WEBVTT
00:00:00.050 --> 00:00:02.100
This bonus episode of Voice for Chef.
00:00:02.629 --> 00:00:08.628
Is dedicated to the volunteers, the heartbeat behind our kitchens, our communities, and this very podcast.
00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:21.320
Your time, passion, and willingness to serve without expectation reminds us that hospitality extends far beyond the plate to every volunteer who shows up, lifts others, and helps voices be heard.
00:00:21.528 --> 00:00:25.010
This episode with Chef Tracy Calderon is for you.
00:00:26.300 --> 00:00:30.949
Thank you for being the quiet force that makes meaningful change possible.
00:00:31.355 --> 00:00:35.585
Day on the show, you'll meet Chef Tracy Calderon.
00:00:36.064 --> 00:00:45.755
She runs the Atrium Kitchen and Cooking School in Seattle, Washington's Pike Place Market, but she also runs Nourished Neighborhoods.
00:00:45.814 --> 00:00:57.454
You'll learn about this amazing organization and how together with their volunteers, they have fed over 35,000 people in need in the Seattle area.
00:00:57.784 --> 00:01:02.643
During the pandemic, she'll also share stories about her childhood.
00:01:02.973 --> 00:01:10.295
Growing up, how she became a chef, and her passion for cooking and helping the community.
00:01:10.474 --> 00:01:13.144
Chef Tracy, I wanna welcome you to the show.
00:01:13.204 --> 00:01:14.524
Thank you for having me, Michael.
00:01:14.644 --> 00:01:21.064
It's a real pleasure and an honor Chef Tracy, can you tell us about your childhood and your family life growing up?
00:01:21.420 --> 00:01:25.260
And how that shaped you into becoming a chef
00:01:25.469 --> 00:01:26.519
growing up.
00:01:26.790 --> 00:01:28.920
I am the baby of five.
00:01:29.010 --> 00:01:31.799
I have three older brothers and an older sister.
00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:44.730
It was often that my sister and I would be playing in the backyard and we'd be playing restaurant, taking mud cakes and making them into pretend food.
00:01:44.730 --> 00:01:48.334
And it was, you know, I was thinking about that.
00:01:49.084 --> 00:01:51.575
Recently, I think that's where it started.
00:01:51.814 --> 00:01:59.015
We were playing pretend restaurant in the backyard and I was talking with another chef friend and he said the same thing.
00:01:59.015 --> 00:02:08.824
He knew his brother would make food out in the yard and pretend to bring things to their mom, and, and I think that it started that early on.
00:02:10.009 --> 00:02:12.710
My parents both loved cooking.
00:02:13.310 --> 00:02:16.280
My dad owned a heating and air business.
00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:18.259
My mom was a stay at home mom.
00:02:18.349 --> 00:02:19.909
She did the books for my dad.
00:02:20.870 --> 00:02:26.000
She literally was the mom that had hot cookies waiting when we came home from school.
00:02:26.120 --> 00:02:26.715
What kind of cookies?
00:02:28.099 --> 00:02:30.949
Um, usually chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin.
00:02:32.129 --> 00:02:35.264
Her Christmas cookies were something that we all look forward to.
00:02:36.780 --> 00:02:47.879
But mom would cook pretty much Monday through Friday and dad would get in the kitchen on the weekends and they had a really nice rapport in the kitchen.
00:02:47.879 --> 00:02:49.289
And I, I witnessed that.
00:02:49.289 --> 00:02:55.620
I experienced it growing up and I think that's where my foundation for the love of food started.
00:02:56.219 --> 00:02:57.539
What kind of meals did you have?
00:02:57.539 --> 00:03:01.710
Were they home, like down home cooked meals or what?
00:03:01.770 --> 00:03:02.639
What kind of cuisine?
00:03:03.659 --> 00:03:08.879
My father's Mexican his father came from Mexico in 1919, I believe.
00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:10.650
My mom was from Pennsylvania.
00:03:10.889 --> 00:03:12.840
Two very different cultures.
