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Tatum Lee Walsh, age 29, of New York, NY, passed away at 3:47 AM on February 15, 2018 in Auburn, NY, from injuries sustained in a drunk driving accident. She was the sole fatality of the multi-vehicle collision.
Born on May 25, 1988 in Boston, Mass., Tatum started as a commis at Gramercy Tavern just days after her 2010 graduation from the world-renowned Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, NY. Quickly climbing the ladder up the kitchen’s ranks, she garnered buzz in Manhattan’s food scene as a rising star and avant-garde innovator whose dishes consistently wowed critics and customers alike. Also highly talented in pastry, Tatum refused to settle for a “dry, flavorless, and overpriced wedding cake” and undertook the Herculean task of baking her own in 2013: three tiers, each a different flavor (vanilla bean, chocolate fudge, and lemon pistachio) with an accompanying filling and frosting.
Effervescent, big-hearted, spontaneous, and occasionally forgetful, Tatum was a bright light darkened too soon. As a lifelong Red Sox fan, she carved out corners of home in the city she jokingly called enemy territory: roaming the botanical gardens for “plating inspiration,” zipping around on skates at Wollman Rink like a menace every December, and trekking out to Coney Island for the annual New Year's Day Polar Bear Plunge. In between his U.S. Army deployments (all sites classified), Tatum and her husband enjoyed traveling to locales like Bilbao, Spain; Vancouver Island, British Columbia; and the Peruvian Amazon.
The co-owner and chef de cuisine of TED’s (which opened in late 2016), Tatum was selected last month as a semifinalist in the James Beard Awards’ “Emerging Chefs” category. Tatum is survived by husband Jack Abbot, of New York, NY; parents Jeffrey and Miriam Walsh, of Cambridge, Mass.; twin sister Emery Lynn Walsh, of Los Angeles, Calif.; and younger sister Dylan Siegel Walsh, also of Cambridge, Mass.
She will be deeply missed by her family and numerous friends, colleagues, and patrons. A private funeral service was held Sunday, February 18 at Temple Emanu-el in Somerville, Mass. Shiva will be held locally at Jeffrey and Miriam’s home on Wednesday evening from 6-8 PM and on Thursday from 2-4 PM and 7-9 PM. The Walshes request that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the CIA’s Tatum Walsh Memorial Scholarship, which will be established in weeks to come. May her memory be a blessing.