“Everyone in the wine industry has something they love,” says Dame Kari Leitch. “For me, it’s the agricultural side of the business.” This green connection is no doubt linked to her childhood growing up in Illinois where summer rituals included husking, slicing, peeling, plus pickle and jam-making celebrating the bounty from her grandmother’s garden. “There was a wonderful sense of community sitting on a stool in her kitchen, and I also credit her with my love of baking,” Kari says fondly, “along with all those PBS cooking shows I saw growing up.”

A move from Illinois to the Pacific Northwest for a job in the non-profit side of healthcare soon led Kari to new adventures. In 1996, she joined Ste. Michelle Wine Estates where she is Senior Vice President of Communications and Corporate Affairs. In this role, she manages corporate communications, community relations, and branded public relations programs for all wineries in the Ste. Michelle portfolio. She serves on the board of the Auction of Washington Wines and has also served on the board of the Washington State Wine Commission. In 2013, Kari was welcomed as a member of Les Dames Seattle.

Kari’s time at the winery marks an era of stunning growth for Washington wine. The state is now the second largest wine producer in the U.S. with more than 1,000 wineries and brands joining Chateau Ste. Michelle, which is recognized at Washington’s oldest winery and has an impressive list of award-winning varietals. The current pandemic is creating challenges for the wine-making industry.

“People are drinking differently,” Kari says, “and we’re doing our best to adapt to circumstances.”

She mentions an uptick in e-commerce ordering, outreach to wine club members, along with innovations such as Chateau Ste. Michelle’s curbside pick-ups, cabana rentals, and picnic fare. The winery’s Woodinville tasting room is also open for outdoor seated tastings; check the website for tasting times by appointment. Aware of consumer trends, the forward-thinking winery also recently introduced single-serving aluminum bottles in 2-pack cartons, designed to appeal to millennials. “‘Cork just doesn’t have the same cachet for this group as it does for Boomers,” Kari says.

As a gardener and an avid cook, growing tomatoes this summer on her condo balcony is proving a bonus to working at home. “The influences of my grandmother and mother in the kitchen will always be with me,” Kari says with a smile. “I’m not making fried chicken or doughnuts, but my childhood memories are still distinct.” We’ll raise a glass to enjoying delicious memories and creating new ones every day!

The seductive fragrance of toasting hazelnuts wafts from the doorway of Le Panier Bakery on many afternoons, while morning aromas offer clues to the scrumptious array of classic French baked goods inside. Walk down a few steps into the inviting bakery to find display cases brimming with sweet pain au chocolates, croissants au beurre, brioche loaves, baguettes, and dozens of other authentic French pastries. A case devoted to a rainbow of macarons from lemon and pistachio to framboise and chocolat is pure temptation.

Co-owned and managed by Dame Kristi Drake, Le Panier Bakery is a cornerstone of Pike Place Market.On busy summer days (pre-pandemic times), there’s always a line out the door. In normal times too, a bustling crowd would occupy tables and chairs inside the bakery relishing the array of baked goods to pair with cappuccinos, café lattes, or afternoon tea. Since October 1995, Kristi has been Manager and Co-Owner of Le Panier Bakery with her business partner, Thierry Mougin, a master baker and Frenchman by birth. Their Le Panier connection goes back to its beginning since they were the Managers and Bakers when it first opened in June 1983. At that time, the bakery was established by Hubert Loevenbruck, an entrepreneur who arrived from France in the mid-1970s, bringing with him eight professional bakers to staff bakeries featuring classic French pastries in Portland and Seattle.

I earned a B.S. in Food Science and Nutrition,” Kristi says, “and planned to become a nutritionist, but the bakery seduced me into staying as I learned about the wonderful French traditions surrounding food and eating seasonally. Although she left the bakery in 1990 to become a stay-at-home mom, she returned in 1995 to buy the business in partnership with Thierry Mougin. “Bakery life is a terrific life, especially if you’re a morning person,” she notes. Add the consistent demand and respect for good food in France, a heritage the bakery shares with its fans, and it’s easy to understand why Le Panier is a longstanding Market favorite.

Along with its assortment of traditional French baked goods, all made with devotion using classic techniques — and fresh butter, of course! — Le Panier also offers seasonal treats. Summertime’s Clafoutis Aux Cerises celebrates Washington State’s bonanza of cherries in pure French style, while Asperges Feuilleté offers tender asparagus spears tucked between layers of buttery pastry. In cold weather months and for the Christmas holidays, offerings typically include Tarte aux Poires, Macaron Noisette, and the classic Bûche de Noël.