00:03:12.930 --> 00:03:24.960
The best way to, to get a picture of how I grew up eating on New Year's Day, the family tradition was to have tamales and sauerkraut and kasa.
00:03:25.770 --> 00:03:30.414
So I had both regions of my parents' lives represented in food.
00:03:31.469 --> 00:03:41.649
My mom learned how to make Mexican food from my dad's father and her enchiladas and tacos chili anos.
00:03:41.769 --> 00:03:49.810
They were the best ever and she could throw down with any Mexican mama, but she was from Pennsylvania.
00:03:50.959 --> 00:03:59.310
My dad he would do this great beef burgundy dish that I still think about, and I've actually cooked for our seniors a few times.
00:04:00.598 --> 00:04:12.718
But my mom and dad both loved cooking and yeah, if I got to do it all over again, I would've went straight into being a chef versus the detour I took to public relations.
00:04:13.859 --> 00:04:14.218
Okay.
00:04:15.209 --> 00:04:24.714
And can you take us forward, past, past your childhood and let us know a little bit more about how things developed in your career.
00:04:25.764 --> 00:04:27.324
So as a chef.
00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:33.819
I took a detour from public relations into I became my mom's caregiver.
00:04:33.819 --> 00:04:45.490
She was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's, and it was in taking care of her that I was starting to prepare meals for she and my dad and leave them in their fridge.
00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:49.569
And I realized that that's actually a service that people need.
00:04:50.269 --> 00:04:52.668
Not just people facing illness, but busy people.
00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:55.428
And to have hot, nourishing meals.
00:04:55.834 --> 00:04:59.553
They didn't have to cook themselves or they would weren't picking up takeout.
00:04:59.733 --> 00:05:07.803
It was in that transition time of both my mom's transition of her life, but also as a transition time for myself.
00:05:08.434 --> 00:05:24.064
So I left public relations behind me, became my caregiver for my mom, and then eventually I was able to get my mom into a really great daycare center and I got to go back to being her daughter versus being her caregiver.
00:05:24.394 --> 00:05:34.473
And I decided at that point that I was going to look into becoming a personal chef, and I started cooking for one family and I was their private chef.
00:05:35.108 --> 00:05:36.788
And then grew my business from there.
00:05:37.238 --> 00:05:41.408
And I think you mentioned something before about cooking school.
00:05:41.408 --> 00:05:42.848
Did you go to cooking school?
00:05:43.178 --> 00:05:48.279
I turned 40 soon after my mom passed away and I was newly divorced.
00:05:48.339 --> 00:05:54.879
So three major life events and I decided I was going to take myself to Italy and go to a cooking school.
00:05:55.418 --> 00:05:57.879
And I spent three weeks in Italy.
00:05:57.908 --> 00:05:59.709
Absolutely fell in love with it.
00:06:00.158 --> 00:06:01.089
That was.
00:06:01.548 --> 00:06:07.759
Really the start of my specialty gourmet food line, and I totally blame Italy for the name of it.
00:06:07.944 --> 00:06:08.184
Okay.
00:06:08.803 --> 00:06:11.358
It was seductive specialty foods.
00:06:11.718 --> 00:06:13.519
It seemed like a great idea at the time.
00:06:13.699 --> 00:06:14.899
I figured out how to bottle.
00:06:15.543 --> 00:06:19.714
My own products and I got certified as a food processor.
00:06:19.954 --> 00:06:20.913
I figured it out.
00:06:21.184 --> 00:06:22.774
So it was yet another way.
00:06:22.774 --> 00:06:38.913
So I, I went from being a private chef to a personal chef, to a caterer having a gourmet food line, and then eventually started leading food tours at Pike Place Market and eventually took over the Atrium Kitchen at Pike Place Market.
00:06:40.293 --> 00:06:41.613
And what was that like?
00:06:42.379 --> 00:06:52.608
It was one of those opportunities in my life where I knew the answer could only be yes, and I would trust that I would figure it out.
