Jan. 6, 2026

EP93: Heart of Hospitality: Chef Tracy's Journey at Pike Place Market

Send us a text This bonus episode of VoiceChefs revisits on of our first episodes and celebrates the indispensable role of volunteers in culinary and community service. Host Michael Dugan welcomes Chef Tracy Calderon, who manages the Atrium Kitchen and Cooking School in Seattle's Pike Place Market. Also running the Nourish Neighborhoods program, Chef Tracy shares how they have fed over 35,000 people during the pandemic with the help of volunteers. She reflects on her childhood, family influen...

Send us a text

This bonus episode of VoiceChefs revisits on of our first episodes and celebrates the indispensable role of volunteers in culinary and community service. Host Michael Dugan welcomes Chef Tracy Calderon, who manages the Atrium Kitchen and Cooking School in Seattle's Pike Place Market. Also running the Nourish Neighborhoods program, Chef Tracy shares how they have fed over 35,000 people during the pandemic with the help of volunteers. She reflects on her childhood, family influences, and career journey from public relations to becoming a chef. The episode highlights her initiatives like community meals and 'pay it forward' pop-up breakfasts, along with the indispensable contributions of her dedicated volunteers. They discuss her favorite recipes, culinary disasters, and the worst meals, emphasizing the impact of connecting with people through food. Chef Tracy also shares insights on securing good volunteers and the significance of unfaltering dedication to community service.


00:00 Introduction and Dedication to Volunteers

00:31 Meet Chef Tracy Calderon

01:14 Chef Tracy's Childhood and Family Influence

04:15 Transition to a Culinary Career

07:29 The Atrium Kitchen and Community Programs

09:24 Volunteers: The Heart of Nourish Neighborhood

16:48 Chef Tracy's Culinary Inspirations and Signature Dishes

23:06 Challenges and Kitchen Disasters

25:26 Nourish Neighborhood: How You Can Help

27:44 Conclusion and Farewell


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WEBVTT

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This bonus episode of Voice for Chef.

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Is dedicated to the volunteers, the heartbeat behind our kitchens, our communities, and this very podcast.

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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.

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This episode with Chef Tracy Calderon is for you.

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Thank you for being the quiet force that makes meaningful change possible.

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Day on the show, you'll meet Chef Tracy Calderon.

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She runs the Atrium Kitchen and Cooking School in Seattle, Washington's Pike Place Market, but she also runs Nourished Neighborhoods.

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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.

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During the pandemic, she'll also share stories about her childhood.

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Growing up, how she became a chef, and her passion for cooking and helping the community.

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Chef Tracy, I wanna welcome you to the show.

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Thank you for having me, Michael.

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It's a real pleasure and an honor Chef Tracy, can you tell us about your childhood and your family life growing up?

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And how that shaped you into becoming a chef

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growing up.

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I am the baby of five.

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I have three older brothers and an older sister.

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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.

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And it was, you know, I was thinking about that.

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Recently, I think that's where it started.

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We were playing pretend restaurant in the backyard and I was talking with another chef friend and he said the same thing.

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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.

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My parents both loved cooking.

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My dad owned a heating and air business.

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My mom was a stay at home mom.

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She did the books for my dad.

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She literally was the mom that had hot cookies waiting when we came home from school.

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What kind of cookies?

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Um, usually chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin.

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Her Christmas cookies were something that we all look forward to.

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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.

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And I, I witnessed that.

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I experienced it growing up and I think that's where my foundation for the love of food started.

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What kind of meals did you have?

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Were they home, like down home cooked meals or what?

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What kind of cuisine?

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My father's Mexican his father came from Mexico in 1919, I believe.

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My mom was from Pennsylvania.

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Two very different cultures.

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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.

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So I had both regions of my parents' lives represented in food.

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My mom learned how to make Mexican food from my dad's father and her enchiladas and tacos chili anos.

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They were the best ever and she could throw down with any Mexican mama, but she was from Pennsylvania.

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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.

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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.

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Okay.

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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.

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So as a chef.

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I took a detour from public relations into I became my mom's caregiver.

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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.

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And I realized that that's actually a service that people need.

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Not just people facing illness, but busy people.

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And to have hot, nourishing meals.

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They didn't have to cook themselves or they would weren't picking up takeout.

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It was in that transition time of both my mom's transition of her life, but also as a transition time for myself.

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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.

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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.

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And then grew my business from there.

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And I think you mentioned something before about cooking school.

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Did you go to cooking school?

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I turned 40 soon after my mom passed away and I was newly divorced.

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So three major life events and I decided I was going to take myself to Italy and go to a cooking school.