Despite Coronavirus shutdowns causing the bakery to completely close for two months this past spring — the first time it had ever been closed in its history — Le Panier has bounced back just like rising bread dough. “During the pandemic shut down, we baked bread and croissants to donate in support of the Pike Place Market Foundation, which operates the Market’s Senior Center and Food Bank sustaining more than 2,000 persons,” Kristi shares. Alas, some bakery staff had to be laid off with pandemic challenges, but for the current 35 employees, the “to-go” and curbside pick-up options are working very well. “We’re again open seven days a week, and because a bakery’s product rotation is 48-hours, we’re able to increase or decrease production as needed,” says Kristi. “Our bakers also rotate between positions so everyone learns everything in a few years and can fill in for different roles when and if needed.”

The delectable magic behind Le Panier? “People come in for something enjoyable, a treat,” Kristi says. “Baking can be frustrating and complicated at times, but so worth it. Serving our customers, bringing simple delights to people’s lives everyday makes us happy.”

An international celebrity chef, mixologist and consultant, a legend in her own time, that’s Dame, Kathy Casey Chef, who’s still breaking ground and creating new concepts, menus, recipes, and beverages for restaurants and businesses worldwide. She has received scads of local and national media coverage and more will follow as she continues to shatter traditions and make waves in the hospitality industry.

In 2014, the beverage industry publication Cheers named her one of the top 10 most influential people of the past 25 years. Founder of Kathy Casey Food Studios – Liquid Kitchen, a global F&B development company based in Seattle, her empire includes branded products and restaurants – Dish D’Lish, Rel’Lish Burger Lounge and Lucky Louie Fish Shack, all at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

From her earliest days of success, when she was chef of the former Fuller’s restaurant , her creativity, innovative ideas, and business savvy have been recognized locally, nationally, and internationally.

As a strong and positive influence for women in the industry, Kathy has authored 10 cookbooks, developed specialty food products, opened dozens of restaurants and bars, developed hundreds of cocktails, received James Beard cookbook nominations, served as a TV host, written newspaper columns, and along the way has given her time and talent to local nonprofits, including serving as president of Les Dames.

One of her current passions is co-founding the SBAAC, (small business airport action committee). As an SBAAC Steward, Kathy advocates for small, minority and women owned airport restaurant and retail concessions, and also mentors other small businesses.

What will Kathy do next? Just keep watching. The sky’s the limit for this iconic Seattle Dame!

Think chocolate, think Fran’s Chocolates like millions of fans do, including former President Barack Obama and Food Network star Ina Garten! Created by charter member of #LesDamesSeattle and legendary chocolatier, Fran Bigelow, Fran’s Chocolates has grown from a small, European-style, boutique chocolate shop in the Madison Valley section of Seattle, to a major player in the USA high-end chocolate and specialty food business with three locations in Japan and major production facility, headquarters and chocolate boutique in the Georgetown section of Seattle.

A former accountant, this savvy business woman has turned her love of premium chocolate and high-quality ingredients into a formidable business that the current pandemic has not stopped and seemly cannot stop. Mail and phone orders, online orders and pick-ups at local Seattle Fran’s locations make her luscious, high-quality products available locally, with the company’s website, https://frans.com/, providing the locations of stores nationwide where Fran’s products are available.

From the start, quality ingredients and packaging were front and center. This did not go unnoticed by the late Chuck Williams, founder of Williams-Sonoma, when he sampled a Fran’s Gold Bar and placed the item in a Williams-Sonoma catalog. And as the saying goes, the rest is history!

Fran is a long time supporter of local non-profits including: the Windermere Foundation, Neighborhood House and Safe Crossing, the later having honored her with its Bridge to Healing Award.

Warm, gracious, fun-loving, and generous are just a few of the words that best describe Fran. And these qualities even spill over in her cookbook, Pure Chocolate, published in 2004. It’s the home cook’s answer to all things chocolate, a tome of chocolate perfection!

In 2003 the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade honored Fran’s legendary gray-salted caramels as the Confection of the Year, and in 2018, Fran was inducted into the Specialty Food Association’s Hall of Fame, a special honor for a special person dedicated to quality and to chocolate.

In her 36 years in business, she has seen it all, from the highs of the dot-com era to the current setting of the pandemic. Always nimble and flexible, Lisa has changed and pivoted to meet the current environment of uncertain times with curbside pickup, no-contact delivery, and booked dining-in with protocols in place at her family-friendly Pomegranate Bistro with its menu reflecting her southern roots.

The article headline in the September 2019 issue of Seattle Met magazine read, “Caterer Extraordinaire Lisa Dupar Can Make That Happen,” and she has and she can. These words were written pre-COVID, but Lisa’s successful catering business, Lisa Dupar Catering, and Pomegranate Bistro restaurant, based in Redmond, Washington, can do about anything with food – be it a large event for over 1,000 people or a small family dinner.

