SEATTLE — Since he was young, food has always been a part of Luke Kolpin's life.
But it was a close friend who encouraged him to look into cooking as a career.
"'All you do is cook, we call you Lunch Box, why don't you try cooking?' So I went for it and I signed up for culinary school pretty much the next day," Kolpin said.
After graduating, Kolpin spent time in several Seattle restaurants including the fine-dining icon, Canlis. But his greatest cooking experience came from working on the other side of the world at Noma.
"It's a restaurant in Copenhagen, Denmark. It's been voted a few times best restaurant in the world," Kolpin said. "In general it's been a very big kind of a leader in the cuisine of taking flavor to the next level."
Kolpin went from intern to sous chef at the prestigious restaurant. But after 8 1/2 years, he wanted to move back to Seattle to be closer to his family and look for a place of his own. But while Luke was looking, fellow chef and friend Shota Nakajima suggested he should put his apron on for the reality TV cooking show Top Chef.
"And he kinda mentioned that you'd be great for the show, and to be on this competition. And I looked at him like I've told every single person that ever said that to me, that's not something I think I would do. I don't know if I would feel comfortable on TV and all that stuff."
As the runner-up on the previous season of top chef, Nakajima knew a lot about the show. And after giving it some thought, Luke decided to serve himself up.
Last fall Luke packed his knives and headed to Houston as one of 15 chefs to make it on the show.
"You go into any competition you're always going to find stuff that makes you uncomfortable for sure," Kolpin said. "You are competing against other chefs that are really, really talented. You're kinda also competing against yourself. If you're thrown into something you've never done before are you going to shut down or are you going to try and make the best that you can."
He may have never sought the spotlight of reality TV, but Kolpin has never been afraid to throw himself into the fire.
"It was an amazing experience and very, very positive."
Top Chef Houston premieres tonight at 8:00 p.m. on Bravo.
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