Nationwide Geographic
Okayristen Kish by no means wished to be on High Chef. Now that 10 years have handed since she fought her approach again from elimination to turn out to be the second girl to earn that coveted title, she says she has even much less curiosity in returning to the competitors once more.
It is smart, given the various different alternatives on her plate.
Since profitable Season 10 of High Chef in 2013, Kish has turn out to be a bona fide meals TV star, co-hosting 36 Hours on the Journey Channel, Quick Foodies on TruTV, and Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend on Netflix. This 12 months, she goes solo with Eating places on the Finish of the World, a superb new four-part collection that premieres on NatGeo on March 21 at 10 p.m. and will likely be obtainable to stream on Disney+ after that.
The brand new present brings Kish to far-flung locales like Panama’s cloud forest, the place she harvests watercress from a waterfall, and the glaciers of Svalbard, Norway, which offer ice for a very ingenious, if unappetizing, cocktail. Working with the acclaimed cooks who function these distant eating places, Kish channels her High Chef mastery to assist create beautiful meals with excessive restraints.
And he or she does all of it whereas remaining ridiculously charming and surprisingly cool below stress, particularly given how a lot anxiousness she now admits she felt whereas competing for the High Chef crown. We talked about all of it throughout some uncommon downtime at house when she was neither filming nor cooking at her Austin restaurant Arlo Gray.
“I’m totally having fun with with the ability to speak to you within the consolation of my very own sweatpants,” she joked.
Under is an edited and condensed model of our dialog.
I don’t know the way adventurous of a traveler you might be in your individual life, however what appealed to you about this idea? And was it scary in any respect to consider a number of the issues that you just had been going to need to do for this present?
I believe probably the most thrilling half for me, even earlier than we began digging into the small print of what I’d really be doing, was partnering with Nationwide Geographic. I grew up with my dad getting the magazines once I was a child; we had baskets and baskets in each lavatory. You’d maintain on to those magazines for a really very long time. I imply, I used to be hooked as quickly as they stated Nationwide Geographic. After which we began diving into what the present is and what it meant and what I might be prepared or not prepared to do. And I believe in these first 4 episodes, everybody’s form of discovering their ft. It’s a brand new collection, we’re making an attempt to determine what sticks, what works, what doesn’t. And so hopefully I’m lucky to have the ability to do many extra of those. However I'll say, I believe I’ve at all times been an adventurous traveler by myself. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten married, life means various things to me now and I’m clearly contemplating one other human, my spouse, on this state of affairs. And so my threat evaluation has positively modified. However with the ability to do it with Nationwide Geographic permits me to push these boundaries greater than I might do it for myself.
Yeah, I used to be questioning in that first episode while you had been rappelling down a waterfall to select some watercress, what was going via your thoughts?
In order that was one of many very first issues they pitched as this bodily exercise. Panama is our premiere episode and it was additionally the very first thing that we shot. And so that is all simply model new. In order that they’re like, “Would you rappel down a waterfall?” I used to be like, “Certain… sure, I’ve by no means finished it earlier than.” I’ve been rock-climbing in a fitness center earlier than, however that’s so far as I’ve gone. I used to be very excited. I'll say, one of many hardest components of that was one thing that doesn’t even get proven on display screen, and that's the hike to the highest of this waterfall. That hike alone was an journey, and I used to be like, oh my God! I’m winded, and the elevation is completely different, and I really feel like I’m simply much more winded due to it. That was extra bodily difficult for me than really rappelling down a waterfall, but it surely was an expertise that I might fortunately do once more.
Nationwide Geographic
Yeah, I used to be watching it and pondering there needs to be a greater technique to get watercress…
[Laughs] I imply, a part of the enchantment of this present, for me particularly, is while you undergo these bodily challenges of one thing with a view to get an ingredient, or simply to have an expertise, your complete outlook adjustments. On the finish of the day, grabbing watercress or not grabbing watercress, having finished that in a spot that [chef Rolando Chamorro] considers his yard, that’s the heartbeat proper there.
