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

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

Transcript

Michael Dugan: 0:00

This bonus episode of Voice for Chef. Is dedicated to the volunteers, the heartbeat behind our kitchens, our communities, and this very podcast. 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. This episode with Chef Tracy Calderon is for you. Thank you for being the quiet force that makes meaningful change possible. Day on the show, you'll meet Chef Tracy Calderon. She runs the Atrium Kitchen and Cooking School in Seattle, Washington's Pike Place Market, but she also runs Nourished Neighborhoods. 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. During the pandemic, she'll also share stories about her childhood. Growing up, how she became a chef, and her passion for cooking and helping the community. Chef Tracy, I wanna welcome you to the show.

Chef Tracy: 1:13

Thank you for having me, Michael.

Michael Dugan: 1:14

It's a real pleasure and an honor Chef Tracy, can you tell us about your childhood and your family life growing up? And how that shaped you into becoming a chef

Chef Tracy: 1:25

growing up. I am the baby of five. I have three older brothers and an older sister. 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. And it was, you know, I was thinking about that. Recently, I think that's where it started. We were playing pretend restaurant in the backyard and I was talking with another chef friend and he said the same thing. 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. My parents both loved cooking. My dad owned a heating and air business. My mom was a stay at home mom. She did the books for my dad. She literally was the mom that had hot cookies waiting when we came home from school.

Michael Dugan: 2:26

What kind of cookies?

Chef Tracy: 2:28

Um, usually chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin. Her Christmas cookies were something that we all look forward to. 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. And I, I witnessed that. I experienced it growing up and I think that's where my foundation for the love of food started.

Michael Dugan: 2:56

What kind of meals did you have? Were they home, like down home cooked meals or what? What kind of cuisine?

Chef Tracy: 3:03

My father's Mexican his father came from Mexico in 1919, I believe. My mom was from Pennsylvania. Two very different cultures. 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. So I had both regions of my parents' lives represented in food. My mom learned how to make Mexican food from my dad's father and her enchiladas and tacos chili anos. They were the best ever and she could throw down with any Mexican mama, but she was from Pennsylvania. 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. 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.

Michael Dugan: 4:13

Okay. 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.

Chef Tracy: 4:25

So as a chef. I took a detour from public relations into I became my mom's caregiver. 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. And I realized that that's actually a service that people need. Not just people facing illness, but busy people. And to have hot, nourishing meals. They didn't have to cook themselves or they would weren't picking up takeout. It was in that transition time of both my mom's transition of her life, but also as a transition time for myself. 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. 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. And then grew my business from there.

Michael Dugan: 5:37

And I think you mentioned something before about cooking school. Did you go to cooking school?

Chef Tracy: 5:43

I turned 40 soon after my mom passed away and I was newly divorced. So three major life events and I decided I was going to take myself to Italy and go to a cooking school. And I spent three weeks in Italy. Absolutely fell in love with it. That was. Really the start of my specialty gourmet food line, and I totally blame Italy for the name of it.

Michael Dugan: 6:07

Okay.

Chef Tracy: 6:08

It was seductive specialty foods. It seemed like a great idea at the time. I figured out how to bottle. My own products and I got certified as a food processor. I figured it out. So it was yet another way. 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.

Michael Dugan: 6:40

And what was that like?

Chef Tracy: 6:42

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. 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. When they asked me if I was interested in taking over, I said yes. I would figure out how I was gonna pay for it. After that. It was a big leap of faith. I trusted that this was. The right path for me to be on.

Michael Dugan: 7:11

I always ask our chefs, what fork in the road did they come across? And it sounds like you came across a couple forks.

Chef Tracy: 7:18

Yes. It was a full drawer of cutlery. There were fork knives and spoons in there.

Michael Dugan: 7:25

Yeah.

Chef Tracy: 7:26

Yeah. And life doesn't take a linear path.

Michael Dugan: 7:28

Can you tell us a little bit more about the atrium kitchen? What kind of food do you serve and, and, uh, what is an experience like there?

