Humanizing Chef’s: Katy Develin Turner
Name- Katy Develin Turner (@chefkatydturner)
Where do you Cook?: Turner Farm (@turnerfarm_oh), a 230 plus acre organic farm in Indian Hill. I run a teaching kitchen and cater private events on the farm, I work closely with UC’s Integrative Medicine Department, teaching the medical students plant-based recipes to give their patients, as well as working with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Build-it-Bites program. I curate live zoom classes monthly with one of the doctors and I teach the little kids/patients. The doctors talk about the nutritional value of x,y, z and I create a recipe around that. (As well as private parties and meal-prep when my schedule allows).
Favorite Food: really any farm-fresh cut of meat in the cast-iron with a bunch of homemade butter and herbs.
Favorite Chef: Erin French// the lost kitchen in Freedom, Maine. And no I haven’t seen more than the first episode of the show. I was a fan long before that.
Favorite Cincy Restaurant (Open or Closed): Bridges (more-so because of the vibe and they have kombucha on tap which is genius and I wish more places offered it at least in a bottle) but I also love Abigail Street because of the Greek in me and Lonely Pine because the Chef is a big fan of all sorts of cuts of meat and fish and supporting local farms.
Favorite Food Memory or Meal: the first meal I ate and held down, when I began recovering from the bulimia in 2017, was a very simple… an “Americanized” taco that my sponsor in AA had made for us one night after a meeting. After a ten year plus battle, throughout the military and all, it must have been willingness mixed with divine intervention because at that time I was two years sober but I had wanted to recover from the eating disorders for years. I hadn’t eaten a meal successfully in about six. There’s a lot of guilt and shame when that is your solution. Throwing up my Grandma’s holiday meals for example, crushed me, but I couldn’t stop. That’s why I believe in some sort of God, whatever it looks like I don’t care, I’m just grateful to be a part of life again.
I first knew I wanted to be a chef when: the Pandemic had first hit and I became very resourceful in the kitchen when I was living on an island in Maine. Scratch kitchen is my favorite “style” of cooking and I continue to do that at the farm with what is in season.
If I weren’t a chef, I would be: working with boats maybe in a boatyard again in Maine or chartering sailboats around the world like I had done in the Coast Guard, or working in the stables with the horses on a farm. Really maybe anything on the land or water away from the city.
My first job was: AmeriCorps NCCC when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2006. We went down to the gulf to rebuild for a year and it catapulted me into service work/the military.
Why I love my job, in three words: Farm-to-Table.
If I could have dinner with anybody, alive or dead, it would be: David Foster Wallace.
My favorite book is: Shantaram. Despite Wallace being my favorite writer, Infinite Jest is a ridiculously hard read.
Favorite thing to cook after a busy service: Guac and Queso, homemade corn tortilla chips. I love snacks and prefer them over meals.
Favorite Movie: Really any action movie (without comedy and satire)/thrillers.
Favorite TV show: no idea, we weren’t allowed to watch tv growing up, so still I’m sort of indifferent. Maybe something with a neurotic intense female like “Homeland” but I love motorcycles so I will say, I really enjoyed “Sons of Anarchy”…
Favorite Song: too many seasons in this lifetime to answer just one. Currently “The Highway Song” by Kat Hasty. I will say, I really only enjoy music that hits my soul and moves me. If it doesn’t, I really don’t ever listen to it.
Favorite Band or Musician: (currently) Ian Noe, as well as the Ghost of Paul Revere. Gotta rep our boys in Maine.
Favorite Place to travel: Southport, Maine or Camden, Maine.
Favorite Hobby: walking on the trail with my giant chocolate lab, Buster. He’s off leash. I’m off leash. We’re both free and in the woods. Where things make sense to me.
Favorite Quote: “I don’t believe in atheism, we all worship something.” Commencement Speech, This is Water, by David Foster Wallace.
Biggest pet peeve: When people don’t shoot it straight. Call a spade a spade. No excuses. Have a backbone. Own it.
My advice to future culinary pros: Don’t bring a measuring utensil into cooking…Leave it for the baking. Cook what you believe in, not what everyone else wants.
