8 Quick Questions for Tom Colicchio

Chef and restaurateur Tom Colicchio, 61, is back as the head judge and executive producer of Bravo’s Top Chef, which begins its 21st season on March 20. In addition to the show, Colicchio owns five restaurants and plans to release a memoir, Why I Cook, in October. He shares how he likes to spend his downtime, his favorite family dishes to whip up and who he’d love to join him at the dinner table.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How do you think Top Chef has shaped food television?

I don’t watch food TV, so it’s hard for me to comment on it. I know how it shaped the culinary world. When I was asked early on what I wanted out of the show, I wanted our industry to take it seriously. I didn’t want it to be just some entertaining [program]. If you look at the amount of chefs that have come through Top Chef and how much they’re contributing . . . they’re opening up multiple restaurants, they’re winning awards, they’re working, they’re giving back. I think that’s what the legacy of Top Chef is going to be.

The show is known for its timed challenges. If you have 30 minutes to make something satisfying for your family, what’s your go-to dish?

Oh, I do it every night. I cook for my family most nights, and I don’t make big elaborate meals. I can get a roast chicken with vegetables on the table in 30 minutes pretty easily, or a quick pasta with clams and mussels. Whatever I’m cooking, it doesn’t usually take more than 30, 40 minutes tops.

Colicchio is a head judge and executive producer of Bravo’s "Top Chef." Season 21 of the show begins March 20.

Ernesto Ruscio/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

Maybe crab. I’m often on the water, and I think that crab is one of those seafoods that tastes so much like the ocean — more than anything else — in my opinion.

Speaking of being on the water, where is your favorite place to fish?

It changes. If I’m 40 to 80 miles offshore when the sun’s coming up, that’s the best place to fish. It doesn’t matter where. I do have a soft spot for the Marquesas, which is west of Key West. It’s the first place I caught a permit [fish] on a fly [rod], which is one of the holy grail fishes that you can catch on a fly. It’s very, very difficult. It’s the only fish that I actually know how many I’ve caught in my lifetime — that’s the only one I keep track of.