Kathy Casey

When you start cooking at the age of five, you either love it or hate it. Kathy took the love it route. Although she dreamed of her own restaurant, reality directed her differently. Now she has a ‘food empire' and work that gives her endless opportunity to be creative.

Imagine a somewhat wild-child of 15 cooking meals for Good Shepherd sisters at a convent. "It was one of my best jobs," says Kathy. "I ate dinner with the sisters each night and the meal was something they looked forward to all day. I was there almost five years. They were so good to me, they even let me do my homework in the back room and smoke while dinner was cooking." One of the sisters, Sr. Vera Gallagher, wrote one of the first articles about Kathy, published in the Post Intelligencer's Sunday magazine.

She left in the mid 80s to work as a pantry cook at the Sheraton Hotel. She moved through various pantry positions and then to Fullers Restaurant where she reached the hot line and finally the sous chef position. She was not only the only female kitchen employee; she was the only woman working in the entire restaurant. When the chef at Fuller's quit, management looked for a replacement. Hotel executive chef and mentor Mark Macolwitcz, told them "You've got your chef. She's already doing the job." They listened and she became the executive chef at the age of 25. "I was a hard worker," recalls Kathy. "I really wanted to make it happen."

Two years later, she moved to New York to work at Maxwell's Plum, owned by Warner Leroy who also owned Tavern on the Green. "It was a disaster," says Kathy. "The restaurant was fine, but behind the scenes it was awful—bugs and rats. Warner was very eccentric. At my interview, I made a 13-course dinner. He had seconds."

"After I re-opened the restaurant with a new menu, things went sideways. He said we had to have a hamburger on the menu and suggested we shape it into a triangle. So I made a triangle burger and had special buns made. It was totally tricked out—red and yellow tomatoes which were very unusual back then."

A lot of stories in New York came out about this female chef, many negative. "West coasters were not very popular back then," she says. "The New York Post actually said to me that if I didn't talk with them, they'd make it up. It was the late 80s and a weird time in New York—someone asked me if I rode my horse to go camping in Alaska every weekend when I lived in Seattle."

Eventually she was fired. Then calls started coming in from companies asking her to help with their kitchens and menus. Thus began her consulting business in 1988. Restaurants Unlimited called and became her first national client. She'd been thinking of moving back to Seattle and this was the right opportunity.

Working out of her house for ten years, she saved a lot of money. She and husband John Casey (who just celebrated their 25^th anniversary), started looking for buildings. In 1996, they started the purchase process on what is now the Food Studios. Tenants rented the first few years, then John demolished half of the interior. It took about a year to finish construction.

Her idea? Along with consulting, rent the kitchen to national companies she worked with; unfortunately that didn't materialize to the extent she hoped. "Since many companies are on the East Coast, I think we'd do better if we were in the Midwest or on the East Coast. This is too far for them to come," says Kathy. Though some national companies like Unilever and Marriott have traveled to the Food Studios, local firms like Holland American, Alaska Seafood Marketing and Restaurants Unlimited, frequent it most often.

"My main business at Kathy Casey Food Studios is food and beverage consulting, recipe and menu development, bar consulting and restaurant development. We film things here also," explains Kathy. "Business changes every year. Smaller clients and companies get bought by other companies on an ongoing basis. 9/11 changed things. You have to stay flexible when you own a business. A couple years ago after a lot of interest, we started doing corporate and private special events and parties, birthdays and team building. Our ‘reality restaurant' is great fun; people love it." The Food Studios can seat 50-60 for dinner or 125 for a reception-style event.

Cocktail consulting is growing all the time. "I really was a frontrunner in the whole bar-chef scene, having started doing this 15 years ago. We're now one of the top cocktail development companies nationally," Kathy explains. Ryan Magarian, senior beverage associate, has worked with her for the past five years. They met when she was doing the opening for Oba in Portland. They now work with the major spirit brands and created the entire Holland America Signature Cocktail program.

Dish D'Lish is Kathy's other business venture co-owned with husband John. Being a true Seattle-ite, Kathy always wanted a spot at the Pike Place Market. Dish D'Lish opened in October 2002. "It was a huge remodel; we really brightened it up," recalls Kathy. "We stayed open until 7 p.m. so we'd be there for the local condo owners. The reality is that not many locals shop there anymore and there are more and more transients and druggies hanging out there. It's sad, but I really feel the Market is dying—they say it's being cleaned up, but we didn't see it. Eventually it wasn't worth staying open and we closed in March 2006."

Meanwhile, HMS Host approached them to put a Dish D'Lish at Sea-Tac airport. Kathy created the menu and the new café concept incarnation of the brand and opened the first location in May 2005. A second location at the airport opened in March 2006 right after the Market location closed. HMS Host operates Dish D'Lish and Kathy is happy with the outcome. "They do a really good job. We meet monthly with HMS Host and a couple of times a year with corporate. We quality check frequently. I've had people from other states write and tell me how great it is to have a healthy food choice at the airport." One of her goals is to become part of HMS Host's permanent portfolio, like Starbucks and Wolfgang Puck Cafés, and grow the brand nationally.

With the Pike Market location closed, they decided to open a flagship store in Ballard (part of the Food Studios building). It's a combination of the airport café, the Market food-to-go and expanded retail including their 22 Dish D'Lish retail branded products. Kathy also offers "unique fun foodie finds" that are hard-to-find products. In addition, people can order catering for parties at home through ‘Party to Go Go.'

They also have a service bar license. "We offer about eight signature cocktails, highlighting our Dish D'Lish Cocktailors" explains Kathy. "Ballard is really changing with over 2000 new condos going in this year. Hours may change as we see what the neighborhood wants. Right now we're planning to close early evening. Eventually we'll open earlier on Sundays in the summer for the Ballard Farmers Market and do a fun breakfast like mini donuts in a bag. I'd also like to do a special dinner once a month after we get our feet wet, and maybe small events."

It seems there will always be something new to look forward to from Kathy Casey. She's currently working on a new national TV show with PBS. But maybe most intriguing is the book she's planning to publish when she's 60 about the early years of women in the kitchen. As described by Kathy "It will make Kitchen Confidential look mild!" Put us on the mailing list.

Connie Adams/February 2007