I was very proud and pleased to see my Pike Place Market Cookbook prominently on display at the Sasquatch Books booth at last week’s Bookfest.

Long-time Sasquatch sales and marketing expert Sarah Hanson was on hand to help talk up and hand-sell all the publisher’s books. I also spotted editorial director Gary Luke, who edited my very own Inside the Pike Place Market, which came out in 1997.

And here I am in front of the full-on display. Don’t forget that the Pike Place Market Cookbook (Sasquatch Books, 2003, $18.95), the Pike Place Public Market Seafood Cookbook (Ten Speed Press, 2005, $14.95) and/or Pacific Northwest Wining & Dining (Wiley, 2007, $34.95) would all make thoughtful and welcome holiday gifts.

I’ve really embraced social media the last couple of weeks, reading wonderful books including “Twitter: Tips, Tricks, and Tweets” and “facebook me: A Guide to Having Fun with Your Friends and Promoting Your Projects on Facebook.”

Yesterday I even attended a workshop presented by the respected Pacific Northwest-based law firm Lane Powell. The workshop was entitled, “Social Media–New Horizons Ahead: Expect the Unexpected.” With such a tantalizing title, how could I not go?

Keynote speaker was Kevin O’Keefe (second from left), CEO of LexBlog, which help lawyers around the world learn about and leverage blogging and other social media. He was a passionate and engaging speaker who told 100 of Seattle’s corporate leaders–mostly 40- and 50-somethings in fields as diverse as law, food writing, and real estate–not to think of social-networking sites as onerous “technology” but as a chance to build “relationships.”

•Leaders of companies themselves (as opposed to young, tech-savvy new hires who may not have enough business acumen) should be involved in social media.

•You can choose to mingle with the influencers on social media sites (reporters and editors, bloggers, customers active in social media, conference coordinators, publishers) which offers a great business advantage.

•Social media requires engagement, but you must listen first.

•Social networking sites are similar to taking a client to lunch. The sites with the highest Return on Investment (ROI) include LinkedIn, personal blogging (which affords more depth than Twitter), and Twitter (which O’Keefe sees as “the single biggest branding tool since the telephone”).

•Reference other thought leaders, he suggests, and retweet useful information to help build relationships.

D. Michael Reilly, Director of Labor and Employment and Employee Benefits Practice Group at Lane Powell, said you can find success on social-networking sites if you are careful about the context and value you offer to the public. How do you best offer something of value?

Mike Nesteroff, a former journalist with KOMO television and now with Lane Powell’s Sustainability and Climate Change Team, said he tweets the same way he worked in the newsroom: “terse, tight, and telegraphic.”

Craig Bachman, who moderated the workshop and works as a trial lawyer and counsel at Lane Powell, suggested never saying anything on social-networking sites that you wouldn’t say in church.

I think that’s a good motto to carry throughout life, and felt that the workshop was an eye-opening and, in some ways, life-changing two hours for many in the room.

On Saturday, May 16, I had the pleasure of cooking live at our local PBS station as part of the KCTS 9 Cooks: Northwest Favorites fund-raising drive. This was the 29th installment of the popular show, which features viewers’ recipes in the companion cookbook, and offers DVDs, printed cookbooks, and other goodies for people to buy and enjoy at home.

This was my second time appearing with long-time host George Ray, and my first time with local cooking school owner Carol Dearth of Sizzleworks! in Bellevue, Wash.

Since I was the first person to appear, I (thankfully) had lots of time to set up my work space. Here’s the gorgeous beauty plate created by my good friend and Seattle-based food-stylist extraordinaire, Joy Delf. Thanks, Joy! As always, I couldn’t have done it without you.

Over Memorial day weekend, we had the pleasure of attending a media brunch at Tom Douglas’s Dahlia Lounge, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in November. The “Little Tastes of the Dahlia” brunch was multi-purpose:

1. It introduced brunch itself (which has been recently added at the Dahlia) and several of the Dahlia’s brunch dishes (you can read more about those on an upcoming post on June 29).

2. It introduced us to Tom’s latest rub–a brown-sugar-sweetened, paprika-rich, all-purpose version called Smoky Barbecue Rub. 

3. It alerted us to Tom’s Culinary Camps for adults and kids.

Here’s a shot of Tom filleting a 20-pound halibut. Demos such as this are (apparently) common at his Culinary Camps for adults, which last five days and cost $2,500. This is the third year for the adult camps, and six of the attendees at the first one had such a positive experience, they have been at all three!

This year, adult Culinary Camps run July 12-16 and August 9-13. 

New this year are Culinary Camps for kids, run by Tom’s daughter Loretta, who’s home from her first year at Colgate College in New York state. She’ll teach the young ‘uns useful lessons, such as how to make hamburgers and pizza dough from scratch. 

So whether you are nine or 90, it’s time to get out your backpack and butterfly net, and head to camp! 

For further info on Tom Douglas’s Culinary Summer Camps, contact Robyn Wolfe at 206.448.2001 or robynw@tomdouglas.com.

I blogged about it when it was released last October, and am now thrilled to report that “Cooking with Les Dames d’Escoffier: At Home with the Women who Shape the Way We Cook and Drink,” was nominated for an International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) cookbook award in the “Compilation” category.

Those of us with recipes therein are thrilled, not to mention that Sasquatch Books, which published the “Pike Place Market Cookbook,” is the publisher.

This nomination is real validation for a small(er) regional press (based in Seattle’s funky Pioneer Square area) that was up against publishing giants such as John Wiley & Sons (which published “Pacific Northwest Wining & DIning”),  W.W. Norton; Stewart, Tabori & Chang; Clarkson Potter; and Ten Speed Press (which published my “Pike Place Public Market Seafood Cookbook”). 

