Ann Kim is a

James Beard Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media award ...

-winning chef and restaurateur in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

Early life

Kim immigrated from

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in 1977 at the age of four, settling in

Apple Valley, Minnesota Apple Valley is a city in northwestern Dakota County in the State of Minnesota, and a suburb of the Twin Cities. The population was 56,374 at the 2020 census, making it the 17th most populous city in Minnesota. In 2014, Money.com' named Apple ...

with her sister, parents and grandmother. She was in the theater program at

Apple Valley High School Apple Valley High School is the name of two high schools in the United States: *Apple Valley High School (California) *Apple Valley High School (Minnesota) Apple Valley High School (AVHS) is a public four-year high school in the U.S. city of Ap ...

, and she pursued an English Degree at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, graduating in 1995. She returned to Minneapolis and worked as an actress for eight years before deciding to enter the restaurant business.

Culinary career

Recalling the pizza she had enjoyed in New York, Kim began to study pizza making, training at

Tony Gemignani Anthony Felix Gemignani (born August 23, 1973) is an American chef, restaurateur, and author. In 2009, Gemignani opened Tony's Pizza Napoletana in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Gemignani is a pizzaiolo and chef, h ...

's International School of Pizza in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. In 2011, Kim and her partner (and future husband) Conrad Leifur opened Pizzeria Lola in Minneapolis. When reviewing the restaurant for '' Food & Wine'',

Andrew Zimmern Andrew Scott Zimmern (born July 4, 1961) is an American chef, restaurateur, television and radio personality, director, producer, businessman, food critic, and author. Zimmern is the co-creator, host, and consulting producer of the Travel Chan ...

said: "Yes, it’s true, Minnesota has the best pizza in America."

Guy Fieri Guy Ramsay Fieri (, ; ''né'' Ferry; born January 22, 1968) is an American restaurateur, author, and an Emmy Award winning television presenter. He co-owns three restaurants in California, licenses his name to restaurants in New York City, Las ...

visited Pizzeria Lola in 2012 for the

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ( ...

show '' Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives''. In 2012, Kim and Leifur opened a second restaurant in

Edina, Minnesota Edina ( ) is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States and a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis. The population was 53,494 at the 2020 census, making it the 18th most populous city in Minnesota. Edina began as a small farming and mil ...

, a smaller pizzeria called Hello Pizza, selling pies and slices from a counter. In 2016, Kim and Leifur opened a third restaurant named Young Joni in northeast Minneapolis, expanding from pizza to a broader menu featuring hearth cooking and Korean influences. It was named one of the best new restaurants in America by

Eater Eater may refer to: * Eater (band), an English punk rock group * "Eater" (''Fear Itself''), a 2008 episode of the NBC television horror anthology ''Fear Itself'' * ''Eater'' (novel), a 2000 science fiction novel by Gregory Benford * ''Eater'' (w ...

and '' GQ'' magazine. The '' Star Tribune'' named it its 2017 Restaurant of the Year; the Star Tribune's critic Rick Nelson commented that "One of the many reasons why this is such an exciting era for Twin Cities dining can be summed up in two words: Young Joni." In 2019, Kim won the

for Best Chef: Midwest. Kim opened her fourth restaurant, Sooki & Mimi, in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis in 2021. Focusing on tortillas and other dishes created using masa made from hand-ground

nixtamalized Nixtamalization () is a process for the preparation of corn, or other grain, in which the grain is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater (but sometimes aqueous alkali metal carbonates), washed, and then hulled. The term ...

corn, the menu was inspired by corn tortillas Kim ate in the

Valle de Guadalupe The Valle de Guadalupe (Guadalupe Valley) is an area of Ensenada Municipality, Baja California, Mexico that is an increasingly popular tourist destination for wine and Baja Med cuisine. It is located north of the City of Ensenada and southeas ...

which were so good they brought tears to her eyes. In 2023, she closed this restaurant and opened a new one on November 7, 2023, in the same space, simply called Kim's. In 2022, Kim was featured on episode 3 of Netflix's ''Chef's Table: Pizza'', the seventh season of the Chef's Table series. The episode focused on Kim's culinary career in relation to pizza.

References

External links

Young Joni

Pizzeria Lola

Hello Pizza

Sooki & Mimi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Ann Year of birth missing (living people) Living people South Korean emigrants to the United States People from Apple Valley, Minnesota Columbia College (New York) alumni American women chefs James Beard Foundation Award winners Apple Valley High School (Minnesota) alumni 21st-century American women Chefs from Minnesota Asian-American culture in Minnesota