The Top Chef ™ chefs were instructed to buy ingredients from the Dane County Farmers' Market BEFORE knowing what the challenge was going to be. Then they were introduced to the cooking of Carson Gulley, the head chef at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1926–1954, given a selection of his sauce recipes and tasked with making dishes pairing their ingredients with one of his sauces.
Kristen Kish: "When people talk about Madison, one of the very first things that may come to mind is the University of Wisconsin. Less well known is a man who served as a chef for the residence halls from the 1920s to the 1950s, chef Carson Gulley. He and his wife hosted their own cooking show. First African American couple to host a cooking show in the fifties. In 1949, Chef Gulley published his early recipes in his very first cookbook. It had recipes to make everything from meat and vegetable dishes to a variety of sauces. For your quick fire challenge, we want you to take a page from his book. Literally. In this recipe box, there are ten different sauce recipes that can be found in his cookbook, and we have all those ingredients in a limited pantry. Okay, we want to see your take on one of Chef Gully's sauces. You're going to make the sauce and pair that with the ingredients that you just bought at the market. Take inspiration from the sauce you chose, but put your own spin on it."
The winner went on to receive US$7,500. The guest judges were comedian W. Kamau Bell and chef/owner Tory Miller of L'Etoile in Madison.