The present is basically not a typical meals journey present the place you go to a metropolis and eat at eating places and try this typical factor. Did you consider the way you wished to make one thing completely different from these reveals that we’ve seen lots?
I believe the factor that can set this aside—and it’s the identical approach that eating places are set aside by cooks—is while you infuse your individual story and also you include a function that solely you've. The catalyst to my love of journey, and why I wish to journey, and why I’ve at all times dreamt of doing it, was I used to be born in Seoul, I used to be adopted at 4 months outdated, and I used to be raised in Michigan. There's not a day that goes by that I don’t take into consideration the truth that I used to be chosen right into a household, and I may have been chosen into any household. And the thought of journey and exploring somebody’s life and understanding who they're, and why they do what they do, there’s so many alternative variables that led me to the place my life is. So that concept of journey, I at all times carry that curiosity with me, as a result of it’s like, effectively, this might have been my household, too.
I believe that is at the least your fifth TV present that you just’ve been concerned in. Going all the best way again to while you first auditioned for High Chef, which was your first time on TV, what did you think about that have would convey for your self, in your profession?
Effectively, I didn’t wish to go on High Chef. So it wasn’t that I used to be like, “Oh, TV, this factor actually excites me and I’m going to go for it!” I went on High Chef as a result of my boss made me. I used to be working for Barbara Lynch on the time in Boston, and he or she stated, “, the producers are asking if now we have any feminine cooks that will be good for the present.” She didn’t ask me, she stated, “I already put your identify within the hat.” And I used to be like, “OK, no matter, I don’t have to do that if I don’t wish to.” Ultimately she stored being like, “The producers wish to have a name, and you need to ship on this video,” and I’m like, “I don’t wish to do any of this.” However I believe at the moment in my life, loads of issues had been colliding. I used to be coming into my very own. I used to be not feeling bored at work, however I used to be definitely getting used to the on a regular basis routine and that concept of subconsciously desirous to shake it up. I believe that was actually what drove me. And I at all times stated with that whole course of, so long as I can say no at any time, I’ll hold saying sure till I don’t wish to anymore. In order that form of kicked this complete tv factor off, which was by no means actually my intention.
And I don’t know what occurred. I believe the increasingly more I began to turn out to be myself, the increasingly more these tv product initiatives began coming. Which proves that I didn’t need to emulate this concept of success, I simply wanted to be myself and what is going to come will come. And so I went via the identical factor of, “I’m going to maintain saying sure till I don’t wish to say sure anymore” with all these initiatives. You’d need to ask these TV individuals why they hold coming to me. I don’t know. I really feel very grateful for it, and I really feel extremely lucky to have the ability to do these initiatives, as a result of I say sure to those that actually problem and intrigue me probably the most. However it was by no means the plan, and I by no means would have thought, being this baby who was extremely self-conscious, socially anxious, I get stage fright very simply, to be on tv. My mother generally nonetheless can’t consider it. She’s like, “How did this occur?” I don’t know.
How has your stage of comfortability on tv advanced from the very starting of High Chef to the place you are actually?
Effectively, High Chef was one factor as a result of I didn’t know any higher and all I needed to do was prepare dinner. I didn’t need to host something, I didn’t should be the voice of something, I needed to do what they informed me to do. And as these initiatives have advanced, I nonetheless get nervous. I believe that’s a great factor, as a result of I nonetheless wish to do an incredible job. However I believe I’ve gotten extra comfy with simply being me and saying that’s going to be sufficient and that’s going to be OK. As a substitute of making an attempt to be this character or this host that I see as profitable on different tv reveals that I watch. So I’m nonetheless anxious, nonetheless nervous, however I believe that I’ve gotten comfy with having that feeling.
Nationwide Geographic
I can’t consider that 2023 is the 10-year anniversary of while you gained High Chef. What do you bear in mind most about that second of truly profitable the competitors?
