Tom Douglas

Another adorable sneak preview of Valentines Day Menu at Dahlia Bakery!

Just look at the heart shaped meringues on the lemon tarts!!

January 25th, 2010 | No Comments »

Valentines Day at the Dahlia Bakery and Our New Executive Pastry Chef!

Here’s a sneak peak at some of the Valentines treats and sweets (photo top right) that will soon be on the menu at the Dahlia Bakery. Glorious cakes, decorated cookies, beautiful little cupcakes and more.  If you want to say LOVE in capital letters, just pick up some of these delicious delights for your sweetie.

Have you noticed the ever widening array of boxed up and ready to go sweets, savories, and treats on the Dahlia Bakery shelves (photo top left)?  I love the neat, single stacks of cookies (photo bottom left) and also the handmade caramel corn and Rice Crispies treats.  Last week I tasted a sensational cellophane-wrapped fruit and nut bar. The TDR signature candies, like Dahlia mints and Etta’s gummy fish, are available in plastic boxes, too, for just $2 to $5. I think any and all of these would make sensational little Valentines Day gifts for favorite co-workers and pals, not to mention your soulmate.

All the specialty Valentines items were designed by our new Executive Pastry Chef, Stacy Fortner.  Though we are very sad to lose Garrett, we are thrilled to have Stacy. (The super-talented Garrett Melkonian has moved on; you can find him at Spring Hill.)  Here’s a little bit about Stacy, in her own words:

“I was born and raised in Kentucky.  I have been cooking for my family since I was 11.  By the time I was 15, I started working at a small restaurant.  I would take my own money down to Mullin’s General Store so I could buy the food I needed for whatever recipes I could find.  Six years later, I graduated from Sullivan University with a Bakery and Pastry Arts degree.  Although my roots are definitely in the South, I pull inspiration from my travels through Latin America.  I love to see the ever changing flow of food, culture, and people from country to country.”

Before coming to Tom Douglas Restaurants, Stacy was Pastry Chef at Columbia Tower Club and Mistral.  She has also spent some time on the savory side of the line at Brasa, Marjorie, and 727 Pine.

(Posted by Shelley Lance, Blog Editor)

January 25th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Spring Fever/ by Shelley Lance, Blog Editor

These balmy January days- even a little sunshine!- have turned my thoughts to the Spring garden.  For the first time in quite a while, the backyard garden beckoned, and I took a leisurely stroll down the paths.  My two witch hazels are blooming, my hellebores have fat flower buds, and the green shoots of various bulbs are poking their heads through the soil.  Less delightfully, the weeds are in full frolic, so I managed to spend a few hours weeding.  When you’re kneeling on the ground weeding, you observes the details of your garden- which is how I discovered that my rhubarb is pushing up new growth!

All of which stimulated me to pull out the 2010 seed catalogs and start my list.  Last Thursday’s New York Times has a useful article, “Packet Full of Miracles,” featuring garden experts’ favorite seed picks and favorite seed companies.  The gardeners even tell which crops they vow never to plant again!  Watermelon came up twice in this regard: “Can we just say watermelons are a constant heartbreak?” On the subject of new plants to try, one gardener mentioned that she’s considering red-leafed bok choy as a way to put more color in her vegetable garden, and though she didn’t mention a specific variety, I found a purple pakchoi in John Scheepers’ catalog described as a “gorgeous, uniquely colored Japanese import.”  Sounds good to me; I’m ordering it.  What am I not ordering from the NYT garden experts’ picks?  I’m definitely staying away from Superschmeltz kohlrabi, which “grows to extraterrestrial dimensions” with “reliable reports of a 29-pound kohlrabi.”  I don’t care how super sweet and crispy it is, a thirty pound kohlrabi is something I can do without!  By the way, there’s a slide show accompanying the article which lets you get up close and personal with these gardeners’ favorite picks.

January 24th, 2010 | No Comments »

Food in the News/ by Shelley Lance, Blog Editor

Starbucks’ net income is up in the first quarter, according to an article in the business section of today’s New York Times.  The reporter mentions the success of Starbucks-owned stores that look like independent coffeehouses in Seattle’s “trendy” Capitol Hill neighborhood.  This idea grew out of  “a series of brainstorming sessions by a group of Starbucks employees after Howard D. Schultz, Starbucks’ chief executive, told them to break the rules and do things for yourself. “  Some of Starbucks’ new strategies: talking to customers to find out what they want and giving each store a feeling of “local-ness.” For example, the University Village store has a long communal table made from a tree that fell in Walllingford, and the Capitol Hill stores are decorated with wildflowers in mismatched jugs.

Ballard Farmer’s Market gets a mention in the Home section of Today’s New York Times in a somewhat surprising context. The story is not about food, but about an enterprizing young unemployed architectural designer, John Morefield, who set up a booth at the market sellling his design advice for a nickel.  The good news: Morefield got so many home-remodel jobs this way, he’s making more money than he ever did when he was employed by someone else.  My favorite part of this story, which focuses on designers around the country who find themselves out of work due to the recession, is about Natasha Case, a designer who lost her job at Walt Disney Imagineering.  Natasha and her friend, Freya Estreller, “started a business selling Ms. Case’s homemade ice cream sandwiches in Los Angeles. Named for architects like Frank Gehry (the strawberry ice cream and sugar cookie Frank Behry) and Mies van der Rohe (the vanilla bean ice cream and chocolate chip cookie Mies Vanilla Rohe), they were an immediate hit.”  Not too surprisingly, Natasha Case did a project on the intersection of food and architecture while studying for her master’s in architecture at UC, Los Angeles.

January 21st, 2010 | No Comments »

“In the Kitchen with Tom and Thierry” by producer Katie O

Semolina, scotch and cheese- Oh my!
This week on “In the Kitchen with Tom and Thierry” we have a slew of fun food topics to discuss!

