The former “Top Chef” winner reflects on her initial resistance to being on the show’s 10th season and the huge life lesson she learned from it.

Kristen Kish on navigating an emotional season of Top Chef — and why you won’t see her paired with Mark Ballas on Dancing With the Stars

The former "Top Chef" winner reflects on her initial resistance to being on the show's 10th season and the huge life lesson she learned from it.

By Gerrad Hall

Gerrad Hall

Gerrad Hall is an editorial director at **, overseeing movie, awards, and music coverage. He is also host of The Awardist podcast, and has cohosted EW’s live Oscars, Emmys, SAG, and Grammys red carpet shows. He has appeared on Good Morning America, The Talk, Access Hollywood, Extra!, and other talk shows, delivering the latest news on pop culture and entertainment.

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June 18, 2026 4:59 p.m. ET

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'Top Chef' host Kristen Kish. Credit:

Sam McElwee/Peacock

- *Top Chef* host Kristen Kish explains why she felt better hosting her second season of the reality competition.

- She looks back on her time as a contestant and what it taught her about herself.

- Kish also reflects on her time on *The Traitors*, and why she won't do *Dancing With the Stars* with Mark Ballas as her partner.

Kristen Kish knows what it's like to perform under pressure — after all, she won season 10 of *Top Chef* after being eliminated during Restaurant Wars but earned her way back into the main competition by winning Comeback Kitchen.

So after coming back to the show as host for its 21st season, sure, she was nervous. But now with two seasons under her designer belt (seriously, her wardrobe is incredible — have you seen it?), she acknowledges she's "far more comfortable" in her new role.

"When I look to my first season, how I felt internally, maybe was different than what the viewer got, but how I felt was slightly panicked because I put so much pressure on myself to do a good job and not disappoint anyone," she says on **'s *The Awardist* podcast. Now, though, "I have fully settled in to... doing it in the way that I feel I'm the most natural."

And what comes naturally to Kish is a deeper, emotional connection to these chefs — who've left everything behind for six to eight weeks, hoping to prove their worth in their craft and taking home that $250,000 prize. So, she gets what they're going through and why the pressure of plating these dishes is so incredibly stressful.

"I like to think that I'm a relatively compassionate human being that pays attention to other people's feelings. But having competed before adds for me [an] understanding [of] the weight of it all," she says. "It's hard. This is a career-making moment in so many different ways."

Kristen Kish hosts season 23 of 'Top Chef'.

Paul Cheney/Bravo

It's an opportunity that Kish resisted when others encouraged her to go on the show some 13 years ago.

"If it wasn't for anybody championing me to do it, there's no way in hell. I had no interest in television," she admits. "I chose a life in kitchens for that life in kitchens, not for in front of the camera. Also being in such a vulnerable place of finding my footing and confidence in the industry, this was 2013. I was younger and I was so unsure of how I could stack up to other people. So, not understanding that comparison is the thief of joy and what I already had accomplished was already good enough to get me there, I went in with a lot of imposter syndrome, wondering how I got selected."

Those fears, though, eventually went away. Winning, surely, only helped.

"So many wonderful things in my life happened because other people saw my greatness long before I could," she says. "Time and time again, *Top Chef* and many things after, it was just building upon my confidence of saying, 'I'm gonna try this. I'm gonna do it. I might not be good at it, but when I come out of it, it doesn't mean you have to come out as the winner or the person being the best. It just means that you did it and maybe you had a little fun along the way.' ... It's an interesting way to learn about yourself in front of cameras, and not just in front of cameras, but a camera that is fully zoomed in on your professional career, on the skillset that you love so much."

Kristen Kish explains why Rob Rausch had her fooled on 'The Traitors': 'Rob had a plan'

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In season 23, that knowledge helped her navigate a difficult experience for chef-testant Jennifer Lee Jackson, who was experiencing a medical issue — first with her shoulder, which she injured before production began, and then the onset of Bell's palsy during a challenge — that was greater than she wanted to admit.

"Jennifer was struggling. She had to sit down on a couple Quickfires. You could see all that happening," Kish explains, adding that at that point, Chef Jennifer wanted to stay in the competition, having figured out how to work with one arm in a sling. "No one could remove her because that is unfair. So at that point in the game, the choice was hers and hers alone, and it could only be hers." But eventually, Kish and the production team talked to Jennifer and her life partner, fellow contestant Justin Tootla, once everyone started to realize her situation was getting worse during Restaurant Wars. "If she's going to the hospital, it's done. It was hard and it was heartbreaking because you know how much time and effort it takes to get one of those coveted spots every year. And then that, on top of her person having just been eliminated...there's so much emotional response. And so that's why I started crying when I was talking to Justin. I felt for him, I felt for her."

Just before returning to the world of *Top Chef* to film her second season as host, Kish ventured into the world of another reality competition, as a contestant on *The Traitors*, where she played as a Faithful and was eventually "murdered" in episode 10, before she could really figure out that eventual winner Rob Rausch had everyone fooled. Especially Maura Higgins, who viewers hoped would see the light during the finale but was blindsided when he revealed at the very end that he was, in fact, a Traitor and won the entire cast prize.

"From my point of view, she was never gonna turn on him. And where I will defend Maura and her going to the depths of all the things with Rob is, I would've done the same thing with Mark [Ballas]. If Mark gave me no reason, like if Mark was a Traitor and he gave me no reason to believe otherwise and did the things that Rob did to Maura to help convince her, I would've believed him too," she says. "Also in that game, you have got to mark your one person. Like, I mark you as safe and we just have to ride this out. And for her, at day one, it was Rob. And so she kept on with it. In her defense, Rob did a really good job."

Kristen Kish and Mark Ballas on 'The Traitors'.

But don't expect to see Kish competing in a cooking competition...

"No. I've graduated. They asked me for season 20, [*Top Chef:*] *World All-Stars*, if I would compete," she says, confirming it was a hard pass. "Unless it's for charity."

...nor on *Dancing With the Stars*, where Traitors fans have hoped she might join her new bestie, Mark Ballas.

"I don't think I would be good at that. Mark said that *Dancing With the Stars* would never pair the two of us together because I'm too tall for him, and so it throws off the ability to dance as partners," she explains. "Already flatfooted, I'm taller than him. Put me in a heel, forget about it. So it wouldn't mix. So as much as I hate to say that I will never dance with Mark Ballas on *Dancing With the Stars*, I will never dance with Mark Ballas on *Dancing With the Stars*. I love him so much, though. So in our free time, we'll dance together."

***Check out more from EW's *****The Awardist*****, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best in TV, movies, and more.***

Listen to Kish's full interview on *The Awardist*, below, where she talks about her culinary inspirations, the foods she used to hate but has learned to like, the scene on *The Bear* that "triggered" her, and more.

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