While filming my National Geographic show, Restaurants at the End of the World, in 2022, we visited Isfjord Radio Adventure Hotel in Svalbard, Norway, where chef Rogier Jansen and I went diving for sea urchins in the Arctic Ocean. Two grown-ass men had to help me into this tight, seven-millimeter-thick wetsuit. It covered every part of me, except my nose and eyes, to keep me warm. When we got in the boat, though, the setting felt ominous. It was cloudy, and there was frost smoke rising from the water. We got word that there was a polar bear nearby—we always had a security team on the lookout for them—so we cut the engines and waited to confirm the sighting. It was so quiet that I could hear my heartbeat in my ears. Then someone handed me binoculars. When I saw the polar bear going up and down the coast, it felt as if time had stopped; I was seeing the animal in real life, and everyone was so still. But then it was like, ‘Okay, so we definitely can’t do our dive here.’ Once we found a new location and the cameras were finally rolling, I slid into the water. It took my breath away. After so much anticipation, it was like, ‘Holy shit, I’m finally living this.’ Soon enough I was swimming and diving like a seal, having the time of my life. Underwater, the seaweed looked like snake plants floating toward the surface. I needed to be in the water for only 10 minutes for filming, but suddenly 30 had passed and we were still swimming around. I looked up and saw my wife, who was in one of the camera boats in the distance, and I had this feeling come over me. Even though I was working, I felt lucky that I could share this life moment with her. So I swam toward the boat that she was in. It wasn’t a short distance, and the crew was probably thinking, What is she doing? This isn’t supposed to be happening. But I finally reached my wife, lifted myself up onto her boat, all squeaky and wet—like a mermaid or maybe more like a seal on a rock—and kissed her. I wasn’t going to let that moment pass. There were cameras all around me, but my wife was all I could see.”
Kristen Kish is the host of Top Chef on Bravo. This article appeared in the April 2025 issue of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine here.
