Chef Karen Akunowicz is a prominent figure in the Boston dining scene. After her celebrated tenure at Myers & Chang, she expanded her culinary empire with Fox & the Knife, Bar Volpe and Fox & Flight. Not to mention her numerous television appearances.

But what inspired Akunowicz to pursue a career in the kitchen and restaurants?

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Read on to learn her tips for reducing food waste in a world of rising food prices, highlights from her time on “Top Chef,” her favorite ingredients, a memorable date, the process behind creating cookbooks — and a bit about how she handles her very own little "berry monster, too.

The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length. 

I did want to turn back to "Top Chef" for a few questions there. Would you say there was a number one lesson or takeaway you had from either season, or from the experience in general?

I think one of the things about "Top Chef" is that from a more esoteric point of view or big picture point of view, if you can do "Top Chef," if you are lucky enough to be cast on "Top Chef" and compete on a season of "Top Chef," you can do anything.

It's really hard. It remains the hardest competition cooking show on television. It's the real deal. The time is the time. The food's the food, the challenges are the challenges. The judges are awesome and really tough. And if you can go through that, you can really do anything. You should be like, "Well, I did that. I can do anything.' So it's definitely, if you can look at it in that way, I think it's definitely a competence booster.

The other thing that I'll take from it that's interesting is it is also an opportunity to compete with some of the best chefs in your industry. And anytime you are around people that are cooking, competing, working at the same level as you, that is such an opportunity, right? Surround yourself with greatness, surround yourself with greatness. Push yourself to the max of your ability and what you are able to do from that, what you're able to learn from it, what you're able to push yourself to do is pretty incredible. It's an amazing opportunity to meet and cook with the caliber of chefs that compete on Top Chef.

And it really only makes you better. It makes you stronger as a chef, stronger as a person, for sure.

It's also like Chef Camp. It's definitely hard, but you have 16 amazing, amazing chefs all together cooking. It's pretty phenomenal.

Would you say you preferred competing in one season over the other?

I want to say I preferred competing in "All Stars," but the beauty of your first time on "Top Chef" is you don't know. You don't know anything and nobody else knows anything either. So there's kind of a beauty in that, that we're all just like, wait, what's going on?

Whereas when we come back for "All Stars," many of us know each other. We've all gotten a little bit better at playing the game.

Looking back now, do you feel like there was any particular standout dish or dishes that you were really proud of in that moment?

Oh, I've had a lot of dishes that I've made on "Top Chef" that I've been super, super proud of.  I'll name two of them. There's a quickfire challenge that was judged by Ali Wong and........

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