'Top Chef' season 21 premieres Wednesday. Get to know the three Austin chefs on the show.

The 21st season of cooking competition show “Top Chef” premieres tonight on Bravo, and astute Austin diners will recognize several faces on the adrenalized set in Milwaukee. 

First-time host Kristen Kish, chef-partner at Arlo Grey at the Line hotel will make her “Top Chef” debut, where she may eventually tell Austin chefs Kévin D’Andrea and Amanda Turner to “pack their knives and go.”

Here’s what to know about the Austin talent. 

Kévin D’Andrea, founder of Foliepop’s

This is not the Foliepop's chef’s first tango with the show (or a version of it). D’Andrea placed second on “Top Chef: France” in 2015. 

The chef, who previously operated a restaurant in Paris, was named Best Young Chef in France in 2016 by Champagne Billecart Salmon before moving to Texas, where he first worked as executive chef for the restaurant La Villa in Houston. Prior to opening his own restaurant, D’Andrea worked under legendary French chefs Alain Llorca and Alain Ducasse.

D’Andrea founded the company Foliepop’s, which specializes in small cake-like creations, in Austin. Once a brick-and-mortar shop at the Hill Country Galleria, Foliepop’s is now primarily a wholesale operation. Diners who have visited some of Austin's top hotels may be familiar with the chef’s pastries, which are served on menus at more than a dozen hotels throughout the city. Foliepop’s tartelettes are also found at dozens of H-E-B locations.

The appearance on the show highlights just how far D’Andrea has come since he started building a new life and career in Texas almost from scratch. 

“I’m a proud immigrant in the USA who has worked hard to make my American dream happen,” D’Andrea told the American-Statesman via email. “I came to the U.S. six years ago with just a backpack. This has definitely taught me humility and the ability to grind back up from the bottom. It was an amazing journey, and I want to share that with the rest of the world.”

Amanda Turner, Olamaie chef de cuisine

Turner, an Arlington native, moved to Austin about 15 years ago to begin her culinary career in earnest and worked at Juniper, Uchiko and the Tatsu-Ya restaurant group before being named chef de cuisine at the standout Olamaie in 2021. 

In her time in Austin, Turner has established herself as one of the most high profile female chefs and chefs of color in the city. 

Turner, who was nominated for a James Beard Award in the Emerging Chef category in 2022, told the American-Statesman she is excited to bring her unique skill set and passion to the show. 

"I have a lot of different skills and have worked in a lot of different styles of restaurants, so I feel I really bring a diverse skill set to the competition," Turner said about what she felt she had to offer the show. "I also am a gamer, so I always love a challenge. But mostly I feel like I'm bringing good energy."

Kristen Kish, “Top Chef” host and Arlo Grey chef-partner

The Korean-born and Michigan-raised chef who won the cooking competition show in 2013 shares hosting duties with “Top Chef” stalwarts Tom Collichio and Gail Simmons. 

Kish, whose career has included serving as chef de cuisine at Boston chef Barbara Lynch's Menton, traveled, wrote a book and starred in a television show following her "Top Chef" triumph before eventually making her way to Austin to open Arlo Grey in 2018.

No stranger to television, Kish has appeared in TruTV's "Fast Foodies" and National Geographic's "Restaurants at the End of the World."

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