Tale as old as time—boy meets girl, nothing happens, boy meets girl again, nothing happens again, a couple of decades go by, boy meets girl yet again, they decide they love each other and open a business together. Sounds more like a will they/won’t they sitcom than a Disney movie, but that’s the Bazile Booth and David Pedersen story, which means it’s the story for Soups I Did It Again, their frozen soup company, and Sky Blue Pink, their bakery and retail store.

So where to start? Maybe in California, where David was a self-proclaimed “wiry little shit. … I got hooked into a restaurant where, on Saturday night twice a year, they plop this large man down and set up a couple of buckets and a picnic table right in the middle of the kitchen. This big, well-dressed man would come and flip his tie up and put a napkin on. They just served him off the grill and everything. I was like, ‘Who is this guy in my way?’

“I’m trying to hustle and do my job, and the chef [Judy Rodgers of Zuni Café, San Francisco] was like, ‘That’s James Beard. You probably don’t know who that is, but keep your mouth shut.’ I was in this very pedigree kitchen, and I had no idea. I just did drugs and worked enthusiastically.”

It was, in fact, David’s connections in California that aided him in becoming the chef he is today, working with Weary Traveler; Roman Candle; Sophia’s; Lazy Jane’s; and L’Etoile, where he met Odessa Piper. “She’d pick me up now and then when she needed a serious workhorse in the kitchen who can get things done.”

Now we fade out of California and into Boulder, Colorado, where Bazile grew up on sprout sandwiches and soy milk. She eventually traded in a view of the Rockies for the green hills of southern Wisconsin and was faced with a career-defining decision. “Before I entered into graduate school for social work, I was really in a quandary,” says Bazile. “Do I go to culinary school, or do I become a social worker? I decided to go with social work, but I’ve always cooked for entertaining, for my own nutrition, and to share food with other people.”

Bazile’s work would set a tone for her and David’s business ventures as well as provide an opportunity to grow familiar with holistic medicine and curative nutrition through her work at Community Pharmacy in Madison.

Which brings us to Madison sometime in the past when David was working at Taqueria Gila Monster. “It was the first place I laid eyes on David,” says Bazile. Wait, wait. Fast forward 18 years. Bazile is occasionally asking David over, but the stars never aligned because that’s not how space works. It is, however, how the perspective of love works.

“David made his mushroom cactus tamales, and we went to see a performance at the American Players Theatre,” says Bazile. “And that was it. First date, and then we walked the grounds of Taliesin at night, and a bat hit me in the head. We were like, that seals the deal. We should be together.”

Aside from the date and a visit from the Prince of Darkness, Taliesin played a pivotal role in David’s career. Odessa had started a food artisan program and wanted David to be one of the instructors. David was soon working his dream job, teaching cooking in the Driftless Region. Unfortunately, it would be short lived. The School of Architecture closed in 2019 when COVID tested the collective patience and wisdom of neighbors and strangers.

But it wasn’t all gloomy doomy. Unbeknownst to David, a seed had been planted six years prior by Lindsey Lee of Cargo Coffee, and, as it goes, the storm that was the pandemic provided the imperfect conditions for perfect timing. “Lindsey was building Cargo East, just opening it,” says David. “I came by one day, and he was like, ‘Catch me up on all the gossip,’ as he ate a bowl of soup. ‘I’ve just had my head in this. I have no idea what’s going on in town, and you’re a blabbermouth.’ I was yakking with him, and he said, ‘This soup I’m eating is terrible. Why don’t you make my soup, and I’ll carry it here.’ … I pulled back on the idea of opening it until I found a good business partner and life partner.” It wasn’t until 2020 that Bazile and David created Soups I Did It Again in Spring Green.

As for the soup itself, thanks to the social and health mindfulness of Bazile and the kitchen acumen of David, the product works on several levels. Every option is vegetarian, and many are vegan friendly. They’re nutritionally dense and can be watered down to stretch the quantity without sacrificing flavor, providing less- fortunate families a delicious, healthy option that lasts for days. Alternatively, if you like thick soup, they’re ready to go. As Bazile says, “We don’t want to sell you frozen water.”

Soon after Soups I Did It Again was born, a retail space came into the picture. Bazile says, “To be cliché, it grew organically.” The old Brewhaha and Sidney Bakes site in Spring Green was up for grabs, and the two took their shot. David says, “We bought all of Enos’ kitchen equipment, and we’re building it into the new space, so we’ll have a soup factory there within a year. Eventually, we’d like to attract like-minded folks and turn it into a local foods co-op sort of thing.”

The couple dubbed the retail space Sky Blue Pink, where they currently show off some of their baked goods in addition to their soups. You’ll find David’s scones and Bazile’s gluten-free cheese puffs, made with tapioca flour, along with other pastries, baked goods, granola, coffee, frittata, and good conversation.

There’s a lot more to the Bazile and David story, like them both serving as volunteer EMTs and David’s rehab journey, so I encourage you to make the trip to Sky Blue Pink. A conversation with the couple is akin to a conversation with old friends—complete with light-hearted back and forths a la Amy Sherman-Palladino, creator of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. As Bazile says, “We’re not spring chickens, even though we’re in Spring Green. We’re not your typical Britney Spears reference people, but that makes it even more fun.”

Kyle Jacobson is a writer who had Britney Spears stickers on the frame of his BMX bike when he was in middle school.

Photographs by Eric Tadsen.

Sky Blue Pink/SIDIA
176 S. Washington Street,
Spring Green, WI 53588

soupedusoir.com

Soups I Did It Again available at Sky Blue Pink and other Greater Madison vendors as well as through Dane Buy Local’s Soup’s On!.
We deliver to your home on Mondays (Greater Madison area).