They’re talented, fascinating, ambitious, assertive, effervescent, at times irascible and often visionary, and their personalities run the gamut from laid-back to vivacious. But there’s one thing all of the following baker’s dozen females have in common: To a person, they believe women belong in the kitchen.

Julie Barker, Wendy Crosta, Rebecca Fontana, Kim Fuhrmann, Dana Gunderson, Ann Kischner, Joanne Leech, Jimella Lucas, Nanci Main, Lisa Nelson, Lynne “Red” Pelletier, Cheri Walker and Suzanne Ziegler … this area is blessed with a plethora of culinary divas. Alpha males may rule the restaurant world, but AUDIO

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Hear Food Critic Richard Fencsak discuss his column.collectively these high-spirited women have transformed the dining scene in the Columbia-Pacific region. Other gifted women chefs have come and gone; these 13 remain, plying their craft with precision and skill.

The wildly imaginative Barker gave us the fusion-oriented Blue Sky Cafe in Manzanita, then left to launch Bread and Ocean, her top-drawer artisan bakery and sandwich shop across the street. Tillamook County cohort Crosta began as a caterer before she opened Wanda’s Cafe in Nehalem, an easy-going and always appetizing breakfast and lunch venue that other restaurateurs have attempted to emulate, but failed to duplicate.

Lisa Nelson, Cafe Mango. Photo by Kim Erskine. Nelson introduced Cannon Beachers to daily doses of sweet and savory crepe cuisine (and buffalo burgers!) at her Cafe Mango, a refreshing oasis of tropical fruit slices and vivid colors. North in Seaside, Ziegler came on like gangbusters, first with the now-defunct Zora’s and now with Corpeny’s, her corner bakery, breakfast and lunch stop named after her grandmother. Here she continues to wow customers (many of whom want Ziegler to bring back her stupendous WOW burger) with Torres omelets and scrumptious coffee cake, just like Grandmother Corpeny used to bake.

Kim Fuhrmann, Kim’s Kitchen. File photo. Fuhrmann may be the region’s least-appreciated ethnic cook. Her namesake Kim’s Kitchen – first located in Astoria and now sited beside Warrenton’s mooring basin – has educated area palates on the wonders of bulgoki, chap chae stir frys, hammer chop tung and other Korean specialties.

Dana Gunderson, Cannery Cafe. Photo by Lori Assa. More than half a decade ago, Gunderson “manned” Astoria’s Cannery Cafe (founded by another woman, Corinne Ricciardi) and created a distinctive menu highlighted by seafood. In the interim, she has trained an array of chefs to prepare signature dishes such as crab and shrimp cakes, sauteed lime prawns and marvelous seasonal bouillabaisse.

It’s interesting that almost half of these women wonder chefs work in restaurants on Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula. “It’s probably a culmination of a lot of little things, but I feel there’s more opportunity down here,” says Walker, who moved from Seattle to work at The Shoalwater Restaurant in Seaview, then opened her own place, the 42nd Street Cafe, where she integrates intriguing specials into her everyday lineup of comforting standbys – think homemade bread preserves, skillet-fried chicken and steak and oysters interspersed with portobella-chicken liver pate and walnut-crusted rack of lamb.

Lynne “Red” Pelletier, Shoalwater. Photo by Lori Assa. Down the road, Lynne “Red” Pelletier – her nickname comes from her shock of bright red hair – oversees the four star-rated Shoalwater’s kitchen, renowned for the most mellow seafood chowder imaginable, as well as knock-your-socks-off specials – say, a stuffed “game” roll fashioned with pheasant, duck and ostrich and a tako salad tossed with steamed octopus. Ann Kischner, Shoalwater. Photo by Lori Assa. Kischner, Shoalwater co-owner (with her husband Tony) and pastry chef, crafts magical desserts daily: cranberry-pinot noir sorbet, a vanilla-poached pear charlotte and an impossibly rich French silk pie, to name three.

Fontana holds court at The Canoe Room Cafe (with wine bar), the first lunch and dinner house of distinction (chicken-basil sausage hoagies, gorgonzola-almond linguine and risotto croquettes) at the Port of Ilwaco’s revitalized Harbour Village, a redo Fontana envisioned when she purchased the dilapidated building that now houses her restaurant. Rebecca Fontana and head chef Sandi Day, The Canoe Room. Photo by Lori Assa. In Chinook, Leech purveys Scandinavian-inspired fare with a Northwest twist – everything from Swedish pancakes to Scandi sushi (smoked lox and sticky rice wrapped in lefse coated with anchovy paste and cream cheese) – at The Sanctuary Restaurant, a lovingly reconverted Methodist church .

Jimella Lucas, The Ark Restaurant. Photo by Lori Assa. Lucas and Main, the first ladies of food in the Columbia-Pacific region, own and operate The Ark in Nahcotta, Wash., arguably the best-known dining establishment on the Northwest coast. In 20-plus years they’ve garnered kudos from publications such as the New York Times, the Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Food and Wine and Sunset magazines, as well as recognition from numerous TV networks, for dishes as diverse as Dungeness crab hash, a raspberry torte topped with Devonshire sauce and anything with oysters.

