About This Episode

In this conversation from October, 2020, James Beard award-winning Minneapolis chef Ann Kim discusses her immigrant experience, approach to food, and observations about her community in the wake of the George Floyd murder. “It is our job to make changes, educate and learn. We can’t make decisions rooted in fear,” she says. “People scream when they feel like they’re not being heard. I was trying to listen and I wasn’t quite sure how I was to react, except that I wanted to support the black community,” explains Kim. Kim talks about her support of the SNAP (food stamps) expansion, drawing on her own family’s experience with government assistance programs. “Keeping kids fed… If we can’t do that, what can we do?,” she says.

Resources and Mentions:

Ann Kim

Ann Kim

Chef/Owner

Ann Kim is the Chef/Owner of Pizzeria Lola, Hello Pizza, and Young Joni. In 2019, Ann became the first woman and first person of color from Minneapolis to receive the James Beard Award for “Best Chef Midwest." She has been featured in the New York Times, Vogue, Forbes, Wall Street Journal and CBS Saturday’s “The Dish.”  Her newest  restaurant, Sooki & Mimi, also located in Minneapolis, is named after two grandmothers of decidedly different cultures and backgrounds. Sooki & Mimi is about both connection and contrast. James Beard award-winning chef Ann Kim explores a new pathway, trading in her much-lauded pizza crust for springy, soft tortillas. Atop this delectable base sits a deeply personal menu filled with blended culinary cues spanning Korean, Midwestern, and Latin American ingredients, to name a few.  All of this within an elegant-yet-comfortable neighborhood joint.