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And I spent three weeks in Italy.

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Absolutely fell in love with it.

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That was.

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Really the start of my specialty gourmet food line, and I totally blame Italy for the name of it.

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Okay.

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It was seductive specialty foods.

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It seemed like a great idea at the time.

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I figured out how to bottle.

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My own products and I got certified as a food processor.

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I figured it out.

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So it was yet another way.

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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.

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And what was that like?

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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.

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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.

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When they asked me if I was interested in taking over, I said yes.

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I would figure out how I was gonna pay for it.

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After that.

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It was a big leap of faith.

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I trusted that this was.

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The right path for me to be on.

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I always ask our chefs, what fork in the road did they come across?

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And it sounds like you came across a couple forks.

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Yes.

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It was a full drawer of cutlery.

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There were fork knives and spoons in there.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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And life doesn't take a linear path.

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Can you tell us a little bit more about the atrium kitchen?

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What kind of food do you serve and, and, uh, what is an experience like there?

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So at the Atrium Kitchen pre pandemic, I was leading, I would do food tours where I would take groups through the market.

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We would shop for our ingredients directly there at the market and bring everything back to the atrium kitchen and make a meal together.

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So it was part tour, part cooking class.

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I did that for, visitors to Pike Place Market, as well as corporate team building.

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I did several.

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Team building challenges.

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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.

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It was always a way to have fun with food, and that was really important to me, but also to make really good food.

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And then.

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I started two programs, nourish Neighborhood, which was a free community meal.

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All of the meals that we served at Nourish Neighborhood were based on my family recipes.

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I would, do a, a full meal, so a big salad to start side dishes, a main course dessert and a beverage.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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So I've done some weddings, wedding receptions, birthday parties.

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Corporate events corporate fundraising, private auctions.

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Tell me a little bit about your volunteers.

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I'm, I'm really curious 'cause you were talking about one who was 22.

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So Jonah is a photographer.

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Okay.

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And he went to the school for photography.

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He needed, um, some gig work in between his catering or his, uh, photography jobs.

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Uhhuh and his brother actually recommended him to me.

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He came and he would help with the catering jobs.

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And then when the pandemic hit, he came to help with the kindness in the kitchen breakfast that we did.

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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.

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I'm like, Jonah, you haven't been clocking in.

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And he is like, well, I, I wanted to volunteer.

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Oh my gosh.

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And I just, I immediately started crying and he's been volunteering ever since.

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So whenever, like in December, I had a couple, two catering jobs and I was able to pay him.

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Mm-hmm.

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That made me happy.

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And then Eric.

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I've known Eric, not real well.

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We would see each other around the market.

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He was between jobs.

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He'd gotten actually laid off when the pandemic hit from his job.

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Eric came, volunteered with Jonah and I, so it was the three of us that started doing the senior meals.

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Then Brittany came.

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Brittany sent me a message through Instagram.

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She was moving here from Boston, her and her boyfriend.

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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.

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She fit right in and I, I've surrounded myself with three excellent human beings and I, I absolutely adore them.

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That's really special.

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Volunteers, the right volunteers are priceless.

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They really are.

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And it's kind of funny because Eric was always our dj.

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Um, he was in charge of music and one day he put on New Orleans brass music, the brass band.

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And I just, that's my favorite kitchen music to this day.

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I just, I love it, but they each bring something special.

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Jonah is a rock.

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He is kind and nice and it's really hard to fluff him up.

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He's just, he's so calm no matter what's going on.

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Eric is an excellent baker.

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Brittany is kind, she's a flight attendant for Delta and she was furloughed for several months.

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And you know, Delta has their Delta graciousness and it definitely translated and she's just very, very kind.

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They sound like heroes to me.

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They are, yes.

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They're definitely my heroes.

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We'll be back after a quick break.

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How do you find good volunteers for Nourish Neighborhood?

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They find me.

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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.

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So I think that someone that doesn't feel it the same way, someone that you know, food isn't their passion.

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It's not their love language.

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They're not going to seek a volunteer opportunity that is serving people.

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I really believe that the great volunteers that I've worked with over the last three years have found me.

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And how many meals have you served

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at the Nourish Neighborhood Community?

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Lunch, we had served 9,100 meals.

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Mm-hmm.

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Since the pandemic started, we started cooking free meals for seniors.

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And we served over 25,000 free meals.

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That is incredible.

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It's a lot of food and I've cooked all different cuisines.

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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.

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How many volunteers do you currently have?

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I currently have three.

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Jonah, Eric, and Brittany,

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I would think that you have more volunteers sometimes when things get busier or,

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Pre pandemic.

