BarnTalk Sunday July 21st with Renée Erickson and Charlie Dunmire moderated by Nancy Leson

For this first BarnTalk of 2024, I have invited two great Seattle food entrepreneurs: Renée Erickson and Charlie Dunmire. Both will be interviewed by Nancy Leson.

Renée Erickson is the chef and co-owner of Sea Creatures restaurant group, which includes the Walrus and Carpenter, The Whale Wins, Westward, General Porpoise Doughnuts, Deep Dive, and other remarkable spots. In the space of twenty five years she has gone from owning and operating The (original) Boat Street Cafe, to winning the James Beard award for best chef, writing two best selling books, with a third book on the way to running multiple fine restaurants. She has been instrumental in defining the style of the Pacific Northwest dining.

Charlie Dunmire is the owner and operator of Deep Sea Sugar and Salt in Georgetown. She originated this popular bakery a few years prior, baking cakes in her apartment and selling them at the Georgetown Trailer Park. She then moved to a small free standing bakery and now to her much larger and very busy bakery located on Airport Way. She makes large, moist exuberant cakes that are loved by a large section of Seattle pastry eating fans. In addition to speaking with Nancy, Charlie will also be teaching us how to frost cakes; demonstrating her great skill with cakes that we will enjoy after lunch.

For nearly two decades, Nancy Leson was the restaurant critic and food columnist for the Seattle Times and co-host with Dick Stein on Food for Thought on KNKX. These days she keeps busy teaching cooking classes, hosting international food tours, thrift shopping for cookware, and helping end hunger one loaf at time with the non-profit baking brigade Community Loaves.