Savannah Miller on Calabrian Chilis, Cranberry Vinegar and ‘Top Chef’s’ High-Stakes Cooking

This story originally published online at the 9th Street Journal.

A Vermont maple block, malt vinegar powder, cranberry vinegar, smoked Calabrian chilis, dried yuzu peel, bonito flakes, aged soy sauce, mustard powder, shirodashi, and transglutaminase: the secret ingredients for recent Top Chef runner-up, Savannah Miller.

Contestants of Bravo’s popular competitive cooking show are allowed a select 10 ingredients to bring with them to the show. For Miller, chef at Durham’s M Tempura restaurant who was featured on the show’s most recent season in June, the collection meant more than your average grocery list.

“I wanted to bring things that felt like my history,” Miller said with the chop of a lotus root as she prepared for a Wednesday dinner service at M Tempura.

After falling in love with cooking while working in restaurants during high school, Miller moved to Vermont to study at the New England Culinary Institute. Two years later, she packed up again and started working at the Boston restaurant, Townsman.

It was at Townsman, which served farm-to-table, New England-style cuisine, that Miller learned the power of malt vinegar powder’s “acid” and “zing” to liven up brussel sprouts, french fries, and potato chips.

Originally from Pinehurst, North Carolina, Miller returned to the South in 2017, eventually joining M Tempura in 2018, where she met her fiancé. The Durham restaurant serves up delicately deep-fried dishes — accented by dried yuzu peel, bonito flakes, soy sauce, mustard powder, and shirodashi, among other flavors — in the Japanese tempura style.

After spending time in New England, Miller said she was able to better appreciate North Carolina’s fresh ingredients.

“I didn’t realize I grew up with the best sweet potatoes in the world, but now I do,” Miller said on coming back down South.

In 2022, Miller left M Tempura to help open the upscale eatery Glasshouse Kitchen in Research Triangle Park, taking on the role of executive chef. The opportunity allowed Miller to start from scratch, answering questions like, “What is the cuisine going to be here? What is your voice, what is the menu that you want?”

Then came Top Chef.

“I’d always wanted to do it,” Miller explained as she washed and deveined silver shrimp.

“For me, it was something that I thought maybe I would be ready for in five years. And I always said five years, five years, no matter how much older I got, because it’s daunting and it’s scary,” she continued.

As if by kismet, the show approached her first.

Miller was skeptical about the Instagram direct message she received from the producers, thinking it was probably spam. When they reached out again, Miller realized the opportunity was legit, and the process was set in motion.

“The moment that I knew I was actually talking to somebody from the show, the whole mentality changed. It was basically like, not ‘Will I get on?,’ but like, ‘I am going, and I’m going to be ready, because if I get it, I’ll be the most prepared I can be’.”

Top Chef follows a group of professional chefs as they compete in culinary challenges for a prize of $250,000. Miller’s season filmed in Wisconsin last August to November, including a six-week production break before the finale.

With the show’s high-pressure challenges, training was essential. In the months before traveling to Wisconsin, Miller stuck large Post-it easel pads around her kitchen to map out different dishes and prepare for the challenges.

“That was like our war room,” Miller said of her home kitchen.

Miller trained with the help of her fiancé, Justin Nye, who now works as a full-time farmer. Nye’s yield includes flowers and produce for M Tempura as well as the chilis Miller packed for the show.

Fresh, locally sourced ingredients are a priority for Miller, too.

With that in mind, Miller brought cranberry vinegar to Top Chef, an infusion made from a fruit native to Wisconsin. The show’s challenges often pay homage to the production location — and Miller had done her research.

Some moments during the show, though, were impossible to anticipate. While completing a fish boil challenge, Miller sliced her hand with a knife.

“You know, it is really stressful, and it can be hard to keep your composure and keep moving,” Miller said of the incident. “Not only are you like dealing with the same pain and adrenaline of that situation, but you’re being timed, and people are rounding the corner and they’re about to judge you. And you also know that there’s a…diary of videos that will be put on national TV.”

The clip where Miller cuts her hand is posted on the NBC Website under the title “A Lot of Blood,” she said with a chuckle.

Top Chef is a legacy show in the ever-expanding realm of reality television cooking competitions. Premiering in 2006, the show has filmed 21 seasons and spurred spin-offs such as “Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen,” and “Top Chef Jr.” These days, the culinary theme has boiled over into scripted TV shows too, like FX’s wildly popular “The Bear.”

“I think it’s pretty spot on,” Miller said of “The Bear.”

The FX show is known for its fast-paced depiction of a kitchen, an environment in which Miller says she thrives.

“I think it’s like pretty ideal for me. I just don’t know if I have the attention span for other avenues, but I’ve also just been someone who thrives, like under pressure — versus, if you give me too long to figure something out then I might never actually do it.”

Miller continued, “But if it’s like, ‘Do it right now and everyone’s watching,’ I can excel in that manner.”

After the show wrapped, Miller returned to M Tempura, ready to go back to an intimate restaurant setting. When she’s not working, Miller is busy with wedding planning and spending as much time as possible at home with her fiancé, cat, and dog.

“Everything takes so much time these days, so we try to carve out some time,” Miller said.

Around her, Miller’s colleagues set silverware onto dark wooden tables and weave through the open kitchen.

Dinner service is about to begin.

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