‘Top Chef’ Host Kristen Kish Wants Privacy at Dinner

“You can’t talk shit in public, you know what I mean?”
Photo: Art Streiber

When the time came for beloved Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi to pack up her knives and leave the series after nearly 20 seasons, it seemed impossible to replace someone who had become so synonymous with the series. Enter Kristen Kish, who won Top Chef’s tenth season in 2012 and immediately felt like a no-brainer. Kish spent the 12 years following her victory practically training for the gig, putting in time as host of Restaurants at the End of the World, Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend, and travel series 36 Hours as well as appearances on Fast Foodies, Last Chance Kitchen, and Selena + Chef (and many guest-judging stints on Chopped and Top Chef). Kish returned home in 2024 with her own unique flavor of hosting and a particular empathy for the contestants that stemmed from her own time in their position. This year, a whole new audience met Kish thanks to Faithful work on the The Traitors — though she admits she fares much better with kitchen blades than ones used for backstabbing.

When did you know you made it?
Technically, I would constitute my industry as “cooking” and less reality television — I’m a chef who somehow ended up on television. But I don’t necessarily feel like there should ever be a time where you feel like you made it. In the same way I think about my cooking career, there’s never a time in which I “made it.” I’m still learning, growing, and having a good time. Every opportunity that I have on-camera leads to another one.

What did you buy with your first paycheck?
With the Top Chef money, after you pay taxes — pay your taxes, people — I took the money and I put it into an initial down payment for my very first condo. I was in Boston. The jobs that I…

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