When Dolich takes the stage to showcase the market’s produce, he knows full well he is “preaching to the choir.” Preaching about seasonality and buying local -- that’s what inspires and engages this chef. “People come to the market looking for great, fresh ingredients and when I show them how to use them, there’s an immediate and direct connection,” he relates. “It’s a fantastic experience for me.”

The market has significantly changed the way I cook, explains Dolich, a 5-year veteran of the Chef in the Market. “When I shop the market, I see exactly what’s in season and what’s not.” For Dolich, the market allows him to explore and broaden his scope of ingredients, expand his creativity, fine-tune his ingredients and experiment with flavors and textures he may not have discovered otherwise.

Local just tastes better, says Dolich. “It’s the overarching reason why I started frequenting the market in the first place. Produce shipped in from distant locales can't compete with something picked fresh this morning.”

You may not see Scott at the market in early May as he heads off to New York to find out if he was awarded the title of Best Chef in the Northwest – a prestigious James Beard Foundation award he was nominated for this year. He joins four other nominees -- all from the Seattle area -– competing for the title.