Lauren Thompson is settling in and including the occasional squeeze of lemon.
After a decade operating the kitchen at Cafe Juanita, Lauren Thompson is now on this aspect of Lake Washington, shaping a brand new period at Cafe Lago. An completed chef from considered one of our area’s formative positive eating eating places remaking considered one of Seattle’s beloved Italian spots?
It’s thrilling information—besides the transfer quietly occurred just a few months again.
Thompson’s identify might not resonate as a lot as that of her longtime boss, the James Beard Award–successful Holly Smith. However the chef has a formidable monitor document that features two stints and a mixed 12 years as Juanita’s chef de delicacies, plus a tenure at Lark in its early days, underneath one other Beard-winning chef, John Sundstrom.
She’s clearly spectacular in her personal proper (I nonetheless take into consideration this dialog, eight years in the past, about work, motherhood, powering via fatigue, and utilizing a breast pump behind a curtain whereas fielding delicate drink requests from coworkers). Now she’s serving to Cafe Lago proprietor Carla Leonardi evolve her 34-year-old Montlake restaurant.
However not an excessive amount of.
Lago is the sort of place the place quite a few dishes are sacrosanct amongst its loyal regulars—the caesar salad, as an illustration, or the 14-layer lasagna. After every week of studying and listening, says Leonardi, Thompson tweaked the salad: “All she did was, put a recent squeeze of lemon on the finish. Per salad. Not within the precise dressing. You style the distinction instantly.”
Leonardi based Lago together with her former husband, the late Jordi Viladas, in 1990. A lot of its meals started with him—and his mom. Whereas Leonardi was the one with Italian heritage, “They had been so fanatical about their recipes, and doing it historically,” says Thompson. Through the years, because the kitchen maintained what Viladas had established, a sport of “damaged phone” transpired. Recipes modified a bit. The meatballs misplaced the normal veal; Thompson has restored it, through sustainably raised meat from Samish Bay Cheese cows.
A few of her work in these first few months feels nearly forensic. “The dishes that I can’t contact I’m touching,” she says. “However I’m transferring them again to what Jordi’s unique recipes had been.”
When Leonardi was in search of a brand new chef, her buddy Michelle Magidow, proprietor of Union Saloon, recommended she discuss to Thompson. Seems, the chef was able to strive one thing new, and was contemplating a schedule that lets her see extra of her youngsters, who are actually youngsters.
Cafe Lago gained’t be morphing into Café Juanita west anytime quickly—it’s Northern Italian versus Tuscan, tasting menus versus wood-fired pizza. Whereas she’s little question a cautious steward for Lago’s legacy, the restaurant will hopefully present Thompson with an opportunity to flex her personal expertise and sensibility. I am particularly desirous to revisit the home pasta underneath her watch.
However most of all, after years of technique-centered positive eating, Thompson can geek out on seasonal produce: “There’s three components on the plate and there’s nowhere to cover. If there’s one little factor that’s not fairly proper…there’s nothing that’s going to cowl that up.”