00:06:52.728 --> 00:07:00.918
So I was approached by the market when they decided that they were no longer going to manage the atrium kitchen, and I used to rent it from them.
00:07:01.009 --> 00:07:04.279
When they asked me if I was interested in taking over, I said yes.
00:07:04.339 --> 00:07:06.199
I would figure out how I was gonna pay for it.
00:07:06.199 --> 00:07:06.678
After that.
00:07:06.678 --> 00:07:07.968
It was a big leap of faith.
00:07:08.029 --> 00:07:09.499
I trusted that this was.
00:07:09.798 --> 00:07:11.389
The right path for me to be on.
00:07:11.629 --> 00:07:15.858
I always ask our chefs, what fork in the road did they come across?
00:07:15.858 --> 00:07:18.199
And it sounds like you came across a couple forks.
00:07:18.259 --> 00:07:18.858
Yes.
00:07:18.858 --> 00:07:21.528
It was a full drawer of cutlery.
00:07:23.028 --> 00:07:24.978
There were fork knives and spoons in there.
00:07:25.694 --> 00:07:25.983
Yeah.
00:07:26.658 --> 00:07:26.959
Yeah.
00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:28.759
And life doesn't take a linear path.
00:07:28.819 --> 00:07:32.238
Can you tell us a little bit more about the atrium kitchen?
00:07:32.238 --> 00:07:36.678
What kind of food do you serve and, and, uh, what is an experience like there?
00:07:37.279 --> 00:07:45.468
So at the Atrium Kitchen pre pandemic, I was leading, I would do food tours where I would take groups through the market.
00:07:45.468 --> 00:07:51.889
We would shop for our ingredients directly there at the market and bring everything back to the atrium kitchen and make a meal together.
00:07:52.310 --> 00:07:55.339
So it was part tour, part cooking class.
00:07:55.619 --> 00:08:00.129
I did that for, visitors to Pike Place Market, as well as corporate team building.
00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:01.809
I did several.
00:08:02.168 --> 00:08:03.579
Team building challenges.
00:08:03.579 --> 00:08:14.649
If you think Chopped and Top Chef, I did a, a mashup of those two culinary competitions and would break corporate teams into small groups.
00:08:15.069 --> 00:08:21.999
It was always a way to have fun with food, and that was really important to me, but also to make really good food.
00:08:22.334 --> 00:08:22.634
And then.
00:08:23.574 --> 00:08:28.553
I started two programs, nourish Neighborhood, which was a free community meal.
00:08:28.704 --> 00:08:33.083
All of the meals that we served at Nourish Neighborhood were based on my family recipes.
00:08:33.413 --> 00:08:42.083
I would, do a, a full meal, so a big salad to start side dishes, a main course dessert and a beverage.
00:08:42.293 --> 00:08:52.043
And that was completely staffed by volunteers and then also kindness in the kitchen, which is a pay it forward popup breakfast we did on Friday mornings.
00:08:53.499 --> 00:09:03.099
That was just down home cooking, I think biscuits and gravy, breakfast burritos, they were a favorite of our folks that would come for breakfast.
00:09:04.149 --> 00:09:14.528
And then the catering, higher end events in the evening time, I have the ability to rent out the Atrium Cater private events that way.
00:09:14.678 --> 00:09:18.639
So I've done some weddings, wedding receptions, birthday parties.
00:09:19.163 --> 00:09:23.313
Corporate events corporate fundraising, private auctions.
00:09:24.153 --> 00:09:26.854
Tell me a little bit about your volunteers.
00:09:26.854 --> 00:09:30.063
I'm, I'm really curious 'cause you were talking about one who was 22.
00:09:30.183 --> 00:09:32.494
So Jonah is a photographer.
00:09:32.644 --> 00:09:32.734
Okay.
00:09:32.793 --> 00:09:35.433
And he went to the school for photography.
00:09:35.553 --> 00:09:41.764
He needed, um, some gig work in between his catering or his, uh, photography jobs.