Chef Tracy: 7:37

So at the Atrium Kitchen pre pandemic, I was leading, I would do food tours where I would take groups through the market. We would shop for our ingredients directly there at the market and bring everything back to the atrium kitchen and make a meal together. So it was part tour, part cooking class. I did that for, visitors to Pike Place Market, as well as corporate team building. I did several. Team building challenges. 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. It was always a way to have fun with food, and that was really important to me, but also to make really good food. And then. I started two programs, nourish Neighborhood, which was a free community meal. All of the meals that we served at Nourish Neighborhood were based on my family recipes. I would, do a, a full meal, so a big salad to start side dishes, a main course dessert and a beverage. 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. 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. 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. So I've done some weddings, wedding receptions, birthday parties. Corporate events corporate fundraising, private auctions.

Michael Dugan: 9:24

Tell me a little bit about your volunteers. I'm, I'm really curious 'cause you were talking about one who was 22.

Chef Tracy: 9:30

So Jonah is a photographer. Okay. And he went to the school for photography. He needed, um, some gig work in between his catering or his, uh, photography jobs. Uhhuh and his brother actually recommended him to me. He came and he would help with the catering jobs. And then when the pandemic hit, he came to help with the kindness in the kitchen breakfast that we did. 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. I'm like, Jonah, you haven't been clocking in. And he is like, well, I, I wanted to volunteer.

Michael Dugan: 10:17

Oh my gosh.

Chef Tracy: 10:18

And I just, I immediately started crying and he's been volunteering ever since. So whenever, like in December, I had a couple, two catering jobs and I was able to pay him. Mm-hmm. That made me happy. And then Eric. I've known Eric, not real well. We would see each other around the market. He was between jobs. He'd gotten actually laid off when the pandemic hit from his job. Eric came, volunteered with Jonah and I, so it was the three of us that started doing the senior meals. Then Brittany came. Brittany sent me a message through Instagram. She was moving here from Boston, her and her boyfriend. 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. She fit right in and I, I've surrounded myself with three excellent human beings and I, I absolutely adore them.

Michael Dugan: 11:17

That's really special. Volunteers, the right volunteers are priceless.

Chef Tracy: 11:22

They really are. And it's kind of funny because Eric was always our dj. Um, he was in charge of music and one day he put on New Orleans brass music, the brass band. And I just, that's my favorite kitchen music to this day. I just, I love it, but they each bring something special. Jonah is a rock. He is kind and nice and it's really hard to fluff him up. He's just, he's so calm no matter what's going on. Eric is an excellent baker. Brittany is kind, she's a flight attendant for Delta and she was furloughed for several months. And you know, Delta has their Delta graciousness and it definitely translated and she's just very, very kind.

Michael Dugan: 12:13

They sound like heroes to me.

Chef Tracy: 12:15

They are, yes. They're definitely my heroes.

Michael Dugan: 12:22

We'll be back after a quick break. How do you find good volunteers for Nourish Neighborhood?

Chef Tracy: 12:31

They find me. 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. So I think that someone that doesn't feel it the same way, someone that you know, food isn't their passion. It's not their love language. They're not going to seek a volunteer opportunity that is serving people. I really believe that the great volunteers that I've worked with over the last three years have found me.

Michael Dugan: 13:06

And how many meals have you served

Chef Tracy: 13:09

at the Nourish Neighborhood Community? Lunch, we had served 9,100 meals. Mm-hmm. Since the pandemic started, we started cooking free meals for seniors. And we served over 25,000 free meals.

Michael Dugan: 13:25

That is incredible.

Chef Tracy: 13:26

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

Michael Dugan: 13:44

How many volunteers do you currently have?

