Host of Top Chef; Chef/Owner Arlo Grey, Austin, TX
In July 2023, Kristen Kish was named the host of Top Chef with season 21, after Padma Lakshmi stepped away from the franchise to pursue other efforts.
She was no newcomer to the show. Kish competed in Bravo’s Top Chef in 2012, season 10. She was invited to participate in the qualifying rounds alongside her friend from culinary school Stephanie Cmar.
She created a signature soup that was judged by Emeril Lagasse, passed the challenge and moved on to the competition. From there, she won four elimination challenges before being eliminated in Restaurant Wars (episode 11).
She was able to win her way back into the main competition with five consecutive victories in Last Chance Kitchen, making it to the finale with Brooke Williamson. She defeated Williamson and was crowned the Top Chef, becoming the second female winner in the history of the Top Chef franchise.
She is also the host 36 Hours on Travel Channel, a co-host of Fast Foodies on TruTV, a co-host of Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend, and host of National Geographic’s Restaurants at the End of the World.
Kish was born in South Korea and was adopted by a family in Kentwood, Michigan, at the age of four months. She attended Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago, earning an A.A. in Culinary Arts.
Kish became an instructor at Stir, a culinary demonstration kitchen in Boston, Massachusetts. In 2012, Kish was promoted to Stir’s chef de cuisine by the owner, Barbara Lynch. She was the chef de cuisine at Barbara Lynch’s Menton in Boston until March 2014.
In 2017, she released a book of recipes co-authored with Meredith Erickson, Kristen Kish Cooking: Recipes and Techniques. Since 2018, Kish has been the chef at her new restaurant Arlo Grey in Austin, Texas. Meet Kristen Kish, the host of our favorite culinary shows!
Walk us through your career track and how you found your passion for the culinary field.
It all started with cooking shows on TV when I was five years old, Great Chefs of the World – it was very minimal production and just cooking. I gravitated towards it and it all just took off from there. I became enamored with the process of cooking. TV allowed me to learn and travel through the screen.
Tell us about your experience as an instructor at Stir, a culinary demonstration kitchen in Boston, Massachusetts.
Stir was a special job where I learned incredible skills that I may have not learned in a traditional restaurant setting. How to talk to guests, guide them through a meal, dance the dance all within a very intimate space. It was a chef’s table dinner every night. I learned how to be comfortable in front of people and entertaining them all while creating a delicious meal.
In 2017, the book of recipes co-authored with Meredith Erickson, Kristen Kish Cooking: Recipes and Techniques was published. Why did you write the book?
I was offered to entertain a cookbook and it sounded appealing not just from a business stand point but at that time in my career as people are getting to know me, a cookbook and storytelling through food is a great platform to do that.
If you were to pinpoint some of the most important elements required for being a successful chef and restaurateur, what would they be and why?
The importance of team and support, not one of us can do it alone. Know your strengths but more importantly your weakness’ so you can impart the players that make the business whole.
You’ve had many mentors, tell us about them, their help and advice, and their influences in your personal and professional life.
The greatest mentors my life has seen are the ones that encouraged me to find me, find my why. Under their direction I was encouraged to explore and play, push myself to new places with their support and forge my own way.
Barbara Lynch showed me that I was great and I could do more than the limits I put on myself. She provided me opportunity and I wouldn’t have gone on Top Chef without her push.
What is one piece of advice you would give to others who are just starting out in the culinary industry?
Patience and humility.
You recently spoke at the Summer Fancy Food Show, please share your words of wisdom for emerging brands.
Professionally speaking there are so many things I could share, but before you get to that spot it starts with the personal things you need to work on. In order for me to be good at my job, I first had to be okay with me. As soon as I started being me and came out and living my life truly and truly being me and feeling good about it, my professional life took off.
You’ve said that with your success has come the ability to travel.
I used to only travel with my stomach and I let my stomach lead the way. If you’re an adoptee [like me] you know what it means to be chosen into a family and chosen by any family and wanting to travel [means imagining a life] that possibly could’ve been my own. My desire to travel is more a curiosity of people and cultures, the food is a natural part of that.
You’ve said that you don’t like trends since the personality and uniqueness of a dish can be lost once everyone is doing the same thing.
The opposite of trends is when you see an individual story and a stamp on somebody that is different. You just have to tap into you and that will be inherently different. Exceptional food comes with a story.
