This chef — and novel host of ‘ Top Chef’—is all about keep her home tidy and sticking to a solid routine , no matter where her workplace takes her .

If you ’ve watched the cooking challenger showTop Chefin the past decade , you ’ve probably seen Kristen Kish . The Korean - born , Michigan - provoke chef won her time of year in Seattle in 2012 . Since then , she ’s appeared on a regular basis as a guest judge and , most recently , landed the role ofTop Chef’snew server . Taking over for the original boniface , Padma Lakshmi , after 19 seasons , Kish has some bounteous place to meet . But her long - move story with the hit reality series , along with star on the celebrity cooking rival showFast Foodies , and hosting cooking series such asIron Chef : Quest for an Iron LegendandRestaurants at the conclusion of the World , for which she also do as a producer , have her primed as a outstanding newfangled grimace of the show .

“ I did n’t really guess about it as what am I go to do to make my Saint Mark , ” Kish tells Better Homes & Gardens . “ I think the beauty of anybody taking on a unexampled use is it will be different by nature because we ’re all unlike human existence and it ’s going to be a different experience . My line of work is to be me , to be honest , and come at it from a point of scene that is always with the chef in psyche . The show is not anything without awing professional chef choosing to come and go through the experience . ”

Kristen Kish’s House Rules

Q: If you had to hang a list of rules in your home, what would they be?

Q: Did you have any house rules growing up?

My mom instill in us to strip the bed and make the young bed every Sunday . When we would go to the pic dramatics or a public place , we ’d make out home and those clothes add up off and you put new clothes on . So that ’s likely where my rules come from .

Kristen Kish

Be a good houseguest and a kind human being . That ’s all you may really go for for when you allow people into your habitation , which is such a personal place .

You’ve been traveling a lot for work. In what ways do you create a homey atmosphere in a temporary living situation?

Keep your subroutine . If I ’m somewhere for like a calendar week or less , I do n’t really ask to settle in that much . recollective things like when I was in Wisconsin ( for Top Chef ) send for one hotel room home for two months . I carry the fridge . I have a routine in the morning where I always drink lemon water at home , so I got a mini slip board and sweet lemons so I could have that . I prefer to do my own dishes in this scenario , so as oppose to a hotel help to get light dish when you put out the lousy unity , I ’d rather wash the one I have . We go to the store and buy everything from leech to dish soap . Also , everything gets unpacked .

There are also little things like have sealed sprays that I like the odor of — anything that reek fresh , like fresh laundry . Also palo santo — I burn that in my grooming room . And I always land my own slippers to make it feel more consolatory .

Q: Let’s talk food. What are some of your pantry staples?

Gallus gallus broth . I have stacks and stacks of it . Here ’s the affair with wimp broth and ivory broths and stocks and ready - made soup and things : Will a homemade crybaby broth be something I always do in a restaurant ? A thousand percent , no questions asked . Is it something I occasionally like to do at home ? Absolutely . But also , there are many days where it ’s just not going to happen and I do n’t need to make it happen and that ’s also OK . I think having those things that make life a little easier when you do go and fudge . Not a cutoff , but certainly something that saves time is really important .

transcribed artichoke are great . I debilitate them and put them in a salad or add them in the last ten minutes of roasting a whole chicken . I have voluminous amounts of vinegar and oils . Certainly there are thing I probably to need to part with because they ’re expired .

Q: Do you have an easy go-to pantry recipe to share?

Ready - made soups is really dandy . I create a formula for Pacific Foods using thecreamy tomato soup . Tomato soup is not something that I always love , but being able-bodied to see it [ as ] not just a soup in and of itself , but how do you incorporate that into any other recipe . So I did this adust egg beauty with kale , onion , spices , and herbaceous plant , and smeared that on pledge . Then you have what was a ready - made soup is now a fully formed meal , so I wish things that just take a little clip in the dinner prep arena .

When you’re able to take something that already has flavor that ’s ready to go that you’re able to eat on on its own , but you’re able to amp it up in a different , originative way . Like this baked egg mantrap I created used thing up in the icebox that needed to be used . Not only am I utilizing a shortcut , but I am also utilizing things that are on the elbow room out so it does n’t go to waste .

Q: Do you have any cooking rituals?

At home , I jazz to put on music . I grew up with my pa playing Van Morrison through the house , so that always has a especial good memory attached to it . Everything needs to be sportsmanlike . mayhap we ’re sensing a report here . sportsmanlike as you go ; things involve to be prepare . I prep everything as I would in a eating house . I put it all in my food shop container , I houseclean everything up , and then I go to cook . It just make the process more enjoyable . If it ’s not something you ’re used to it sometimes feel like you ’re doing extra study , but I promise once you detect that rhythm and the procedure , it saves time and I retrieve a lot of cephalalgia and tussle .