During our first hour we’ll check in with our Urban Pantry girl, Amy Pennington. This week she’s focusing on semolina flour as a pantry staple and how to make it into both savory and sweet nibbles.

Our special guest this week is Ms. Barrie-Lynn the Cheese Impressario! She’ll be talking with Tom and Thierry about various pairings of single malt scotches with cheese. YUM!

Wine expert Mike Teer, of Pike and Western Wine Shop, will be on the program to discuss his wine of the week. He’ll be sharing his thoughts on the 2008 Becker Landgraf Riesling Feinherb from Germany.

Producer Katie O will be reporting from Belgianfest in the Georgetown neighborhood. She’ll have some great facts about Belgium and its affinity to this brew!

Listen to the show here!:

First hour

Second hour

Third hour

January 21st, 2010 | No Comments »

Eat Spam at Palace Kitchen/by Shelley Lance, Blog Editor

You only have Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday night this week to check out the handmade “Spam” on Palace Kitchen’s Happy Hour Menu (served until 6pm).  Chef Brian Walczyk is making his own version of Spam from Berkshire pork shoulder.  He’s serving it in 3 versions: Spam with poached egg and grits (photo right), Spam and Beecher’s cheese (photo left), and Spam with rice and pineapple teriyaki (not pictured).  Storebought Spam in a can is about as similar to Brian’s artisan “spam” as supermarket macaroni and yellow cheese is to a plate of handmade pasta with Reggiano!  Brian’s “Spam” is a sublime pork terrine cut into sticks or slices and fried or grilled so that it is slightly crisp on the outside and meltingly tender and succulent on the inside.  Heaven!  Each of these Happy Hour Spam plates is a downright steal at $4, so hurry up and head over to Palace right after work today.

(Note to the Spam-obsessed: also check out the “Spampersand” on Serious Eats!)

January 20th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Frances, San Francisco/ by Eric Tanaka, Executive Chef

In the restaurant business, you are always reading or hearing about the next great place.  So often I walk away not feeling the same elation as I did when I read how great a joint was supposted to be. Expectation is such a difficult thing to live up to.  Frances, in San Francisco, met all expectations because it surpassed them all.  It’s such a subtle place, but it’s the detail that makes or breaks a meal for me.  Everything was thoughtful and seamless in its entirety.  From the wooden silverway trays to the house wine by the ounce, every detail seems to have been thought through.  When you add up all the subtle details, it overwhelms you.  Frances isn’t a big Hollywood production, it’s a sophisticated and charming Indie.  As the Manager stated, “it’s from the heart.”

January 20th, 2010 | No Comments »

The First Family Serves Meals in a Soup Kitchen

The Obamas honor Martin Luther King Day by working in a DC soup kitchen. Watch the video here.

January 18th, 2010 | No Comments »

American College Kids Blog from Shanghai/by Shelley Lance, Blog Editor

My niece, Sara Kopke, has been on an art and design tour of Shanghai with other students from Columbia College in Chicago.  I’ve been following their posts on Columbia College’s Travel Blog.  The most food related post (these are art and design students after all) is by Anthony Sixto, who writes: “Slimy squids, puffy pastries, bloody fish, dead eels, live snakes, giant cucumbers, living crabs, and dying fish are just a handful of things sprawled out on the street for blocks… Some of the best food of the trip came from these hectic street markets.  There is nothing like eating the food fresh off the carts or chopping table.  It tastes great and the surroundings are as just as much of a part of the meal as the meal itself.  It was kind of like an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s show. Well, except there were no cameras, no Anthony Bourdain, no prior knowledge of the food, and I wasn’t getting paid for my smart ass comments.”  Read the rest of Anthony Sixto’s post here. (Scroll down to “Dead Fish.”) (Note: photo from Anthony Sixto)

Though she didn’t write about food, you may also want to read Sara’s sensitive, empathetic post on the culture clash experienced by an American student in Shanghai.  What she liked: the sense of community.  What she didn’t like: the lack of heated buildings, the difficulty in doing simple things, and the possibility of being mowed down by car, bike, or moped whenever she stepped into the street.  She changed her mind on the subject of being stared at- which at first felt awkward and later just seemed candid, even “charming and flattering.”

January 18th, 2010 | No Comments »

Food in the News by Shelley Lance, Blog Editor

Interesting article in yesterday’s New York Times about more diverse crop production on Hawaii’s The Big Island.  “Though agricultural production has been geared largely toward industrial export and plantation-scale production over the last century and a half…that mindset is shifting.”  The shift has in part been stimulated by demand from Alan Wong, Peter Merriman and other local chefs who founded the Hawaii regional cuisine movement.  Reporter, Bonnie Tsui, visits the 12 Trees Project, a garden which began with a list of 12 trees the chefs said they wanted for cooking, such as the tree tomato, poha, and loquat, and expanded from there.  Tsui also visits the Hilo Coffee Mill, which grows artisanal small-batch coffee beans, and The Big Island Abalone Corporation.

British wonder chef, Jamie Oliver, is planning to open an international chain of Southern-style BBQ joints with New York chef, Adam Perry Lang, of Daisy May’s BBQ.  By the way, Adam Perry Lang is a nice guy, and a friend of Tom’s who contributed a recipe ( Frito Pie Crab Cakes!) to our I Love Crab Cakes book.

On the cover of the Seattle Times NW Ticket this week: a picture of Palace Kitchen’s goat cheese fondue! Nancy Leson, in a review of Seattle’s best restaurant fondues, says of our version “fabulously frothy, lighter than it looks and delicious drizzled over the slices of tart apple slices provided.”

January 16th, 2010 | No Comments »