This long-time Dame and former Les Dames Seattle Chapter President can handle about anything. Having grown up in Atlanta, you might call Lisa a very savvy Steel Magnolia!

Her culinary life began at an early age – she liked to cook and her mother didn’t. So, she cooked for the family and her mother did the dishes! Following high school, she choose culinary training over college, and began a three-year apprenticeship at the Westin Hotel’s Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta, where she worked under legendary hotel chef, Waldo Brun, who taught her much including how to make salt and seasoning blends that she still makes and sells at the Bistro.

Training in Zurich and working in several high-end restaurants in Europe followed. When Lisa returned to the USA in 1981, she went back to work at the Peachtree Plaza for a short time, before packing her bags and heading to Seattle and the Westin Hotel’s Palm Court, becoming the first female chef in the hotel chain’s history.

Three years later she opened her first restaurant, Southern Accents (now closed) followed by Lisa Dupar Catering. In 2005, Lisa opened Pomegranate Bistro, and as you would expect, both the Bistro and Lisa Dupar Catering have garnered numerous awards.

In 2011, Lisa’s cookbook, Fried Chicken & Champagne: A Romp Through The Kitchen at Pomegranate Bistro was honored with the prestigious IACP Award for First Book: the Julia Child Award.

Lisa has catered to royalty, industry moguls, political notables including former President Bill Clinton, and many a happy bride. So what’s next for Lisa? Just stay tuned; there is more to come from this incredible Dame.

Entrepreneur, restaurateur, innovator, and culinary organizer. A master of cachaça cocktails and feijoada, the meaty black bean stew starring as Brazil’s national dish. All describe Seattle Dame Chef Emme Ribeiro Collins and indicate a skillful blending of her cultural background and experiences in the restaurant world. The result: a standout career as chef and caterer. Her newest position as District Executive Chef for the Seattle School District—a first for the district—began in September 2019 and distinguishes her culinary standing even further.

Emme’s Brazilian heritage and working in Tempero do Brasil, the restaurant her parents opened in 1999 in the University District, noted as Seattle’s first Brazilian restaurant, was a natural path into the culinary world. Arriving in Seattle as a six-year-old, she grew up in the family restaurant, working front and back of the house with her brother, and later, in other area restaurants, from burger joints to fine dining establishments. In 2010, she participated in MasterChef on the Fox Network. Although not a winner, Gordon Ramsey’s encouragement propelled her to enroll at the Seattle Culinary Academy. Graduating in 2012 as “Outstanding Culinarian,” a distinction awarded by the program’s chef instructors, she next headed to Washington, DC, for an organic internship under Chef Nora Pouillon at Restaurant Nora, often labeled the first certified organic restaurant in the U.S.

Returning to Seattle in 2013, she worked as a private chef (How about clients such as Eddie Vedder and Jamal Crawford?) and launched her boutique catering company, Chef Emme Catering Co.. The kitchen at Tempero do Brasil did double-duty for her catering business. When her parents decided to close their restaurant in 2017, it proved the perfect opportunity to open her own restaurant: Alcove Dining Room (now closed). With a prix fixe menu and community seating, her restaurant menu blended dishes and flavors of Emme’s Afro-Brazilian roots and Pacific Northwest ingredients.

Emme has also earned media credits as a chef/restaurateur. She’s appeared on TV programs for King 5, Fox Channel 13, and the Food Network, been featured in Seattle Magazine and The New York Times articles, and participated in Cherry Bombe podcasts.

Now it’s on to the challenges of her new role as Executive Chef for the Seattle Public Schools. Top requirements: making lunches more nutritious and culturally diverse within existing nutritional guidelines and redesigning dishes to feature more local ingredients and fewer processed foods. Changes began this past school year in elementary schools and will expand to higher grades. Updating menus in pandemic times, when many school children are still dependent on school lunches even while learning remotely, is a tall order. Chef Emme is excited and more than ready for the test.

Kay Simon may have grown up in California and studied fermentation at UC Davis, but the Washington State Wine industry claims her as one of its own.

A very talented winemaker and general partner of Chinook Wines of Prosser, Washington, Kay began her career in California, but quickly accepted a position as winemaker at Ste. Michelle – Woodinville, Grandview and Paterson – before starting Chinook Winery with her husband, Clay Mackey, in 1983.

These were the early years of the Washington wine industry, and Kay was one of its pioneering women in wine. Today, her pioneering spirit continues as she forges new avenues for women not only in wine but Washington agriculture.

