Accidentally on Purpose

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From chef and Emmy-nominated host of Top Chef comes a tender, clear-eyed memoir charting a journey full of purpose, belonging, and real love—a “recipe for a life worth living” (Stacy London). 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 those early days, becoming a chef meant tethering oneself to a restaurant and working in the back of a kitchen, not a television set. But working in the spotlight happened naturally, even if the attention was totally unanticipated. And like most things in Kristen’s life, the road was so much more winding and complicated than it may have appeared from the outside.

From growing up as an adoptee in the Midwest, to trying to fit in with all the other girls who were busy dating boys, winning Top Chef to becoming its Emmy-nominated host years later, or even coming out and finding love when she least expected it, Kristen learned that, unlike a map, no set of plans or definitions can dictate or explain a life.

In Accidentally on Purpose , what defines Kristen’s story aren’t the missteps or even the pleasant surprises that crop up but how she learned to find her voice and use it. Curveballs will come. Accidents happen. And for Kristen, when she digs deep, that's when things get really interesting.