Kristen Kish
American chef and television presenter
Biography
Kristen Kish is an American chef and television presenter who won the tenth season of Top Chef in 2012 and has hosted the show since its twenty-first season. Her career shows how restaurant cooking and food television have become closely intertwined over the past decade.
She was born in Seoul in 1983 and adopted at four months old by a family in Kentwood, Michigan. After a year of studying international business and economics at university, she trained in culinary arts at Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago. She then worked in Boston kitchens, eventually becoming chef de cuisine at Stir and later at Menton, both run by Barbara Lynch. Her style is described as contemporary French cuisine with Italian influence.
In 2017 she published her first cookbook, and in 2018 she opened Arlo Grey in Austin, Texas. Since 2024 she has been Chef-in-Residence at the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. In 2025 she published her memoir, Accidentally on Purpose, which became a New York Times bestseller.
Key contributions
- Winning the tenth season of Top Chef, which brought her wide public recognition.
- Hosting Top Chef from its twenty-first season, becoming a central figure in its presentation of professional cooking.
- Co-hosting 36 Hours and Fast Foodies, shows that bring local dining and fast food into television.
- The cookbook Kristen Kish Cooking: Recipes and Techniques (2017), co-authored with Meredith Erickson.
- Arlo Grey in Austin, Texas, opened in 2018.