Kristen Kish was in the middle of a workout when her phone started buzzing the morning of July 17, the day Emmy nominations were announced. The former “Top Chef” champion, who took over as host of the Bravo cooking competition in Season 21 following Padma Lakshmi’s departure in 2023, had strategically planned a run as a means to distract herself and to mitigate any nerves. When she checked the flood of text messages and phone calls pouring in from her manager, friends and colleagues, they weren’t solely celebrating “Top Chef’s” 18th consecutive nomination for outstanding reality competition program. Kish had just become a first-time Emmy nominee for her debut season hosting the beloved franchise.
The nomination was “unexpected,” said Kish, who received a congratulatory text from Lakshmi soon after the announcement. Amid a season of significant change for “Top Chef” — which included major format tweaks, rule modifications and ramped-up stakes — the nomination was validation that what she did worked as she ushered in the beginning of a new era for the long-running cooking show.
“With anything in my career, a lot of these things come as complete surprises and shocks,” acknowledged Kish, who said getting an official Emmy invite is “wild.” “I would have probably put money that I would have been invited to the [James] Beard Awards before the Emmys, but this is pretty awesome.”
Congratulations on your first Emmy nomination. Has it sunk in for you?
It’s sunk in as much as it can. It’ll really sink in when I step foot in L.A. for the actual Emmy Awards. It’s all good and overwhelming, like where your brain hasn’t really caught up.
How did your family react to the news?
The way that my family operates is that — and this is the most charming, amazing thing about them — no one really expected my life to go in this direction. Any moment of celebration, whether it be competing on “Top Chef,” winning “Top Chef” and then becoming the host, the reaction is always the same. [It’s] always with a lot of pride and excitement. My mom, at first, was like, “Oh my god, I have full-body goosebumps!” I don’t always know if they understand the world that I work in all the time, but they certainly are people who know what the Emmys are.
You’ve said that you plan to celebrate this life moment with a new tattoo. Have you decided what it’ll be?
I like getting tattoos and I like them to be meaningful. The majority of them, 90% of them, are [there] because of something that happened in my life. If I knew what it was, would I say it right now? No. But I don’t know what it’s going to be yet.
You were on “Top Chef” as a competitor and won Season 10. How did that past experience help you navigate hosting it for the first time?
They’re so different but they’re also alike at the same time. The greatest benefit that I had being a competitor was being familiar with how the show is and having developed relationships with Tom [Colicchio] and Gail [Simmons]. That was one of the most important pieces. There are a lot of new changes — I was not the only thing changing but I was a very visible part of that change. With that comes a lot of responsibility. There’s a little bit of pressure, but Tom and Gail reminded me before we started filming last season: “Your job is not to be anybody else and simply to be you.”
Now that you have a season under your belt, how did hosting “Top Chef” line up with your initial expectations?
I try to go into things with very low expectations. It’s a way of managing feelings of self-doubt. I used to put a lot of unrealistic expectations on myself. There’s plenty of other people who do that, but for me, the expectation is to do my job, to do it well and to do what the show needs me to do. Having done this first season, I now know going into Season 22 I need to be far less hard on myself and far less nervous and worried about doing a good job because I did it.
Season 21 featured key changes to the format, from cash rewards for quickfires to immunity for winners of elimination challenges to a reimagining of “Restaurant Wars.” Do you view this as a new “Top Chef” era?
“Top Chef” has been evolving since Season 1, and from Season 20 to Season 21, there were a lot of changes in terms of how the show looked. But the heart and the core of “Top Chef” have always stayed the same: the chefs and cooking. Everything else around it evolves over time. I think back to Seasons 1, 2 and 3 — those early seasons were focused on [moments] outside of the kitchen because that’s what television was. It’s evolved into focusing on the cooking while giving a story of who these chefs are so the people at home have something to connect to.
Is there a memorable moment when you think back on Season 21?
All of it, because it was my first season. For Season 21, I was really excited to say [to winner Danny Garcia], “You are Top Chef!” That was a memorable moment. I know exactly the feeling of hearing it and what that meant when the camera stopped rolling and you went back to real life. It’s completely life-changing.
You’re preparing for Season 22, which takes place in Canada. What are you looking forward to?
I’m excited about Canada. I get to use my passport! [Laughs] Even last year I was like, “I’m so excited to do it again.” The greatest feeling is to go into Season 22 knowing I already did Season 21. You get over that hump of doing it for the first time. Personally, there’s a lot less pressure I’m putting on myself because I know what the role is. I know what to do. I know the things that I was worrying about that I don’t need to worry about. And I’m excited to see everybody again. I had such a phenomenal experience being part of Season 21 that there’s nothing not to look forward to for Season 22.
A version of this story first ran in the Down to the Wire Comedy Series issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
Read more from the Down to the Wire Comedy Series issue here.
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