MINNEAPOLIS — Last summer, Ann Kim announced that she would open a restaurant inspired by a trip to Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico, where she had tasted handmade heirloom blue-corn tortillas that moved her to tears.

The Twin Cities news media responded with reports about her intention to open a Mexican restaurant. A year later, Ms. Kim, one of this city’s most celebrated chef-restaurateurs, is still gathering ideas for the restaurant — and still worried that she sent the wrong message.

“Everyone was like, ‘Ann’s going to do a taqueria,’” Ms. Kim said. “I still don’t even know what the food is going to be. I’m a Korean that grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis who tried this tortilla that made me cry. That’s what I know.”

Ms. Kim, 46, has been defying preconceptions for much of her life. A former actress, she had never so much as waited tables before opening her first restaurant, Pizzeria Lola, in 2010 with her husband and business partner, Conrad Leifur, who was also a first-time restaurateur. Today the couple operate three successful Minneapolis-area restaurants, none of which are Mexican — or strictly Korean, for that matter.