00:09:42.543 --> 00:09:45.364
Uhhuh and his brother actually recommended him to me.
00:09:46.234 --> 00:09:48.994
He came and he would help with the catering jobs.
00:09:49.533 --> 00:09:57.004
And then when the pandemic hit, he came to help with the kindness in the kitchen breakfast that we did.
00:09:57.004 --> 00:10:11.844
That's when I decided to start doing the senior meals, and I told him I would pay him as long as I could, and that March, 2020 he, at some point he stopped clocking in, so I went to run payroll at the end of the month.
00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:14.558
I'm like, Jonah, you haven't been clocking in.
00:10:15.219 --> 00:10:17.229
And he is like, well, I, I wanted to volunteer.
00:10:17.469 --> 00:10:17.828
Oh my gosh.
00:10:18.908 --> 00:10:23.438
And I just, I immediately started crying and he's been volunteering ever since.
00:10:23.828 --> 00:10:30.129
So whenever, like in December, I had a couple, two catering jobs and I was able to pay him.
00:10:30.308 --> 00:10:30.399
Mm-hmm.
00:10:30.729 --> 00:10:31.568
That made me happy.
00:10:32.528 --> 00:10:33.729
And then Eric.
00:10:34.149 --> 00:10:37.028
I've known Eric, not real well.
00:10:37.208 --> 00:10:38.859
We would see each other around the market.
00:10:38.889 --> 00:10:40.808
He was between jobs.
00:10:40.808 --> 00:10:43.808
He'd gotten actually laid off when the pandemic hit from his job.
00:10:43.808 --> 00:10:50.259
Eric came, volunteered with Jonah and I, so it was the three of us that started doing the senior meals.
00:10:50.408 --> 00:10:51.609
Then Brittany came.
00:10:51.938 --> 00:10:54.729
Brittany sent me a message through Instagram.
00:10:54.969 --> 00:10:58.028
She was moving here from Boston, her and her boyfriend.
00:10:58.719 --> 00:11:08.619
She'd been following Atrium Kitchen at Pike Place Market on Instagram and sent me a message that she'd love to come volunteer to help with these free meals for seniors.
00:11:08.678 --> 00:11:17.288
She fit right in and I, I've surrounded myself with three excellent human beings and I, I absolutely adore them.
00:11:17.589 --> 00:11:18.818
That's really special.
00:11:18.818 --> 00:11:22.509
Volunteers, the right volunteers are priceless.
00:11:22.629 --> 00:11:23.469
They really are.
00:11:23.619 --> 00:11:27.759
And it's kind of funny because Eric was always our dj.
00:11:28.193 --> 00:11:35.453
Um, he was in charge of music and one day he put on New Orleans brass music, the brass band.
00:11:36.174 --> 00:11:40.024
And I just, that's my favorite kitchen music to this day.
00:11:40.414 --> 00:11:44.855
I just, I love it, but they each bring something special.
00:11:44.945 --> 00:11:46.563
Jonah is a rock.
00:11:46.745 --> 00:11:51.514
He is kind and nice and it's really hard to fluff him up.
00:11:51.919 --> 00:11:55.309
He's just, he's so calm no matter what's going on.
00:11:55.879 --> 00:11:57.980
Eric is an excellent baker.
00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:04.519
Brittany is kind, she's a flight attendant for Delta and she was furloughed for several months.
00:12:05.299 --> 00:12:13.049
And you know, Delta has their Delta graciousness and it definitely translated and she's just very, very kind.
00:12:13.710 --> 00:12:15.360
They sound like heroes to me.
00:12:15.659 --> 00:12:16.980
They are, yes.
00:12:18.539 --> 00:12:20.188
They're definitely my heroes.
00:12:22.948 --> 00:12:24.330
We'll be back after a quick break.
00:12:25.424 --> 00:12:30.524
How do you find good volunteers for Nourish Neighborhood?
00:12:31.605 --> 00:12:32.240
They find me.
