Seattle, WA
The Seattle Restaurant World Is Mourning Acclaimed Chef Tamara Murphy
On Saturday night, August 10, Tamara Murphy, the 63-year-old owner of celebrated Capitol Hill restaurant Terra Plata, died after suffering a stroke.
Murphy was one of the leading lights of a generation of chefs that defined Pacific Northwest cuisine. She focused on local and seasonal ingredients at a time when that was an unusual approach, and ran some of Seattle’s most influential restaurants, including the now-closed Campagne, where she won a James Beard Award; her first restaurant, Brasa, which also closed, and Terra Plata, which she opened with her partner in life and business, Linda Di Lello Morton. She was a legend and remained at the top of her game until her death: The New York Times recently named Terra Plata one of the top 25 restaurants in Seattle.
She was also known for her commitment to charity. She founded An Incredible Feast, an event that raises money for local farmers markets, and Burning Beast, a “culinary Burning Man” where top Seattle chefs cook in fire pits at Snohomish County’s Smoke Farm, raising money for the Rubicon Foundation, an arts and conservation nonprofit. In 2016, Murphy and Di Lello Morton were named Community Leaders of the Year by the Greater Seattle Business Association, a chamber of commerce made up of LGBTQ people and their and allies. When the COVID pandemic began, the couple started Food Is Love, which partnered with restaurants to distribute 38,000 meals to food-insecure families.
Murphy’s sudden death sent shockwaves of grief through the Seattle restaurant community, as captured by an obituary in the Seattle Times. In that obit, famed restaurateur Tom Douglas described her as “proud, opinionated, talented, thoughtful, fighter, dynamo, philanthropic, fabulous chef, loyal friend.” Smoke Farm director Stuart Smithers told the paper, “She was always thinking about others — how to help, how to make life bigger and better, whether it was an immigrant dishwasher, her community of chefs or a struggling nonprofit.”
As the Times recounts, Murphy was born in Pennsylvania, and grew up in North Carolina and Peru. She worked at restaurants in New York (Anthony Bourdain was once a coworker) before moving to Seattle in 1988. Once there, she spent time at Dominique’s Place, one of the city’s top French restaurants, before taking over the kitchen at Campagne (another top French restaurant). She ran the cafe at the original Elliot Bay Book Company in Pioneer Square and opened the celebrated tapas restaurant Brasa in 1999. (It closed in 2010.) After that, Murphy focused her energy on Terra Plata, opening it inside Capitol Hill’s Melrose Market in 2011 after a legal battle with the landlords.
Along the way, Murphy mentored countless chefs, among them Jim Drohman, the first owner of legendary French restaurant Le Pichet — he once called her “the hardest-core line cook I ever saw” — and Holly Smith, who owns the celebrated Cafe Juanita and who helped open Brasa. “Her trust in me — at that time and forever after — was empowering and shaped me professionally. A bright flame, so outrageously talented, with a stellar palate, and a breadth and depth of experience that she was open to sharing with all she met,” Smith told the Times. “She was everything all at once.”
Some chefs of Murphy’s caliber build empires, but Murphy stayed put at Terra Plata, establishing one of Seattle’s most well-loved restaurants. It is maybe best known for its secluded rooftop — a sanctuary improbably close to I-5 — with a garden that grows herbs used by the kitchen. The Greater Seattle Business Association described Terra Plata in an Instagram post following Murphy’s death:
At Terra Plata, we came to celebrate our birthdays, anniversaries, and weddings; we gathered on that magical rooftop to commiserate about the state of the world; we fundraised for countless nonprofits and candidates running for office; from city council members to Presidential nominees. Intense conversations and belly laughing stories at Terra Plata always were shared over mouthwatering foods from Chef Tamara’s famous homemade potato chips, blistered shishito peppers, famous roasted pig and those indescribable churros.
There were many signature dishes at Terra Plata, from those chips to Monday night paella, but the roast pig may have been Murphy’s specialty. In 2006, when she still owned Brasa, Murphy started a blog called Life of a Pig, which documented her experiences raising, slaughtering, and cooking several pigs. In it, she described something close to her philosophy as a chef, which cut against the molecular gastronomy trends dominant at the time.
“In an age where chefs are reaching to their chemistry books to create food from things that aren’t, I am reaching back to the farm where things have been mostly forgotten. I won’t be turning back… Perhaps NEW can be found in the almost forgotten,” she wrote. “Less than half of a generation ago, many more of us ‘knew our food’ and perhaps a new purpose for me, is to teach or at least inspire a NEW way to remember what food is about and WHERE it comes from. When we reach into the uncomfortable areas of food, we can find information about ourselves and what we as eaters, chefs and cooks are about and what we and the animals are capable of.”
Murphy suffered the stroke that killed her on Wednesday but was kept on life support for several days so her organs could be donated per her wishes, the Times reported. On Terra Plata’s website, it says that “a celebration of her life will be announced at a later date.”
