Kristen Kish (born December 1, 1983) is a

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-born American chef known for winning the tenth season of ''

Top Chef ''Top Chef'' is an American reality competition television series which premiered on Bravo on March 8, 2006. The show features chefs competing against each other in culinary challenges. The contestants are judged by a panel of professional ch ...

''. She was formerly

chef de cuisine A chef de cuisine (, French for ''head of kitchen'') or head chef is a chef that leads and manages the kitchen and chefs of a restaurant or hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities ...

at Menton in the Fort Point neighborhood of Boston. She is the host of ''36 Hours'' on

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...

and a co-host of '' Fast Foodies'' on

TruTV TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts comedy, docusoaps and reality shows. The channel was originally launched in 1991 as Court TV, a network that fo ...

as well as co-host of '' Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend''. She also hosts National Geographic’s '' Restaurants at the End of the World''.

Early life and education

Kristen Kish was born in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

, and adopted by a family in

Kentwood, Michigan Kentwood is a city in Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 54,304 as of the 2020 census. The city is bordered on the northwest by Grand Rapids and is the third most-populated municipality in the Grand Rapids metropolitan ...

, at the age of four months.mlive.com
'Top Chef: Seattle': Meet Kristen Kish, Kentwood native competing on upcoming season of Bravo reality show
November 5, 2012. Accessed March 7, 2013. She worked as a model in high school. She attended Le Cordon Bleu in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, earning an A.A. in culinary arts.

Career

Kish became an instructor at Stir, a culinary demonstration kitchen in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

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. In 2012, Kish was promoted to Stir's ''

'' by the owner, Barbara Lynch. She was the ''

'' at Barbara Lynch's

Menton Menton (; , written ''Menton'' in classical norm or ''Mentan'' in Mistralian norm; it, Mentone ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera, close to the Italian border. Me ...

in Boston until March 2014. In 2017, she released a book of recipes co-authored with Meredith Erickson, ''Kristen Kish Cooking: Recipes and Techniques''. In May 2018, Kish became chef at her new restaurant Arlo Grey in Austin, Texas.

''Top Chef''

Kish competed in Bravo's ''Top Chef'' in 2012. She was invited to participate in the qualifying rounds alongside her friend from culinary school Stephanie Cmar, being tasked with creating a signature soup that would be judged by Emeril Lagasse. Kish passed the challenge and moved on into the competition proper. From there Kish won four elimination challenges before being eliminated during "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. Kish defeated Williamson and was crowned the Top Chef, becoming the second female winner in the history of the Top Chef franchise.

''36 Hours''

In 2015 Kish co-hosted the pilot season of ''36 Hours'', a series on the

with Kyle Martino, a TV analyst and former soccer player. The show, an adaptation of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' travel column of the same name, follows Kish and Martino as they spend 36 hours eating, drinking, and exploring a given city.

''Fast Foodies''

Starting in 2021, Kish is one of three chefs featured on

's cooking competition show '' Fast Foodies'', alongside Jeremy Ford (winner of '' Top Chef: California'') and Justin Sutherland (winner of an '' Iron Chef America'' episode, participant on '' Top Chef: Kentucky''). In each episode, a celebrity presents their favorite fast-food item. The chefs then compete in two rounds. First, they try to duplicate the dish as exactly as possible. Second, they re-imagine the item in a haute-cuisine interpretation.

''Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend''

Kish serves as one of the co-presenters, alongside

Alton Brown Alton Crawford Brown Jr. (born July 30, 1962) is an American television personality, food show presenter, chef, author, voice actor, and cinematographer. He is the creator and host of the Food Network television show '' Good Eats'' that ran for ...

and Chairman

Mark Dacascos Mark Alan Dacascos (born February 26, 1964) is an American actor, martial artist and television personality. He won numerous karate and kung fu championships between the ages of 7 and 18. He is known for his roles as Wo Fat in '' Hawaii Five-0' ...

, on '' Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend'', the 2022 Netflix revival of the ''

Iron Chef is a Japanese television cooking show produced by Fuji Television. The series, which premiered on October 10, 1993, was a stylized cook-off featuring guest chefs challenging one of the show's resident "Iron Chefs" in a timed cooking battle bui ...

'' franchise. Kish provides running commentary with Brown on the competition and often serves as the show's floor reporter, coming down to the kitchen floor to check with chefs on what they are doing.

''Restaurants at the End of the World''

In this 2023 National Geographic series, Kish visits restaurants in faraway places where the menu is focused on local ingredients and challenging preparation while showcasing the talents of chefs worldwide.

Personal life

On March 28, 2014, Kish publicly

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

after announcing the first anniversary of the relationship with her girlfriend at the time, Jacqueline Westbrook, over Instagram. On September 29, 2019, Kish announced her engagement to Bianca Dusic, who is the VP of Food & Beverage for Standard Hotels, in an Instagram post. They married on April 18, 2021.

References

External links

* Bravo TV.com, http://www.bravotv.com/people/kristen-kish/bio , accessed 3 March 2013. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kish, Kristin Top Chef winners Living people American adoptees Chefs from Boston American women chefs South Korean emigrants to the United States Alumni of Le Cordon Bleu 1983 births People from Kentwood, Michigan LGBT people from Michigan American LGBT people of Asian descent South Korean lesbians American lesbians Asian American chefs 21st-century American women LGBT chefs