We Asked Top Chef’s Kristen Kish for Her #1 Underrated Spice—and It’s Probably in Your Pantry

In case you've missed it: Kristen Kish is taking over Padma Lakshmi’s hosting duties in Season 21 of Top Chef. This season is set in the dairyland known as Wisconsin, and Kish spent two months tasting the food of the competition—as well as the region’s best dishes.

Ahead of the season premiere, we chatted with former competitor, former judge and new host Kish to talk about her nerves ahead of filming, her self-care routine, her food hot takes and more in this exclusive interview. Check out the full Q&A below, and watch the new season of Top Chef premiering this Wednesday, March 20, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo with episodes available to stream the next day on Peacock.

EatingWell: From winner to host, what's something you wish you knew as a contestant of Top Chef that you learned as a judge or host of the show?

Kish: I could probably give you an entire list of things that I wish I would have known. However, I actually think it's better that I didn't know anything because had I known what I know now, I probably wouldn't even have gone on to compete. Not because of anything negative, simply because my own nerves and anxiety would have gotten the best of me. Knowing the potential fandom that would happen from it or the potential opportunities—they're all very exciting, but for me being someone that wasn't even trying to get on the show in the first place, if I had known all of that? I think it would have scared me away, honestly. So I'm going to go with nothing. I think it all worked out the way it was supposed to work out and I knew what I needed to know when I needed to know it.

EatingWell: Were your nerves similar for your first season of hosting as they were when you competed, and if so, how did you combat it?

Kish: Yes, nervous 100%. I think it was the same kind of nerves, but on the hosting side of things, the expectation of me coming into a role that was the role of one person for 19 seasons added a certain level of pressure. That expectation that I'm placing on myself, that I am anticipating that other people will have. I think the nerves as a competitor was like, yeah, I wanted to do well and not disappoint my family and friends or whatever. But this was nerves on top. This weight on my shoulder that I very much placed there myself felt heavier. How do I like to combat that? I did several sessions of hypnotherapy. My wife actually turned me on to it. She's a certified hypnotherapist—I did not do hypnotherapy with my wife because I feel like using your wife as a therapist is probably not the smartest idea. But over the years I've gotten to learn the impact and how powerful it can be. And at that point I was willing to do and try anything to not feel what I'm feeling inside.

EatingWell: Outside of the Top Chef studio, what was the best thing you ate while in Wisconsin?

Kish: There’s a few standout meals for sure. I mean, of course we hit the custard and we got some cheese curd and the things that you have to try. But Wisconsin has this really great Serbian restaurant. It's called Three Brothers, it's been around for a long time. The family story is incredibly important and really impactful. so getting to know them after having tried the food, it was really outstanding. My wife is also half Macedonian, half Serbian, and so we often try to find that food whenever we're traveling. So to have one of the best Milwaukee restaurants be of Serbian cuisine, that was pretty awesome.

EatingWell: What’s your self-care routine while filming?

Kish: My life is very much unstructured in a lot of ways, but in the ways that I can structure and create routine, it helps my anxiety. And so when I'm on the road, for Top Chef or any other trips, immediately I go to my hotel room and I set up the hotel room. I’ve stocked the mini fridge with what I need. I love junk food, but I stock my room with a lot of healthier things. Lots of nuts, beef jerky, hard-boiled eggs, juices and lots of coffee. Every morning I have a routine no matter what time I start. I always have to have a two-hour buffer in the morning before I have to go out the door because that is my time to recharge. I'm very much an introvert. I can be an extrovert for a short amount of time, but once I exert that energy, I have to recharge. That recharge happens for me in the morning so I have that quiet time. Then in the middle of breaks, oftentimes I need to sit in silence, just like a true introvert. You can turn it on but you also have to have the battery in order to turn something on. So for me, it's a lot of preserving energy and my mental well-being and I do that with a lot of quiet time.

EatingWell: In your opinion, what's the most underrated spice?

Kish: There's so many great spices in the world. In terms of underrated, it often is some of the simpler ones that everyone has. For example, black pepper. I love black pepper, but toasted black pepper I find is underrated. You get whole peppercorns, you toast them dry in a pan until they become really nutty and fragrant. And then you put them in your pepper grinder. It's so good, I love it. It just adds a little bit of something. Why aren't we toasting all peppercorns?

EatingWell: Do you have any favorite forms of exercise or movement in your day?

Kish: I have realized that working out combats a lot of my own anxiety. When I went to Milwaukee, I found a personal trainer. I've been on a lifelong journey to put more muscle on my body, and it's really hard because it's not only exercise but it's about what you eat. So I found a trainer with the complete goal of putting muscle on my body. When I was not able to go to him, I'd maybe go for a walk or run. I like to run on the treadmill in the hotel—Gail [Simmons] and I went for a run outside once. We probably should have done it a little bit more. I’ll run for 30 minutes just to get the day moving. But with the personal trainer, we're completely focused on heavy lifting and actually putting muscle on. When I came home I felt stronger and, for me, finding a personal trainer before arriving in Milwaukee was really important to me. I needed structure in my day that wasn't just work.

EatingWell: Do you have a current favorite pair of running shoes?

Kish: Honestly I am currently wearing a pair of Nike Zooms. Not for any other reason except for when I went to a Nike outlet and they were $40, so I bought them. But $40, how wild is that? How do you not buy these? So yes, those are the ones I'm wearing.

EatingWell: Any food hot takes?

Kish: Probably one of the things as a chef that perhaps is a hot take for me is I don't love black truffles. I also don't love smoked salmon. I've learned that I'm very particular, but I cook with black truffles sometimes. I put it in dishes because I know people love it and I know I'm probably the odd person out here. But for me, it completely ruins the dish sometimes. And smoked salmon, I can't physically get it down my throat.

Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.