HomeExhibitsEdible City: A Delicious Journey

Edible City: A Delicious Journey

In Seattle, food has always meant more than a meal. The city’s journey from the earliest oyster middens to the modern four-star restaurants is a reflection of Seattle’s geography, history, and people. Edible City: A Delicious Journey serves up the story of how people eat in Seattle, and how urban palates have developed over the years.

For nearly two centuries, Seattle has been a region whose culinary traditions, like its people, are distinguished by the confluence of cultures, the wise use of natural resources, and the willingness (and oftentimes necessity) to try something new.

Discover the secret history of the Pacific Northwest’s favorite foods: learn the origins of the Rainier cherry, see treasures from the long history of Pike Place Market, get acquainted with the man behind the city’s first sushi bar, and debate Seattle’s signature dishes.

Curated by two-time James Beard Award winner Rebekah Denn, Edible City will be a main course on the city’s cultural buffet.

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Exhibit Details

On View Dates

November 18, 2016 - September 09, 2017

Location

MOHAI

Cost

Included with Admission

Recommended Audiences

Adults

Accessibility

Automated Facility Entry
Elevator Available

This ca. 1910 photo shows salmon fishermen emptying a salmon trap into their boat.

Dick Yoshimura, pictured here in 1984 in a white jacket holding a large fish, founded the Mutual Fish Company in 1947.

A historic 1911 photo of people shopping at Pike Place Market in Seattle.

A child takes a bite out of a leek at Marra Farm.

Brian Whetzel, driver for HomeGrocer.com, delivers groceries from his delivery truck to Cheryl Sanders in Kirkland.

Two cars parked at Canlis, a fine dining restaurant overlooking Lake Union, in the 1970s.

Does Seattle Have a Signature Dish?

In this short film, Edible City: A Delicious Journey, the curator, award-winning food writer Rebekah Denn, leads you on a virtual tour to discover what makes Seattle food distinctive. See how our Northwest geography and its iconic ingredients, as well as the city's taste for innovation, have had a hand in shaping how Seattle eats. Along the way, meet some of the influential groups and individuals who have been involved in this rich history and in the contemporary culinary scene.

Raw Ingredients

Raw ingredients from Puget Sound's diverse geography are the building blocks of Seattle’s cuisine, and salmon is an important aspect of that food culture and economy. This ca. 1910 photo shows salmon fishermen unloading their nets into a boat.

Processing and Prepping

Dick Yoshimura (pictured here in 1984) founded the Mutual Fish Company in 1947 and is credited with the region's first live seafood tanks and other innovations. Son Harry Yoshimura runs the business now, still a favorite of chefs as well as home cooks.

To Market, To Market

Seattle is known for diverse places to purchase food, and Pike Place Market is world famous. For over 100 years the Market has provided residents-like the shoppers in this 1911 photo—with goods from fresh foods to other fun items.

Bringing it Home

Puget Sound residents are invested in homegrown food, sustainability, and food equity. One of the few historically preserved farms in Seattle, Marra Farm is a four-acre oasis in the South Park neighborhood whose programs include community gardens, harvesting produce for local food banks, and educational projects.

Cooking Tech-niques

Seattle high-tech jobs have made its residents look at cooking in a whole new way, leading to some groundbreaking food-tech endeavors. HomeGrocer.com trailblazed the way for online food shopping, and promised to do away with the drudgery of supermarket shopping as a luxurious option in the 1990s.

Serving it Up

Seattle is a national dining destination with its rich banquet of restaurants that have cultivated a unique Northwest cuisine. When Canlis opened in its Roland Terry modernist building overlooking Lake Union, it offered a rare bit of glamour in unpretentious Seattle.

Native Food Sovereignty

A film developed for MOHAI by Kay D. Ray.

Eating Up Seattle: How A City Found Its Own Cuisine

How do Seattle foods compare from earlier years to today? Delve into some of the surprising and delicious answers with Rebekah Denn, curator of Edible City: A Delicious Journey, and a panel of the city’s prominent chefs, restaurateurs, and producers.

Panelists included:

Ethan Stowell, Chef, Owner, Ethan Stowell Restaurants
Kristi Brown, Chef, Entrepreneur, Owner, That Brown Girl Cooks!
Jill Lightner, Food Writer, Former Editor of Edible Seattle and PCC Taste magazines
Mark Musick, Founding Member, Tilth Association
Jean Nakayama, Owner, Maneki Restaurant

Classroom Activity Packet

What are Seattle's iconic foods and where do they come from? What industrial and economic forces have influenced where Seattleites get their food? How is Seattle's food scene a reflection of the city's different cultural communities?

Use MOHAI's resources to explore the Pike Place Market and Seattle's iconic foods, and learn about the impact of the Boldt Decision on Tribal food sovereignty.

Download Activity Packet

Seattle's Signature Recipes

What is a Seattle food? Is it seafood, wild mushrooms, berries, or foraged foods? Try out some of Seattle’s signature recipes as tasted by Edible City curator, Rebekah Denn.

Edible City Month

Mayor Edward B. Murray officially proclaimed April 2017 to be Edible City Month in Seattle. MOHAI joined with the region’s top restaurants, chefs, and organizations to celebrate Puget Sound’s passion for food and culture.

Participating restaurants included Agrodolce, Andaluca, Assembly Hall, Bar Cotto, Brave Horse Tavern, Cantina Lena, The Carlisle Room, Cuoco, Dahlia Bakery, Duke’s Chowder House, Etta’s, Fresh Bistro, Marine Hardware, Oliver’s Lounge, Pagliacci, Palace Kitchen, Pomegranate Bistro, Poppy, Salumi, Seatown, Serious Pie, Sitka and Spruce, Tanaka San, and Tutta Bella

Exhibit Advisory Committee

Many thanks to all the individuals who advised and participated in the development of the Edible City: A Delicious Journey exhibit.

Armandino Batali and Gina Batali, Salumi
Kurt Beecher Dammeier, Sugar Mountain
Bettina Carey, Duke’s Chowder House
Kathy Casey, Kathy Casey Food Studios
Emily Crawford, Pike Place Market
Major Cohen, Starbucks Coffee Company
Chris Curtis, Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance
Judith Dern, Allrecipes
Linda Derschang, The Derschang Group
Matt Dillon, Matt Dillon Restaurants
Bob Donegan, Ivar’s Restaurants
Madeline Dow-Pennington, Tom Douglas Restaurants
Ben Franz-Knight, Pike Place Market
Matt Galvin, Pagliacci Pizza
Marcia Garrett, Washington State University
Lara Hamilton, Book Larder: A Community Cookbook Store
Elise Hebb, Madrona Venture Group
Josh Henderson, Huxley Wallace Collective
Stuart Holmes, Charlie’s Produce
Gayle Johnson, Northwest Harvest
Megan Karch, FareStart
Melissa Lukach, Modernist Cuisine
Denise Moriguchi, Uwajimaya
Duke Moscrip, Duke’s Chowder House
Erin Moyer, Laird Norton Wealth Management
Carol Munro, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates
Brittany Pollard, Tom Douglas Restaurants
Jessica Price, Oxbow Farm & Conservation Center
Mike Repass, MOHAI Trustee
Ethan Stowell, Ethan Stowell Restaurants
Sara Walsh, PCC Natural Markets
Tracey Wickersham, Visit Seattle
Sean Woody, Ellenos

Interior of MOHAI Grand Atrium showing Boeing B-1 and the Rainier

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