CHICAGO (AP) — The struggling New York Mets placed former Seattle Mariners second baseman/designated hitter Jorge Polanco on the 10-day injured list on Saturday with a right wrist contusion.
Mariners Injury Update: Latest on Robles, Vargas and more
The move was made retroactive to Wednesday, a day after Polanco went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts in a 2-1 loss at the Los Angeles Dodgers. The 32-year-old Polanco is batting .179 (10 for 56) with a homer and two RBIs in his first season with New York, which has lost nine straight.
“When doctors first took a look at him, it looked like he got hit by a pitch when he didn’t,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “In talking to him, it was just a couple of swings that he took that night. … He didn’t think much of it, but just got worse the following day.
“So you just got to let it calm down a little bit and then we’ll go from there. But we don’t have a timetable for how long this is going to last.”
Polanco, who signed a two-year, $40 million contract with the Mets in December, also has been dealing with an ankle issue.
“He was trending in the right direction,” Mendoza said of the ankle injury. “It’s definitely going to help, obviously now with him being shut down. But the biggest thing now is that we’ve got to take care of that wrist.”
Polanco spent the previous two seasons with the Mariners, who acquired him in a February 2024 trade with the Minnesota Twins.
Polanco struggled during his first season with Seattle in 2024, hitting just .213 with 16 homers in 118 games while playing through a knee injury that didn’t become public knowledge until after the season.
But after the Mariners somewhat surprisingly brought him back for a one-year contract in 2025, Polanco rebounded to hit .265 with 26 homers and an .821 OPS in 138 games last season. He then added three homers during Seattle’s playoff run, along with a 15th-inning walkoff single in Game 5 of the American League Division Series that sent the Mariners to their first ALCS in 24 years.
Seattle Sports staff made additions to this post.
Mariners RHP Bryce Miller to begin rehab assignment
Seattle, WA
Brandon Nimmo hits leadoff homer, Jacob deGrom works 4 scoreless as Rangers beat Seattle Mariners 5-0
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – APRIL 17: Corey Seager #5 of the Texas Rangers tags out Dominic Canzone #8 of the Seattle Mariners during the fourth inning at T-Mobile Park on April 17, 2026 in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
SEATTLE – Brandon Nimmo hit a leadoff home run, Jacob deGrom threw four shutout innings and Gavin Collyer earned his first career win as the Texas Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners 5-0 on Friday night.
Seattle lost its fourth straight game, and was shut out for the fourth time in 21 games, falling to 8-13. The Mariners were shut out six times during the 2025 season. Texas won its third straight game.
Nimmo led off the game with a 372-foot shot to right field off Mariners starter Logan Gilbert (1-3). It was Nimmo’s 16th career leadoff homer and second of the season. He also hit a leadoff home run on April 11 in a 6-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
DeGrom effectively maneuvered through Seattle’s lineup, and worked out of a one out, bases-loaded jam in the first inning. The two-time Cy Young Award winner recorded two of his three strikeouts after walking Josh Naylor to load the bases. Randy Arozarena fanned on a curveball, and Luke Raley swung through a fastball.
Texas added to its lead after Nimmo’s homer. Wyatt Langford’s single to left scored Corey Seager, who led off the third inning with a double. The Rangers stretched the lead to 3-0 on an RBI single from Jake Burger in the seventh.
The Mariners’ best scoring chance came in the sixth after Collyer (1-0), who worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings, left the game.
J.P. Crawford singled to left off Tyler Alexander with two out, and Mariners third base coach Carlos Cardoza sent Naylor from second base, but he was thrown out by Langford.
Texas added two more runs in the ninth on a sacrifice fly by Andrew McCutchen and an RBI double by Josh Jung.
Seattle third baseman Brendan Donovan left the game early due to a left hip issue.
Mariners right-hander Bryce Miller, who started the year on the injured list with a left oblique injury, was at T-Mobile Park for the first time this season. He will begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Tacoma on Saturday.
Up next
Mariners RHP George Kirby (2-2, 3.25) will face Rangers righty Nathan Eovaldi (2-2, 5.40) on Saturday afternoon.
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FIFE, Wash. – A portion of southbound I-5 will be closed overnight in Fife Friday and Saturday night, according to WSDOT.
The Washington State Department of Transportation says the purpose of the closure is to install a new electronic sign and will need two nights to do it.
Crews will close southbound I-5 from 54th Avenue to Port of Tacoma Road starting at 11 p.m. Friday night until 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning. Closures will resume Saturday night starting at 11 p.m. as well, and lanes will reopen Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m.
WSDOT says the closure will include the 54th Avenue ramps to southbound I-5.
Detours for weekend I-5 closure in Fife, WA
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The Source: Information in this story comes from the Washington State Department of Transportation.
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