The Taste Winner on Nostalgic Foods

As the winner of ABC's The Taste,Khristianne Uy proved her masterful ability to please a wide range of tastes and preferences with her meals. "[The Taste] really hit one of every type of mentor from Nigella [Lawson], with her home-cooked meals, to Anthony Bourdain and his risqué, raw type of approach on southeast Asian food [to] Ludo [Lefebvre]'s very aggressive French food and all-Americana [Brian] Malarkey," she explains.

The personal chef not only cooked for diverse palates on the show, but also does so in her day job. She has worked for James Cameron and the royal family of Saudi Arabia and currently serves as the personal chef to Charlie Sheen. Uy (also known as Chef K) plans to share her experiences as a personal chef through a cookbook detailing recipes she created for her clients and stories attached to each. "I formulate recipes for the families or [use] family traditional recipes but [with] my twist on [them]," she says.

Of her win, Uy feels that her career choice has finally been validated. "I remember when I was chopping 100 pound bags of onions, carrots and celery, and now it's like, did I just win?" she says. "My mom is still crying."

Check out the slideshow above to find out where Uy finds inspiration and why you should cook nostalgic foods.