MINNEAPOLIS — For nearly 24 hours a name was the #1 trending topic on twitter around here.
And that name, is Ann Kim.
Ann won her industry's highest honor Monday night, the James Beard Best Chef Midwest award for her work at her Northeast Restaurant, Young Joni.
And while her work earned her the prize.
Her acceptance speech and her origin story are quite something.
Ann Kim's story is an immigrants tale.
A North Korean mother and south Korean father.
“My mom and dad just felt like back in the 70s there really weren't that many opportunities for women except to get married and have children and I think they wanted more for us and that solidified why they wanted to move here,” Kim said today in a phone interview from Chicago.
And move here the family would when Ann and her sister were very young.
It was a time when Ann recalls a painful story her mother would share.
“I remember her telling me a story she said you know I know that side (the paternal side) of the family looks down on me and on my girls but we are going to do something great, we are not going to let them bring us down,” Kim said today.
It was tale that would ignite a pilot light in a child who would find inspiration in cooking but not the courage to pursue it for work yet.
Ann would pursue acting first.
And she would enjoy it, until she had the courage to quit and open Pizzeria Lola with no professional experience.
Her pies went on to earn accolades across the globe.
And three years ago, Ann would succeed again, with the restaurant Young Joni.
That restaurant won praise from day one, and it all culminated last night when Ann Kim would accept the award, as the James Beard Best Chef-Midwest.