‘Top Chef’s Kristen Kish Reveals Reality Show She Wants to Join — That Doesn’t Involve Cooking (Exclusive) originally appeared on Parade.
Will Kristen Kish venture outside of the reality TV kitchen?
As part of Parade’s recent cover story, the Top Chef host was asked what other reality shows she’d be willing to join — that don’t involve cooking.
“I would like to be on American Ninja Warrior,” says Kish, 41. “I don’t have the skillset for it. It has nothing to do with feeling good at it. I just want to try it. I want to try it so bad! Oh, I’d like to do like three days of Alone, but paired with an actual survivalist. I would only last three days.”
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Kish, who won the 10th season of Top Chef in 2013, prefers being on the opposite side of judges table these days.
“I think that there are so many great chefs, so many of my friends have gone on and competed over and over and over again, and they are just so good at it,” she says. “I don’t think that is the natural skillset I have. I would entertain competition cooking shows, but in a less serious like weighted way. So like for charity, perhaps. Or if someone said, ‘Kristen, would you like to go on The Great British Bake Off?’ Absolutely, yes I would. It’s not about all competition cooking shows that scares me. It’s Top Chef and knowing that it is like… I mean, it’s some serious sh—. Like it’s hard. I don’t need to feel that again.”
When Kish competed on the series, she was eliminated during the Restaurant Wars challenge but made her way back into the competition by way of Last Chance Kitchen.
“My first feeling when I got eliminated was relief because I was tired,” she tells Parade. “I was exhausted, mentally and physically. I think that judges table was going on for… I mean, back then, stew room was like eight hours. It was crazy. And so it was well into like 2 a.m. You’re standing there, I was hungry, and I was tired. When I was eliminated, I felt, ‘OK, finally I can go sit down, I can eat, I can, like, sleep.’ Very quickly I realized that the desire to make it back in was far more than what I ever expected it to be.”
She adds, “Yeah, it was an emotional rollercoaster.”
Related: ‘My Whole Life, I Was Scared of Being Judged.’ Now Kristen Kish Is Authentically Herself (Exclusive)
In Kish’s Parade cover story, the restaurateur also gets candid about her coming-out journey as she celebrates Pride Month.
“Top Chef really encouraged me to find and to live my true, authentic life,” she says. “My whole entire life, I was scared of being judged for all the different things that I was — internally, externally. And when I went on Top Chef, and I realized that there are so many communities out there cheering for my success and to embrace all the parts of me, it almost gave me more confidence to be more myself.”
‘Top Chef’s Kristen Kish Reveals Reality Show She Wants to Join — That Doesn’t Involve Cooking (Exclusive) first appeared on Parade on Jun 5, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 5, 2025, where it first appeared.
