Making Minnesota greater again (and again)

The state's 10 regional development organizations have been helping to guide planning for 50 years. They're also keeping up with the times and providing a template for this year's elections. 

The audience of foodies and curiosity-­seekers cheered and groaned at every twist in an epic battle of chefs at the recent inaugural production of “Minced,” promoted as Minnesota’s “finer version” of the New York-based TV show “Chopped.”

The local chefs had to work on short notice with exotic ingredients, including dragon fruit, yucca root, chayote squash and prickly pear cactus. The three judges were a cosmopolitan lot, including a local Latina leader and liaison to public schools, an acclaimed food author and James Beard Award winner, and a bow-tied entrepreneur who once worked with local-foods pioneer Alice Waters.

One might assume that this took place in Uptown or downtown Minneapolis. One would be wrong. The venue was an industrial space abandoned years ago by a boat manufacturer, just north of downtown Little Falls in the rural farm-and-lake landscape near the geographic center of Minnesota.

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