, I bear in mind lots, however I additionally form of blanked on loads of it as effectively. They don’t do that each single season anymore, however for my season, we filmed nearly all of the season after which all the things stopped. There’s this hiatus and everybody went house earlier than the finale. So I had this time to observe all of it play out. However throughout that point lots of people both knew they had been within the finale or they knew that they weren’t within the finale. I used to be residing within the place the place I’d completed Final Likelihood Kitchen in Alaska, however I nonetheless needed to do two or three extra after which make it into the highest three, after which make it into the highest two, after which ultimately win. So going into the finale already, it was form of like, I’ve already made it this far, and I’m off that adrenaline excessive of nearly all of the season. So I went in barely extra calm. And extra OK with “no matter goes to occur was going to occur,” as a result of I’ve already made it this far.
Like loads of the contestants through the years, you've turn out to be an actual a part of the High Chef household, together with as a visitor choose on different seasons. Was it unusual to go from being a contestant and viewing the judges as these form of intimidating figures to then sitting facet by facet with them on the opposite facet of the desk?
I don’t know what it's, however I bear in mind once I first stood subsequent to Padma [Lakshmi]—I’ve had conversations with Padma in individual, I’ve frolicked along with her through the years and Gail [Simmons] and Tom [Colicchio]—however you place me again into that house and my nerves, the thick ball of saliva that collects, and also you’re like, “I don’t assume I can speak.” It simply comes speeding again. That’s a sense that I had each single day competing. And so it’s a surreal second. However I don’t assume I ever received used to it. I’m not like, “OK, now I can loosen up as a result of I’m on the opposite facet.” Completely not. I’m nonetheless utterly a ball of tension.
As we’re speaking, they’re launching this large twentieth season “World All-Stars” version. Did they arrive to you and ask for those who had been concerned with competing in that?
Mm-hm.
And what was your response?
I’m not on it!
In order that they did need you, however you weren't ?
I suppose. I don’t know the way a lot—no matter, sure, I used to be supplied and I declined and that was actually what it was. , it’s not for me—that aggressive nature of being again in that house—for a mess of various causes. It didn't match into my schedule, my life, my emotional and psychological wellbeing. There’s some individuals which can be minimize out for it. I'm not certainly one of them.
Yeah, the cooks who return repeatedly—and a few have finished it three, 4 instances—are they simply gluttons for punishment, or what's going on there?
I believe they’re simply good at it! They know they’re good at it.
Effectively, you had been fairly good at it, too.
I’ve had this dialog with a few pals, and I used to be like, what I felt inside each single day, did nobody see that on the skin? Was I simply internally struggling on their own? And that’s what it was. So no matter it was that I projected was, I suppose, not what I used to be feeling on the within.
You’ve additionally moved on. You’re internet hosting this present and doing different issues which can be perhaps extra fulfilling or extra enjoyable?
I believe to simply sink into who I'm and likewise study from loads of these travels, for me, that is rather more personally satisfying than having to compete.
I like that on the brand new present, regardless that you’re not competing in opposition to anyone, there’s a bit of ingredient of High Chef to it. Since you are thrown into these challenges the place the chef you’re working with is like, “Right here, are you able to make a dessert? And that is all you need to work with.” Did you consider that in any respect whilst you had been doing it?
The factor about High Chef is it’s one thing that can at all times stay inside you. It’s an expertise that you'll by no means do away with and also you’ll always remember about. And I believe even earlier than High Chef, the thought of cooking on the fly and cooking inside a field was at all times one thing that I loved doing. I at all times want a field to prepare dinner in. If somebody says “prepare dinner me something,” my head simply begins to spin. So occurring these adventures and having to prepare dinner with components which can be perhaps international to me or I’ve by no means had earlier than, I believe that’s simply the enjoyable of cooking normally. However yeah, anytime I'm going right into a cooking scenario, I like a bit of little bit of that problem, as a result of if it’s too simple, the place is the enjoyable in that?