When you have mastered pizza to the point that Minnesota chef Ann Kim has, Hollywood comes calling.
The master of perfect pizza pies at Young Joni, Pizzeria Lola and Hello Pizza , along with her newest creation focusing on masa and Mexican cooking at Sooki and Mimi, is taking her talents to the Netflix documentary series “Chef’s Table”. The Emmy-nominated series travels around the world focusing each episode on chefs who are redefining gourmet food with innovative dishes. The upcoming seventh season is taking on pizza.
The show isn’t a traditional documentary, and instead uses a more film-like approach with cinematography and production techniques based on traditional filmmaking rather than reality television.
Chef Kim, a Korean immigrant, credits her culinary palate and love of cooking to helping her mother and grandmother make traditional staples such as fermented bean paste and kimchi. In 2010 she opened her first restaurant, Pizzeria Lola in south Minneapolis, and it quickly became a destination in no small part because of her inclusion of Korean ingredients.
Kim spoke to WCCO Radio’s Jason DeRusha Tuesday on “DeRusha Eats” to talk about the new season of Chef’s Table coming to Netflix this September.
Jason DeRusha: You're already very famous here in the Twin Cities, but are you ready for the attention that you and your restaurants are going to get after you become a Netflix star this week?
Chef Ann Kim: Oh, I don't know Jason, I'm just really grateful for the opportunity. So we'll see what comes.
DeRusha: You are one of the pizza makers in this Netflix culinary docuseries called Chefs Table. Tell me, how did they ask you? How did you end up in this and when did they shoot all of this? Because they came here and shot for quite a while with you at your restaurants, right?
Kim: Well it started about two and a half years ago and I was contacted by one of the executive producers, Brian McGinn and he actually contacted me, direct messaged me on Instagram. And so I ignored it because I thought it was spam.
DeRusha: You didn't know? You didn't know he was legit? Oh, amazing!
Kim: No, I didn't think he was legit so I just ignored it. And then a couple days later we got an email from the same Brian McGinn in our restaurant inbox. And I guess he was legit and I apologized for ignoring him. I just didn't think that the producers of Chef's Table would contact me that way. But that was about two and a half years ago in February, they said they were starting a new season and it was going to be focused all on pizza chefs and they wanted to feature me. And I just, my jaw just about dropped. So we were originally supposed to have started filming the summer of 2020, but we all know what happened that spring, in March, when the pandemic happened and everything went down on lockdown. So shooting was postponed. I honestly thought maybe they were just going to cancel it but then they said it was back on. So we started filming like a year ago around this time because the State Fair was also happening. Then a year, I guess, a year ago, a year from then it's going to air. So it's been quite the journey.
DeRusha: Chef's Table focused on France, and then pastry, and then barbecue. Now pizza. The first episode you have a whole episode about you, is this right?
Kim: Yeah. All the chefs have about 45 minutes each and they spent about a week following me around from morning until night. Which, you know, it was a little strange at first, but then after a couple of days, it kind of felt like they were just kind of my shadow. But it was a little challenging. We were still filming during pandemic rules. And the most challenging part was that the director of my episode was actually stuck in New Zealand. She is a Kiwi and she was stuck there. New Zealand went back on lockdown just a few days before she was supposed to fly out and everything was closed. So no government officials could go, her passport was ready and stamped, but they couldn't get it to her. So the producers decided last minute, rather than put in a new director, because we had already started a relationship, she had started to form my story, they thought it was in the best interest of the story for her to still direct it. But via Zoom. It was incredibly challenging, but what an incredible team shooting this. I mean, it was the best of the best.
DeRusha: I mean, it's absolutely beautiful. The shots of your restaurants and, what do you think this? What do you think this is going to mean for the Twin Cities? All the people who are going to be exposed to this?
Kim: I hope it means really great things bringing people from across the country. All six episodes actually premier tomorrow (September 7) at once. If you want to binge all of them tomorrow, you can. But it launches globally tomorrow. So I hope that brings people from other countries and across the country. Because honestly, I still think a lot of people look at Minnesota as flyover territory and so many exciting things are happening in Minneapolis, especially in the restaurant scene. And I hope that it not only brings exposure to what we're doing, but to our entire restaurant community as a whole, because I think it's super exciting and vibrant and some of the most delicious things happening here right in our backyard.
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DeRusha: The executive producer talked about your kimchi pizza saying that just, it seems like it was sacrilegious, like the idea to put kimchi on a pizza. Did you think of it that way when you were creating it?
Kim: No. As a matter of fact, the kimchi pizza, which is called the Lady Zaza, didn't make the first cut. I didn't really have it on the original menu. And then I was just sort of thinking about all the flavors that would taste really good on a pie. And I thought, why wouldn't kimchi taste great on a pie? It's got all the flavors that I love. I love pickles and fermented things like kraut. And I thought, you know, when you cook kimchi, it actually gets a deeper, richer flavor than eating it raw, fermented as a side dish. So I really brought a dish together that was inspired by my love of a stir fried kimchi and pork dish, and so incorporated that on a pizza and in lieu of a bowl of rice, I just saw a handmade pizza crust as the foundation.
It just came together. And for me, it's really, nothing's really sacrilegious. It's just, if it tastes good, then it belongs on a pie and it's balanced. And I think it's unique. And the great thing about this particular pizza is about 12 years ago when we opened Pizzeria Lola, many people would come and they had never even experienced kimchi. So pizza sort of became this like gateway to Korean cuisine. And they asked questions about it and wanted to explore it even more. So I think that was really great about that as well.
DeRusha: You've had such great success with pizza and then your newest restaurant, Sooki and Mimi, no pizza. But what I love is that all of your restaurants really feel like they're parts of your personality, but they're also all different so you can really experience going to all of these restaurants and I admire that. I think it's risky to open a new place that doesn't do kind of what your calling card has been. But Sooki and Mimi is awesome.
Kim: I appreciate that Jason. I mean, as you know, my other restaurants pizza was my wheelhouse. It was sort of my comfort zone and that was a particular craft that I really decided I was going to hone in on and focus on and do it to the best of my ability. And a few years ago, the reason why I decided to focus on something different, which is masa and all the beautiful things you can create for masa in particular tortilla, was when I went to Mexico for the first time and had a nixtamal stone ground corn tortilla for the first time. And it almost moved me to the tears and I thought, why can't we have more of this? And so it really just became sort of an obsession of mine, just like peak-making great pizza dough. I wanted to make really great masa and create beautiful specialties. Really what I wanted to do is make sure that I stayed as honest to the tradition of making masa and masa specialties as I possibly could. And making tortillas, but making it authentic to who I am and my story and my experience. So you may not find really traditional Mexican dishes here, but you will find things that I love to eat. The things that inspire me. And I hope I honor that and people really enjoy it.
The series is called Chef’s Table and it premiers on Netflix starting Wednesday, September 7.
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