The Centrum Gala

A Love of People, Cuisine, and Wine: Chef Profile, Tamara Murphy

Centrum’s 2008 Gala welcomes chef Tamara Murphy from Seattle’s Brasa Restaurant. She will be one of four chefs lending their culinary skills to producing this year’s Gala menu.

Trained in New York City, Tamara Murphy further honed her craft while working at various restaurants in the area. In 1988, drawn to the Northwest’s bounty of fresh ingredients, Tamara decided to move to Seattle. While working at Dominique’s as a Sous Chef, Tamara was selected to participate in the Bocuse d’Or competition.

She represented the West Coast as one of twelve finalists at the prestigious event.
In 1990, after two years at Dominique’s, Tamara was offered the opportunity to serve as Executive Chef at Campagne in Pike Place Market. Nominated for the James Beard Foundation’s Rising Star Chef of the Year Award, Tamara was one of four finalists for the chefs under thirty award. She continued to receive nominations from the James Beard Foundation, and in 1995 was named the Best Chef of the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii.

In addition, Food and Wine Magazine dubbed her one of the Ten Best New Chefs in America. Other publications such as Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Food Arts, and The New York Times all profiled Tamara and her unique culinary style. Meanwhile, local critics such as John Hinterberger, Johnathan Susskin, Tom Sietsma, and “Seattle’s Best Places” have showered Tamara and Campagne with rave reviews.

Tamara enjoyed the process of opening Café Campagne in 1993, and the challenge of overseeing two restaurant operations. Hailed by the press as yet another Tamara Murphy success, the café soon became the darling of Seattle foodies. After numerous successful years at the helm of both Campagnes, Tamara decided it was time to open a venue of her own.

Partnering with Bryan Hill, the former General Manager and Wine Director at Campagne, Tamara was anxious to be part of a restaurant that was truly about community. Brasa is the culmination of their many years working in the industry, and has been an opportunity to create a restaurant that is truly about the people, cuisine, and wine they love.

Brasa opened March 1st, 1999 and has been wildly successful. Seattleites love the creative food and sensual ambiance. It garnered three stars from Nancy Leson at The Seattle Times and has been mentioned in Travel and Leisure, Food and Wine and Bon Appetit.

The Centrum Gala takes place on Saturday, November 15 at the Fort Worden Commons in Port Townsend, Washington. Besides a wonderful dinner of Northwest cuisine, the Gala will also offer guests the chance to purchase fixed-price specialty trips, adventures, and experiences from the Gatherings Catalog, which will premier that night. Light entertainment and a giving opportunity to the Centrum Scholarship Fund will round out the evening. The Gala is $125 per person and is open to everyone.

Please call the Centrum office at 360.385.3102 x116 for reservations and more information.

Farm-to-Table Sustainability: Chef Profile, Jay Payne

Centrum is extremely pleased to have Port Townsend’s own Jay Payne in charge of the main entree for this year’s Gala dinner. Since the early nineteen-eighties, Payne has practiced the farm-to-table philosophy of buying directly from nearby producers. He lived in downtown Seattle and walked through the market nearly every day on the way to work and formed relationships with growers who’d supply interesting ingredients to him for experimentation.

After brief stints at two of Seattle’s best French restaurants, Jay began eight years with Four Seasons Hotels where he rose to Chef de Cuisine of The Georgian Room in Seattle’s Olympic Hotel. During that time, The Georgian was named the “Restaurant of the Decade” by The Seattle Times and was the only Five-Star, Five-Diamond hotel on the West Coast. He then moved on to open Seattle’s Tulio Ristorante as Chef de Cuisine, working with executive chef Walter Pisano.

In 2000 Jay and his family moved to Port Townsend, Washington where they opened The Wild Coho Restaurant, an intimate, ten-table restaurant that features farm-to-table Northwest cuisine. The Wild Coho was named one of the "Top Ten Organic Restaurants in the Country" by Travel Savvy Magazine. It’s also been named "Port Townsend’s Best Gourmet Restaurant" and selected as "Best Buy" in Traveler.

The restaurant has also been featured in Northwest Best Places and on ABC's The View. Now, as Executive Chef of the Fort Worden Commons, Jay brings his years of experience and farm-to-table savvy to this historic site, surrounded by the beauty of the Northwest that is reflected in his cuisine.

The Centrum Gala takes place on Saturday, November 15 at the Fort Worden Commons in Port Townsend, Washington. Besides a wonderful dinner of Northwest cuisine, the Gala will also offer guests the chance to purchase fixed-price specialty trips, adventures and experiences from a Gatherings Catalog to premiere that night. Light entertainment and a giving opportunity to the Centrum Scholarship Fund will round out the evening.

The Gala is $125 per person and is open to everyone. Please call the Centrum office 360.385.3102 x116 for reservations and more information. (Photo credit: Matt Sircely and the Port Townsend Farmer's Market.)

Supporting Local Farmers: Chef Profile, Craig Hetherington

Centrum’s 2008 Gala welcomes chef Craig Hetherington from TASTE Restaurant at the Seattle Art Museum. He will be one of four chefs lending their culinary skills to producing this year’s Gala menu.

“As a chef, it is my responsibility to support the local farmers,” says Craig. “It is my goal to ingrain that responsibility into everybody who comes on board so that when they move on they have that sense of awareness. I don’t want them to look at food as something that comes out of a box.”

Craig Hetherington learned about culinary responsibility during his boyhood spent in Pittsburgh. He comes from a family of avid cooks and gardeners, who spent summers preserving the bounty. That immersion in food instilled in him a desire to become a chef.

With a degree from South Seattle Community College in hand, Hetherton began his professional cooking career at Elliott’s Oyster House.

Subsequently, he cooked at Baci Catering and Stimson-Green Mansion before joining TASTE Restaurant as sous chef in March 2007. He was promoted to executive chef a year later. He is a member of Chef’s Collaborative and served on the board for four years.

As the executive chef, Craig oversees the kitchen at TASTE Restaurant as well as the menus for the TASTE cafes at the Olympic Sculpture Park and the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

The Centrum Gala takes place on Saturday, November 15 at the Fort Worden Commons in Port Townsend, Washington. Besides a wonderful dinner of Northwest cuisine, the Gala will also offer guests the chance to purchase fixed-price specialty trips, adventures, and experiences from the Gatherings Catalog, which will premier that night. Light entertainment and a giving opportunity to the Centrum Scholarship Fund will round out the evening. The Gala is $125 per person and is open to everyone.

Please call the Centrum office at 360.385.3102 x116 for reservations and more information.