As the news rippled through Seattle this week, the restaurant industry was shocked and heartbroken—throughout the city and far beyond—to hear that their friend and mentor Tamara “Cheffy” Murphy had died. The legendary Seattle-based chef suffered a stroke in Boise last Wednesday and was kept on life support to facilitate the donation of her organs, passing away peacefully on Saturday, August 10, with her family at her side.
In the wake of her death, stories resounded about her accolades and her grassroots approach to fine dining, but those that knew her best wanted to make sure that we remembered her heart. “All the other stories talk about Tamara’s awards and the markets and the Greater Seattle Business Association, and all of that is correct,” says Chef Zephyr Paquette (Marjorie, Lecosho, Le Petit Paquet) of her mentor. “But I think the bigger thing that that woman did was save lives. We used to joke about the three-legged dogs that she hired. Most of the staff that came through there had some shit going on, and she got them all somewhere. And some left and came back. And they came back better.”
“Tamara picked me up off the streets 24 years ago,” Paquette goes on. “She gave me my first job, and I’ve worked in every shop she had. She’s my family. When I was a young buck, I used to behave like I was Peter Pan, because fuck it all, and then I realized that I had taken some of her best teachings, and I had become Wendy.”
She adds, “I think that the greatest thing that Tamara Murphy gives us is legacy. She has delivered a lot of chefs. And those chefs have delivered new chefs—Tamara's been involved in approximately three generations. The way that she introduced me to the farmers markets and how to grow those projects is going to stay with me forever.”
The chef and co-owner of Seattle culinary institution Terra Plata, Murphy was born in Pennsylvania, grew up in North Carolina, and, after a stint cooking in New York City, moved to Seattle in the late ’80s. She quickly found her footing here, racking up executive chef slots at essential Seattle restaurants like Dominique’s Place and Cafe Campagne. Awards and accolades were soon to follow. In 1989, Murphy was one of 12 finalists—and the only woman among them—selected for the Bocuse d’Or competition in France, representing the West Coast. She was named Best New Chef by Food & Wine in 1994, and she snagged a James Beard in ’95 in the Rising Star Chef category, repping the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. Both of these awards celebrated her work as the executive chef at Cafe Campagne.
When Murphy opened her first restaurant, Brasa, in 1999, it was one of Belltown’s first truly upscale desto restos, in an era when the dog park was still the crack park and Mama’s Mexican Kitchen was the neighborhood’s hottest restaurant. With its high ceilings, dark wood, and Spanish-ish menu. Brasa quickly became a towering tree in the local foodscape and brought Murphy back to the James Beards in 2009 as a semifinalist for Outstanding Chef. In 2008, Murphy also took over the helm at Elliott Bay Cafe, transforming the bookstore cafe’s menu to an all-organic lineup. When Brasa closed in 2010, Murphy and her life and business partner Linda Di Lello Morton opened Terra Plata—their so-called “earth-to-plate” restaurant—on Capitol Hill the following year.
Throughout her career, Murphy’s focus and mission was on serving organic, sustainable food and supporting the farms that grow it. She raised her own Duroc and Berkshire pigs for slaughter and blogged about it at Life of a Pig. She was the creator of An Incredible Feast, “the world’s best feast in a field,” which raises emergency funds for small family farms, as well as the Burning Beast fundraiser (like Burning Man for chefs, where they burn a big wooden goat instead of a guy), the proceeds from which benefit the Rubicon Foundation.
Murphy’s magnum opus, Terra Plata, was a vivid portrait of her dedication to sustainable and organic dining, with its warm reclaimed-wood dining room and unforgettable triangular rooftop deck, bordered by live herbs in containers to be farmed by the kitchen. As Kirsten Telander wrote in Edible Seattle in 2019, "Murphy was walking the seasonal-farm-to-table walk before it was in vogue, and she's one of the most influential chefs in locavore dining in the region.”
As Murphy’s friends mourn her, the loveliest stories are being told in the process—and a lot of the stories are about Murphy’s stories. Chef Mahogany Williams (Terra Plata, The Pickled Chef) says, “One of my favorites is when [just before the James Beard Awards event in 1995] she was in the elevator with Julia Child, who Chef said was towering over her, and Chef was so shy.”
(Per Bethany Jean Clement’s excellent Seattle Times obituary, Murphy awkwardly stood in the open elevator doors to let Child know she was a big fan, to which Child quipped, “That’s lovely, darling, but you’re going to have to get in or out of the elevator.”)
