Most famous for winning Top Chef All-Stars, Richard Blais is a leading chef, television personality, restauranteur and best-selling author. He has appeared on Chopped All-Stars, Top Chef All-Stars, Top Chef and Iron Chef America as a competitor and as a judge on Cooks vs Cons, Cutthroat Kitchen and Guy’s Grocery Games. He is also the popular host of shows Cook Your A$$ Off, Food Network’s Halloween Baking Championship and Burger Lab. His best-selling cookery books include So Good: 100 Recipes from My Kitchen to Yours and Try This at Home: Recipes from My Head to Your Plate.
Born in New York, Blais trained at the Culinary Institute of America before going on to train at Daniel, The French Laundry, el Bullit and Chez Panisse. He later relocated to Atlanta, Georgia in 2000 so he could run his own restaurant, and founded his own creative culinary company Trail Blais.
Blais made his television debut in the 4th season of Top chef on Bravo, and in 2010 he won the title of “Top Chef” after competing in Top Chef: all Stars, returning as a recurring judge for the 12th and 13th seasons. In 2011 he signed a book deal with publisher Clarkson Potter, and has since released several best-selling cookbooks including his debut book Try This at Home which was nominated for a prestigious James Beard Foundation Award.
When he isn’t busy cooking, Blais can be found hosting his game-show podcast for iHeardRadio called Food Court with Richard Blais, training for his next marathon or writing his latest cookbook.