Tom Douglas

Summer Camp 2010: A Few of My Favorite Things/ by Shelley Lance, Blog Editor

I don’t get to see, taste, and do everything at Tom Douglas Culinary Summer Camp since I spend most of my time overseeing the chef demos, but here are a few of my favorites from this year.

Eric Banh of Monsoon and Monsoon East showing us how to slice up a geoduck. Such a nice guy and such a great chef- how can you not fall in love with him??

Vikram Vij of Vij’s in Vancouver: His savory raw jackfruit curry was one of the most amazing tastes of all of Summer Camp.  Have you ever tasted jackfruit? The texture was similar to eggplant and the warmly spiced masala was fabulous.  I was also intrigued by Vikram’s advice that everyone should experience living in a third world country at some point in their lives.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Summer Camp without our almost tireless Executive Chef, Eric Tanaka, snagging a nap on the sly! (photo right)

Cathy Whims’ caponata- perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned, and just the right amount of olive oil- I’m making this for my next party. (Cathy is chef of Nostrana in Portland.)

Tom Douglas breaking down a WHOLE PIG on a wooden table right in the Palace Ballroom.

Walking over from the office on Tuesday morning to the sight and aromas of a Cowboy breakfast (see middle photo of Jen at the grill, below): steak, beans, eggs, and pots of Cowboy Coffee being cooked up by our fabulous catering crew on grills outside the Ballroom.

Thierry Rautureau, of Rover’s and Luc, so funny and relaxed you almost forget to pay attention to his perfect technique. For his chilled heirloom tomato soup, he sliced an avocado in razor thin neat slices in about 30 seconds-see photo above, left. Thierry makes makes everything look deceptively easy. In the photos (at the very top of this post) he’s dancing with one of our campers.

Liam Spence, our own chef of Lola, charmed and delighted everyone as he deftly schooled us on how cook an octopus.

Another perfect taste: a thin slice of Culatello (similar to prosciutto) wrapped around a warm-from-the-fryer gnocco frito (small fritter of yeasted dough) from the demo of the always convivial Armandino Batali of Salumi. Pop it in your mouth for a sublime bite with perfect proportions of fat and salt surrounding a warm, yeasty puff.

The chocolate lacquer glaze that cookbook diva, Rose Levy Beranbaum, and her able assistant, Woody, poured on a chocolate passion cake was smooth and shiny as a mirror, not just when the glaze was fresh, but hours later.

A welcome break for me was dinner at Holly Smith’s Cafe Juanita. I never knew they had a private outdoor patio!  The evening was beautifully mild and an Aperol (an Italian apertif made from rhubarb!) and Prosecco cocktail went down like a dream, as you can see in the photo to the left showing my husband, Frank, and me with big smiles on our faces.  My favorite dish in a luscious multicourse meal was Holly’s tajarin (ie. a pasta similar to tagliatelle) with sturgeon caviar and creme fraiche.  If anyone asks me what I want for my last meal, I’m choosing a plate of this creamy pasta (or maybe some osetra caviar from Dale and Betsy Sherrow’s Seattle Caviar on a classic buckwheat blini cooked in plenty of butter by Tom Douglas!)

Speaking of Holly Smith, I also enjoyed the conversation she and Tom engaged in during her demo in the Ballroom, about empty restaurants and busy restaurants and how intoxicating the vibe of a jamming joint is to the soul of the restaurant owner.  Tom described how satisfying it  is to him to sit in his car outside of Palace Kitchen on a summer evening and just listen to the hum and the energy coming through the open windows.

Last but not least, Demo Assistant Extraordinaire, Herschell Taghap, (slicing steak in the trio of photos above and all the way to the right) made my life easy this year.  Herschell came in at 6am everyday and worked with ardor and enthusiasm all day long to make Summer Camp 2010, in my opinion, the smoothest production ever.

Hey, Campers and Summer Camp Staff, what were you’re favorite things? Write a comment and share.

July 20th, 2010