Chef Kat finds purpose in bringing unique culinary experiences to Calgary families

It was one of the colder nights in November when a handful of home-cooks faced black-ice and freezing wind to arrive at The Compleat Cook store ā all to see a woman known as Chef Kat.
When I got there and hung my coat at the door, I also hung up my worries and stress.
Chef Kat, whose real name is Kathrina McKinney but prefers to be known by her professional name, took over the kitchen as if it was a stage ā she glided across the small space stirring this and tasting as she prepared a French-inspired feast. She laughed with the ladies who regularly come to her lessons and who she knows all by name. McKinney was instructing a lesson called āOui, Oui, Paris!ā ā French cooking made easy.
We felt at home and Chef Kat, owner of Chef Kat: Calgaryās Personal Chef, made us feel that way effortlessly. It was warm, calm and the food smelled amazing. Once we got the main course of creamy Poulet Dijonnaise (chicken done with a creamy Dijon mustard and white wine sauce) the friendly chatter stopped ā one of the women remarked, āThatās a compliment to the chef, you know, when no one is talking anymore!ā
I suspect few knew Chef Katās mission to create home comfort through her work as cooking instructor and her personal chef business was rooted in ingredients that might have led instead to rough future. She had her share of hard times beginning at home in Terrace, B.C.
With her motherās untimely death Chef Kat, then seven-years-old, was send to live with her grandmother where, she says, she was mistreated.
āShe used to make me kneel in the corner and with a rock on my head; kneeling and sitting straight up. She would poke me in the back with a broomstick if I ever just slouched a bit.ā
This lasted, she says, for five years. But one day her favourite teacher, āMr. Peacock,ā saw a welt across her arm. He took her to the principal, and that day, she says, she was taken from her grandmotherās care. She was moved from foster home to foster home.
Personal chef and cooking instructor Kathrina McKinney, who goes by Chef Kat, says itās important for her to stay true to her happy and laid-back personality, which includes singing while she cooks.
Photo by Kaity Brown
āI pretty much have been on my own since I was 15 years of age.ā Becoming a young mom, she says, made her grow up even quicker.
āIt makes me feel good that I can bring happiness to a table that maybe has had some sadness, like someone in the family being diagnosed with cancer and they are doing a celebratory thing on their birthday.
āIt reassures that Iām doing the right thing. When I go into someoneās home, very rarely is it about me being a servant in their home,ā she says, now 47.
I met the chef in Analog Coffee in Calgary where we talked over coffee. The dark-haired and dark-eyed woman had a way of intently looking at you, but more than that, she made you feel comfortable. The scene was like meeting up with an old friend.
Her eyes lit up when she talked about food but it goes further then just that ā she honestly cares about helping others through their hardships.
The chef says she has always been passionate about food. She grew up in Terrace in northern British Columbia near fishing vessels and from there learned a lot about seafood.
Remarkably, it was her grandmother who sparked an interest in mastering the art of cooking.
āMy grandmother was a terrible cook. Itās funny to say because she has a French background but she canāt cook at all. I think that that was one of the reasons that I was inspired to learn how to cook ā I didnāt want to eat crap.ā
She began travelling and delving into foreign cultures, which she says inspired her true love of cuisine.
Along the way she married a Portuguese man with whom she had two children, Vanessa and Sergio. They came to Canada as toddlers but returned to their birth country of Portugal after their father abruptly passed away of colon cancer in 2003. They are now 28 and 29 years old.
But what led her to become a personal chef as opposed to a restaurant chef? A number of reasons, she says, but it all started with a restaurant she owned in Mexico from 1989 to 1993.
āWhen I bought the restaurant I wanted to be front of the house. I wanted to kind of be the showy person, but it didnāt work out that way. In terms of the chef, there was no consistency with the timing and with the food so I ended up firing him and I found myself being in the kitchen.ā
The chef quickly realized that being behind the scenes wasnāt enough but although she didnāt want to be in the kitchen originally, she found herself loving it.Kathrina McKinney says her grandmother was a terrible cook and this inspired her to learn the art of food as she didnāt want to eat badly.
Photo by Kaity Brown
āSince [returning] to Canada, I have done a lot of things in between here and there. But as a woman in this industry, itās not easy, itās a real struggle. Even, chefs at these big restaurants, theyāre kind of behind the scenes they donāt really get the notoriety. Iāve worked at quite a few restaurants in Calgary back and forth. Itās aggressive in the kitchen.ā
One day she told her fiancĆ©, Andreas Huttenrauch, that she wanted to entertain for a living to which he replied āWhy not?ā In the spirit of that, they created a website just to see what might happen. He is the chief digital strategist for Globi Web Solutions and an influential part in Kathrina McKinneyās transition to āChef Kat.ā
āThere were many, many late night conversations,ā says Huttenrauch. āBecause I have been an entrepreneur for decades itās in my blood so I think I was nudging her along very gently and then one night she said that would be a great thing to do. So the next day while she was at work I built her the website. That was me pushing her off the deep end.ā
Two weeks after launching her personal chef business, āChef Kat,ā she had her first client and she says she realized she had tapped into a thriving market.
āThere are a lot of people out there who love to entertain but they donāt want to be wrapped up in the kitchen the entire time. So thatās where I come in.ā
The chef also teaches at The Compleat Cook, a retail store in Calgary that provides cooking supplies but also on-site cooking lessons from various chefs.
She has a loyal following of home-cooks who regularly attend her classes. Chef Kat teaches on average three classes a season, with the seasons being from January to June and September to December.
She says itās important that that her food reflects her honesty and joie de vivre.
āIām very laid back and Iām very happy. Iām a singing chef. Those things to me are really important ā keeping it really true and being true to yourself. If you start getting that attitude of pretension it shines through your food and it comes through you.ā
āI hope that people know who I am. I do give back to the community ā thatās really important to me. And so I hope that I get the chance to be known. So people will say āOh yeah, thatās Chef Kat, she did a dinner for us one timeā or⦠āShe made a very special moment for us in a very sad time in our lives.’ā
kbrown@cjournal.ca