All the above women chefs have a love affair with edibles that’s ongoing. Instead of just preparing food, they celebrate it and regularly recast meals as feasts. Fortunate indeed, then, that we can be the beneficiaries of their collective culinary passion.

BEST NEW RESTAURANTS

Fulio’s Pastaria

1149 Commercial St., Astoria

(503) 325-9001

Italian food is hardly haute cuisine. Still, humble pastas come alive at this laid-back downtown trattoria under chef-owner Peter Roscoe’s care, their flavors and textures extending well beyond spaghetti and meatballs or fettuccine Alfredo. Rigatoni mutard showcases flavor bursts of excellent sausage, curried cream sauce swaddles plump patties of butternut squash-gorgonzola ravioli, while penne puttanesca and rigatoni salsa rosa are serious attempts to represent the simplistic and hearty culinary richness of Italian cooking. Presentations can be stunning: Columbia River grilled sturgeon topped with a refreshing avocado-sundried tomato salsa and sided with garlic-spiked sauteed spinach is reminiscent of the red-white-and-green Italian flag. Seared Caesar salad (the romaine is chopped and grilled) topped with grated Parmigiano Reggiano and bread crumbs, is a signature Roscoe favorite.

Kalypso

619 Broadway, Seaside

(503) 738-6302

John Nelson took a half-year respite from restaurant cooking, then opened his roomier, more bistrolike version of Kalypso (the older one was in Cannon Beach) and immediately began serving imaginative renditions of old standbys using the freshest local fixings. Crispy-skinned rotisserie chicken infused with apple-citrus juice and paired with comforting cornbread stuffing is already a classic. Lovely linguine is well stocked with shrimp and mildly spicy andouille sausage, and salmon and halibut skewers washed with tomato-fennel sauce score high on any seafood-lover’s scale. Pastry chef Jennifer Nelson’s moist and crunchy coconut cake crowned with caramel sauce and her Swedish cream topped with strawberry puree will delight even the most persnickety diner.

HONORABLE MENTION

Saucedo’s

220 Ave. U, Seaside

(503) 717-0475

The exquisitely smooth and earthy mole is enough to entice any fan of south-of-the-border chow into this Avenue U eatery named after the proprietors, Jose and Tami Saucedo (who also own The Stand in Seaside). But buttonholing the place as Tex-Mex (“Stand” fans will recognize the veggie quesadillas, loglike burritos built with whole beans and other Tex-Mex choices) would be an injustice. Red snapper tacos, carne asado and cabbage and seafood Monterey share space with chicken cacciatore, eggplant Parmesan and minestrone soup. And if Tex-Mex and Italian seems like an unlikely fusion, well, the kitchen pulls it off. Plus, the mole is marvelous.

RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR

Pauly’s Bistro, a vibrant waterfront restaurant in Ilwaco, Wash., garners Coast Weekend’s “Restaurant of the Year.” File photo. Pauly’s Bistro

235 Howerton St.

Ilwaco, Wash.

(360) 642-8447

Non-traditional restaurants – cute yet kitschy spots with competent kitchens that defy easy labeling – will be the next big thing in the Columbia-Pacific region, and this family-affair establishment leads the charge.

What kind of restaurant is Pauly’s? By defining it, you’re undermining to some extent what owner-chefs Jeff Marcus and Paul Coile (along with Jeff’s wife Geri, her sister Patty and Patty’s three part-time waitress daughters) are trying to accomplish.

“Ninety percent of the chefs in the world cook for 10 percent of the public. We want to cook for the rest,” Marcus says.

“Anything that’s fresh and seasonal is fair game for one of our preparations,” Coile adds.

Whatever it may be, the eight-month-old Pauly’s already is a vibrant player at Ilwaco’s harbor, a decade ago abandoned by all but a salty few, but presently pulsing with new energy. Marcus’ and Coile’s cooking is equal parts eclectic and enthusiastic; in fact, it’s all over the culinary map, a post-fusion celebration of busting down gastronomic boundaries. Meat loaf drizzled with cranberry-sundried tomato ketchup, fresh basil risotto, sesame-crusted Willapa oysters, turkey panini, halibut tacos, pork pozole, Tuscan grilled bread salad, beef short ribs braised in Rhone wine and an Assortment of All Things Yummy (featuring grilled veggies, hummus, roasted garlic cloves and a gorgonzola-pear terrine, among other delights) are selections from recent menus.

In the bistro tradition, wine by the glass or half glass is served in tumblers instead of stemware, and summer sangria plus some exotic soft drinks (strawberry-lavender lemonade, for instance) are offered.

Portions are prodigious and prices are low. With the whole welcoming crew flashing smiles, dining at Pauly’s is a happy, even exuberant, experience. Kind of like an indoor picnic, except with more tempting fare.

Creating a joyous atmosphere is no small feat in these days of heightened dining-out expectations. But Pauly’s has struck a chord with a diverse clientele that ranges from free-spirited artists and seafood-scented fisher folk to nattily attired business types, from Ilwaco’s mayor to the boyfriend of one of the waitresses. And true to form – in this case “form” meaning the lack of any culinary blueprint – Pauly’s, with its always-animated ambience, continues to defy definition.