Chef Tracy: 13:47

I currently have three. Jonah, Eric, and Brittany,

Michael Dugan: 13:50

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

Chef Tracy: 13:56

Pre pandemic. When we were doing the free community lunch, I would have anywhere from six to 14 volunteers. I had a couple like Pam. Pam was able to volunteer every single month at our community lunch. She's a amazing human being. I absolutely love her and adore her. She was kind of my head volunteer and she would be great about training the new people that would come in. 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. Came and volunteered at one of our lunches bloom Projects, which is a construction project management company. They came and volunteered. 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. On holidays, they focus on lunch or dinner, and I realized that there was maybe a need for breakfast on Thanksgiving. So I started a Thanksgiving Nourish neighborhood breakfast. I averaged about 30, 35 volunteers to execute breakfast for over 200 people.

Michael Dugan: 15:18

Wow. You know, one thing I've noticed is that around holidays, people volunteer. But a sad thing is that other times you need volunteers. Yes. So I think it's always a good time. It's always a good time to volunteer.

Chef Tracy: 15:32

People are in need 365 days of the year, and it's at the holidays that we hear more about being of service. And it's not that it's not needed at the holidays. 365 days a year, people need food.

Michael Dugan: 15:49

You've talked a lot about your passion for volunteering, but you also have a passion for being a chef. What chef do you admire the most? Or has there been a chef in your life that's mentored you or you've followed in a blog on tv? Uh, reading books?

Chef Tracy: 16:09

It's hard to pick one. I would say locally. I worked at Harvest Vine for I think just under two years. I really admired the executive chef Joey, as well as the sous-chef. Elise. What I realized is that Elise was an anomaly in the industry. She was a really. Is a really competent female chef. And there are times that I think of her kind of ask myself, what would Elise be doing right now? So she really inspired me. 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. Fine. 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. And I thanked him and I, I told him I couldn't have done it without him, and he said, yes you could. You just, you needed me to be here to be calm. And he was. Right. Yeah. So I think that Elise and Joey had a direct impact. Locally famous chefs. I love Ina Garten just because she's in my mind like us

Michael Dugan: 17:26

as far as food goes. What would you say is the best meal that you've ever cooked?

Chef Tracy: 17:31

Harvey Wineman, I think is his name. He was a food editor at. Wine Spectator Magazine. 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. That meal was probably the best meal I've ever executed on. I made a Sable fish. He actually told me that it was the most perfect piece of fish he'd ever had. 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. So that meal I remember fondly. Yeah, sometimes it's just a simple meal.

Michael Dugan: 18:13

Can you describe the dish?

Chef Tracy: 18:15

Which one?

Michael Dugan: 18:16

The stable fish.

Chef Tracy: 18:17

It was so just, it was. Simple. It was miso and lemon. I wrapped it in parchment. It melted in your mouth. 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.

Michael Dugan: 18:36

That sounds really good. I've cooked with miso and seafood and it really enhances the seafood.

Chef Tracy: 18:42

It really does.

Michael Dugan: 18:43

What would you say in the entire world, where would your favorite restaurant be?

Chef Tracy: 18:48

If I could eat anywhere again, it would be in my family's home kitchen. With my mom and dad. That is, that was my favorite kitchen, my favorite restaurant.

Michael Dugan: 18:59

What would the meal be?

Chef Tracy: 19:00

Probably tacos with the salad and fresh sliced avocado. My dad's homemade salsa from his habaneros. He grew in the backyard. My mom always loved making desserts as well. Lemon meringue pie was one of my dad's favorite. So she made that often. If I could choose anywhere in the world it would be to go back to that kitchen.

Michael Dugan: 19:21

What would you say are your sign? Three signature dishes from the atrium kitchen,

Chef Tracy: 19:28

my baby back ribs, which actually attempting to do a popup right now. And I say attempting because who starts a restaurant in the middle of a pandemic? I Me, apparently.

Michael Dugan: 19:42

Yeah. That's great.

Chef Tracy: 19:43

It's another way for me to try and hustle and generate some revenue. But my baby back ribs are a signature dish. My version of my mom's enchiladas my regu sauce that I learned how to make in Italy and modified to my lasagna. So really the lasagna with the regu sauce.

Michael Dugan: 20:01

And when you talk about sauces there are core sauces in European cuisine, bechamel Holland, saot Espanol. What are your core sauces for the atrium?