A charter member and former #LesDamesSeattle Chapter President, she has been an advocate for women in WSU Viticulture Extension education at Washington State University opening doors and helping to provide opportunities for them in the industry through her active role in the #LesDamesdEscoffier scholarship program, both as a member of and former Chair of the Chapter’s Scholarship Committee. In the fall of 2019 and the spring of 2020, she was one of the driving forces in setting up the Chapter’s seventh endowed scholarship for women, this one in Organic and Sustainable Agriculture at WSU.

Professional and industry organizations have reaped the benefits of her wine knowledge and her savvy business acumen. She has served as President and Board Member of Wine Yakima Valley, and Past Vice President and Board Member of the Washington Wine Institute. She is a Charter Member of the Washington Research Advisory Committee and has served on the committee for over 20 years. In addition, she is a Professional Member of American Society for Enology & Viticulture and a Charter Member of the Washington Wine Technical Group.

In 2008, Kay was honored by the Auction of Washington Wines as Honorary Vintner. And in 2010, she received the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers Industry Service Award.

As in the past, Kay continues to make small quantities of high quality wines from Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc grape varietals that she & Clay hand sell to top restaurants and fine wine merchants in the Pacific Northwest as well as a few select markets elsewhere.

Photos: Kay Simon and Husband Clay Mackey, along with the Yakima Valley hills and vineyards; a fun throwback from the Chinook website (http://www.chinookwines.com/); a photo from Kevin Cruff and Seattle magazine celebrating Chinook Wines and the Yakima Valley AVA turning 30 in 2013; and the February/March 2020 issue of Wine Enthusiast profiling Kay.

Dames are trailblazers. Dame Marie-Eve Gilla created her own vision of what Washington wines can be as one of the first woman winemakers and winery owners in our state, where women make up a small percentage of the winemaking ranks.

Born in Burgundy and raised near Paris, Marie-Eve fell in love with the demanding, but rewarding, pastoral lifestyle while working summers on the farm.

Passionate about nature and biology, she earned a double Masters in Enology and Viticulture at the University of Dijon. She gained practical training in the wineries and vineyards of Burgundy.

Marie-Eve arrived in the United States in 1991 with the intention of staying just a few months. She worked at various wineries including Argyle, Covey Run, and Hogue and realized the incredible potential of the Northwest wine industry. After marrying her compatriot Gilles Nicault in 1999, they moved to Walla Walla in 2001, where Marie-Eve became Forgeron Cellars’ founding winemaker and managing partner. Forgeron was only the 23rd bonded winery in the AVA.

In 2018, she joined Valdemar Estates — the first internationally owned winery in Washington (the Martinez Bujanda family has made wine in the Rioja Valley of Spain since 1889). As Director of Winemaking and Viticulture at Valdemar, Marie-Eve gets to return to her European roots, making complex, balanced, and age-worthy wines.

Over the past twenty-five years, Marie-Eve has devoted endless time and energy researching and establishing relationships with the best growers from around Washington State. Believing firmly that ʺgreat wines are made in the vineyard,ʺ she sources grapes from established vineyards in the Red Mountain and Walla Walla A.V.A. to craft her wines. Working in a boutique winery allows her to focus on quality by keeping each vineyard lot separate. This gives each wine the ability to express its full potential.

In 2015, Marie-Eve became a member of our Seattle Chapter. She was honored to receive the grade de Chevalier dans l’ordre du mérite Agricole from the French government in January of 2016 (the Ordre recognizes people who have rendered exceptional services to agriculture, whether in public duties or in the very practice of agriculture.) Since 2019, Marie-Eve has been a member of the Wine Research Advisory Committee (WRAC) which serves as the scientific review arm for the Washington State wine industry. She has also received numerous accolades for her wines including international recognition at blind tastings held in both San Francisco and Miami with her 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve and “best white wine of the year” at the 2017 Seattle Wine Awards.

Five Washington State governors, Republican and Democrats, cannot be wrong about the superb creativity and culinary talents of Seattle Charter Dame Kyle D. Fulwiler, retired Washington State Governor’s Mansion Chef and former chapter president.

A native Washingtonian, raised in Bellevue, she was always interested in cooking. As the story goes, by the time she was 14, her mind was set on going to cooking school in New York City.

In reality, it was the Cordon Bleu School of Cookery in London where Kyle received her professional training. Armed with her certificate, she returned to Washington State to live on Hood Canal where she started her own catering business, Cuisine Unlimited, and also served as luncheon chef at La Petite Maison in Olympia.

Hearing about the job at the Governor’s Mansion, she interviewed for it, and the rest is history, serving 24 years and nine months as its Chef, with her tenure starting during Governor John Spellman’s administration and continuing into Governor Christine Gregoire’s administration.

