The Fat Pastor

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The Fat Pastor Award-winning Chef, Culinary Storyteller & Event Creator
MasterChef Season 8
2024 World Live Fire - Global Top 4
Netflix - Best Leftovers Ever

I am a home-chef turned pro-chef, after being featured as one of the top 40 contestants on MasterChef Season 8 on Fox. My culinary point-of-view is global comfort food. I've lived with incredible cooks from all over the world, and learned valuable cooking techniques, tips and tricks from them, as well as from my travels. Currently, my team and I run an underground dining club (one of the only legal ones in the country), a free business and culinary school for at-risk youth, a high end catering arm, and a restaurant in Yakima called The Lab. We've competed several times at the World Food Championships. If you're looking for culinary adventures, you've come to the right place!

09/14/2026

Recounting a chaotic 10-man tag team match where Jacob Fatu turned on EC3, leading to a surprising alliance. Facing off against some tough competitors, including the formidable Jacob Fatu, was an unforgettable experience.

09/04/2026

I’m incredibly excited to be cooking the Founders Dinner at Bosma — an intimate four-course dinner right beside the vineyard in the heart of Yakima Valley w**e country. 🍷🔥

For this dinner, I’m building a menu around the things I love most: bold flavors, local ingredients, seasonality, and a little fire. Each course will be paired with Bosma’s estate-grown, small-batch w**es, including a couple of pours that make this night especially cool.

Guests will get a first taste of a preview Mourvèdre that won’t be included in the fall allocation, along with the 2024 Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 4 before its official w**e-club release.

Great food. Beautiful w**e. A table beside the vines. And a night full of people sharing it all together.

That’s pretty much my favorite kind of night.

Seats are limited, so grab yours while they’re available.

🎟️ Tickets & details:
https://www.bosmaw**e.com/events/founders-dinner

spent a lifetime proving that you can make the table bigger without making yourself smaller.She carried faith without ...
08/26/2026

spent a lifetime proving that you can make the table bigger without making yourself smaller.

She carried faith without using it as a weapon. Success without forgetting where she came from. Conviction without losing kindness. And generosity that didn’t ask who deserved a seat first.

She fed people. Made sure kids had books. Showed up when people were in pain. And somehow, through all the rhinestones and big hair, kept reminding us that loving your neighbor is supposed to look like something you can actually put your hands on.

That's the kind of faith I want to become normal again.

Not a smaller table with stricter admission.

A bigger one.

Thank you, Dolly, for leaving a few extra chairs pulled out.

You won't see rhinestones or big hair on me any time soon. But I will absolutely continue to build a bigger table.

— The Fat Pastor

08/22/2026

Part 6 at Carrello Restaurant — and we’re ending the night the Italian way.

With aged Italian grappa. 🥃🇮🇹

Bold, warming, complex, and the perfect way to finish a meal that kept finding little ways to surprise me from beginning to end.

After six videos, I can pretty confidently say this:

Carrello is worth the trip.

If you’re in Seattle—or looking for an excuse to get there—put this one on your list. Come hungry, do the tasting menu, trust the w**e pairings, and absolutely save room for a little grappa at the end.

If you want to be ESPECIALLY well taken care of? Ask for Aidan and Ayla.

This wasn’t just a great dinner. It was the kind of meal that reminds me why I still love going out to eat.

Final part of the Carrello series. 🍷🍝🥃

08/22/2026

Part 5 at Carrello Restaurant — and I think I've got a name for this dish...

That King Salmon course is such a cool collision of Pacific Northwest ingredients and Italian technique that I couldn’t stop thinking about what I’d call it.

My answer?

“Chief Seattle Sat Down For A Meal With Massimo.”

Because that’s what it feels like to me: the Pacific Northwest sitting down at the table with the kind of creativity, restraint, and technique I associate with Massimo Bottura. And that's a HUGE credit to Chef Nathan.

Local salmon. PNW vegetables. Roasted corn. Calabrian chile. Italian influence without losing its sense of place.

Sometimes a dish tells you exactly where it came from.

This one feels like two places meeting at the same table.

Main Course Part 2 of the Carrello series. 🐟🌽🇮🇹

08/21/2026

Part 4 at Carrello Restaurant — and we’ve made it to the main course.

First up: troll-caught King Salmon, paired with Pacific Northwest vegetables, Calabrian chilies, and a silky roasted corn purée.

This dish feels very Seattle in the best possible way—beautiful local salmon, peak-season produce, a little heat from the chilies, and that sweet roasted corn tying everything together.

Rich without being heavy, seasonal without trying too hard, and a really beautiful showcase of the Pacific Northwest.

Main Course, Part 1. 🐟🌽🌶️

08/21/2026

Part 3 at Carrello Restaurant — handmade pasta is always going to get my attention.

This is Scarpinocc, a pasta whose name translates to “little shoe” in Italian—and these little guys are stuffed with roasted corn and finished with beautiful seasonal toppings.

It’s one of those dishes that feels rustic and refined at the same time. The sweetness of the corn, the delicate pasta, and all those fresh seasonal flavors just make sense together.

Simple ingredients. Serious technique. Beautiful plate.

Part 3 of the Carrello series. 🍝🍷

Wanna come have some fun serving a brunch of brewers invading the valley next week? Hit us up if you're available the 23...
08/20/2026

Wanna come have some fun serving a brunch of brewers invading the valley next week? Hit us up if you're available the 23-25, and let us know what your availability is

08/20/2026

Part 2 at Carrello Restaurant — and this course is summer on a plate.

Tomatoes, creamy burrata, Calabrian chili… and then they throw in a pepper sorbet that completely changes the dish.

Sweet, spicy, cold, creamy, acidic—it sounds like a lot, but it all works together beautifully.

This is exactly the kind of course I love: familiar ingredients, but handled in a way that makes you stop and pay attention.

🍅 Tomato Salad
🌶️ Pepper Sorbet
🤌 Beautiful Burrata + Calabrian Chili

Part 2 of the Carrello series.

08/20/2026

Seattle has no shortage of great restaurants—but every once in a while, you sit down somewhere and realize pretty quickly that the kitchen has something to say.

I’m at Carrello Restaurant in Seattle for a five-course tasting menu with w**e pairings, and we’re going course by course.

First up: Course One. 🍷🍽️

I’ll break down the food, the pairing, what works, what surprises me, and whether the whole experience earns the hype.

And yes… I’m absolutely judging the w**e pairing just as hard as the food.

Part 1 of 5.

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Yakima, WA
98901, 98902, 98903, 98904, 98907, 98908, 98909

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