Chef Tracy: 20:13

The regu sauce is one of my core sauces. I can put that on anything. I do an orange, orange guillo sauce that I usually will cook chicken in. I'll raise chicken thighs in it, and that's one of the core sauces I really enjoy making. And then the whiskey barbecue sauce, which we just bottled and weave. I say we, urban farm is one of the farmers at Pi Place Market. He sells dry rubs and he grows these really amazing, amazing scotch bonnet peppers. And I'm using his scotch bonnets in my whiskey barbecue sauce from the days when I had products. That sauce is pretty much on everything right now on the menu.

Michael Dugan: 20:56

That sounds, it sounds really good. What is it that makes you passionate about. The food that you cook, nourish, neighborhood, and what you do.

Chef Tracy: 21:06

I think that having the ability to nourish people and to connect with people through food is what drives me. I've always found ways to volunteer my time to a variety of different causes, but feeding people and. 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. You don't do that for any other reason than passion. Just that the opportunity to nourish people, not just through the food, but through connecting with them. Some of my seniors don't see many people during the week, but they see me when I deliver their meals. So knowing that I can bring nourishment to others.

Michael Dugan: 21:58

Yeah, that, that definitely makes sense. I can really feel the passion that you have. And it's really, it's really incredible. So on the lighter side, tell me about a kitchen disaster that you've had.

Chef Tracy: 22:11

There were a few.

Michael Dugan: 22:12

You can pick one, you can take, you can tell us two. But just maybe one

Chef Tracy: 22:18

the most humorous. I can laugh about it now. 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. I said, yes. I was so excited what I failed to realize until I was in the middle of it. 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. But we were wearing layers of three, four gloves because of the seat. I'm like, there is no way I will ever say yes to stuffing anything in a jalapeno wow disaster. I don't know. I think I'm still trying to recover, and that was five years ago.

Michael Dugan: 23:21

I can't imagine that seems overly complex

Chef Tracy: 23:26

and yet it sounds so simple.

Michael Dugan: 23:30

It sounds tasty though.

Chef Tracy: 23:31

Just 6,000 was a lot.

Michael Dugan: 23:34

6,000.

Chef Tracy: 23:35

How do you even estimate how many. Jalapenos are in a case of jalapenos. I learned a lot and then I quickly forgot it 'cause I was never going to repeat that again.

Michael Dugan: 23:46

And what's the worst meal that you've ever had? Not, not the worst meal you ever cooked. Just the worst meal you've ever had.

Chef Tracy: 23:52

Hmm.

Michael Dugan: 23:53

And we can't use names or restaurants.

Chef Tracy: 23:56

No, we can't. 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. Something. 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. I think I'm responsible for some of the worst meals. Okay.

Michael Dugan: 24:26

Is there any special message that you would like our listeners to know? About you, about Nourish neighborhoods and what you're doing? And how can we help?

Chef Tracy: 24:40

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. I filed the proper paperwork with the IRS to be a 5 0 1 3 and. 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. I think that if people feel compelled to help us feed seniors. They can make a donation, whether it's a cash donation or an in kind donation. That was one of the things that I did at the beginning of the pandemic. 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. So we made a lot of meals with donated food. But I think we were talking about Bon Jovi. I think that the verse of that song that when you can't do what you do, you do what you can. And that applies for any point in our life. The other thing that I, yesterday I had a conversation with a friend and. I was a little bit negative and I told her that if I fail, it won't be because I didn't try. And I thought about that later and I realized that was the wrong approach to take to it. The right approach is when I succeed it will be because I didn't give up. That success isn't about money. It's not about a car. It's not about a fancy house on a lake, which does sound nice. 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.

Michael Dugan: 26:42

That's an incredible gift. 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.

Chef Tracy: 26:56

Thank you, Michael.

Michael Dugan: 26:57

You can follow Chef Tracy. By going to Atrium Kitchen pike place.com, nourish neighborhoods. Donate and follow her. See what she's up to. Stop by at the Pike Place Market and visit the Atrium Kitchen.