{"id":33379,"date":"2018-03-02T07:45:53","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T12:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=33379"},"modified":"2021-08-25T09:57:33","modified_gmt":"2021-08-25T13:57:33","slug":"chatting-cheese-with-top-chef-kristen-kish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/chatting-cheese-with-top-chef-kristen-kish\/","title":{"rendered":"Voicings: Top Chef Kristen Kish"},"content":{"rendered":"

A<\/span>fter attending culinary school and working her way up the Boston food scene to restaurateur Barbara Lynch\u2019s test kitchen Stir and high-end Menton, Kristen Kish went on to compete in Top Chef<\/em>\u2019s 10th season\u2014where she beat out 20 contestants for the title, cementing herself as a rising star in the American culinary scene. In the five years since Top Chef<\/em>, she\u2019s hosted a travel show, appeared in modeling campaigns, cooked all over the world, and released her first cookbook, Kristen<\/em> Kish Cooking<\/em> (Clarkson Potter, 2017).<\/p>\n

These days, Kish finds herself constantly traveling. While there isn\u2019t a particular restaurant that\u2019s home base right now, she\u2019s consistently in kitchens, cooking at other restaurants and working with new teams. Here, the nomadic chef shares how she finds new cheeses, her love of chicken fingers, and what she means when she calls herself \u201cirresponsibly responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

On technique<\/strong><\/h3>\n

At the core, my French background is really just based on technique. That\u2019s what you learn in culinary school. You learn French mother sauces and that kind of thing. I stuck with that because understanding the 101\u2019s and the basics, I\u2019m then better able to express my food, however or wherever that comes from. Whether it\u2019s from my childhood, my travels, or working at restaurants, I can use that technique as the base foundation. Once you understand that, any recipe really reveals itself to you. With that tying everything together, everything makes sense.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re starting from zero experience I think you should give yourself the time to understand the 101\u2019s. If you understand what that [foundation] means, everything else will become infinitely easier and more seamless moving forward.<\/p>\n

On bringing people together through food<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When you can tap into [a] nostalgic feeling, you can relate to so many people from so many different lifestyles and so many different backgrounds. There\u2019s a chicken noodle soup version all over the world; everyone has their version of what that means and what it feels like for them. If you can tap into one or two familiar flavors, that makes someone go, \u201cOh, that reminded me or when my mom or grandmother used to make that.\u201d All of a sudden things become relatable and, at least for me, I like my food to be relatable. I\u2019ll twist it and turn it to make it feel like something different, obviously, but I think it\u2019s a special time when you can evoke a memory through the food. <\/p>\n

How cheese fits into her cooking<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I like putting cheese in things. I love picking up the nuances of different flavors and working them into a dish. It taps into a creative space, so I use cheese when it calls for it. If a cheese will work to richen a sauce, as opposed to using heavy cream or butter, then absolutely, because heavy cream and butter have one-note flavor, as opposed to an \u00c9poisses<\/a> which has so many. I like to use smartly and have it all make sense. I look at cheese just like I would an herb: I love parsley but I don\u2019t put it on everything because not everything needs it.<\/p>\n

On her favorite ways to use cheese<\/strong><\/h3>\n

One of my favorite recipes [in the cookbook] is the rabbit with the \u00c9poisses and mustard sauce. The \u00c9poisses sauce is basically a really rich chicken stock with mustard for acid and you whisk in cheese, the \u00c9poisses. I like that funky stuff when it\u2019s integrated. Cheeses like that with so much complexity make it fun to play into a complete dish. I really love the Delice [de Bourgogne] that I use in the ravioli con uovo. That\u2019s one of my favorite cheeses. It reminds me of cream cheese in the best way possible, which I love. Delice, as soon as it gets hot, becomes liquidy, so with a perfect al dente pasta and a runny egg yolk, it\u2019s magical.<\/p>\n

How her cheese tastes have changed<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I am a fan of American cheese, which I know is not cheese, but it\u2019s my childhood all wrapped up into one little thing.<\/p>\n

I grew up with block cheddar and Colby Jack\u2014the white and the yellow, that was a family favorite. We used cheese on tacos, we had the can of green parmesan with spaghetti, that kind of thing. But it really wasn\u2019t until culinary school, once I was really starting to be introduced to new things, that I found that cheese was interesting and something I could work into my cooking. And then obviously moving to Boston and having places like Formaggio<\/a>, that changed the game for me.<\/p>\n

How she approaches the cheese counter<\/strong><\/h3>\n

You make friends with the people working at cheese counters. I understand what I like and what I don\u2019t like, but I don\u2019t understand what all my options are. I\u2019m definitely not an expert in that. Whenever you go to any specialty store, they obviously know the most about it so I ask questions. I tell them I\u2019m looking for these three characteristics and then I taste a couple and then I pick one. That\u2019s how I\u2019m introduced to other cheeses. If it were up to me and if I was going in based on my own knowledge, I would probably just order the same cheeses every day. It\u2019s more fun for me to ask people who know more about it than I do.<\/p>\n

On what she eats when she\u2019s not working<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Chicken fingers. Everything tastes better when you don\u2019t have to make it so I don\u2019t cook for myself. I go out for dinner a lot, I get takeout, I spend a lot of time in hotels so room service is always a fun thing. I get more interest and inspiration that way and it\u2019s more R&D for me to go out to dinner anyway.<\/p>\n

On the perks of being a nomadic chef<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I certainly now am doing something different every single day. For me right now, this is working and it\u2019s keeping me inspired and I\u2019m learning an infinite amount, even just being able to cook in other people\u2019s kitchens for one night only and having to learn someone else\u2019s kitchen and team.<\/p>\n

I find it happily challenging. Going into a kitchen and not knowing what it looks like or not understanding the equipment and then to try to create a menu that yields the best results given the space and the number of cooks you have and whatever it may be, I find that exciting.<\/p>\n

On setting goals<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I don\u2019t look beyond. I always say that I\u2019m irresponsibly responsible. For much of my life, I put so much pressure on hitting these marks. Every time you miss a mark because of these expectations you put on yourself, it becomes defeating. When you\u2019re aiming so intently on this one goal, of hitting this one task right in front of you, you miss all of the other stuff on the sidelines, which could push you in a different direction. So I remain responsible in the sense of what does my overall life look like and my overall goals and what that means, but the specifics of it all, I let myself relax a little bit on that.<\/p>\n

This originally appeared in culture<\/strong>‘s Spring 2018 issue. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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