The real punchline was yet to come, though. “But later that night,” Williams explains, “Julia Child would hand Chef her James Beard Award. How freaking cool is that?”
Williams also recalls struggling to make “a charcuterie plate as beautiful as [Murphy’s],” and Murphy advising her, “See, the plate is a canvas, and you paint it with food.”
“Chef Tamara took me under her wing,” she continues, “and showed me everything she knew. She was always teaching me. I will always be grateful for her willingness to show me something I didn’t know. She was patient with me and held me accountable. She will always be my ‘Cheffy,’ and her voice will always be in my head. I promise you, Chef, I will taste everything, and I will cook with love, just like you taught me.”
For a year and a half, Bill Morris (Salish Lodge, Rainier Club) was the executive chef at Terra Plata, but he and Murphy knew each other for 37 years, after meeting in the kitchen at Dominique’s Place. “As hungry as upcoming, young, budding chefs in this small town always are,” Morris says, “it was always important to know who was kicking ass and making things happen in the city on the food scene. Tamara was one that made things happen and became immediately recognized for her food, style, creativity, connection, and collaboration with local farmers…. She was redefining Pacific Northwest cuisine.”
As many others have, Morris is sure to point out Murphy’s generous spirit. “I am in utter disbelief and saddened beyond words. But in the attempt to keep her spirit and heart alive, I know that her heart, sense of care, her giving and generosity towards others will forever live on from those that spent time around her.”
Chef Brendan McGill (Seabird, Hitchcock Cafe, Bar Solea, The Oyster Cellar) had this to say about Murphy’s legacy. “She was a friend, a mentor to so many chefs in Seattle, a true OG on our scene. When I was a culinary student, I would go into her opulent Belltown restaurant, Brasa, and I felt like a Rockefeller.” He mentions that she also co-founded TogetherSeattle in 2018, to raise money for immigrant rights: “Tamara hosted the meetings, and generally, her network organized the whole thing,” He remembers her trademark candor and compassion for others too. “She’s worn her heart on her sleeve since the pandemic.”
“We’ll all miss her,” McGill says. “What an incredible body of work. I just wish she had more time to sit back and enjoy it.”
Just after I spoke with Paquette, one of Murphy's mentees, she broke some incredible news on her Facebook wall. “Tamara Murphy saved a fucking life today,” she posted on Monday morning. One of the patients who received an organ transplant from Murphy had just gotten out of a successful surgery, and was in recovery. “I have a grateful heart. Become an organ donor.” It’s a powerful final act from a woman whose life was dedicated to generosity.
Murphy’s sudden death contributes to a real grisly year for the Pacific Northwest’s culinary community. We just lost Chef Wayne Johnson of FareStart a week ago to a traumatic brain injury, age 66. In July, beloved Portland chef Naomi Pomeroy (Beast, Gotham Tavern, Clarklewis) drowned in a tubing accident, and Chef Corey Bellett, the sous at Harry's Fine Foods, was stabbed at the Capitol Hill Link station in May and later succumbed to his injuries. Justin Cline of Full Tilt Ice Cream died of a heart attack in March, and Chef Sarah Penn of Pair and Frank’s Oyster House died of ovarian cancer in January. Tacoma is still not over the loss of Howdy Bagel’s Jake Carter, who was murdered in a robbery while vacationing in New Orleans for New Year’s. And months earlier, we were bereft of cocktail sage Murray Stenson as well as one of Seattle’s most historically important chefs, Thierry “The Chef in the Hat” Rautureau, both in late 2023. Rachel Marshall of Rachel’s Ginger Beer passed suddenly last spring. This gruesome trend can quit anytime.
(That’s to say nothing of the local journalists. The day before Murphy’s passing brought the death of venerated journalist and author Charles R. Cross, the former editor of now-defunct local newspaper The Rocket, who died of a heart attack at 67. Beloved Seattle Weekly and Tacoma News Tribune journalist Matt Driscoll was also killed by a heart attack, at the tender age of 43, just a couple weeks ago, and his former colleague, TNT rock critic Ernest “EJ” Jasmin, died of a suspected heart condition in May, age 53. In fact, Driscoll wrote Jasmin’s obituary before passing away himself just weeks later. Scary and sobering.)
Thank you endlessly, Tamara Murphy, for the tremendous gifts you bestowed upon our city and the world at large. Huge condolences go out to everyone whose lives she touched, and especially the industry folks. Let's keep it gentle out there.
