Tristen Epps, the winner of Top Chef season 22, spoke exclusively with PEOPLE at the 2025 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, sharing his highs and lows during the competition series.

The Houston-based chef, who was crowned the winner with his Afro-Caribbean cuisine, revealed that he's usually "out for blood" and extremely competitive, but the series surprised him with its camaraderie.

"I'm competitive, I'm out for blood, I'm really, really wanting to take people down," he said. "But in this case, every time someone did bad, I felt bad, and every time someone did good, I felt great. And you just kind of wanted everyone to win, and I wasn't expecting it to feel like that."

Epps also shared his emotional response to winning the largest prize package in Top Chef history, which includes $250,000, Delta Sky Miles Diamond Medallion Status, a feature in Food & Wine Magazine, and the opportunity to headline an exclusive dinner at the historic James Beard House in New York City.

The champion chef also spoke about his plans to open a restaurant in Houston with the prize money, aiming to bring visibility to different types of cuisines that aren't necessarily mainstream.

"My goal is to always do this entire thing was to bring visibility to different types of cuisines that aren't necessarily mainstream," he said. "Those kinds of things are important to me to like, bring those to light and inspire other people to be really proud of their culture and bring those dishes uncensored to the world."

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