(Here’s Part 1.)
I woke up and checked my phone. Six work emails already. I like to read my work email right away so I can plan my day as soon as possible. Usually I learn that one of our staff is trying to get a shift covered, that we have a group interested in a private cocktail class, or that my coworkers are looking for that one thing they can’t find that I put someplace. But April’s Friday the 13th was different. I’m invited to join Tom and ET in NYC to attend the James Beard Awards!?!? Incredible. I don’t know whose life I managed to step into for a few days but it certainly didn’t feel like mine. I figured writing about it might actually finally make it seem real.
Imagine you haven’t been to NYC since you were a teenager visiting the headquarters of your parents’ church, AND that you worked well into the night and you were on a plane a few hours later, AND that your average night out is a movie and some cocktails. Now you know how wide my eyes were.
I met up with the other lucky ducks at the airport. Our group was comprised of a handful of managers from different areas of the company: HR Director, Chef/GM (Serious Pie Westlake), GM (Lola), Roving Sous Chef, Asst Mgr (Seatown) and Executive Chef/Partner (ET). Although we see each other for an hour every month at our all-manager meetings, NEVER have we had the opportunity to spend such quality time together without the one or the other of us having to rush off to run our part of the Tom Douglas world.
At the airport I learned that Tom wasn’t joining up with us in NYC. Let’s be honest, I was bummed. Who wouldn’t want to hang out with Tom and pick his brain about the restaurant experience you’re sharing? Believe me, I got over it pretty quickly since I was embarking on the weekend of my life with or without him (sorry, Tom, but it’s true!)
After dropping our things off at our hotel room, we met up with ET, hopped in a cab and headed to our first restaurant: The Standard Grill in the gritty-hip meatpacking district. It felt a lot like the patio at Seatown (subtract the view of the water and mountains, add the view of the Highline in the background.) Blankets keep you warm while you sip champagne and swallow oysters amidst a sea of other diners. This place is huge! There’s a seemingly endless patio, a large dining room, an entire beer garden, and a nightclub/bar area. This is the stop where I heard the mantra that I would hear a LOT on this trip- “Pace yourself, Lauren!” We LOVED the clams on the half shell here, not something you see a lot on the West Coast, but they were delicious!
This would usually be the point where I finish eating and go home, but we are now shuffling into a taxi and off to the second stop: North End Grill in Battery Park.
(Editor’s note: Lauren’s post will be continued with Our NYC Trip, Part 3… Stay tuned.)
The Photos:
Top: Patio of the Standard Grill- the Highline in the background- note rolled up blankets on top shelf
Second from Top: Champagne on patio of the Standard Grill
Third from Top: Jonah studying the seafood combo at Standard Grill- note clams on the half shell
Bottom: the gritty view from the patio of the Standard Grill
May 17th, 2012 | No Comments »
They’re prepping hot and heavy for tonight’s event at the Palace Ballroom: A cooking demo/dinner by Chefs Joseba de Jimenez and Tom Douglas featuring green papaya salad, sticky rice, Phad Thai, duck with oyster sauce, and agar candy. There will be tastes of all the demo’d dishes and each dish will be paired with a beverage.
Joseba (a Spanish chef, formerly of Harvest Vine, where he was known for wearing his Basque beret) has spent the last three years living and cooking in Thailand and he’s an expert at this cuisine. Tom is a Seattle chef who developed his cooking style thirty years ago with one foot firmly planted in the International District where he ate frequently, learning as much as he could about Asian ingredients and techniques. So it all makes sense, and with these two in the demo kitchen it should be a blast! There are still tickets available, so go ahead and get your ticket for 6pm tonight!
May 16th, 2012 | No Comments »
My first visit to La Carta de Oaxaca. We had the Cocktel de Camarones and Tacos Fritos. Both were delicious.
And when you are there you have to have the chips, the salsa bar, and guacamole.
And if you LOVE good tequilas like I do; they have a great selection. Their Cadillac margarita will knock your socks off!!
May 16th, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Katie O here! This week we talked about where to get the best pho, what to do with this season’s bounty of Washington asparagus and I got a chance to sit down with my good friend Amy Pennington, author of “Urban Pantry” and host of the KCTS show “Check Please!”
Our social media guru, Herschell Taghap, normally posts these radio blogs for me, but he’s busy gallivanting around Europe (poor Herschell) so I’m left to my own devices… which means at this moment I don’t know how to embed audio. So just click here to listen on KIRO’s site!
If you’re iTunes equipped, you can subscribe directly to the podcast here and get Tom and Thierry in your ear anytime, anywhere.
Again, if you want to continue the conversation “off the air” or have any questions on anything food-related, like us on our Facebook page or follow us @SeattleKitchen,@TomDouglasCo and @TheChefInTheHat!
May 16th, 2012 | No Comments »
Red Mill Totem House is being honored tonight by Historic Seattle, a group dedicated to preserving “Seattle and King County’s architectural identity,” for “preserving a unique Ballard community landmark” reports My Ballard Blog. Congrats on receiving this honor, Red Mill Totem House!!
At last Saturday’s event, School the Chefs, an event supported by Tom Douglas Restaurants as part of our work with the Seattle Public Schools, celebrity chefs teamed up with kids to create healthy, delicious, and cost conscious lunches. School the Chefs got some press love from both the Seattle Times and the Nosh Pit.
