Kyle Knall, chef/owner of Birch in Milwaukee, joined the judges' table during a recent "Top Chef" episode filmed at Harbor House. Kyle reflects on his own decision to move from a major market back to the state, and shares insight on how this season's competitors have grown.

Then we hear from "Top Chef" lead culinary producer Jamie Lauren, a former competitor herself (Season 5). Jamie's job is now to head up the team that makes sure the competing chefs have every ingredient and every tool they need for every challenge. We get into some good stories -- the fish boil at Grant Park Beach, she said, was "the scariest moment in all the seasons that I've worked the show."

Stephanie Bedford, a local book critic, food freelancer and fiction writer, reserved the URL TopSteph.com about 30 seconds after learning the show was coming to Wisconsin. A minute after that, I hired her on to do recaps for the Cap Times.

This week on the podcast, we talk about how Steph came to be the ideal Top Chef recapper, what challenges she has loved and who she's rooting for now.

Then I'm talking with Olivia Stowell, who as a PhD candidate at the University of Michigan has made a serious study of reality TV. Did you know that Top Chef is a "game documentary?"

This episode contains spoilers for the "Lay It All On the Table" Elimination Challenge on Episode 11 of "Top Chef" Season 21.

This week we hear from Wisconsin's first "Top Chef" contestant, James Beard-nominated Milwaukee chef Dan Jacobs.

Jacobs talks about how team challenges remind him of youth sports, what his favorite challenge has been so far this season, and what it was really like to boil fish on Grant Park Beach in a "smoke tunnel." ("My notebook from 'Top Chef' still smells like a campfire," he said.)

Also on this week's show, host Lindsay Christians talks with Fortune Favors CEO Sam McDaniel about how the Madison company product-placed their candied pecans, and the power television can have on sales for a growing food business.

This episode contains spoilers for the fish boil Elimination Challenge on Episode 10 of "Top Chef" Season 21.