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Come to the Chef career fulfills life-long Passion for Kara Super-Peterson

by: Susan Hougen Liedberg

"Food is one of the purest ways to show love."
This belief fuels Kara Super-Peterson's drive as a professional chef.

Growing up, Kara was raised with meals being a family event.  Food was treated with “passion and care.”  Her grandma Cleo Henning owned her own cafe, and her grandma Eris Super loved entertaining. “Can I stir?” was her first question in the kitchen, and her mom would pull up a stool to the counter and let her stir to her heart’s content.  

She didn’t always see herself as a professional chef.  When younger, she dreamt of becoming an FBI agent, but after a serious bout (or three) of mono in high school, she ended up spending long stretches at home.  One of her daily breaks from the monotony of having to stay home and rest was a cooking program on The Discovery Show.  “I found myself in the kitchen creating dishes,” Super-Peterson recalls. That’s when she knew this could be her career.

Her first official dish she made on her own at 14 years old was a creamy, white wine sauce with tortellini, peas, and ham. At 18, she catered her first wedding. Since then, she’s been on a whirlwind that has landed her on the entrepreneurial journey as a private chef. 

One of her first cooking ‘gigs’ was back at Greenbush-Middle River School.  As a drama student, she performed on the stage for many productions, including dinner theater.  She and some of her fellow culinary students spent time on the “dinner” part of theater, creating the fanciest meal dinner theater had ever served.  For many years, she carved out time from her schedule to come back to the GMR Dinner Theater event, to the thrill of the GMR theater patrons.  Today, she still comes back to GMR, teaching students in Laura Dahl’s Culinary Arts classes.

After completing her Culinary Arts degree in Moorhead, Super-Peterson jumped into the hard work of the restaurant world, getting experience in lake resort cooking and corporate cooking in Minneapolis.  She knew cooking was her world.  After she and her husband Ryan became parents, she made a pivot from the grueling pace of restaurant life to purchasing and running a daycare and preschool center, but food was always part of her life - whether creating meals for her daycare children or making treats for her family and friends. 

After her son Eddie graduated and moved on to college, Super-Peterson sold her daycare and pivoted back to the culinary world.  This time as a personal chef. How did she decide to go out on her own?  “With years of experience and a deep love for what I do, I knew it was possible.” 

Food is a love story for Super-Peterson.  “Being a chef isn’t just a career for me - it’s how I show love.” Her private chef career, Come to the Cook LLC, has become a vehicle for sharing that love of food. 

“It’s comfort. It’s connection. It’s celebration. It’s healing. When I cook for someone, I’m not just putting ingredients on a plate — I’m telling them they matter. I’m saying, “You’re worth my time. You’re worth my effort. You’re worth something beautiful.” 

From small, intimate parties to large banquets, Come to the Chef has kept Super-Peterson busy and has fueled her food creativity.  

“This past December, I created a dessert called “The Story of the Bee.” It featured a wildflower honey custard topped with wildflower coulis and edible flowers. I served it with a sugar cookie branch holding a meringue hive; guests poured honey into a hole in the hive and watched it drip into the dessert.”  

Fresh, local, creative, community.  Her approach to the culinary world raises up locally sourced foods that offer a creative spin and draw people together. It’s intentional and enjoyable. “Being a chef allows me to create moments. It allows me to bring people together. It allows me to turn ingredients into something that makes someone pause, smile, and feel at home.”

In addition to her work as a private chef for families, corporate groups, and dinner parties, Kara Super-Peterson is also a recipe developer. She work with resorts to create unique menu items, assist with their social media and marketing, and collaborate with them through social media to gain traction during the year. 

If you are interested in any of her culinary services, you can contact her via email at: cometothecook@gmail.com

City of East Grand FOrks hears request to revert to former state flag

Will the City of East Grand Forks choose to fly the former Minnesota state flag over city property? Or will the council use the new design adopted in 2024?
 
A request to fly the previous flag was heard during the open forum section of the council’s March 3 meeting. The issue is on the agenda for discussion at the council’s March 10 work session.
 
Jolene Grovum told the council that many people would like to see the city and community change the flag back to the “original Minnesota state flag.”
 
“A lot of people, with all the controversy that’s going on right now within our state, are offended by the fact that we never got to vote for it,” Grovum said. “We were never asked our opinion, and we’d rather keep it the original state flag and stand with other communities across the state.”
 
A state commission selected the new flag and seal in 2023 following a public input period that garnered 2,238 design submissions. The commission held 18 public meetings during the process and received 21,882 comments. The panel, created by the Legislature in part due to criticism of the existing flag’s depiction of Indigenous peoples, was part of a broader trend of states modernizing their flags.
 
The new flag features a white eight-pointed North star on a dark blue field with a light blue field to the right symbolizing the state’s water. It went into service on May 11, 2024, which is Statehood Day.
 
Objections to the former flag, which was adopted in 1957 and changed slightly in 1983, included that it was culturally insensitive and that it “memorialized manifest destiny.” It featured a white farmer plowing in a field with a rifle nearby while looking over his shoulder at a spear-wielding Native American man on horseback, who gallops off into the sunset.
 
The council of the City of Champlain narrowly approved retaining the previous state flag. The vote at the Feb. 26 meeting was 3-2. The St. Francis city council took down the new flag and replaced it with one from 1957. Nowthen debated the issue and decided to stay with the new design. 
 
Council vice president Tim Riopelle thanked Grovum for bringing the issue to the council, saying he had heard the same request from others in the city.