What is kimchi and how do you eat it? 'Top Chef' Kristen Kish explains.

While many parts of the world have embraced the spicy, tangy umami flavors of kimchi, chef Kristen Kish's first experience with the Korean side dish was a mind meld of two worlds as a young girl growing up in Michigan. The Top Chef Season 10 winner was adopted at 4 months old from South Korea and says as a child, her parents would take her to different events and places to introduce her to Korean culture.

"My mom brought me to this kimchi festival and all I could think about is putting it on a [Burger King] Whopper because I love a Whopper and I love the pickles on the Whopper," Kish recalls. "And so — just over the course of life — I've always loved [kimchi]."

"I just didn't know that it could be mine," she adds. "And I think that's an adoptee thing of trying to figure out how much of my culture I'm allowed to own."

The Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend co-host credits a recent trip to Korea with making her aware of the fact that she can incorporate kimchi into her food story. "It doesn't have to be traditionally Korean or all these dishes that I feel like I'm supposed to know," she tells Yahoo Life. "So, my relationship with kimchi has been one of growth."

What is kimchi?

"Kimchi is a fermented cabbage with chili flakes," Kish explains of the traditional Korean side dish made from salted, fermented vegetables. "People can put different things in it, but it's typically Napa cabbage and a paste of rice flour, chili and aromatics, and you just kind of smear it between the leaves."

Kish points out that traditionally, kimchi was a way of preserving foods throughout times of famine. Today, she says, there are different ways of making it and and feeding it to the masses, but the heart and tradition of what kimchi is still stands against the sands of time.

"The great thing about food is food can evolve — can start to bring in new influences from different parts of the world, from different people, from different points of view," says Kish. "And so things can be kimchi, but I think traditionally speaking, when we talk about the root of kimchi, it is cabbage."

What does kimchi taste like?

Kish says whatever the base, the flavors of kimchi are universal and constant. "The way I think about it, not coming from a traditional lens of Korean cuisine is, kimchi is a punch of acid and heat and a little bit of funk on that backend," she says.

Kish readily admits that she does not make kimchi and leaves it to the experts: "I know my lane and my lane is, I can make a lot of great food. Kimchi not being one of them," she says.

Kish spoke with Yahoo Life as part of her work promoting Jongga Kimchi, a brand she says is passionate about preserving the culture and history of kimchi-making.

If you aren't ready to make your own kimchi, Kish has a tip for purchasing kimchi at the grocery store: "Start to read the labels," she says. "Once you start to get into different ingredients that maybe you aren't super-familiar with, like different fillers, different thickeners, different things like that, just stay away from them."

How to cook with kimchi

As part of her partnership with Jongga Kimchi, Kish developed two recipes specifically rooted in her Midwestern comfort food upbringing, the first of which is basically a mashup between a large tater tot and cheese corn from Korean barbecue.

"It's like a giant potato croquette, but mixed with all these yummy things," she says of her Creamed Corn and Kimchi Croquettes recipe.

The second recipe is an ode to pigs in a blanket: ham, caramelized onions and kimchi in a puff pastry roll with an easy accompanying dipping sauce. "I do a kimchi honey mustard with the kimchi brine and then chopped up kimchi and caramelized onions," says Kish.

If all else fails, Kish has one simple solution to enjoying kimchi in its purest form. "Well," she says, "kimchi, straight out of the jar with your fingers is absolutely delicious."

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