The chef who woke up 1.5 inches taller

Dear Pros,

Kat here. Karyn Tomlinson had me at smashed squash. In the waning days of winter back in 2024, my fellow scouts and I were in the thick of debating the new class of F&W Best New Chefs when then-restaurant editor Raphael Brion started animatedly describing the way the St. Paul chef had adapted her family's tried-and-true technique for opening dense-fleshed heirloom squash: Her grandmother would smash the sturdy specimens in the driveway. Tomlinson and the rest of the clan found the practice hilarious — until it came time to crack into some locally-grown Jarrahdale pumpkins at Myriel. "In homage to that farm-centric resourcefulness we so admire, we are doing our own (sanitary) version of the broken squash at Myriel," Tomlinson wrote on Instagram, sharing a video of a cook hurling a plastic-wrapped bundle toward a drop cloth on the dining room floor.

That gumption is at the core of everything Tomlinson does, as you can read about in her stunning new essay. For her entire career, the 2024 F&W Best New Chef (of course she made the cut) prided herself on being the person in the room with the most tenacity. "While a lot of this has historically been about mental stamina, much of it was raw physicality and willpower," she wrote.

A deteriorating spinal condition made the latter less and less tenable. The surgery required to save her mobility — and possibly her life — also meant that she would have to substantially change how she approached the practical and psychological aspects of how she approached being a chef. If she could not bend or twist her spine, how could she keep up her "self-assigned superwoman chef identity"?

Tomlinson realized she had to completely shift the way she led her team.

"I wish I could tell you that I can do everything post-surgery that I could do before, but I can't," she writes. "What I can do is try to run my business better by taking the time to actually lead. I can taste, I can brainstorm, I can coach. I can plan, organize, and walk through processes with my team so they are empowered to execute instead of waiting for me. I can learn to trust others to carry out our shared vision. I can also attest that all of that is actually way harder than breaking down a hog, hammering out family meal, or yanking wild grapes out of a cedar tree."

She's using her hard-won perspective to offer new empathy and support to the team around her and, through this essay, anyone in the industry reckoning with physical conditions that challenge the way they approach their roles and reckon with their identity. As she notes in the story's lede, she woke up from her spinal fusion surgery an inch and a half taller than before. I say Tomlinson is a more towering leader than ever.

Be well,
Kat