Kudos to Cuoco and Seatown! Cuoco’s luscious lasagna and Seatown’s English muffin egg sandwich with fried egg and Dungeness crab both made the 100 favorite dishes list at Voracious blog.
Joy of Cooking’s new blog (check out “Blog Buddies” to the right) has an excellent “Building a Better Pantry” series that demonstrates how to make your own fresh butter, creme fraiche, buttermilk, yogurt, ricotta, mozzarella, and, impressively, even your own cheddar!
The most fun to read Food-in-the-News of the day is the New York Times T Magazine’s report on Foodieodicals. This program, which was part of New York’s Food Book Fair, focused on indie food zines from around the country. These quirky, arty, and cerebral magazines are extraordinary, and they’re not about pretty food photography. The food magazine, White Zinfandel, for example, is described this way: “Imagine Marcel Duchamp guest-editing Bon Appetit.”
May 15th, 2012 | No Comments »
This year our annual Baconopolis- where all things bacon are celebrated- merged with our annual Colander Cup, where all the chefs of the Tom Douglas Restaurants compete on a particular culinary theme to take home the coveted Colander Cup Award. So, last week all the Tom Douglas Restaurant chefs and their teams, representing all the TDR joints, competed with each other to come up with the most amazing bacon-y tastes and sips. Because this was Baconopolis- the event was open to the public. (Colander Cup, on the other hand, is typically a staff event that takes place in the late evening when the joints are mostly closed.)
The pig was well represented in many forms, both artistic and culinary. Such as the Catering Department’s bacon porchetta (photo above left). And the Dahlia staff member (Sonia) dressed in a pig costume. (photo above right)
Among the many Tom Douglas staff spotted at Baconopolis: Pastry Chef Stacy with bacon eyebrows (photo left), Etta’s and Seatown Chef Adrienne knocking back a beer (middle), and Palace Chef Desi serving Hangtown boilermakers (right).
Among the many baconlicious tastes: Brave Horse Tavern’s peanut butter stuffed pretzels with bacon jam (left), Lola’s bacon baklava with bacon ice cream and “smoked out dirty Greek pig” cocktail (middle), and “the Corner’s” (ie Etta’s, Seatown, and Rub with Love Shack) pork belly bahn mi with bacon cream puff (right).
The audience did the judging and the competition was tough with so much creativity and deliciousness on display. But the verdict was: DAHLIA LOUNGE WINS BACONOPOLIS/ COLANDER CUP!! Chef Brock Johnson was the Ringmaster (left) presiding over some amazing stagecraft (a porky circus tent from the darkside) servng bacon cotton candy, bacon “popcorn,” and an astonishingly delicious cone (right) of bacon caramel ice cream! Well done team Dahlia and all the Tom Douglas teams!!
May 14th, 2012 | No Comments »
Last Thursday….Waiting to plate up 400 or so lunches……
May 14th, 2012 | No Comments »
Ever wonder what it’s like to wander around NYC with Tom Douglas and Eric Tanaka? Over the next several days, stay tuned for tidbits from our lucky group of managers who got to be at Tom’s side for his James Beard Outstanding Restaurateur win!
Cool stories will be posted by:
Eric Tanaka, Executive Chef
Lauren McCullough, Seatown Asst Manager
Jonah Smith, Roving Manager
Tony Catini, Serious Pie Westlake Chef and GM
Colleen Kennelly, Lola GM
Devony Boyle, HR Manager
May 14th, 2012 | No Comments »
Yep, Tom Douglas Catering is cooking lunch for the President Obama fundraiser at the Paramount!
May 10th, 2012 | No Comments »
Last week, Joseba Jimenez demo’d the Spanish bread, Pan Candeal, for the bread bakers in the Dahlia Workshop. In the photo above he is shaping a round of dough with Head Bread Baker Wendy Scherer. The dough, made with flour, water, yeast, and salt, was nice and soft and bouncy- easy to work with. Bakery Production Manager Gwen LeBlanc had to make some adjustments to Joseba’s recipe to account for differences in hydration for American and European flours.
Next Joseba patted the dough into a flattened round. The fun part was slapping it on the counter a few times.
Next, for this particular bread (he showed us a few different shapes), a hole was formed in the middle of the round of dough. The fun part here was twirling the round of dough on your wrist a few times to give it a nice, even shape.
Next the loaves proofed for about 20 minutes in a warm proofing box until doubled in size.
Then the loaves were patted down and Joseba used a razor to slash the dough. Different types of bread have different patterns and markings- which may indicate where the bread is from.
And finally the bread was baked, at about 375°F with steam, to a golden brown, with a crisp crust- not too thick- and a white crumb. Traditionally, this bread would be baked in a wood fired oven. Often the bread is baked in the same oven as potatoes, which gives flavor to the bread. This is a good neutral tasting bread which is meant to be eaten with olive oil and cured sausage. Also, in Spain, the bread may be allowed to stand for a day then broken up and used in soups and to thicken stews. The density of this bread is also perfect for making bruschetta or Spanish tomato rubbed toasts.
Editor’s note: Formerly of Seattle’s Harvest Vine Restaurant, Joseba Jimenez has spent the last 3 years living and cooking in Thailand. Recently, he has been giving a series of cooking demos, in both European and Asian techniques, for Tom Douglas Restaurant cooks and chefs.
May 10th, 2012 | No Comments »
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