Wilkommen, Bienvenue!

Welcome to my blog. My name is Katie Stehn, and I've lived all over Iowa and also in Rochester, Minnesota. I've loved cooking my entire life; some of my earliest childhood memories are of "helping" my mom cook, perched on a barstool next to the counter. I remember how I loved cracking eggs. Ever since I was little, all I wanted was to have a little corner cafe or bistro to call my own. Even now, after a year of culinary school, my goals haven't changed. Hopefully, the time spent here at Indian Hills will sharpen my skills; I've really enjoyed it here. My instructor, Chef Gordon, is smart, funny, stern, kind, and he makes me want to do my best for him.

What I would most like to do, and I know I'll be eaten alive for being a naive idealist, is to make people happy with my cooking. I want to give my guests a reason to smile. Most people work all day, get treated like crap, and then slink home to lick their wounds before the next day begins. I want to give them a moment where they can sit and breathe and remember that they're human beings, with dignity. Everyone deserves to be well-treated, and as we've been taught in class, in a restaurant there are no customers: everyone is a guest.

I'm a born feeder, my mother is one as well so that must be where I get it from. I love preparing meals for people, it's how I perform. I remember one time before making Thanksgiving dinner for my friends from work, I could actually hear an orchestra tuning up in my head. Even when I was pretty broke, I still laid a good table. When I was home last weekend for Thanksgiving break, I stayed up until midnight making brioche for my little sister, a rabid bread-lover. All the while I was singing an advent song, "People look East, the time is near/for the turning of the year. Make your home fair as you are able/trim the hearth and set the table. People look East and sing today/Love, the guest, is on the way". I think of it as a blessing for the kitchen, I've even sung it quietly in class.

More to come soon! Keep checking back!