A Top Chef Homecoming in Door County

Описание: A Top Chef alum returns home to cook the Door County food that shaped her.

In this episode of Wisconsin Foodie, Luke travels to Door County with Kat Turner, whose cooking career was rooted in the peninsula long before national attention followed. Drawing inspiration from orchards, smokehouses, fisheries, and small producers across Door County, Kat builds a dinner that reflects memory, seasonality, and place. From local fish and orchard fruit to foraged elements and seasonal Midwestern ingredients, each dish becomes a personal expression of how regional food and lived experience shape modern Midwest cooking.

This episode explores Door County food culture through the lens of a chef coming full circle, highlighting the farmers, makers, and landscapes that continue to influence Kat’s work today. It’s a story about home, craft, and why some of the most meaningful meals in the Midwest happen far from the spotlight.

This episode is for anyone interested in chef-driven cooking, seasonal food, regional cuisine, and the people behind great meals.

What Door County ingredient would you build a dinner around?

00:00 Welcome to Wisconsin Foodie
00:14 A Door County homecoming with Chef Kat Turner
00:51 Returning home after Top Chef
01:23 Sourcing cherries with Everlasting Eats
01:59 Door County tart cherries and local juice
02:12 Back on local radio in Door County
03:06 Cooking a dinner rooted in place
03:31 Foraging wild sumac in Door County
04:33 Hand-selecting ingredients across the county
05:10 Ready to cook in Door County
05:26 Lunch at Greystone Castle in Sturgeon Bay
06:10 Midwest comfort food and prime rib
07:23 How Wisconsin shaped Kat’s cooking style
08:26 A classic Door County prime rib sandwich
08:56 Preparing for the homecoming dinner
09:35 Planning the menu and first courses
09:57 Whitefish taramasalata with Charlie’s smoked fish
10:25 Designing a tart cherry meringue dessert
11:13 Cooking with family in the kitchen
11:39 Working with Door County smoked whitefish
12:43 Cooking with foraged sumac
13:01 Childhood food memories in Door County
13:35 Building the tart cherry dessert
14:15 Inside The Dörr Hotel in Sister Bay
15:04 Hosting a Top Chef homecoming dinner
16:04 Final preparations before guests arrive
16:46 A Wisconsin relish tray to start the meal
17:31 Welcoming guests to Dinner at The Dörr
18:03 Tasting Door County whitefish and roe
19:07 Pasta course with Midwest ingredients
19:32 Ribeye and South Indian flavors
20:53 The final dessert course
21:25 Reflections on cooking at home
22:08 A joyful kitchen sendoff
22:22 Wisconsin Foodie underwriters

Featuring ingredients from: Everlasting Eats, Lautenbach's Orchard, Cultured, Henriksen's Fish House, Charlies Smokehouse, Door County Creamery, and more.

#WisconsinFoodie #DoorCounty #TopChef #MidwestFood #ChefLife