00:12:32.970 --> 00:12:46.440
The people that sought me out to volunteer were automatically good volunteers because they saw the need for what we were doing, and they wanted to be of service in that way.
00:12:47.190 --> 00:12:53.309
So I think that someone that doesn't feel it the same way, someone that you know, food isn't their passion.
00:12:53.309 --> 00:12:54.570
It's not their love language.
00:12:55.409 --> 00:12:59.879
They're not going to seek a volunteer opportunity that is serving people.
00:12:59.970 --> 00:13:05.909
I really believe that the great volunteers that I've worked with over the last three years have found me.
00:13:06.419 --> 00:13:08.730
And how many meals have you served
00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:11.340
at the Nourish Neighborhood Community?
00:13:11.340 --> 00:13:15.870
Lunch, we had served 9,100 meals.
00:13:15.875 --> 00:13:16.225
Mm-hmm.
00:13:16.715 --> 00:13:21.000
Since the pandemic started, we started cooking free meals for seniors.
00:13:21.870 --> 00:13:25.289
And we served over 25,000 free meals.
00:13:25.620 --> 00:13:26.610
That is incredible.
00:13:26.970 --> 00:13:31.559
It's a lot of food and I've cooked all different cuisines.
00:13:31.649 --> 00:13:44.250
We were counting the different regions and cuisines that I've cooked, and we came up with 17 different ethnic menu items that we've gotten creative with.
00:13:44.610 --> 00:13:46.559
How many volunteers do you currently have?
00:13:47.070 --> 00:13:48.059
I currently have three.
00:13:48.820 --> 00:13:50.320
Jonah, Eric, and Brittany,
00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:56.110
I would think that you have more volunteers sometimes when things get busier or,
00:13:56.240 --> 00:13:57.409
Pre pandemic.
00:13:57.470 --> 00:14:03.110
When we were doing the free community lunch, I would have anywhere from six to 14 volunteers.
00:14:04.414 --> 00:14:06.934
I had a couple like Pam.
00:14:07.205 --> 00:14:11.434
Pam was able to volunteer every single month at our community lunch.
00:14:11.884 --> 00:14:14.075
She's a amazing human being.
00:14:14.075 --> 00:14:15.815
I absolutely love her and adore her.
00:14:16.205 --> 00:14:21.664
She was kind of my head volunteer and she would be great about training the new people that would come in.
00:14:21.815 --> 00:14:32.615
I had a couple corporate groups, a group from Wells Fargo, came in a couple times actually, and then I had folks from visit Seattle.
00:14:32.904 --> 00:14:39.664
Came and volunteered at one of our lunches bloom Projects, which is a construction project management company.
00:14:39.664 --> 00:14:41.014
They came and volunteered.
00:14:41.225 --> 00:14:58.565
The one thing that I always have maximum volunteers was for our Thanksgiving breakfast that we did, and that was Nourished neighborhood breakfast that we would do Thanksgiving morning, and a lot of the shelters and food banks, the places that give free meals.
00:14:59.115 --> 00:15:06.615
On holidays, they focus on lunch or dinner, and I realized that there was maybe a need for breakfast on Thanksgiving.
00:15:06.794 --> 00:15:10.245
So I started a Thanksgiving Nourish neighborhood breakfast.
00:15:10.815 --> 00:15:18.345
I averaged about 30, 35 volunteers to execute breakfast for over 200 people.
00:15:18.585 --> 00:15:19.034
Wow.
00:15:19.304 --> 00:15:23.504
You know, one thing I've noticed is that around holidays, people volunteer.
00:15:23.894 --> 00:15:27.705
But a sad thing is that other times you need volunteers.
00:15:28.065 --> 00:15:28.455
Yes.
00:15:28.485 --> 00:15:30.134
So I think it's always a good time.
00:15:30.225 --> 00:15:32.294
It's always a good time to volunteer.
00:15:32.804 --> 00:15:41.355
People are in need 365 days of the year, and it's at the holidays that we hear more about being of service.
