Khristianne Uy, best known as Chef K, has built a career in the celebrity-sphere cooking for major names like Justin Bieber, Salma Hayek, Ryan Seacrest and — most notably — the Kardashian-Jenner family, serving as their private chef. Her skills even earned a stamp of approval from the late Anthony Bourdain.
It is Uy's passion for the craft — and belief that anyone can enjoy a good meal regardless of their status — that ultimately keeps her grounded.
"It's an honor for me to cook for anybody. If you're hungry, I'll cook for you," Uy tells USA TODAY, adding, "Regardless of the hours or anything, as crazy as it is, I love it. There's nothing else I can picture myself doing but this. Nothing."
In an exclusive interview marking the launch party of her
new Gimme Seaweed collaboration, Uy dishes on her rise to success, secret tricks in the kitchen, top requests from VIP clientele and more.
Chef K reveals favorite celebrity recipes, best tips and tricks
In all her years of being a chef, Uy says her top requests from celebrities are not what most would expect and are often rooted in a sense of "nostalgia."
"Pasta, rice. In California, it's tacos, however way that is," she reveals. "You would be surprised. You would think that their go-to — what they present to eat — is their everyday. It is really nostalgia that lives. It's like if you got trapped in an island for 30 days, what's the one thing you can really eat? And be honest about that question. It's not gonna be the uni with the caviar."
For this reason, Uy says her go-to recipes are very simple, and her best advice for making a healthy, quick snack is to "keep it under five ingredients, keep it under five minutes, because you can always add on." This method works in her personal life, and when she is cooking for "the pickiest eaters," like her clients' young children.
"In those moments, they're building their stories and memories, and they're like, 'Oh my God, I remember doing that.' And they get to come into the individuality of what they really like, as opposed to, 'Eat that.' There's a little bit more freedom, and you don't feel so limited. I think that's less intimidating," Uy explains.
Seaweed has always been a staple for Uy, as there are endless opportunities to experiment with different food combinations using it as a base. "Start with the rice, start with the K-Crisps, and then build your own," she explains, referring to her new Gimme Seaweed product, a crispy roasted seaweed topping that comes in Sea Salt and Chili Crisp flavors.
Some of her favorite ways to eat it are with her new product some cottage cheese, egg salad or a simple slice of avocado, everything bagel seasoning and a squeeze of lemon.
"It's just so satisfying," Uy says. "It's a sensation sometimes — when when your palate is teased with the crunch, with like the the lightness of the seaweed, and then you've got the creaminess of the avocado and the pops of the everything bagel. It's like, 'My God, why am I overthinking half my menu all the time?'"
Chef K reflects on her first famous client, becoming a celebrity chef
Uy's passion for cooking goes back as far as she can remember. She was born in the Philippines, and as a child, she says, her favorite activity was pretending she ran a restaurant with her nanny.
"I had a little piece of paper, like, 'Can I take your order?' And then I would ask her to put a little booster so I could reach the stove," Uy recalls. "I would just serve her, and I would make anything."
Uy went on to pursue a career as a chef, but working for celebrities wasn't on her radar until she unexpectedly caught the attention of one well-known Hollywood filmmaker's wife while catering an event in the '90s.
"I made coconut butternut squash soup, and one of the guests loved it, and the wife looked for me in the kitchen, and they offered me a job. That was that was actually James Cameron's wife, Suzy Cameron, and I was like, 'What?'" Uy says. She adds that she has always seen cooking as "an opportunity."
Uy later moved to Los Angeles after winning ABC's cooking competition show "The Taste" in 2013, during which she earned massive praise from judge Anthony Bourdain. In 2015, she began working as a private chef to the Kardashian-Jenner family — a job she has held for over a decade.
Gimme Seaweed partnership began at a Kardashian event
Kourtney Kardashian, through her wellness brand's annual Coachella event, "Camp Poosh," has partnered with Gimme Seaweed for several years, and that is how Uy met cofounder Annie Chung. The concept for K-Crisps came about "organically" from there, Uy says.
"Just being able to dive into Coachella days and really wrapping my brain and getting intentional about what I can do with seaweed," she shares. "At Coachella, sometimes you want to eat, you don't want to eat. But at the end, I was able to create a nacho or a bake — something warm, something comforting. It's the familiar, but told differently."
Gimme is the first the first brand to introduce organic, non-GMO seaweed snacks to the US market, and Chung says her goal with the company was to introduce the American consumer to one of her favorite childhood foods from growing up in South Korea.
"It's a very nutrient-dense food, and it's so simple," Chung says. "It's satisfying and it's good for you and it's low calorie and it's very versatile."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Kardashian personal chef reveals celebs' top requests | Exclusive
