Rosemount native takes a 'Minnesota Nice' approach to 'Top Chef'

In its 12th knuckle-biting iteration, "Top Chef" can claim another "cheftestant" with Minnesota roots: Katie Weinner.

A self-described tomboy, Weinner grew up in Rosemount, taught snowboarding at Buck Hill in Burnsville and graduated from Rosemount High School in 1997. She studied English and psychology at the University of Montana ("but I really just wanted to snowboard all the time," she said), then landed in Lake Tahoe, Nev., where she got into cooking "so I could ski every day," she said.

By 2008, she was living in Salt Lake City and working as a culinary instructor. Weinner caught the attention of "Top Chef" producers with Nata Gallery, a 12-seat, 18-month pop-up restaurant (www.slcpop.com) in a former downtown Salt Lake City art gallery, where she prepared eight-course meals on three Coleman burners.

As of last week, Weinner had survived the first three episodes in the elimination competition ("Top Chef" airs Wednesday at 9 p.m. on Bravo). Contractually obligated to avoid spoilers at all costs, Weinner gave us a few minutes on the telephone late Friday. Here she is on …

Landing on "Top Chef": "They reached out to me. I randomly got an e-mail one day. It said something like, 'Hey Katie, we love what you're doing in Salt Lake City, and we'd love to have you on "Top Chef." And I thought, 'Is this a joke? Is this spam? Is this a prank?' They knew that I competed in snowboarding, and they seemed to love my competitive nature."

The logistics of competing on such a secretive show: "You get a random call, and they say, 'Pack your bags, you're going to Boston' [where Season 12 was filmed]. The time frame is unspecified, of course, and you leave your life, completely. You want to tell everyone that you're on "Top Chef," but you can't. We couldn't say a word until the cast was announced at the end of August. I told everyone that I got a job with a super-elite organization in Croatia. It seemed believable because I went to Croatia with Mom [Joanne Weinner of Farmington] for a couple of weeks earlier in the summer."

The "Top Chef" grind: "It changes every day, it's so random. But you can put in 12-, 14-, 16-hour days. You don't know where you're going, or when it's going to end. You're always on edge. Usually I go for a run, or go fishing, or something, but we didn't have that outlet. It's pretty intense. It's harder than any day of cooking on the line, that's for sure."

Her first restaurant job, as a teenager at a Bruegger's Bagels in Apple Valley: "It's funny, because looking back on it now, that's what pushed me into cooking. I loathed those early mornings, but that job taught me discipline. It turned out to be a cool job — even though I hated it — because I was interacting with customers at the counter, and I was in the back, making bagels, in a tiny closet-size space with this huge steaming vat of boiling water. It also helped that I love anything with gluten. I ate three bagels a day, warm and straight out of the oven. I got so fat. For me, they're as bad as doughnuts."

Whether she still makes bagels: "Oh no, never. And here in Utah, the bagels are horrific. Minnesotans should appreciate the bagels they have, because the bagels in Minnesota are incredible, from my point of view."

Her favorite Twin Cities restaurant: "Travail [Kitchen and Amusements, in Robbinsdale]. That restaurant blew us away. I'm such a modernist chef, and I love that food. As soon as my Mom found out about their Kickstarter campaign, she donated to it. I have their super-funny calendar here in our house, and I love it."

Her mom's reaction to her daughter's TV fame: "She's so proud. She's a worrywart, like me. She says, 'Katie, you can't keep putting me on the edge of my seat' [laughs]. People get together back in Minnesota to watch the show with theme parties and dinners. It's cool to see the show bringing people together. I've heard more from family members and high school friends than at any other time in my whole life. Everyone is coming out of the woodwork. It's so great, and it's so interesting that TV does that."

Being recognized: "That hasn't happened much, not yet. The first time it happened was in a laundromat. This old lady sees me and asks, 'Are you on "America's Next Top Chef"?' I was so excited that she recognized me, even if she got the name of the show wrong. I'm definitely not a spotlight person. You have to take this all with a grain of salt. It's just reality TV."

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