From Yia Vang to Ann Kim, Twin Cities chefs shine on national TV

Jared Kaufman, Pioneer Press
·7 min read
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Twin Cities chefs are having a TV moment this year.

Plenty of local faces have featured on Food Network, Netflix, Hulu, and more over the past few months, with more projects in the works. These chefs are highlighting the diversity, creativity and strength of our cities and our restaurant scene.

Here’s where to find hometown chefs representing the Twin Cities on the small screen.

Yia Vang on Outdoor Channel

Chef Yia Vang of Union Hmong Kitchen and Vinai is hosting a new travel/cooking show called “Feral,” which premieres Nov. 28 on the Outdoor Channel.

On the show, Vang travels to new locations to find and cook species like carp, feral hogs and iguanas that are invasive or less commonly eaten. When introduced to areas where they are not native and have no natural predators, these animals can disrupt an ecosystem. Vang hopes that, through “Feral,” he can show ways of caring for the land.

“If you look at the core of who the Hmong people are, we have always been hunters, gathers, foragers, living off the land that’s provided for us,” Vang said. “If you understand Hmong food, what you really see is the idea of balance. All the food is balanced together, and balance is all about conservation.”

In American culture, Vang said a certain shock value is placed on eating foods that are deemed ‘weird.’ But this attitude obscures the deeply personal and cultural reasons people eat what they do, he said, and connecting with people through food can help restore this missing sense of balance.

“It’s knowing people; it’s understanding people,” he said. “We don’t eat chicken hearts and gizzards and all that stuff because it’s cool and we’re trying to make some radical statement. We do it because mom wouldn’t let a whole [animal] go to waste. You get to know people more when you get to know their food.”

This is one of several recent TV appearances for Vang: In August, he premiered a Food Network web series called “Stoked,” where he explores Hmong recipes cooked over open fire. And in June, he competed on the first season of “Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend,” the Netflix reboot of the hit Food Network show. Another notable Minnesotan food guy, Andrew Zimmern, served as a judge, and one of Vang’s sous chefs was Marshall Paulsen, who helped orchestrate Union Hmong Kitchen’s showstopping Minnesota State Fair booth this year.

Find the food: Union Hmong Kitchen is currently at Graze Provisions + Libations; 520 4th St. N., Ste 4, Minneapolis; 612-431-5285; unionkitchenmn.com

Ann Kim on Netflix

The most recent season of Netflix’s “Chef’s Table” focused on pizza — and Minneapolis pizza legend Ann Kim was one of six global chefs featured.

Anyone who’s dined at Pizzeria Lola, Hello Pizza, Young Joni, or Sooki & Mimi knows Kim’s food is not only world-class but also world-influenced. On the episode, the James Beard award-winning chef highlighted her Korean heritage and bold approach to food.

“Growing up in America, there’s very little representation of what an Asian American woman can be,” Kim says in the opening montage of the episode. “When I decided to make pizza, I refused to stay in my lane. I just said, ‘F*** it.’ I’m going to do things my way.”

This isn’t Kim’s first appearance on TV as a pizza maestro, either. Food Network star Guy Fieri stopped by Pizzeria Lola on an episode of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in 2012, and said, in classic Fieri style, that the Lady Zaza pizza was “just dynamite.”

Find the food: Pizzeria Lola, 5557 Xerxes Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-424-8338; Young Joni, 165 13th Ave. N.E., Minneapolis; 612-345-5719 and Sooki & Mimi, 1432 W. 31st St., Minneapolis, 612-540-2554; vestaliahospitality.com/meet-our-restaurants.html

Alan Bergo on Hulu

Chef Alan Bergo is a foraging expert (his Instagram handle is @foragerchef, after all), so he seems like a natural choice to compete on a show that blends cooking and survivalism.

The show, “Chefs vs. Wild,” premiered on Hulu in September and sees chefs dropped for several days in a remote area, where they have to forage all the ingredients to cook a restaurant-quality, multi-course meal for a panel of judges.

It was a difficult task, Bergo said. He could not scout the location beforehand or prepare the same way he does for other on-camera foraging trips, so he consulted field guides and Indigenous traditions and hoped for the best. And then, tired and thirsty from days in the Canadian wilderness, he had to start cooking.

But it’s all in service of getting viewers excited about where they live and helping them understand the actual culinary and botanical facts behind personality-driven outdoorsy shows.

“We need people on these shows that are representative, active members in the wild food community that know what they’re talking about,” Bergo said. “Being on a survival show, or being a survivalist, does not necessarily overlap with being in the wild food community.”

Bergo was a longtime sous chef at Heartland in St. Paul — which sourced almost all ingredients from within 300 miles and closed in 2016 — and more recently ran kitchens at now-closed locavore establishments Lucia’s, in Minneapolis, and Salt Cellar, in St. Paul.

Bergo’s own show premiered this year, too, streaming on Apple TV. It’s called “Field, Forest, Feast,” and Bergo said he hopes to spotlight harvesting seasonal foods in a more conversational way.

“We have world-class ingredients, and we have world-class talent here, and we deserve respect for it,” Bergo said. “I like to show off the Midwest.”

Find the food: Bergo’s book, The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora, was published in 2021, and he maintains foraging guides and recipes online at foragerchef.com/

Justin Sutherland on TruTV + Food Network

St. Paul chef Justin Sutherland is still recovering from a summer boat accident but had a very busy few months of TV earlier in the year.

In February, Sutherland competed on the third season of “Guy Fieri’s Tournament of Champions,” a bracket-style face-off between 32 of TV’s most successful competitive chefs. Plus, the second season of Sutherland’s show “Fast Foodies” premiered on TruTV in January. On that show, Sutherland and other chefs compete to replicate celebrities’ favorite fast food dishes.

Besides successful appearances on Food Network’s “Iron Chef: America” and Bravo’s “Top Chef,” Sutherland also hosts the web series “Taste the Culture,” which focuses on chefs of color.

Find the food: Handsome Hog; 173 N. Western Ave.; 651-219-4013; handsomehog.com

Zoë François + local friends on Magnolia Network

Pastry chef Zoë François is bringing her gorgeous creations back for a second season of “Zoë Bakes,” which began airing in May on Magnolia Network.

She’s also brought other familiar chefs onto the show: Diane Moua, pastry chef extraordinaire at Bellecour Bakery, talks crepes; Centro executive chef Jose Alarcon and pastry chef Ngia Xiong of Vivir talk empanadas; and Vincent Francoual, who’s planning a new French restaurant and bringing back the Vincent Burger at Sunday pop-ups at EaTo in downtown Minneapolis, stops by, too.

Find the food: François shares recipes at zoebakes.com/ and in her cookbook, Zoë Bakes Cakes

More local food TV news

Cat White: This sous chef at The Lexington was a competitor on Food Network’s “Chopped” in May, in part one of a special competition called “Desperately Seeking Sous-Chef.”

Wendy Puckett: The owner of Wendy’s House of Soul in North Minneapolis was featured in March on the show “Food Paradise,” on The Cooking Channel.

Molly Yeh: The author and budding TV star recently opened her first restaurant, a cafe called Bernie’s, in her adopted town of East Grand Forks along the North Dakota border. Her show “Girl Meets Farm” is on the Food Network. Also earlier this year, she took over as host of “Spring Baking Championship” on Food Network.

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