There’s been an explosion of interest in Taliesin since the April 10 airing of the Frank Lloyd Wright episode of “Top Chef,” partially set at the architect’s estate just south of Spring Green.
Carrie Rodamaker, executive director of Taliesin Preservation, said Taliesin, an 800-acre UNESCO World Heritage site, had 20,000 new users to its website April 9-17.
Carrie Rodamaker, executive director of Taliesin Preservation, shows off the Spring Green Restaurant at Riverview Terrace.
Among those users, there were 176 conversions into reservations for tours, totaling $27,000 in revenue, Rodamaker said. Tours are $98, or $93 for seniors, active or veteran military, teachers, students and children 8 to 10. The average purchase is about two tickets, depending on what tour people choose, she said.
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“That equaled a 42% increase in sales for that period of time,” Rodamaker said.
In the episode, dubbed “The Wright Way,” the “cheftestants” were told to take inspiration from the work of Richland Center-born Wright, one of the best-known architects in the world.
Host Kristen Kish told the chefs that they’d be driving along the Frank Lloyd Wright Trail, which runs between Racine and Richland Center, making stops at the Wright-inspired Monona Terrace in Madison and Taliesin.
The chefs started at Burnham Block, a collection of six 1916 prairie-style homes in Milwaukee designed by Wright. Kish called them one of the earliest examples of affordable, small-scale dwellings.
At Taliesin, they got tours of Wright’s home and drafting studio. Wright lived at Taliesin for nearly 50 years. Taliesin means “shining brow” in Welsh, in honor of Wright’s Welsh heritage. It is built on the “brow” of a hill in Wisconsin’s Driftless region.
Taliesin Preservation is a nonprofit organization with a mission to educate the public on Wright’s life and ideas, and help preserve the natural and cultural environments.
Rodamaker said she could talk for hours about what it was like to host “Top Chef,” which she called wonderful.
She said she got an email and a phone call from Destination Madison and Travel Wisconsin in May saying there was a culinary cooking show that was interested in learning about places around the state.
Rodamaker met the show’s producers in Madison and found out filming would be in August.
She said producers and directors for “Top Chef’s” production company Magical Elves came out to Taliesin to get an idea of what they wanted to showcase. That included the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center, also known as Riverview Terrace Cafe, and the contestants wound up cooking in its commercial kitchen.
Rodamaker said the chefs were at Taliesin for a day and a half. The half day found them touring the building and the grounds and sitting in the drafting studio brainstorming what to make.
"The Wright Way" episode features the chefs at Taliesin, from left, Charly Pierre, Manuel "Manny" Barella Lopez, Dan Jacobs, Danny Garcia, Laura Ozyilmaz, Savannah Miller, Rasika Venkatesa, Amanda Turner, Michelle Wallace, Kevin D'Andrea, Aisha Elenz and Kaleena Bliss.
The contestants paired up into teams of two and created two dishes with a theme of duality. The chefs shopped at the old Whole Foods Market in Madison and were given three hours to prep and cook.
Celebrity judge Tom Colicchio called Riverview Terrace Cafe the only restaurant that Wright ever designed.
Cafe to reopen
The cafe was closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and is scheduled to reopen May 1 for the coming season. It will be open from 11 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. daily.
Rodamaker said Taliesin was also a farm and a school. “Because there was a farm, they were self-sustainable. So, the idea of food and farming goes hand in hand with Taliesin.”
In 2018, Taliesin started a Food Artisan Immersion program with famed Madison chef Odessa Piper. The program was shut down during the pandemic and is starting back up this year, renamed The Field School.
Rodamaker said she was happy to tell Taliesin’s culinary story. “It’s really is full circle to what Wright was intending to do,” she said.
She said the show’s production team showed up at 4 a.m. and stayed until about 8 p.m. “So, it was a long day, but it was a lot of fun.”
Taliesin closed for the entire day of filming. It wasn’t open to the public for tours and minimized its staff because everything had to be hush hush, she said.
Rodamaker said they knew Taliesin was the site of the elimination challenge. But they didn’t want to know who got eliminated because they didn’t want to hold onto secret knowledge for months and be responsible if it leaked. “We just wanted to minimize any chance for mistakes.”
The judges for the "The Wright Way" episode were Tom Colicchio, from left, Gail Simmons, Kristen Kish, Dominique Crenn and Buddha Lo.
‘It’s about time’
She said she’s been an intermittent fan of “Top Chef.” She had watched a few episodes because she liked Padma Lakshmi, who hosted the show from its beginning in 2006 until last year.
“I was interested in her and fascinated with her and her career,” Rodamaker said. “And that’s usually what would tune me into watching it. And then, of course, once I heard ‘Top Chef’ was coming, then I thought, ‘Oh boy, I better dive into this more and really see what it’s about.’”
Rodamaker said she’s excited not just for the attention the show has brought to Taliesin, but also to Madison and the state of Wisconsin.
“To be on such a national and international level,” she said. “It’s about time. We all know how special the state is and all of the assets that we have and ‘Top Chef’ is one of those.”
The show, which airs Wednesday nights on Bravo, generally gets about 600,000 viewers per episode.
Rodamaker said the show has “hardcore, serious followers. And you know, the food scene is so big right now — ecotourism, agritourism is so big right now. And so it’s just like this pinnacle of all of these things.”
The nonprofit Taliesin Preservation educates the public on Frank Lloyd Wright's life and ideas, and helps to preserve natural and cultural environments.
