Twin Cities diners know Leeann Chin as a spot for a quick lunch or family-style takeout. Those same diners may not know the story of the woman behind the fast casual chain.

Chin’s daughter, celebrity chef Katie Chin, hopes to change that with her one-woman show “Holy Shiitake! A Wok Star Is Born,” which she’ll perform in Minnesota for the first time Feb. 5 through 7 at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. It tells the story of Chin, who went from working as a seamstress for 50 cents an hour to building a $15 million restaurant empire.

Katie Chin, daughter of the late restaurateur Leeann Chin, tells her family’s story in her one-woman show “Holy Shiitake! A Wok Star Is Born.” She’s performing it for the first time in Minnesota Feb. 5 through 7 at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. (Courtesy of Katie Chin)

“My mother endured so many hardships, from being in an arranged marriage, being a marginalized businesswoman, my father was emotionally abusive,” Chin said during a phone interview from her home in Los Angeles. “She endured so much and, through cooking, she escaped all that pain.”

Leeann Chin was born in China in 1933 and, as a married teenager, lived in Hong Kong for a few years before immigrating to the United States in 1956. After settling in Minnesota, Chin worked as a seamstress, mending clothing and making wedding dresses.

“She was a seamstress, but she always loved to cook,” Chin said. “She threw a luncheon for some sewing clients and they were blown away by her authentic Chinese cuisine, because back in the day, it was pretty much just chop suey. They encouraged her to start catering out of our tiny basement on 47th and Bryant.”

In 1979, a socialite friend of Chin’s landed her a gig catering a party thrown by Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad to welcome Sean Connery to town. Connery was in Minnesota to visit his friend Robert Redford, who was shooting “Ordinary People” in and around Chicago.

“I was there as a little girl, serving appetizers to Sean Connery and Robert Redford. Sean Connery was so blown away by her cuisine, he became an original investor (along with Pohlad) in her first restaurant. I mean, it’s a crazy story, right? And the demand was so high, she opened another and another and another.”

By 1985, Chin had more than 40 restaurants and sold the chain to General Mills. Chin regained ownership three years later. By the time Chin retired in the late ’90s, her empire had shifted from restaurants to the fast food operations that remain a Twin Cities staple to this day.

Katie Chin said it was tough growing up in a household where she and her siblings worked the family business while their friends were at the mall or out ice skating.

“But we knew something truly magical was happening to her,” Chin said “She also became a huge local celebrity at the time. She even threw a fundraising concert with Prince. She didn’t know who he was. When she got home, she said ‘That Prince, he can really play the guitar.’ It was like this crazy fairy tale.”

Leeann Chin outside her restaurant at the Union Depot in St. Paul in April, 1988. Chin was a pioneer in the Twin Cities restaurant market, a female Asian entrepreneur who turned her home-cooked recipes into a popular chain.
She died Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at the age of 77. (Mark Morson / Pioneer Press)

After graduating from Boston University, Katie Chin moved to California and worked as a film and television marketing executive. At one point, she decided to throw a dinner party, but as she was preparing, she realized she had forgotten many of her cooking skills.

“I kept calling my mom and asking her questions,” Chin said. “And she was, like, ‘This is ridiculous.’ So she got on a plane with frozen lemon chicken, showed up on my doorstep and cooked the entire meal. But she let everyone think that I had cooked it, because she was just that kind of mom.”

The pair ended up establishing a new bond through the kitchen.

“I decided to quit my job and leave my husband all in the same month,” she said. “My mom came to my rescue. She spent hours with me in sort of meditative healing sessions where we cooked together. And through that simple act, she began to heal me.

“At the same time, she opened up about her life in China and told me all these stories she had never shared with me before. I think she was, in her own way, saying ‘I’m going to teach you. I’m going to heal you. And I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I made.’ ”

The pair ended up writing a Chinese cookbook together, “Everyday Chinese Cooking,” and started a Pan-Asian catering business. Between gigs, they traveled to China to co-host a Food Network Special called “My Country My Kitchen,” which led to a PBS cooking series called “Double Happiness,” which they shot in Hawaii.

During that time, Katie Chin was inspired to share her mother’s story with the world. While she had no experience as an actor or a playwright, she took a writing class where she would craft stories about her mom and perform them as part of the class.

Leeann Chin died from liver cancer in 2010 and at the time, Katie Chin shelved the pieces she had written. She continued her catering business, wrote more cookbooks, served as a guest judge on “Iron Chef America” and competed on “Cutthroat Kitchen” and “Beat Bobby Flay.” Then COVID happened.

“When she passed away, it was so painful,” Chin said. “Then during COVID, I literally opened the canvas bag where my writing material was. I thought, if not now, then when is the time to do it? So I took a master class in developing a solo show, and I spit a show out after about six weeks. It was very cathartic and healing for me, because I was still grieving from the loss of my mom. I was like many people during COVID, looking for answers, trying to understand who they were, living with hopelessness and fear. I put out all of that emotion with the ultimate goal of trying to help others.”

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Chin performed “Holy Shiitake!” for the first time in a Zoom call as a graduation exercise. She has since staged the show in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Hawaii and other locations to great acclaim.

“Originally, I thought you’d have to be Asian American, a woman, a child of immigrants or an immigrant yourself to resonate with the themes,” Chin said. “But after my first show, a white male friend of mine was in tears. I felt, wow, this has universal themes.

“I have become a much lighter person in the process of doing it, because my life’s an open book now. My responsibility and my mission in life is to honor my mother’s culinary legacy. By doing this, I just keep getting closer to that goal. It has brought so much meaning and fulfillment to my life.”

‘Holy Shiitake! A Wok Star Is Born’

When: 7 p.m. Feb. 5-7, 2 p.m. Feb. 7
Where: Minnesota History Center, 345 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul
Tickets: $35 via mnhs.org