinnickinnic opened up, it was available. It wasn't even on the market yet, yet we were starting to call about it because it was a great size. It's exactly what we wanted as far as size goes.
"I live in Bay View – so does Danny – so we just wanted to do something in Bay View. And then, you know, with the show coming out, it just seemed like the right time to kind of capitalize on an expansion, but it also was not a giant financial commitment. Doing a tiny restaurant like that is going to be less of a financial commitment than doing another giant DanDan. So it just seemed like something that would be a lot of fun. Plus, the third thing is, you want to be able to keep challenging the team that works with us. And this was a great way to be able to give people that have been with us for a while new and different challenges."
How have things been at EsterEv since reopening?
“Tables are filling up, but I love to remind people that they can walk in anytime they want at the bar And they could eat, they could eat the tasting menu, which is a four course prefix that they make choices in, or they can come in and they can eat a la carte and just have a couple glasses of wine. We have 18 seats at the bar, they're always open, they're not reservable – first come, first serve. As far as the dining room goes, it's been really good. It's nice to see that the demand for that type of food is here and it excites us to be able to keep pushing that boundary.”
