Chef Owner, Caprial’s Bistro, Portland OR. Her fans know her as the celebrity chef and cookbook author, her weekly students as a cooking teacher, her restaurant guests as chef/proprietor and her family as wife and mother.

Born in Washington and raised in Portland, Caprial became intere... more >

Chef Owner, Caprial’s Bistro, Portland OR. Her fans know her as the celebrity chef and cookbook author, her weekly students as a cooking teacher, her restaurant guests as chef/proprietor and her family as wife and mother.

Born in Washington and raised in Portland, Caprial became interested in cooking at a young age, inspired by her maternal grandfather (who was a very good home cook) and her creative parents. "While everyone else was watching The Brady Bunch, I was watching Julia Child making Coquille Saint-Jacques," says Caprial. Her father, renowned artist Patrick Horsley and her mother had a natural flair for entertaining and used "themes" to create memorable and inspired dinner parties.

"We didn't dine out that much, but my parents were very much into food," recalls Caprial. She remembers how they would do extensive research about a certain culture and were meticulous about all the details of the meal. They would completely decorate the house to fit the theme or culture, wore native dress and even had their guests sit on the floor whenever appropriate. With a beginning like that, its not surprising that Caprial gravitated towards food preparation with the bar set at a very high level.

During her junior year in high school, Caprial (her friends and family call her Cappy) worked at a local deli making fresh pasta and salads and set her sights on attending the premier cooking school in the United States, the Culinary Institute of America (the other CIA) in Hyde Park, New York. She was immediately accepted, but her dream had to wait a year as the class was full. So in 1982 at the age of 19, Caprial, a very natve and somewhat sheltered young woman, arrived at the CIA ready to work and learn. She was just one of four women in her class.

The competitive and serious training lasted two years, during which time Caprial quickly learned what she liked and didn't like about the restaurant business. Her favorite classes were always the hands on cooking; her passion for creating simple, well-prepared food continued to grow and develop.

And as fate would have it, she met fellow student John Pence through another classmate. As they soon discovered, they were opposite sides of the same coin - it turned out that John liked the administrative and business development aspects of the restaurant world - and they both had a similar love of bold flavors and unfussy food. Within a short time, Caprial knew that John was her soul mate, the love of her life and the perfect business partner.

Upon graduating, Caprial returned to work at the Shoalwater restaurant (where she spent the previous summer completing her CIA externship), on the southern Washington coast with plans to meet up with John after summer. At the Shoalwater, she thrived working in a kitchen that focused on local and seasonal products and where she had the opportunity of working directly with local farmers. "It was very inspiring to work with local products and it really sparked my interest in working more closely with the seasons," Caprial says. "That summer set me on the path that I have continued to explore and develop throughout my career," she adds.

With John heading west, they married in late 1984 and decided to relocate to Seattle, which at the time was just beginning a gastronomical renaissance. Caprial landed at a "very traditional" French bistro where it turned out the owner still thought that the only thing women did in the kitchen was pantry and cleanup. After six months of frustration, she was hired as the poissonnier at Fullers at the Sheraton Hotel. In 1985, Fullers was the cutting-edge restaurant in the city, noted for an innovative menu using high-quality products and was the epitome of what fine dining should be.

Caprial's talents flourished as she worked different positions over the next year. She was among the best - young, enthusiastic chefs from Malaysia, Vietnam, Hawaii, the Philippines. It was at this time that she developed her love of Asian cuisine that has greatly influenced her cooking. In that energized atmosphere, her extraordinary talents blossomed and she was promoted to sous chef. Then fate stepped in a second time. One month after her promotion, the chef left and Caprial became the chef de cuisine at the age of 24.

With her remarkably sunny disposition and winning smile, Caprial admits to the position being extremely overwhelming and difficult at first. She modestly credits having a great crew and supportive management who gave her full rein to run Fullers as an independent restaurant. Caprial began working with the small boutique farms, even though hotel management just didn't quite understand a farmer "showing up on their back doorstep with a single box of product."

Driven to succeed, Caprial spent the next seven years developing and honing her style, bringing more of an Asian influence to the menu of Northwest fare and in the process, earning herself and Fullers great acclaim. In 1988 until 1990, Fullers was recognized by Conde Nast as one of the top 50 restaurants in the nation, and received the Mobile 4-Star, the 3-Diamond and the Golden Fork awards.

And in May 1988, Time magazine heralded Caprial as "the latest star in townƒshe turns out dishes that are as delicious as they are pretty." A testament to her many groundbreaking achievements at Fullers was earning the James Beard Award for Best Chef, Pacific Northwest 1990, the first year the distinguished award was given. More than any other, this award solidified her status as an innovator, a master chef.

About this same time, she wrote the first of her many cookbooks, Caprial's Seasonal Kitchen, based on the seasonal cooking and Northwest ingredients that are a hallmark of her style. She also began teaching cooking classes at Fullers and was tapped as a guest chef for local television appearances.

The whirlwind national attention was soon followed by international kudos from the former Soviet Union to Malaysia. Visiting Soviet Georgians had flipped over her cooking and created the first cultural exchange program between the two countries. Caprial (seven months pregnant with her first child!), and her team (all women) traveled with cases of Northwest ingredients and cooked a series of dinners for Soviet dignitaries, officials and the U.S. ambassador. The Soviet team later came to Fullers to cook for a week with Caprial. The high-profile exchange culminated with a New York press dinner covered by the Times and an event at the Soviet embassy in Washington D.C. And later that same year, Caprial was flown to Kuala Lumpur where she cooked for the Sultan's birthday party. Quite a heady experience for a 25-year-old!

Caprial took a few months off to enjoy her new baby son and then it was back to work at a ferocious pace. Husband John joined her as Co-chef at Fullers for a time but they made the decision that one of them should be a stay-at-home parent. So John became the "house dad", allowing Caprial to capitalize on her growing celebrity. Cooking demonstrations, travel and television appearances became commonplace.

By 1991, Caprial and John began thinking of slowing down and owning their own lives again. Caprial was pregnant with their daughter and had enough of the high profile, high-stress life. Her parents (who still lived in Portland) suggested looking at a small storefront bistro that was on the market. Within a few months, the unpretentious Westmoreland Bistro belonged to the young couple.

And, as the saying goes, "the best-laid plans," the bistro opened to rave reviews and was an instant success. The calmer pace they had envisioned was not to be. Their mandate that "the food must live up to the presentation," wowed locals and visitors alike. Julia Child was a guest and invited Caprial to cook at her 80th birthday party after tasting the bold, simple flavors of her cuisine.

With two young children and a "hot" restaurant, Caprial's world changed again when she was approached to host her own cooking show. Caprial's Caf³ debuted on the Learning Channel in 1994. The 65-episode series spawned a companion cookbook called Caprial's Caf³ Favorites and still airs on the Discovery Channel internationally. The following year, the show moved to Public Television under the new name Caprial! Cooking for Friends, and has been airing for the past five years. The 2001 series brought John on board and was renamed Cooking with Caprial and John. With each new season, a new cookbook is also introduced, bringing Caprial's best-selling cookbooks to a total of eight. The latest was Caprial and John's first co-authored book, Caprial & John's Kitchen; Recipes for Cooking Together which hit shelves in June 2003.

To relax these days, Caprial has taken up yoga. She loves to garden, growing her own herbs and some vegetables too. She enjoys just staying home and spending time with her children. And every so often, she and John try to have a get-a-way.

When asked what keeps her going, Caprial quickly answers, "continuing to experiment and develop as a chef and the challenge of creating unfussy, beautiful food that our guests enjoy." < less