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When we were doing the free community lunch, I would have anywhere from six to 14 volunteers.

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I had a couple like Pam.

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Pam was able to volunteer every single month at our community lunch.

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She's a amazing human being.

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I absolutely love her and adore her.

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She was kind of my head volunteer and she would be great about training the new people that would come in.

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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.

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Came and volunteered at one of our lunches bloom Projects, which is a construction project management company.

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They came and volunteered.

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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.

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On holidays, they focus on lunch or dinner, and I realized that there was maybe a need for breakfast on Thanksgiving.

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So I started a Thanksgiving Nourish neighborhood breakfast.

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I averaged about 30, 35 volunteers to execute breakfast for over 200 people.

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Wow.

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You know, one thing I've noticed is that around holidays, people volunteer.

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But a sad thing is that other times you need volunteers.

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Yes.

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So I think it's always a good time.

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It's always a good time to volunteer.

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People are in need 365 days of the year, and it's at the holidays that we hear more about being of service.

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And it's not that it's not needed at the holidays.

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365 days a year, people need food.

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You've talked a lot about your passion for volunteering, but you also have a passion for being a chef.

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What chef do you admire the most?

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Or has there been a chef in your life that's mentored you or you've followed in a blog on tv?

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Uh, reading books?

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It's hard to pick one.

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I would say locally.

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I worked at Harvest Vine for I think just under two years.

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I really admired the executive chef Joey, as well as the sous-chef.

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Elise.

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What I realized is that Elise was an anomaly in the industry.

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She was a really.

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Is a really competent female chef.

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And there are times that I think of her kind of ask myself, what would Elise be doing right now?

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So she really inspired me.

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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.

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Fine.

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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.

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And I thanked him and I, I told him I couldn't have done it without him, and he said, yes you could.

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You just, you needed me to be here to be calm.

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And he was.

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Right.

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Yeah.

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So I think that Elise and Joey had a direct impact.

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Locally famous chefs.

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I love Ina Garten just because she's in my mind like us

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as far as food goes.

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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.

00:18:19.069 --> 00:18:19.849
Simple.

00:18:19.910 --> 00:18:21.799
It was miso and lemon.

00:18:21.799 --> 00:18:23.420
I wrapped it in parchment.

00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:24.920
It melted in your mouth.

00:18:24.950 --> 00:18:35.930
The buttery texture of the fish didn't become overwhelmed with any flavor, so you could still taste the fish, but it really heightened the flavors of it.

00:18:36.319 --> 00:18:37.099
That sounds really good.

00:18:37.099 --> 00:18:41.900
I've cooked with miso and seafood and it really enhances the seafood.

00:18:42.259 --> 00:18:43.279
It really does.

00:18:43.519 --> 00:18:48.200
What would you say in the entire world, where would your favorite restaurant be?

00:18:48.440 --> 00:18:53.779
If I could eat anywhere again, it would be in my family's home kitchen.

00:18:54.289 --> 00:18:55.279
With my mom and dad.

00:18:55.490 --> 00:18:58.910
That is, that was my favorite kitchen, my favorite restaurant.

00:18:59.990 --> 00:19:00.859
What would the meal be?

00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:05.380
Probably tacos with the salad and fresh sliced avocado.

00:19:05.380 --> 00:19:07.750
My dad's homemade salsa from his habaneros.

00:19:07.750 --> 00:19:08.890
He grew in the backyard.

00:19:09.160 --> 00:19:11.319
My mom always loved making desserts as well.

00:19:11.650 --> 00:19:15.009
Lemon meringue pie was one of my dad's favorite.

00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:17.039
So she made that often.

00:19:17.190 --> 00:19:21.599
If I could choose anywhere in the world it would be to go back to that kitchen.

00:19:21.869 --> 00:19:24.240
What would you say are your sign?

00:19:24.539 --> 00:19:27.059
Three signature dishes from the atrium kitchen,

00:19:28.799 --> 00:19:33.990
my baby back ribs, which actually attempting to do a popup right now.

00:19:34.450 --> 00:19:39.190
And I say attempting because who starts a restaurant in the middle of a pandemic?

00:19:39.339 --> 00:19:41.380
I Me, apparently.

00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:42.220
Yeah.

00:19:42.220 --> 00:19:42.789
That's great.

00:19:43.059 --> 00:19:46.839
It's another way for me to try and hustle and generate some revenue.

00:19:47.275 --> 00:19:50.724
But my baby back ribs are a signature dish.

00:19:50.845 --> 00:19:58.555
My version of my mom's enchiladas my regu sauce that I learned how to make in Italy and modified to my lasagna.

