Top Chef has announced its season 10 winner Kristen Kish as the show’s new host.
She will be replacing Padma Lakshmi, who departed after the conclusion ofTop Chef: World All-Stars season 20.
Kish, 39, has served as guest judge multiple times during the span of the popular cooking show. She will begin her new stint with the forthcoming season of Top Chef, which will be set in Wisconsin.
Kish will be joined by head judge Tom Colicchio and judge Gail Simmons.
Lakshmi announced her departure from Top Chef just ahead of season 20’s finale.
The 52-year-old television host said she now needs to “make space” for her Hulu series Taste the Nation, her books, and “other creative pursuits.”
“‘Top Chef’ is where I started my journey – first as a competing chef, then a guest judge and now as host I have the honour of helping to continue to build this brand,” Kish said.
“I’m thrilled to sit alongside Gail and Tom as we get to know new incredible chefs and see what they cook up. It feels like coming home.”
Speaking of Kish’s new role, Ryan Flynn, senior vice president of current production at NBCUniversal Television and Streaming said: “Kristen Kish represents everything that makes Top Chef incredibly special.
“She’s an acclaimed chef and her experience as a cheftestant, winner and judge, alongside her culinary curiosity, makes Kristen the perfect host for the next chapter of Top Chef as we take on a new region of the country we haven’t explored.”
Kish won the title of Top Chef in 2013. Soon after that, she went on to host Travel Channel’s 36 Hours.
She is currently a co-host of Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend and the host and producer of Restaurants at the End of the World.
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Kish was born in South Korea before being adopted into a family in Kentwood, Michigan. The chef attended Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago to pursue her culinary career and spent 10 years cooking in high end Boston restaurants.
“Kristen is a beloved part of the Top Chef family, and we’re thrilled to have her join and bring to the competition her unique, fresh and global culinary perspective, as well as her true passion for food,” Magical Elves co-CEOs Casey Kriley and Jo Sharon said in a joint statement.
“We look forward to Season 21 and know our incoming chefs will be inspired by the bourgeoning culinary scene in Milwaukee and Madison known for blending tradition with innovation and utilizing farm fresh ingredients.”
Top Chef season 21 will explore the “energetic and unique culinary scenes” in Wisconsin’s Milwaukee and Madison.
