Kate Williams (chef)

Williams was born in 1984 or 1985[1] in Detroit to parents who were also from Detroit.[2] She studied food science at Michigan State University.[3] She received a culinary degree from the French Culinary Institute.[4]

Williams served as sous chef for Wolfgang Puck in Chicago[4] and worked in restaurants in New York and at Restaurant Relæ in Copenhagen.[3][5] She was living in New York and working in restaurants when she came home to attend a funeral and "decided this is the only place I want to have a restaurant."[5] She returned to Detroit and helped open Republic Tavern and Parks & Rec Diner, serving as Executive Chef for Republic and Rodin before opening Lady of the House.[3][4]

The restaurant opened in September 2017 in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood in a 1970s building that was previously home to St. Cece's, an Irish pub.[2][5][6][7] It is open Tuesday through Sunday for dinner and, since February 2018, on Saturday and Sunday for brunch.[3][8] Some of the dinnerware had belonged to Williams' grandmother.[3] Childhood photos of restaurant employees hang in a hallway.[9]

According to Food + Wine it is a "no-waste kitchen."[2] Williams uses trim from prime rib to make tartare.[2]

Diners are sometimes disappointed when a dish they've read about is unavailable due to the seasonal nature of Williams' menu.[10] One of Williams' signature dishes is a "carrot steak," a large carrot shaved into thin slices, salted, rolled into a rosette, and basted in butter.[5][10] It requires large carrots, so is available only at times of year when local farmers are producing them.[10]

Williams' initial vision was to build a neighborhood restaurant "that feels like it's been there forever."[10] She wanted a restaurant "small enough that I am cooking every day and not just doing paperwork."[6]

She has family connections to Corktown and Detroit.[9] Her paternal grandfather once lived a few blocks from the restaurant's location.[2] Her maternal grandparents met at the Gaelic League, located around the corner.[2] A great-great-grandfather ran a bakery in Detroit's West Village neighborhood.[11]

In 2018 Food + Wine named her one of America's best new chefs, one of only three Michigan chefs since the magazine started the list.[1][2][10] The same year, GQ and Esquire named the restaurant to their lists of the year's best new restaurants.[9][10] The restaurant was a semifinalist for the James Beard award for best new restaurant in the country.[12]

In 2019 she was a semifinalist for a James Beard award for best chef in the Great Lakes.[10][13]

Industry journal Restaurant Hospitality called her "the poster child for Detroit's rising food scene."[3] The Chicago Tribune said her food showed "pure mastery."[14] The New York Times called it "seasonal-voluptuous."[15]

Williams works with Alternatives for Girls, which helps homeless and at-risk girls and young women.[4] She teaches cooking classes on preparing inexpensive, healthy meals.[4]

Williams has lived in Corktown since 2014.[7]

• Lady of the House