The Pantry – a community kitchen – to debut in Seattle

I’m so excited! This is awesome, woot!

You may have noticed how I’ve been really getting into the idea of community cooking and gardening as a way of creating not only better community, and a better environment for human beings to reside in, but also a better environment to live in physically, AND better, healthier food!

I am also a bit of a foodie, and really like how homemade has now also come to mean quality made, at least when it comes to cooking.

With that train of thought, one of my favorite food bloggers, Molly at Orangette, who also just happens to be part owner/operator of a restaurant Delancey in Seattle (where I just happen to currently reside), has announced some of her staff are opening up a community kitchen, called The Pantry at Delancey.

The Pantry is a community kitchen. It’s a space for hands-on cooking classes, family-style dinners, private events, and locally sourced catering. It’s located directly behind Delancey, on Alonzo Avenue NW, with a garden entrance designed by Fresh Digs. (There’s only mud and fence posts right now, but not for long.) There’ll be a 16-foot farm table, a cooking camp for kids in the summertime, and a small retail area stocked with independent food magazines, Weck canning jars, Delancey cookie dough and pizza dough, all our best stuff. Brandi and Olaiya already have a number of classes in development: a pizza-making class with Brandon, butchering and meat-curing with Russ Flint of Rainshadow Meats, a food writing course with Francis Lam, a City Chickens class with the good people of Stokesberry Farm, classes with Olaiya, classes with Brandi, a class or two with me – more than I can easily list here. And eventually, the Pantry will also make a lot of products for Delancey, products that we currently have to source elsewhere, like fresh mozzarella, pepperoni, bacon, pancetta, and salame. The projected opening date is sometime in late spring. Cross your fingers.

more via Orangette: It’s called the Pantry.

Fingers crossed! I can taste the hand-rolled pancetta now!