Top Chef contestant Nyesha Arrington on appearing on the show: ‘I didn’t know how to be a TV chef’
The Californian behind the now-closed Los Angeles restaurants Leona and Native reveals why being on Top Chef made her so uncomfortable
What do you remember most about your childhood? “My maternal grandfather was a chef in the US Army during the Korean war. He met my Korean grandmother there and brought her back to the States.
“When I was a kid, my grandmother looked after me on the weekends and all we did was cook. I joke that this was my first sous-chef position, at five years old.
“I peeled garlic, helped her make fermented sauces, kimchi. My dad’s roots are in Mississippi, so we ate lots of gumbo, collard greens, biscuits, fried chicken and andouille sausage.
“I would have friends over and play restaurant, and I always made soups, stews, brothy things with noodles. I was around 15 when I watched Julia Child make a meringue on television.
“I was blown away, that you can take egg whites and turn them into something completely different, without adding anything. I grabbed a cereal bowl and a s***ty whisk and tried to make it, breaking all these eggs, and my mom was like, ‘What are you doing?’”
How did you like culinary school? “My friend had gone to the culinary school at the [now closed] Art Institute of California in Los Angeles and I begged my parents to take me to attend a seminar.