00:19:58.855 --> 00:20:01.375
So really the lasagna with the regu sauce.

00:20:01.494 --> 00:20:10.505
And when you talk about sauces there are core sauces in European cuisine, bechamel Holland, saot Espanol.

00:20:10.565 --> 00:20:12.875
What are your core sauces for the atrium?

00:20:13.690 --> 00:20:18.069
The regu sauce is one of my core sauces.

00:20:18.130 --> 00:20:19.569
I can put that on anything.

00:20:19.869 --> 00:20:25.450
I do an orange, orange guillo sauce that I usually will cook chicken in.

00:20:25.450 --> 00:20:30.250
I'll raise chicken thighs in it, and that's one of the core sauces I really enjoy making.

00:20:30.460 --> 00:20:34.690
And then the whiskey barbecue sauce, which we just bottled and weave.

00:20:35.404 --> 00:20:40.595
I say we, urban farm is one of the farmers at Pi Place Market.

00:20:40.595 --> 00:20:46.654
He sells dry rubs and he grows these really amazing, amazing scotch bonnet peppers.

00:20:46.954 --> 00:20:53.585
And I'm using his scotch bonnets in my whiskey barbecue sauce from the days when I had products.

00:20:53.894 --> 00:20:56.535
That sauce is pretty much on everything right now on the menu.

00:20:56.714 --> 00:20:58.845
That sounds, it sounds really good.

00:20:59.025 --> 00:21:02.025
What is it that makes you passionate about.

00:21:02.565 --> 00:21:06.105
The food that you cook, nourish, neighborhood, and what you do.

00:21:06.345 --> 00:21:14.174
I think that having the ability to nourish people and to connect with people through food is what drives me.

00:21:14.474 --> 00:21:22.005
I've always found ways to volunteer my time to a variety of different causes, but feeding people and.

00:21:23.460 --> 00:21:39.059
Being of service in that way, that fuels me at a time when I'm not, I'm not generating EV any revenue, and yet I will plan and execute 350 to 700 meals a week for seniors for free.

00:21:39.450 --> 00:21:42.329
You don't do that for any other reason than passion.

00:21:42.450 --> 00:21:48.119
Just that the opportunity to nourish people, not just through the food, but through connecting with them.

00:21:48.775 --> 00:21:54.414
Some of my seniors don't see many people during the week, but they see me when I deliver their meals.

00:21:54.924 --> 00:21:58.704
So knowing that I can bring nourishment to others.

00:21:58.765 --> 00:22:01.434
Yeah, that, that definitely makes sense.

00:22:01.484 --> 00:22:03.474
I can really feel the passion that you have.

00:22:04.349 --> 00:22:06.599
And it's really, it's really incredible.

00:22:06.809 --> 00:22:11.250
So on the lighter side, tell me about a kitchen disaster that you've had.

00:22:11.609 --> 00:22:12.150
There were a few.

00:22:12.660 --> 00:22:15.480
You can pick one, you can take, you can tell us two.

00:22:16.049 --> 00:22:18.150
But just maybe one

00:22:18.150 --> 00:22:19.170
the most humorous.

00:22:19.555 --> 00:22:20.845
I can laugh about it now.

00:22:20.994 --> 00:22:34.345
Was being really excited to be asked by Hormel to do their signature cream cheese stuffed jalapenos wrapped in bacon for the bacon and beer fest that was taking place at Safeco Field.

00:22:34.704 --> 00:22:35.755
I said, yes.

00:22:35.934 --> 00:22:42.414
I was so excited what I failed to realize until I was in the middle of it.

00:22:43.309 --> 00:23:02.089
Is that I was taking fresh jalapenos, having to take the seeds out of fresh jalapenos at a certain point, after 22 hours of taking seeds outta jalapenos to put cream cheese in'em and wrap 'em in bacon, and then cook them all off and then transport them, it was absolutely ridiculous.

00:23:02.089 --> 00:23:07.519
But we were wearing layers of three, four gloves because of the seat.

00:23:08.595 --> 00:23:17.240
I'm like, there is no way I will ever say yes to stuffing anything in a jalapeno wow disaster.

00:23:17.240 --> 00:23:17.900
I don't know.

00:23:17.900 --> 00:23:20.869
I think I'm still trying to recover, and that was five years ago.

00:23:21.845 --> 00:23:25.085
I can't imagine that seems overly complex

00:23:26.855 --> 00:23:29.105
and yet it sounds so simple.

00:23:30.214 --> 00:23:31.444
It sounds tasty though.

00:23:31.744 --> 00:23:33.035
Just 6,000 was a lot.

