Kristen Kish Weighs in on What She’d Never Try to Dupe in the Kitchen (Exclusive)
Kristen Kish Weighs in on What She’d Never Try to Dupe in the Kitchen (Exclusive)
Erin ClementsMon, April 27, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC
0
Kristen KishCredit: Starbucks -
Kristen Kish criticizes the trend of recreating restaurant dishes at home, saying some foods are best left to professionals
The Top Chef host is partnering with Starbucks to promote Sweet Cream Enhancers for recreating its signature sweet cream flavor
Kish reflects on filming Top Chef season 23 in the South, describing the challenges of heat, humidity, and outdoor settings
Kristen Kish says some menu items can be recreated at home — and some can't.
“This dupe culture ... it's all over social media,” the Top Chef host tells PEOPLE. “Everything is being duped and not everything should be, if you ask me.”
“For me, chicken fingers come from restaurants,” she explains. “Curly fries come from restaurants. This duping culture of these baked doughnuts, nothing pisses me off more. It drives me insane. I have my food hangups.”
The culinary star, 42, is partnering with Starbucks to promote Sweet Cream Enhancers, a grocery product that allows fans of the coffee chain to enjoy the taste of its sweet cream at home.
Kristen Kish for StarbucksCredit: Starbucks
“If that is something that you've had at Starbucks in the cafes over and over again, it is going to be a hard thing to replicate,” Kish says. “It is a very specific original flavor.”
Kish says she’s typically a black coffee drinker, but sometimes she wants something sweet.
“There are moments where, depending on my mood or how long I've been home, different flavor fatigues, every now and again, especially as I go into an afternoon coffee, that's when I'm like, I want something a little bit different, something to shake up the routine,” she says.
Advertisement
Kish recently returned alongside longtime judges Gail Simmons and Tom Colicchio for season 23 of Top Chef, which premiered last month.
Starbucks Sweet CreamCredit: Starbucks
She reflected on filming the culinary competition’s latest season in North and South Carolina.
“The first two challenges in Charlotte, the heat was a challenge,” she recalls. “We were outside on a racetrack for, I don't know how many, 14 hours that first day on black asphalt, stainless steel tables in the sun. So that was a little bit difficult. The humidity of the South is certainly something that is difficult.”
“And then our second elimination challenge was set in a greenhouse in North Carolina in the summer,” she continues. “So those were a little hard, but good food helps you get through a lot of tough situations.”
Tom Colicchio, Kristen Kish and Gail SimmonsCredit: Bravo
Kish, who competed on season 4 of Peacock’s The Traitors, also weighed in on whether the two series bear any similarities.
“I think I tried to draw the line of similarity when I was in the [Traitors] castle because I was like, ‘If I can draw on past experience, what can I do to make me feel a little bit less uncomfortable in an unfamiliar game?’” she recalls. “And I've come to the conclusion that there's not a lot.”
“They are two very completely different games,” she adds. “We're talking about murdering and banishing people in a castle in the Highlands, and then comparing that to Top Chef, which is my real profession with real chefs and real food and real judging and all that stuff. No, two very, very different experiences. Both fun, but different.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
