Kelsey Engstrom drove down to Raymond, set up one of the most beautiful tablescapes I've ever seen inside my studio, and we spent about an hour making photos together. Headshots, styling, the whole thing. It was one of those shoots where I just kept thinking, yeah, okay, this is the good stuff.

She's the person behind Dine Wabi Sabi, a small business built around the idea that food, people, and nature aren't actually separate from each other. The name comes from the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, finding beauty in imperfection. Spend five minutes reading about her and that philosophy makes complete sense.

Kelsey started working in restaurants at 14 and worked her way through basically every position. She went to Michigan State for Biomedical Nutritional Science, logged 60,000 miles in two years launching a line of Ayurvedic ready-to-eat recipes across the Pacific Northwest, got a Raw Chef Certification in Ubud, Indonesia (which she describes as "a break," which is insane), and is certified in Sustainable Supply Chains through the University of Cambridge. She has done more by 30 than most people do ever, and she did a lot of it while quietly figuring out how to actually take care of herself.

That's the part that sticks with me. She dealt with psoriasis, cystic acne, anxiety, depression, and an eating disorder while building a career centered on feeding other people well. Her food grew directly out of that experience. It's not a concept, it's personal, and you can feel that when you look at what she makes.

That's also what made her tablescape so easy to photograph. It wasn't styled for the sake of looking good. It was just hers, and it showed.

Kelsey is local, she's legit, and she's building something worth paying attention to. If you're anywhere in the Astoria, Warrenton, Raymond stretch and you care about good food, go follow Dine Wabi Sabi.

xoxo Chelsea