Kyle’s fine-tuned palate, love of local ingredients and wines, coupled with her skillful use of them, speaks volumes. But it is her flexibility, quiet leadership, and organizational ability that stand out. How else could she and her two long-time assistants, Michi Delaney and Hai Vo, have managed the dozens of official events, sometimes two a day, year in, year out, without these qualities. Former Washington State first lady, Mary Lowry was quoted in a Seattle Times article as saying, “She is absolutely terrific.”

Although Kyle knew each of the governors and their families well, she cooked for official functions rather than serving as the first family chef. Those functions included elegant dinners for 80 as well as receptions, breakfasts, and more for legislators, dignitaries, and international figures including the King and Queen of Norway, the French Ambassador, and the Vice Premier of China.

During the early 1990s, Kyle received a culinary scholarship for a week of classes at the famed Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland that further honed her culinary artistry and enhanced her love of traveling.

She has written four cookbooks, represented Washington State apples on the Food Network, developed recipes for Washington Wine Month, served as President of the Governor’s Mansion Foundation and currently serves as the Chapter Administrator. She is an avid gardener, and her greenhouse is filled with her favorite, orchids.

In a letter from former Washington State Governor Booth Gardner included in Kyle’s Celebration, a Washington Cookbook, the Governor expressed it well, “Kyle’s performance at the Mansion is a tribute to the fine chefs of the Northwest.”

Photos via Kyle: A gathering of former Washington State governors and Kyle. Kyle served as Governor’s Mansion Chef for five of these former Washington State governors; Kyle’s Celebration, a Washington Cookbook; A photo of Kyle on the Seabourn Sojourn in 2010; and beautiful orchids in Kyle’s greenhouse.

Profile by Karen Binder

How did a child with an Irish mother who hated cooking become a classically trained French chef and cooking school creator? Dame Beverly Gruber grew up in St. Louis, the daughter of a Prussian father and an Irish non-cook mother. Bev’s early years were spent working in mental health psychiatry clinics in St. Louis, and where she wound up working for the dean of the medical school.

Following a move to Boston in 1974, Bev enrolled in Madeleine Kamman’s School for Chefs, graduating at the top of her class, no doubt because of her interest in both cooking and its underlying science.

She earned a teaching certificate from Kamman, and then was invited to be a teaching assistant where she taught until moving to the Pacific Northwest in 1978.

In 1979, Bev’s entrepreneurial spirit inspired her to start a company producing cheesecakes. She soon realized, however, she would much rather teach someone how to bake a cheesecake than grow a business dedicated to making the creamy dessert — no matter how popular the recipe was for building a successful business.

Inspired again, the following year Bev pursued freelance teaching and opened the Everyday Gourmet School of Cooking in her home but quickly realized she needed a larger space. She soon located a new location where she taught an 18-week course focused on becoming a chef, teaching her students everything she’d learned from Madeleine.

A few years later, Larry Mckinney, founder of Larry’s Markets, saw a good thing in Bev and asked her to move her cooking school to Larry’s Markets. She did, and remained there until 1999, teaching classes focused on her first culinary love, Italy, and its cuisine.

At the request of many students wishing to travel to Italy under her guidance, Bev formed the Everyday Gourmet Travel Company. The tour company allowed Bev to follow her passion and lead small groups to Italy’s many regions for more than 20 years. From Venice to Sicily, she shared her love for Italian cluture with her clients, introducing them to regional traditions and the authentic warmth of its people.

Along the way, Dame Beverly joined the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), and in 1985, she chaired and hosted the first IACP convention in Seattle. She also served on IACP’s board of directors and as chair of IACP’s Scholarship Committee for seven years. During this time, she was also on IACP’s International Committee, which later inspired her tour business.

While involved with IACP, Bev realized Seattle was becoming a notable culinary and hospitality center. Fortuitously, in 1989, Dame Alice Gautsch Foreman, along with Bev and 13 other local culinarians formed the organization that became the Seattle chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International (LDEI) — the first expansion chapter of the international non-profit organization focused exclusively on women in culinary professions.

At the Seattle chapter’s first election in August 1989, Bev was elected president, the first to hold this office for our chapter. In 1992, she chaired the national conference of Les Dames d’Escoffier International (LDEI), the first held in Seattle. As yet another milestone, in 2004-2005 she again served as the chapter’s president.

Bev remains an active force in LDES and, along with having served as the scholarship chair for many years, she is still involved with several committees. We are grateful for Beverly’s foresight in helping organize the Seattle Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier and thrilled she’s still an engaged and enthusiastic member.