Head of the table
After Padma Lakshmi stepped down as host of Top Chef after 19 seasons, a previous winner, Kristen Kish, was chosen to take her place. She talks about the job so far
Kristen Kish was going through airport security in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, when the call came that provoked the sort of clock-ticking, accelerated-heart-rate feeling the former Top Chef winner was familiar with during all those Quickfire elimination challenges.
Like most fans of Bravo TV’s cooking competition, Kish was stunned to learn last June that Padma Lakshmi was stepping down as host of Top Chef after 19 seasons. “I could not believe it,” Kish says.
Not long after the announcement, while travelling home to New York from a work trip in Thailand, Kish and her wife landed in Dubai. They were hurrying to catch their connecting flight when Kish turned on her phone and saw texts from her manager.
She called her back, thinking something was wrong, only to find out that Bravo wanted to talk to Kish about hosting the show.
“I call her as I’m waiting in line for security to push my suitcases through,” Kish recalls. “She was like, ‘They would love for you to fly to LA on Tuesday’ – and it was a Sunday. I was like, ‘Sure’. That was it.”
Kish takes over as host on Season 21 of Top Chef, which is now streaming on Bravo. The comeback to Top Chef is fitting for the 39-year-old chef. As a Season 10 contestant in 2013, Kish was the easy-going front-runner before she was eliminated following the show’s Restaurant Wars challenge, after taking responsibility as team leader for the poor preparation timing and a gelatin fumble by a teammate.
But she earned a spot back in the finale after winning on the companion web series Last Chance Kitchen, and then, with the help of an impressive five-course meal that included chicken liver mousse, the overall competition.
In the time since, Kish co-wrote a cookbook, Kristen Kish Cooking; opened the restaurant Arlo Grey in Austin, Texas; and has become more comfortable in front of the camera by appearing on shows such as Fast
Foodies (truTV), Iron Chef: Quest for an
Iron Legend (Netflix), and Restaurants
at the End of the World (National Geographic).
Still, Kish is aware that she has big shoes to fill. After all, Lakshmi nurtured the role and elevated it over nearly two decades, earning four Emmy nominations as host. But Kish did not hesitate to accept the opportunity, even if she second-guessed herself.
“You’re like, ‘Whoa, meee?’” Kish says. “It completely caught me off guard. It’s not like I was, in my brain, preparing for it or even considering that I would even be considered. I don’t want to take away like the fact that I was honoured and so excited.”
Here she talks about the first day as
You’ve done your share of hosting and on-camera work in the time since you won Top Chef. But is it weird to go from being an ex-contestant of Top Chef to its host?
Kish: I’ve known the show to be Padma hosting, just like so many of us. And to be the new person in that mix is the most … I don’t even know if I have a word for it. I probably leaned on the fact that I have been on the show, and have won the show, as a comfort and a validation for myself that I deserve to be there. I think it was just the idea that everybody is probably gonna get used to having to see a new face in that role. As did I.
Is there preparation? Where did you begin?
Kish: No, no preparation. I knew from the moment I said yes and the job was offered to me, you just have to be you. I think, for me, it was more of a mental preparation of wrapping my brain around the idea that it is me doing it.
Whenever you put yourself out there to be judged by the masses – by a lot of people you don’t know, and, quite frankly, don’t know you – it’s terrifying because the internet can be a scary place sometimes. People can be very cruel. What I will say is the feedback and the amount of support has far outweighed any troll here and there.
How was that first day on set as host? What do you remember about walking out there, delivering the first lines?
Kish: The beauty about television is that I can repeat a line over and over and over. And I had to because ... there’s no teleprompter. They tell you in your ear the details of the challenge so you don’t mess it up, right? Because you have to deliver it so everyone at home understands the rules. I don’t register information by hearing it.
That sounds terrifying.
Kish: I’m a visual person. On Iron Chef, when I had to deliver lines, I had a teleprompter and all I had to do was read. So, for me, having to hear it and then push it out took some time.
There was one line … I was trying to introduce somebody and I just could not get it right for the life of me. I did it over and over and over. Gail [Simmons, one of the judges], on the first day, was like, “We can be here as long as you need; everyone’s going to need to do do-overs. And it’s OK.”
I knew that stuff, but hearing permission from seasoned pros, “take your time, take what you need”, that was really supportive, and the support from the crew was wildly helpful.
I know Padma sent you flowers as you began this journey. But what advice did she share?
She didn’t really give me advice. I think that’s a really great compliment because she knows that I have to figure it out on my own. She can’t tell me how to do her job because she knew how to do her job in the way that worked for her. I have to do it in a way that it is me. What she did offer me was support – call, text, write, snail mail, whatever; if I need her, she will be available. Take me back to twenty-something Kristen Kish. Where you were in your life when you auditioned for the show and got the call to be a contestant?
The feedback and the amount of support has far outweighed any troll here and there KRISTEN KISH
Kish: I was in a place where Top Chef wasn’t even on my radar. Never thought I could do it, I never wanted to be on television. It was my boss at the time and she was like, “You got to do it, you can do it.”
Oftentimes, you need other people to see your ability and your greatness to help push you along. That’s what happened, in combination with the fact I was maybe a couple years into my job and it was [on] autopilot a little bit. It was still fun, but it was a little easy.
What can you tease about the season? Were there any moments from the season that surprised?
I was in a place where Top Chef was not even on my radar. Never thought I could do it, I never wanted to be on television KRISTEN KISH
Kish: I don’t know if it’s a tease, but I think it’s a really interesting twist. I was very excited about, on the back half of the season, having Tom and Gail be part of Quickfires [typically it’s the host and a guest judge]. I like hanging out with them.
To be able to have the three of us, tasting the food together, means that if we need – and it’s not every time or, quite frankly, it’s just simply in the moments – if something is so close, and you need to revert back to a Quickfire, you can.
Padma has hosted the show for 19 seasons. If you had your way, how long do you see yourself in this role?
Kish: As long as they’ll have me. I feel like the beauty of Top Chef is not who hosts it or who judges it or what guest judges or celebrities you have on. It is a show for the chefs; it is a show of an opportunity for chefs who are really good at what they do to come on and showcase that and be celebrated for it and to ultimately walk away … with a pocket of opportunities that they wouldn’t have otherwise had before.
I know there’s a lot of like, “Oh, Kristen is the new host” right now. But … without the chefs, you have no show.