White Bear Lake chef recovering from 3rd degree burns
WHITE BEAR LAKE, Minn. -- A White Bear Lake chef and restaurant owner is recovering after an accident sent her to the burn unit at Regions Hospital.
Inside Margaux's Table in White Bear Lake, magic is created, one plate at a time.
"That's what I wanted to do since I was a little girl," said Margaret Doran, Margaux Table owner. "Just to make big dinners for big families."
Bringing people together over food was Doran's calling, and her dream came to life when she opened Margaux 25 years ago in White Bear Lake.
It's a farm-to-table concept, serving plates like Chilean sea bass and salmon rre on potato galette with roasted pepper sauce.
One evening in September while in the kitchen, things took a turn for the worse.
"I tripped on one of those tension mats on the floor, the pot of pasta, boiling pasta poured down my front," Doran recalled. "It was like my body was being cooked."
That boiling water burned 11% of her body. Doran was immediately taken to the burn unit at Regions Hospital as doctors prepped her for skin grafting, a surgery to remove and replace dead skin.
Doran said they took skin from her thigh and used it to cover the 3rd-degree burn areas.
While she recovered, the restaurant remained closed, but her community stepped up.
Peter and Mary Gove created a fundraiser with a goal of $10,000 to alleviate her worries.
"This restaurant is part of the community," Peter Grove said. "It's an important part of the community."
Doran said it's comforting knowing the community she loves, steps up to help.
"I have permission to rest because if I wasn't paying my rent, I'd be thinking, I don't care if I'm tired I've got to work," Doran said.
Permission to rest and recover, thanks to the secret ingredient here at Margaux's: community.
Doran said she will be having a thank you party for her friends and family in the weeks to come. She hopes to be back at the restaurant fully in three weeks.
