Michela Tartaglia on Pike Place Market

04/26/24 • 67 min

Every city needs a food center. The Pike Place Market is a Seattle's democratic platform for local business, and a community, and exists around it. This episode is an argument for the importance of the Pike Place Market. Michela Tartaglia is chef-owner of Pasta Casalinga, a shining example of the creative expression the market fosters. The Pasta Casalinga lunch counter serves handmade pasta with seasonal flavors from the farmers, fishers and foragers of the Pacific Northwest. On this episode, we go deep with Michela on the tradition and technique of pasta, on being a restaurateur in the Pike Place Market, and on finding a culinary voice.

Michela estimates 40 to 45% of her clientele is regular / local, which surprised and delighted us to hear. After all, the Pike Place Market reports a staggering 15 million visitors every year, and I’ve heard more than one friend say they avoid it because of tourists.

That is why we made this episode.

If you haven’t been to Pike Place Market in a while, now’s a great time to reconnect with this vital part of our city. The more local patronage, the more vibrant and sustainable that food center can be for our city and for the hundreds of restaurateurs, farmers, and purveyors who base their independent businesses here. Michela talks to us about what it takes to build a business with Pike Place Market PDA, how to build and frequently change a menu, how to have seasonal flare and be frugal at the same time, how to market, and how to collaborate with your team.

Photo credit: Charity Burggraaf

That is why we made this episode.

Photo credit: Charity Burggraaf

Previous Episode

Foraging with Langdon Cook

Author Langdon Cook has been leading foraging expeditions for more than 30 years in the Pacific Northwest. We learn about foraging mountains to sound, in the wild and in our own backyard on this episode of the Umami Podcast: everything from clams, to nettles, to morels and chanterelles.

Foraging is a great way to be introduced to nature and to feel more connection to it, and from that to have a stake in it, to become a steward of the land and the water. It's in our DNA! We're all the descendants of successful foragers from the deep, deep past. --Langdon Cook

Umami Podcast is about examining our food selves—how what we consume is an essential expression of who we are--personally, culturally, and civically. The subject of food is daunting: It’s different for every person, and many of us never had the privilege of feeling nourished by or connected to it. Some of us are downright alienated by it.

Part of getting to know our food selves is to examine what grows around us. There is empowerment in learning about how nature continues to nourishes us; how we benefit most by working in concert with its rhythms. On this episode we touch on foods in the wild, like salmon, mushrooms, seaweeds, clams, and nuts, to those in our backyards, like berries, nuts, and weeds.

More information on Langdon's events and classes: https://langdoncook.com/events/

Langdon's books: Fat of the Land, Upstream, The Mushroom Hunters

Next Episode

Beacon Food Forest with Elise Evans

Have you been to Beacon Food Forest? It’s magic! Especially at this time of year. What used to be a 7-acre hillside of intractable grass is now a verdant, climate change-mitigating ecosystem with a diverse pollinator habitat, rich, healthy soil, and more than 1000 different edible plants. It's a demonstration site and a learning community that reimagines what urban green spaces can offer. It’s public food on public land.

On this episode of the Umami Podcast, we talk to Elise Evans, Core Volunteer and former Board President of Beacon Food Forest. We’ll dig into how this grassroots organization has empowered a community of volunteers to create a unique, thriving, sustainable solution to food insecurity, land access, and food and ecology education.

Beacon Food Forest offers a blueprint for any community looking to create opportunities for its citizens to participate in creating local food ecosystems. Elise talks to us about how it got started, how it has evolved over the 15 years since the project began, and how community keeps it thriving.

The produce that grows on Beacon Food Forest land is available to anyone to harvest. Show up to volunteer on any third Saturday work party and you’ll learn about soil, indigenous plants, and garden care (you might even get a free lunch!). Or take a class to learn about everything from cultivating mushrooms, to attracting pollinators, to growing natural remedies.

Intrigued? Listen to this episode of the Umami Podcast to learn more about Beacon Food Forest and the ways you can get involved in this community.