Chef Karyn Tomlinson, who just took home the 2025 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Midwest, is now recognized as one of the most acclaimed and trailblazing chefs in the country. Her St. Paul restaurant, Myriel, was recently named the #9 Best Restaurant in America by Food & Wine, where she was also honored as a 2024 Best New Chef–a rare and inspiring distinction for a woman leading a fine dining restaurant in the Midwest built on foraging and sustainability. She also made history as the first woman to win Cochon 555, the national whole-animal butchery competition. As chef-owner of Myriel, she honors the Midwest not only with her James Beard Award win but also with a heartfelt tribute to her roots. She accepted the honor wearing the same coral dress her grandmother wore when she was crowned the “Dassel Minnesota Queen of Corn” in1941. The gesture reflected Karyn’s signature style of “grandma cooking nouveau,” a soulful blend of her Scandinavian and Minnesotan heritage with French culinary training. Whether she’s personally driving twice weekly to the small farming community of Dassel and Cocato, MN to meet with Myriel’s farmers, or hand-foraging wild ingredients, Karyn has reimagined fine dining as something deeply personal, hyper-local, and emotionally resonant. Her cooking proves that elegant cuisine can also be accessible, seasonal, and rooted in a sense of place.

Katie’s culinary journey began soon after she learned to walk, her mother and great-grand-mother mentoring her in the art of dumpling production at the young age of three. Her first job, at the age of 16, was at a Church’s Chicken in Taiwan. One of Katie’s favorite comfort-foods is still a perfectly rendered fried chicken–of which a recent New York Times article bolsters her mastery. Her appreciation for foods that bring comfort and catharsis is a result of her transitional upbringing. Katie moved between Taiwan and California multiple times, and she conserved her memories and sense of belonging through her beloved culinary traditions. It was in a Taiwanese boarding school where she began keeping a notebook, the initial doodles of themes and menus that would eventually culminate in her first restaurant. Although that restaurant, Chewology, had humble beginnings in a teenager’s notebook, Katie grew her concept into reality after many years of preparation.

Then, building on the success and momentum of Chewology, Katie created Stray Kat, an in-house pop-up that explores Taiwan’s complex and umami-rich cuisine. Katie has been named a Semifinalist by the James Beard Foundation for Best Chef: Midwest 2024 and 2025. After a lifetime of straddling two countries and cultures, never truly settling, and always feeling like a “stray cat,” Katie has finally made herself a place to call home.

Maryam Khan is the Chef and Owner of Khana, a Pakistani-inspired food pop-up based in Detroit. For the last seven years, Maryam has contributed to the eclectic and “rogue” dining scene of Detroit by popping up in various restaurants, bars, festivals, open fields, boats, night clubs, house parties–you name it! She has had the honor and privilege of collaborating with her friends, who are some of Detroit’s brightest chefs, as well as a few globally recognized professionals.

While a traditional brick and mortar has never been a part of the equation, she did take Khana to the streets of Los Angeles in 2023 when she came in second place on the Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race–all while never having stepped foot on a food truck before. Contrary to popular belief, Khana has never operated as a food truck outside of the show, but that was just one of the many riveting experiences that have contributed to Maryam’s unpredictable culinary journey. As a child born in Detroit but raised in an immigrant household, Maryam recognized from a young age that food is the binding language that can bring people from any walk of life together. “Everyone eats” became the mantra and the inspiration for bridging cultural gaps through reinterpreted classic dishes and “not your mother’s Desi food,” drawing inspiration from both the food of home and of the multicultural streets she grew up on outside those walls. She is a proud lover of her hometown, Detroit, and aims to continue adding to the shine that makes the city so special.

Diane is Le Cordon Bleu-trained and started her pastry career at Aquavit and Solera and eventually became the executive pastry chef at La Belle Vie. In 2014, she joined Soigné Hospitality Group as Executive Pastry Chef overseeing Spoon and Stable, Bellecour, and Demi. She has earned five James Beard semifinalist nominations and two finalist nominations in the nationally recognized category of Outstanding Pastry Chef.

Diane is inspired by her Hmong heritage and enjoys cooking sweet and savory dishes using locally grown and raised produce.