{"id":694,"date":"2025-05-21T18:00:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T18:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/?p=694"},"modified":"2025-05-22T15:04:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T15:04:53","slug":"kristen-kishs-return-to-her-birth-country-was-beautifully-complicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/21\/kristen-kishs-return-to-her-birth-country-was-beautifully-complicated\/","title":{"rendered":"Kristen Kish\u2019s Return To Her Birth Country Was Beautifully Complicated"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Kristen Kish<\/a>, winner of Top Chef <\/em>Season 10 and now its host, traveled to South Korea in June 2022, she was nervous. Adopted at four months by an American family, the celebrity chef had never returned to her birth country \u2014 and wasn\u2019t sure what she would find, feel, or even understand about a place that was hers and yet also wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I was supposed to feel this wave of emotion of \u2018Oh my god, I\u2019m home.\u2019 I thought I was supposed to look out into the world of Korean people and feel like I belonged. But it didn\u2019t happen,\u201d she tells me over a lavish spread at Borit Gogae<\/a>, a cozy Korean restaurant in Los Angeles\u2019 Koreatown that specializes in banchan. \u201cI felt more like a tourist and a visitor, which I certainly was and am. But I felt guilty for not feeling those feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n

It took her a couple days to realize she couldn\u2019t force a moment of emotional revelation. \u201cMe not feeling anything doesn\u2019t mean that I have any less respect for where I come from. I need time to discover it,\u201d she says. But there was one moment that gave her what she didn\u2019t know she needed. While visiting a hand-carved stamp shop, she decided to get one made with her Korean name. When the shopowner asked her what it was, she hesitated, nervous to tell her adoption story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to feel like I was being judged. But he said, \u2018You belong here,\u201d she pauses, her voice catching. \u201cThat for me was the <\/em>moment of the trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story didn\u2019t make it into her debut memoir, Accidentally On Purpose<\/a><\/em>, released last month, but it speaks to the heart of her improbable journey \u2014 one shaped by chance and intention, clarity and ambiguity. In the book, Kish shares more about growing up as a Korean adoptee<\/a> in a white Midwestern family, navigating her queer and Korean identities, and rising to become one of the most recognized chefs on television.<\/p>\n

In our first episode of Fam Style, Kish and I sit down to talk about how Korean food has helped her connect to her heritage, the idea of belonging, and the layered journey of coming home \u2014 all over a meal that tastes like a memory.<\/p>\n