00:15:42.254 --> 00:15:45.044
And it's not that it's not needed at the holidays.
00:15:46.110 --> 00:15:48.779
365 days a year, people need food.
00:15:49.080 --> 00:15:56.100
You've talked a lot about your passion for volunteering, but you also have a passion for being a chef.
00:15:56.429 --> 00:15:59.190
What chef do you admire the most?
00:15:59.190 --> 00:16:06.899
Or has there been a chef in your life that's mentored you or you've followed in a blog on tv?
00:16:07.289 --> 00:16:08.460
Uh, reading books?
00:16:09.029 --> 00:16:10.590
It's hard to pick one.
00:16:10.830 --> 00:16:12.914
I would say locally.
00:16:14.049 --> 00:16:19.149
I worked at Harvest Vine for I think just under two years.
00:16:19.659 --> 00:16:25.419
I really admired the executive chef Joey, as well as the sous-chef.
00:16:26.049 --> 00:16:26.860
Elise.
00:16:27.159 --> 00:16:32.259
What I realized is that Elise was an anomaly in the industry.
00:16:32.590 --> 00:16:33.639
She was a really.
00:16:34.570 --> 00:16:36.820
Is a really competent female chef.
00:16:36.879 --> 00:16:42.490
And there are times that I think of her kind of ask myself, what would Elise be doing right now?
00:16:42.580 --> 00:16:44.440
So she really inspired me.
00:16:44.500 --> 00:16:57.269
Joey's calmness in the kitchen is something that I think back on, you know, if I'm actually going back to the first week of the pandemic, when we started making these meals, Joey reached out 'cause they had closed harvest.
00:16:57.269 --> 00:16:57.750
Fine.
00:16:58.029 --> 00:17:07.150
Joey reached out and asked if there was anything he could do to help, and he came and volunteered he and his son, and he helped make meals those first couple weeks.
00:17:07.420 --> 00:17:12.130
And I thanked him and I, I told him I couldn't have done it without him, and he said, yes you could.
00:17:12.190 --> 00:17:14.619
You just, you needed me to be here to be calm.
00:17:14.980 --> 00:17:15.339
And he was.
00:17:15.339 --> 00:17:15.789
Right.
00:17:15.910 --> 00:17:16.210
Yeah.
00:17:16.299 --> 00:17:18.934
So I think that Elise and Joey had a direct impact.
00:17:19.549 --> 00:17:21.380
Locally famous chefs.
00:17:21.470 --> 00:17:25.250
I love Ina Garten just because she's in my mind like us
00:17:26.450 --> 00:17:28.009
as far as food goes.
00:17:28.339 --> 00:17:31.640
What would you say is the best meal that you've ever cooked?
00:17:31.940 --> 00:17:34.849
Harvey Wineman, I think is his name.
00:17:34.849 --> 00:17:36.950
He was a food editor at.
00:17:37.339 --> 00:17:39.140
Wine Spectator Magazine.
00:17:39.230 --> 00:17:51.140
He was going to a winery out in Woodinville, and the winemaker reached out to me and asked if I could prepare a meal that would go with each of the wines that he wanted Harvey to taste.
00:17:51.289 --> 00:17:56.119
That meal was probably the best meal I've ever executed on.
00:17:56.210 --> 00:17:57.740
I made a Sable fish.
00:17:58.075 --> 00:18:02.394
He actually told me that it was the most perfect piece of fish he'd ever had.
00:18:02.634 --> 00:18:08.275
And I remember the wine maker telling me, he's like, I wanted him to talk about my wine the way he was talking about your food.
00:18:08.454 --> 00:18:10.914
So that meal I remember fondly.
00:18:11.214 --> 00:18:13.944
Yeah, sometimes it's just a simple meal.
00:18:13.974 --> 00:18:15.174
Can you describe the dish?
00:18:15.444 --> 00:18:15.954
Which one?
00:18:16.164 --> 00:18:16.914
The stable fish.
00:18:17.099 --> 00:18:18.720
It was so just, it was.