New 'Top Chef' Host Kristen Kish on Overall Nerves and Saying "Please Pack Your Knives and Go"
The former winner and guest judge also talks wardrobe and Season 21 changes for the Bravo reality competition series.
First, a reminder to fill out the Coffee, TV & Me survey posted earlier this week. It won’t take long and can be found right here. (If you tried previously and had a technical issue, the Survey Monkey survey will work.) Big thanks for your participation!
It’s quite a wondrous story that Kristen Kish is even a part of the Top Chef family given when she was a contestant during the Bravo reality competition series’ Seattle-based tenth season, she was eliminated during Restaurant Wars. That could’ve been the end of Kish’s journey on TV but with the addition during season nine of Last Chance Kitchen, an online component where eliminated chefs competed against other eliminated chefs the ultimate winner being allowed to re-enter the main competition again. Kish won Last Chance Kitchen, re-entered the competition and then won the season.
Since then she’s returned to Top Chef several times as a guest judge, competed on Top Chef: Duels, was one of the chefs on TruTV’s Fast Foodies and last year hosted her own engaging travel cooking series on Nat Geo, Restaurants at the End of the World. She also happens to own one my must-stop restaurants in Austin, Arlo Grey.
Once it was announced last year that longtime host Padma Lakshmi was departing Top Chef, the announcement that Kish would take over the duties just made sense. The Grand Rapids, Michigan native brings a genuine down-to-earth quality whenever she’s on-camera and you can always see that she just loves food and how food comes together before, during and after the kitchen.
Being a Top Chef fan since day one, I grabbed some time with Kish last week after previewing the first season of season 21. It will come to no surprise that Kish nails her hosting duties and helps set up an exciting season in the state of Wisconsin.
True or false was the offer to host, did you see this hosting gig coming? Was it out of the blue? Kristen Kish: No. False. False, false, false. All the falses in the world times infinity. No, I absolutely did not see it coming. Even when when I got the call that Bravo wanted to talk to me, it was still like, wait, huh? It was completely out of left field. I did not expect even the consideration of me.
We’re both Midwesterners. I’m originally from Indiana. So did Wisconsin surprise you? I grew up across the lake nearly directly across the lake from Milwaukee, from Lake Michigan, and I was familiar with the area. I'm familiar with that part of the Midwest, the people I'm familiar with, the accent. There are a lot of things that I knew for certain.
I don't know if I was surprised by anything but I was pleasantly excited to learn about the new things that maybe I didn't know about. Of course, dairy, right? But learning about dairy and where it comes from, who makes it, the families, the generation patterns, the immigration patterns that developed fantastic restaurants in the area, the indigenous land from one of our challenges. There was a lot to be learned, and I knew that certainly there was a lot more to be learned from my experience in Michigan. I was happy to be there.
Were there big discussions on your wardrobe as host? So Charlotte, who is the wardrobe stylist for me, Tom [Colicchio] and Gail [Simmons], she does a great job. She also did Restaurants at the End of the World. I've known her through the years of judging and coming on to guest judge so I trusted her already. She had already been to my house to do the Nat Geo fittings, so she was very patient with me. You'll see it as the season goes on that I got more adventurous. I just needed to open up with me feeling like me because if I don't feel like me already in a position that is brand new, I'm going to feel out of my body and I will feel out of sorts. And the goal is to feel comfortable, especially on this first episode. So she was very aware of making sure I was in clothes that did not push me out my comfort zone.
What were your level of nerves at the start of the season compared to the end? A lot in the beginning because I feel like that anticipatory anxiety kicks in so even before we started filming, before I even touched down in Milwaukee, I'm thinking and anxious about the things that haven't even happened yet. So I'm creating all these worst case scenarios in my brain. Going into it, I was incredibly nervous and it's not just nervous because of this new job, it's new, it's nervous because it is a beloved show. I don't want to let myself down or this idea of letting someone else down. And then you have the added pressure of the public of stepping into Padma’s position.
I will say going as we carried on [through the season], I was appropriately nervous because that is just by nature of who I am, every new episode is different. It's like having a dinner party with new people every single night when we go sit down and taste the food. That was something I had to get better at. And as it went on, I got more and more comfortable with not only generating conversation but leading conversation at those tables when we're tasting food.
What’s new in season 21? First and foremost, we say right in the first 10 minutes there's no more immunities for Quickfires and there'll be immunities for Elimination Challenges for the following elimination challenge. So that's a brand new thing. They've never done that before. It adds a little bit more oomph and fire under the chefs to want to always want to cook their best. Also, I think a great perk is having money attached to every single Quickfire. Playing for money is a new concept to a lot of these chefs. It certainly was for me. So you're like, ‘whoa, you can win $5,000 for just cooking?’
