Top Chef's Kristen Kish: Accidentally on Purpose

Kristen Kish never could have imagined people on the street knowing her name—not when she was a carefree softball-tossing kid, in high school working at a pretzel stand, and not even when she finally found her true calling as a chef. In her younger days, becoming a chef meant tethering oneself to a restaurant and working in the back of a kitchen, not on a television set. But luckily, working in the spotlight happened naturally, even if she didn’t anticipate the attention.

And like most things in Kish’s life, the road was so much more winding and complicated than it may have appeared from the outside.

Kish learned that, unlike a map or a recipe, there was no set of plans or directions to dictate or explain a life. Accidents happen. She grew up as an adoptee in the Midwest, trying to fit in with all the other girls who were busy dating boys, eventually coming out and finding love when she least expected it. Even the extraordinary moments—like winning “Top Chef” to becoming its Emmy-nominated host years later—played a role in helping her find her voice and use it a story she tells in her new book Accidentally on Purpose. She says that what defines her story aren’t the missteps or even the pleasant surprises that crop up but how she learned to tell her own story. Because while accidents might be unexpected, they don’t have to be at odds with purpose.

Join us for a conversation with Kristen Kish as she describes how she approaches life’s milestones, big and small, with intention, realizing that those junctures are where the decisions and discoveries are made. Where the unexpected meets the intentional. And that, she says, is where things get really interesting.

SPEAKERS

Kristen Kish, Chef, Host of Top Chef and Author of Accidentally on Purpose

Moderator TBA

6 p.m. doors open & check-in
6:30–7:30 p.m. program
7:30 p.m. book signing
(all times Pacific Time)

Kish photo by Peter Ash Lee.

Host or Publisher The Commonwealth Club