The James Beard-winning chef on life after Top Chef, building Compère Lapin and realizing a restaurant was never worth sacrificing herself for.

Nina Compton became a fan favorite on Top Chef, but what happened after the finale may be the more interesting part of her story.

Nina sits down with Noël Burgess to talk about growing up in St. Lucia, representing the Caribbean on national television and eventually building Compère Lapin in New Orleans.

She remembers just how seriously St. Lucia took that Top Chef finale, including why Tom Colicchio might have wanted to avoid the island for a while. Nina also talks about the people who kept telling her she should have won and why, looking back, she feels like she did.

Then the conversation gets into what came next. Building restaurants. Closing Bywater American Bistro. Watching people around her sacrifice their health for the business. And reaching the point where Nina realized, in her words, "I'm not going to die for a restaurant."

There is plenty of food too. Nina gets into what people misunderstand about Caribbean cooking, curried goat taking over the kitchen, why she reaches for rum instead of white wine and the New Orleans restaurants she actually likes visiting when she gets the chance.

• What really happened after Top Chef
• Growing up in St. Lucia
• Building Compère Lapin in New Orleans
• What people get wrong about Caribbean food
• Why Nina closed Bywater American Bistro
• Women in professional kitchens and the influence of Leah Chase
• What Nina wants to change for the next generation of Caribbean culinary talent

Guest: Nina Compton
Host: Noël Burgess

Follow Noël at @mrnoelburgess
Follow the show at @noelburgessonourway

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