Chef Karyn Tomlinson on Why Minnesota Cuisine Is Having a Moment

What does Minnesota cuisine actually taste like?

For James Beard Award-winning chef Karyn Tomlinson, it starts with embracing where we live: dramatic seasons, food grown close to home, old traditions of preserving and sharing, and the farmers and communities that make it possible.

Recorded live at the Minnesota Star Tribune’s North Star Summit, food and drink reporter Joy Summers talks with the chef and owner of Myriel in St. Paul about why Minnesota cuisine is having a moment – and why its future is about much more than hotdish.

Tomlinson shares how her Minnesota upbringing shaped her approach to food, why Myriel works directly with small and transitional farmers, and how immigrant food traditions continue to redefine what Midwestern cuisine can be. She also explains her commitment to whole-animal butchery, cooking within the limitations of the seasons and the story behind her celebrated apple pie.

It’s a conversation about food, place, memory and what makes Minnesota’s culinary identity so distinct.

Savor our latest review of Myriel: https://www.startribune.com/myriel-st-paul-restaurant-review-karyn-tomlinson-les-miserables-george-pramatarov/601882266

0:00 Welcome to Essential Minnesota
1:45 Live from the North Star Summit
2:22 Why Northern cuisine is having a moment
3:07 Karyn Tomlinson’s Minnesota food roots
4:39 Going deeper than farm-to-table
7:25 Reclaiming Minnesota’s agricultural traditions
9:49 What eating with the seasons really means
13:07 So, what is Northern Midwestern cuisine?
15:19 How new traditions reshape Minnesota food
18:20 From fine-dining technique to food and memory
22:30 The story behind Karyn Tomlinson’s apple pie
24:34 Whole-animal butchery and embracing limits
25:30 Inside the dining experience at Myriel

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