Kristen Kish

Kristen Kish competed on Top Chef season 10 in Seattle where she won, becoming the second female chef to win the prestigious competition. Kristen was born in South Korea and adopted into a family in Kentwood, MI. She showed an affinity for cooking at a young age. Her mother suggested she go to culinary school and since attending Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago, she has never looked back.

Kristen has worked in many high-profile restaurants including Michelin-star Chef Guy Martin’s Sensing and Barbara Lynch’s Stir as Chef de Cuisine, overseeing all back of house operations, including the design and execution of nightly menus and demonstration dinners for 10 guests. She went on to become Chef de Cuisine of Menton, Chef Barbara Lynch’s fine dining restaurant. She left in 2014 to travel the world and write a cookbook. Kristen was also co-host of 36 Hours, a show that partnered with The New York Times to bring the hit newspaper column to television.

In October 2017, Kristen launched her first cookbook, Kristen Kish Cooking and the following year she partnered with Sydell group to launch her first restaurant, Arlo Grey. A collaboration between Executive Chef Kristen Kish and Sydell group, the restaurant reflects her playful yet refined cuisine pulling inspiration from a French and Italian cooking background paired with a nostalgia of dishes from her upbringing to her love of travel that helped her gain an outlook on how people cook to tell their story.   

Kristen also co-hosts a new television series called Fast Foodies which premiered in February 2021.