Dan: "My dish here is smoked walleye, lemongrass, turmeric, brown butter emulsion, potato dumplings, and then some herbs. Basically, my growth here is I was learning to just cook from a sense of place, and that's the backbone of this dish is all about Wisconsin. And then from there, I refuse to put myself in a box. Therefore, I love the idea of global influence with stuff like turmeric. I just went for it."

Judges, behind the scenes ...

"Absolute maximalist."

"Yes."

"It's a lot of everything, but many of these elements work."

"I love smoke. But I'm finding that all I'm eating is smoke."

"I like the contrast in that smoky flavor to the richness and depth of the broth. But it needed something fresh. It was really heavy for me."

"It feels to me like the story and the dish from Dan were a little bit muddled."

"I'm not getting turmeric, I'm not getting lemongrass. But the flavor that's there is good. There's just a lot going on. It's really suffering from an identity crisis. "