by Kristen Wile

While popular Bravo cooking competition Top Chef is in town, Charlotte is playing host to the show’s beloved judges and host. Kristen Kish, Tom Colicchio, and Gail Simmons have been exploring Charlotte, their temporary home while filming for Top Chef‘s upcoming season. We spoke to Kish about the opportunity for chefs on TV today, her favorite dishes around town, and diving into a city’s food scene.

Unpretentious Palate: When Food Network chefs first became a big thing, it was a different type of chef from the chefs you see now on shows like Top Chef. Can you talk about the evolution of the TV chef and how that can change a chef’s career today? 
Kristen Kish: I grew up with Food Network and watching Food Network chefs. I don’t necessarily think it’s a different kind of chef. I think it’s a different format which then plays up or down a personality depending on what is needed. Obviously Top Chef brings chefs to compete. You’re watching Food Network, where you have people who are already on culinary television on these shows. A lot of times you have a lot of Top Chef alums competing on the shows, so they’ve already kind of gone through the gauntlet of Top Chef.

As much as there is a difference, there is a home for everybody. When I was watching Food Network, it was about instructional stuff. It was the Rachel Rays, it was the Emerils, and I would watch the how to make something. Alton Brown, the whole educational science behind everything kind of programming. Then you have viewers that watch Top Chef, who are in it for the competition, finding their favorites, rooting for them, also learning about culinary but just in a different platform. I think that as much as food television is very full, I think that the shows that stick around and withstand the test of time give something to everybody because everyone watching food television is looking for something different. For chefs and people in the culinary world to go and explore different opportunities for themselves, so I mean, the more the merrier. Options are great and it gives every, you know, chef looking for an opportunity, an option to go find what they’re looking for.

UP: When you come here, do you think it changes public perception of a city and how so?
KK: That’s hard for me to answer because I’ve never been to Charlotte before and I’m not from Charlotte, so to say how does it change the way people look, I don’t know how people look at Charlotte in the first place. 

UP: What about similar size cities that don’t necessarily have a food reputation?
KK: Do you not think Charlotte has a food reputation? [UP: Not nationally, really, not yet.] Oh yeah, OK. Carolina obviously is known for barbecue and all eyes are on barbecue when you come here. You have incredible pit masters and barbecue. I think any city is worth exploring to dig in deeper. Obviously, we can look at a map of the country and say this part of the country is known for this, this, and this, but we all know that there’s more to dive into. When Top Chef announced that they were coming to Charlotte, the most frequent recommendation I got was for Lang Van, which is Vietnamese food. What I was expecting, I’m not sure, but I was like, ‘OK, great,’ and you don’t think twice about it because you know every place you go has communities that are doing their food, and from what I’m being told, Charlotte is a city of transplants, so you have so many people coming from all over the place and making their mark in doing what they do. I think because of that Charlotte has the opportunity and has the restaurants that are different points of view, so it gives option and variety. 

UP: With your platform, is there something you hope to do in terms of embedding yourself in the local culinary scene or uplifting chefs here? How do you go about that? 
KK: I do interviews like this. I tell you which restaurants I love to go to. When the season airs we’re posting about the places that we’ve gone, the challenges, the inspiration behind them. Obviously right now we’re a little bit more secretive because the season isn’t airing. But as it goes, like I’m posting pictures of the places I went, the people I met, food that I ate. I think that at the end of the day when people then go revisit what’s happening on TV and then mirroring what’s happening on my Instagram, you’re going to start to get a full picture of what exactly we did while we were here. 

UP: What’s the most memorable restaurant dish you’ve had so far here?
KK: To preface this answer, I’ve only been to 4 restaurants by now. I will say I thought Kindred was an exceptional dining experience. I started with a really great mocktail that was like so addictive and lovely and dessert-like. Their cinnamon bun was very good for dessert; I remember that. At Supperland, they sent out a lot of desserts. The Cheerwine sundae float, that was the first time I had Cheerwine — delicious. And then they do this thing where they ask their cooks to make a dessert to be featured on the menu. And so they sent that out one night, and it was a chocolate cake with a peanut butter frosting — whatever pastry cook that was, exceptional, loved it. The Vietnamese pancake at Lang Van. I’ve had it now three times. Delicious. That has been my most frequented restaurant since I’ve been here.