Q: What does a typical dinner for family and friends at home look like?

I like a box to work within . We just had friends over , and I was like , “ What do you want to eat ? ” And they ’re like , “ Anything you desire to do is o.k. . ” That ’s great and I get it ’s being cultivated , but also please severalise me because otherwise , I have to somehow stargaze up something in my straits out of all the different thing . I have a go at it how to ready most everything , [ to ] some varying degree of how great I can misrepresent it , but at the end of the day I can make it happen . I care a little fleck of direction because I ready for other people and that ’s where the joy lie down .

When create a formula , I really like to try and overstretch from people that mean something to me . Food memories . Something that bridges the opening between past and present . There ’s a formula I develop for Pacific Foods — acreamy chicken paprikash . That dish all came from my wife and I chatting , she reminded me of this ravisher her mother made for me in Australia when I was sick during a late trip . This made me bring in how similar my grandmother and my papa ’s side of the home , who ’s Hungarian , they misrepresent . So we brainstormed this idea that bridges her mom and my family together . We created something new and unlike that is now our tradition . From there , we shared leftover with our neighbour . So it was a combination of a lot of important mass to make this peach , which to me , those are the most memorable things to delight .

When creating a formula , I really like to stress and take out from people that mean something to me . Food memories . Something that bridges the col between past and present .

Q: Who or what inspires your cooking?

When I think about the nutrient at my eating house , I had to redevelop the definition of what my food was . When I went to culinary school , I was trained in French technique , so saying that , there ’s no brainwave to how you cook . The way I delineate my food is that it ’s a story of my lifetime . dissimilar flavor visibility , the divine guidance to where something came from , who it ’s for , that ’s what barrack my food .

Q: How do you stay creative when making new dishes?

The sweetheart is the laying claim that I have to have these new dishes , but I do n’t . When you ’re doing your job , you do your line . And when you permit it go , you let it go . The knockout of being part of a eating place [ Arlo Greyin Austin ] and have got a great team is there are people to resile ideas off of . So it ’s not just this singular thing that I ’m in charge of , the restaurant is a team of people that lends itself to not only dispute each other but also land young stories , techniques , and peak of view .

I find that the food trends — they come in and go . They mould the manufacture . I call up at the end of the day the biggest trend that I gravitate towards the most is a alone story . I ’m not saying it needs to be something unique that ’s never been done before . I like to see the unfeigned connection of where it ’s from and whose mentality it came from . If you could deliver a story with it , that will make the food savour better . It just always does , when you get a coup d’oeil into somebody . If you could call it a nutrient trend of pass water intellectual nourishment existent personal , that ’s what I screw to see and I do n’t think it will ever go out of style .

Q: What are you reading or watching these days?

I ’m very much a mortal that needs to visually watch something . It has to be an instructional video , it need to be a infotainment , it needs to be something I can watch . So I do n’t read a ton of books . For me , it ’s laborious to cross the first page onto the last page . I would have it off nothing more than to just sit on a beach and just plunk into a book , I ca n’t . I get drop off in television . I watch a lot of 20 - minute instructional thing on my sound . I watch a lot of how it ’s made sort of stuff . Like I watch a lot of woodworking picture . I do n’t opine I ’m going to ever know how to do it or get the chance . I also reckon I could maybe do it but not well , so I ’ve become ghost with the process .

Q: What can we expect from your new hosting journey on Top Chef?

The host side issue forth with a lot more province that I place on myself . I will say the transition from former contender to node judge to host has been unseamed by path of Gail [ Simmons ] and Tom [ Colicchio ] and all the crew . It ’s been so endearing to sense supported from every slant . The process itself has been incredibly enjoyable . It ’s been a lot of sport . I ’ve often cerebrate about the best part of holding this role , and it ’s really being able to see the whole appendage from my point of horizon . When you ’re a contestant , you ’re going through it . It ’s knockout to see it as an foreigner and you ’re a ball of nervousness , you ’re just prove to make it one more day . As a guest judge , I would come in for a few episodes at a fourth dimension and then you leave behind . That ’s an crucial part because you ’re going in truly judging them on that one episode and try out to get to know them as much as you could in that one sequence .

Being the server and being able-bodied to see the whole thing kind of arc and go through the entire appendage has been really terrific . I was capable to step out of my own physical structure and nerves in some way because I was to the full enjoying it as an consultation member , watching the chef ’s progression and have to to know them through their food in each challenge . That ’s been the biggest remainder and one of the more exciting differences [ with ] being the host .