00:23:34.115 --> 00:23:35.494
6,000.

00:23:35.799 --> 00:23:37.460
How do you even estimate how many.

00:23:38.339 --> 00:23:41.460
Jalapenos are in a case of jalapenos.

00:23:41.700 --> 00:23:45.779
I learned a lot and then I quickly forgot it 'cause I was never going to repeat that again.

00:23:46.170 --> 00:23:48.869
And what's the worst meal that you've ever had?

00:23:48.869 --> 00:23:50.940
Not, not the worst meal you ever cooked.

00:23:50.940 --> 00:23:52.410
Just the worst meal you've ever had.

00:23:52.980 --> 00:23:53.130
Hmm.

00:23:53.759 --> 00:23:55.710
And we can't use names or restaurants.

00:23:56.460 --> 00:23:57.450
No, we can't.

00:23:58.079 --> 00:24:06.720
I think I'm responsible for some of the worst meals I've had because I'll get home, I'll put something in the oven usually.

00:24:06.849 --> 00:24:07.049
Something.

00:24:07.930 --> 00:24:23.200
Like frozen waffles and proceed to forget about it and then realize I have something in the oven that's now, the consistency of a piece of wood, and I'll still try and eat it because I don't wanna actually make any fresh food for myself on certain days.

00:24:23.259 --> 00:24:25.450
I think I'm responsible for some of the worst meals.

00:24:25.480 --> 00:24:25.509
Okay.

00:24:26.920 --> 00:24:32.470
Is there any special message that you would like our listeners to know?

00:24:33.430 --> 00:24:38.019
About you, about Nourish neighborhoods and what you're doing?

00:24:39.279 --> 00:24:40.180
And how can we help?

00:24:40.849 --> 00:24:53.119
Nourish Neighborhood is funded 100% by donations, and I've filed it as a nonprofit is Nourish Neighborhood, is now a nonprofit in the state of Washington.

00:24:53.569 --> 00:24:59.539
I filed the proper paperwork with the IRS to be a 5 0 1 3 and.

00:25:01.309 --> 00:25:10.220
I was raising funds before I did any of that, and people were so generous and so kind and wanted to help any way they could, and they're still doing that.

00:25:11.329 --> 00:25:15.559
I think that if people feel compelled to help us feed seniors.

00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:21.920
They can make a donation, whether it's a cash donation or an in kind donation.

00:25:22.549 --> 00:25:25.309
That was one of the things that I did at the beginning of the pandemic.

00:25:25.309 --> 00:25:36.289
There were, I put the word out to these restaurants that were having to close basically overnight, and they had food that was going to go to waste.

00:25:36.410 --> 00:25:39.440
So we made a lot of meals with donated food.

00:25:40.369 --> 00:25:43.819
But I think we were talking about Bon Jovi.

00:25:44.930 --> 00:25:52.849
I think that the verse of that song that when you can't do what you do, you do what you can.

00:25:53.960 --> 00:25:56.420
And that applies for any point in our life.

00:25:57.980 --> 00:26:02.839
The other thing that I, yesterday I had a conversation with a friend and.

00:26:03.305 --> 00:26:09.664
I was a little bit negative and I told her that if I fail, it won't be because I didn't try.

00:26:09.964 --> 00:26:15.174
And I thought about that later and I realized that was the wrong approach to take to it.

00:26:15.384 --> 00:26:20.694
The right approach is when I succeed it will be because I didn't give up.

00:26:20.785 --> 00:26:23.275
That success isn't about money.

00:26:23.365 --> 00:26:24.744
It's not about a car.

00:26:24.805 --> 00:26:28.375
It's not about a fancy house on a lake, which does sound nice.

00:26:29.005 --> 00:26:41.154
It's about connecting with people, making them feel seen, letting them know they're important and showing that through food, and that's what I have right now to give.

00:26:42.414 --> 00:26:43.585
That's an incredible gift.

00:26:44.125 --> 00:26:55.914
Well, chef Tracy, I wanna thank you for coming on the show and being with us at Voice for Chefs and the work that you do honoring the Seattle community with the service that you provide.

00:26:56.214 --> 00:26:57.025
Thank you, Michael.

00:26:57.085 --> 00:26:58.585
You can follow Chef Tracy.

00:26:59.005 --> 00:27:04.015
By going to Atrium Kitchen pike place.com, nourish neighborhoods.

00:27:04.434 --> 00:27:06.204
Donate and follow her.

00:27:06.204 --> 00:27:07.009
See what she's up to.

00:27:07.884 --> 00:27:11.335
Stop by at the Pike Place Market and visit the Atrium Kitchen.