Dame Sabrina Tinsley
Profile by Karen Binder
The culinary career of Dame Sabrina Tinsley, co-owner and chef at Seattle’s iconic Italian restaurant, La Spiga Osteria, has followed an unusual and circuitous path. Growing up in the Alaskan wilderness with her physician father and three siblings, Sabrina raced sled dogs, went fishing, camping, and collected firewood for the family. She attributes her capacity for adventure and hard work to those early years in the 49th State.
Also setting the stage for her career, the important women in Sabrina’s life were all oriented around cooking and feeding their families. She describes her mom as a true homemaker and an amazing cook who taught her kids how to cook, garden, preserve, and bake. Her grandma, for whom food was a big part of life, grew up on a sugarcane plantation in the town of Verdunville, Louisiana, named after her family, and was the product of a French landowner and a slave woman.
While living in Alaska, her parents split, and in 1985, Sabrina, her siblings, and mom moved to Flint, Michigan, where she finished high school, and then attended Michigan State University graduating in 1992 with a French minor. Summers between college years took her back to Alaska where she ran the Mountain View Bed and Breakfast. With both The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Barenbaum and Glorious Food by Christopher Idone in hand, Sabrina spent summers baking bread and practicing cooking skills by making meals for B&B guests. Returning to Michigan for her final year at MSU, Sabrina arranged to complete her French language credits in Tours, France, planning to travel studying European languages, cultures, and foods.
While working for a year in Salzburg, Austria, she had a chance encounter with a charming Italian, Pietro Borghesi, destined to become both her husband and business partner. Wanting her to join his life and to understand his culture, he lured Sabrina to his native Italy where the two of them opened and ran several successful businesses selling the Emilia-Romagna specialty Piadina, one of la Spiga’s best acclaimed offerings.
After several years living and working in Italy, the two decided to head to Seattle where Sabrina’s sister was living. Together, they opened La Spiga Osteria in 1998, bringing authentic northern Italian cuisine to Seattle diners. In 2006, they moved into their current welcoming, large space, and in 2010, became sole owners of La Spiga.
Many of the restaurant’s staples–prosciutto di Parma, Parmigiano-Reggiano and balsamic vinegar from Modena–are imported from Italy. Other ingredients are locally and sustainably sourced, and pasta is made fresh daily.
At the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020, Sabrina’s 16-year-old son jumped in to wash dishes and work the line, while her 19-year-old daughter continued as pastry chef. Sabrina tells how fortunate they were to be in a good financial position a year ago, and, with two rounds of PPP as well as enormous customer support, they have stayed profitable the past year.
Active outside the kitchen as well, Sabrina donates time as mentor to aspiring culinary professionals and has contributed time and resources to diversity programs advocating for female chefs and chefs of color. She has been included in many local cookbooks, interviewed on radio and television, and was an Iron Chef contender against Bobby Flay. A certified Italian wine specialist, she was chosen to participate in both the James Beard Foundation’s Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership program and the Culinary Institute of America’s enrichment and Innovation Program. Earning a scholarship from Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, she interned at the Cooking Lab of Modernist Cuisine. She also serves on the Foundation Board of community Roots Housing, and co-chairs the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee for Les Dames d’Escoffier Seattle. We are thrilled to have her as a fellow Dame!
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