Tom and Gail join me midseason for Quickfires, which is awesome because it allows us to all have a collective conversation. And so there's not just one person having tasted all the quickfire dishes anymore. It comes into play, especially as decisions get harder and things get closer and the chefs are cooking better as they find their footing. We're allowed to bring in those conversations from that challenge of the quickfire, which is important to have, I think.
What are the challenges in trying to sound fresh whenever you're talking about what you're eating, because you guys do it a lot every episode and then throughout the whole season. Just so what you’re saying isn’t repetitive overall. That's a great question. Personally, Gail has so many beautiful words and she strings together what she's tasting in such a poetic way. I love listening to it. Tom is so on the fly, he is a chef in a restaurant and he knows how to talk to people and whether he is describing food or giving a pep talk, he has a way of being that motivating seasoned chef just looking up to. For me, I'm like, ‘oh man, I don't have to sound like them.’ So no matter how I say something, I'm automatically going to sound different.
But there's only so many ways you can say something. We are describing it for the viewers at home so if it's salty and over seasoned, it's salty and over seasoned. There's no way of putting it because that is how the viewer at home will then be able to understand the dish. But I'm going to start reading. I'm going to use a thesaurus as my reading material from now on!
What was it like saying those trademark words, ‘please pack your knives and go’ the first time? Awful. It sucks. [The producers] tell me when I can say it, right? So you have to create the pause, like a moment for cameras to reposition. And so then basically in my ear, one of the executive producers goes, ‘okay, go ahead.’ And it gives me the green light to say it. And every time she gives me the green light, I pause for what feels like much longer. And a couple times in my ear she's like, ‘Kristen, you can say it now’ but I'm taking my time, not because I want to take my time, but I'm just generating the courage to say it again.
It's hard because I know what it sounds like to hear it. I know what it feels like to know that you are eliminated. I've felt that. But on the flip side, I get to say, ‘you are Top Chef’ at the end [of the season], and I know what that sounds like. It’s part of the job but it doesn't make it any easier when you have to stomp on someone's dream of becoming a top chef. It sucks.
Backing up, when the chefs are getting the results of the elimination challenge, there’s always this shot of the judges’ table and everyone looks deadly serious. Do you get a ‘be serious’ directive in your ear, too? Oh no. I think it's natural resting face. [laughs] The feedback in our ear is simply, ‘you can start talking now.’ Don't forget, no one's telling you what to say. In fact, Tom hates wearing his little inner earpiece because sometimes it can get a little distracting. And it's really just to keep the momentum going. I also need to remember facts like ‘you have 30 minutes to shop, you have $250, you have dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. This is what your goal is.’ And make sure that everyone understands clearly and concisely, because if you couldn't tell by now, I'm a little long-winded and I could ramble on forever. No, I think it's just by nature. We're just sitting there waiting to have conversations.
You've been on TV quite a bit, not just for Top Chef, and my husband and I loved your Nat Geo show Restaurants at the End of the World. Do you like watching yourself on TV? No, I do it for learning. I'll give you an example. On the very first episode of Restaurants at the End of the World, I'm not part of the editing team so I want to know what the final outcome is. I want to know what people are going to see one so I can speak on it intelligently, and two, make sure they didn't put me picking my nose or something in it. But you kind of watch it just to make sure you know what just went out there. But on the very first of episode of Restaurants at the End of the World, I still give myself my own haircuts. Not on Top Chef, but in my normal upkeep of daily maintenance I do. And I looked at the very first scene and I was like, ‘you’ve got to be fucking kidding me!’ I had no idea I was cutting that far up.
Then, for example, for the very first few episodes of Top Chef, my wife [Bianca Dusic] was there in the control room and she was videoing the monitors to show me. And we do these subconscious involuntary things to self-soothe. At least I do for my anxiety so I fidget with my hands. It's why for a long time I believe I was a smoker. I always had to do something with my hands. So when I'm standing there just delivering lines, I'm not cooking, I'm not doing anything, I'm just standing in place. I shift and I rub my hands together and I play with my rings and fidget and it's soothing you. But to watch it, I can't imagine it's very soothing at all. So my wife, the very first day she showed me the clip and she was like, ‘see what you're doing?’ I was like, ‘I see what I'm doing’ so then I was able to be more aware of it moving forward.
[If you ever get to Austin, Texas, make sure to visit Kish’s Arlo Grey restaurant. You won’t regret it!]
Top Chef: Wisconsin premieres March 20 and airs every Wednesday at 9/8c on Bravo, next day on Peacock.