Past Top Chef winner Kristen Kish admits she did not watch many reality competitions before taking the helm of Bravo’s cooking contest in 2024. Since then, she has been skirting any attempt at comparison with either Tim Gunn (whose empathetic mentorship of flailing fashion designers defined Project Runway for a generation of viewers), her predecessor Padma Lakshmi or The Traitors emcee Alan Cumming. But she acknowledges that her distinct approach – kinder, gentler, more tearful – is rooted in...