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Who is ‘Top Chef’ season 16 finalist and ‘Wildcard Kitchen’ host Eric Adjepong?

We have a new favorite celebrity chef.

Chef Eric Adjepong attends the Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival presented by Capital One - Dinner hosted by Antonia Lofaso, Eric Adjepong and Sylvain Delpique at The Carlyle on October 13, 2023 in New York City.
Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for NYCWFF

Eric Adjepong is one of television’s biggest celebrity chefs. After his big break on season 16 of Bravo’s Top Chef, the Ghanaian-American has become an author, a food competition television judge, and now the host of Food Network’s latest after-hours special.

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When chef Eric Adjepong joined the Top Chef roster in season 16, the show’s Kentucky season, he stood out thanks to his dedication to bringing the West African food traditions he grew up on into the fine-dining world — a challenge he has since dedicated a large part of his career to.

The first in his family to be born in America, Eric Adjepong learned how to cook and developed the art through his mother. He studied culinary arts and nutrition at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island before heading off to London to obtain a Master’s Degree in public health and nutrition from the University of Westminster.

Adjepong got his start as a nutritional educator and a cook at several Michelin-starred restaurants, but his career truly took off in 2018 when he became a contestant in Bravo’s Top Chef, one of the U.S.’s biggest cooking television shows. He finished season 16 in third place and was invited to come back a year later for Top Chef: All-Stars L.A..

It wasn’t long until Adjepong became a cooking show staple, particularly after making the jump over to Food Network to host Alex Vs America where chef Alex Guarnaschelli competed against peers from across the country. He also made appearances as a judge in shows like Chopped, Guy’s Grocery Games, and Supermarket Stakeout.

Late 2023 and early 2024 were especially busy times for the accomplished chef thanks to the October release of Sankofa: A Culinary Story of Resilience and Belonging, described on Adjepong’s website as “a kids book that explores the culinary storylines of the African diaspora, peppered with kid-friendly recipes and visuals.”

Now working on his first cookbook with Clarkson Potter, Adjepong is also hosting Food Network’s Wildcard Kitchen, an informal cooking competition show where celebrity chefs join a game of poker and let the cards dictate which dishes they need to create, how much time they have to cook them, and several unpredictable challenges brought on by wildcards. And if that wasn’t enough, Adjepong also stopped by Tournament of Champions to battle other familiar faces from previous cooking competitions in the show’s fifth season.

Despite all his achievements, the New York City native’s most cherished title is being his daughter’s Lennox dad. Speaking on ChefSteps’ YouTube channel about what it is that makes his profession so great, Adjepong said “It’s not just about serving food, but also serving people.”

Wildcard Kitchen airs Tuesdays evenings on Food Network.