I am so proud of my friend and fellow Seattle Dame Marcella Rosene, who edited the book along with another buddy–San Antonio-based Dame Pat Mozersky.

The winners will be announced during the gala dinner at IACP’s annual conference in Denver early next month, so stay tuned! 

This month, our friends Mimi Martin and Adam Rhynard at Portland’s Wine and Spirits Archive launched a new International Wine Passport Series, a series of monthly wine classes exploring different wine regions of interest.  You’ll find more details here. 

They asked 12 of their favorite Portland wine professionals to select a wine region they are passionate about and to put together a class to appeal to everyone from WSET Alums to the everyday wine lover, and here are the results.

THE PROGRAM

January – Greece

February – Piedmont, Italy

March – SW France

April – Austria

May – Willamette Valley, USA

June – Marlborough and Martinborough, New Zealand

July – Stellenbosch, South Africa

August – Mosel, Germany

September – Rioja, Spain

October – Central Valley, Chile

November – Sonoma Valley, USA

December – Champagne, France 

You can sign up for individual classes, but the dynamic duo also offers up a “Frequent Flyer” Program with discounts for multiple registrations. 

THE MEMBERSHIPS

Frequent Flyer – Platinum Member: $480 for all 12 sessions (20% discount)

Frequent Flyer – Gold Member: $255 for 6 sessions (15% discount)

Frequent Flyer – Silver Member: $135 for 3 sessions (10% discount)

Daytripper: $50 per session

So fasten your seatbelts and get ready for a special whirlwind of round-the-world wine tripping! 

Dylan Giordan (right, above), Chef de Cuisine at Serafina Osteria and Enoteca, has been promoted by owner Susan Kaufman (left, above) to the position of executive chef. He replaces John Neumark, who will vacate his posts as executive chef, wine director, and catering director at the Eastlake Avenue restaurant by year’s end to pursue other passions. Salomon Navarro will be taking over the wine program, and Rachel Shreffler will become the new Pastry Chef.    

Chef Giordan has been at Serafina since 2001, acting as chef de cuisine during the past four years. Growing up in the U.S. heartland, near the dairy farms north of Chicago, Giordan has long felt an intangible connection to the land and its gifts. His earliest food memories involve picking snap peas and cherry tomatoes from the vine and eating them instantly, the smell of the earth and stem still strong. 

His first job was in a pizza parlor run by a Sicilian pizza rebel, Angelo DiGiacomo. Through college, Giordan continued his restaurant training, eventually working under Mark Chmielewski at Toque in Chicago. After moving to the Pacific Northwest, Giordan worked for Christine Keff and Steve Smirstik at Flying Fish. In 2001, Giordan decided to follow his roots –to go Italian–and has added handmade cured meats, cheeses, ice cream, pastas, and sausages to Serafina’s repertoire.

A press release alerted me that John Gorham, chef/owner of Portland’s Toro Bravo, created the first-place-winning dish–Elk Soup–at Nicky USA’s eighth annual Wild About Game Cook-Off. Each of the 10 participating Portland- and Seattle-based chefs had two hours to prepare a unique dish using wild- and farm-raised game or fowl for the panel of three judges.

The winning chefs included first-place winner John Gorham of Toro Bravo for his Elk Soup with a Kidney Mousse Toast. “The soup was prepared with handmade noodles, tongue, chanterelles, seared cauliflower, sliced raw salted tenderloin, charred tenderloin, and chives in a savory broth. The mousse included kidneys, bacon, foie gras, apples, onions, and chanterelles,” according to the press release. 

Second-place chef Dustin Clark of Wildwood in Portland created Creamed Lacinato-Kale-Stuffed Rabbit Saddle with a Leek-and-Cauliflower Ragout and Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Olives.

Third-place winner Pascal Chureau, of Portland’s Lucier and Fenouil, cooked up Pan-Roasted Squab Breast with Toasted Farro & Cabbage Paupiette, Chanterelles, and Coffee Consommé.

Not designed for the faint of heart, vegetarians, or casual cooks, nonetheless, here’s the prize-winning recipe (untested by yours truly, but try it at your own risk!).

Elk Soup

Serves 6

Homemade Pasta

12 egg yolks

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon salt

19 ounces flour

Blend wet ingredients in blender, then mix with flour and salt with dough hook until ball forms.  Roll pasta and cut into thin noodles.  Just before severing, cook pasta in salted water, strain and toss with fresh parsley.

Kidney Mousse

2 elk kidneys soaked in milk for an half hour

4 ounces foie gras

3 ounces bacon

1/2 apple, diced

1/2 onion, diced

5 chanterelles, chopped

1 tablespoon rosemary and sage

4 ounces butter

4 ounces cream cheese

1/2 cup bourbon

In a very hot sauté pan, sear off kidneys until very brown, yet not over cooked.  Sear off foie gras.  Sauté bacon until crisp then add the rest of the ingredients and cook until everything has color and is cooked through. Put everything in blender and blend until smooth. Pass through a sieve and cool.

Elk Broth and Tongue

Elk Tenderloin scrapes (from the Tenderloin preparation)

1 Elk Kidney

1 Elk Tongue

1 apple, diced 

2 cups chanterelles 

1 carrot, diced

1 rib of celery, diced

2 onions, diced

2 ounces fresh ginger, diced

1 jalapeno, diced

3 Arbol chilies

1 stick of cinnamon

4 cups of water 

Sear tenderloin scraps, kidney and tongue in a very hot pan.  Once the meat has nice color add everything else except the water.   Cook until the mixture has nice color.  Deglaze with water and simmer for 90 minutes, strain and set aside tongue.  Season the broth with salt, pepper and fresh lemon juice.  Just before serving clean tongue and rub meat with salt.  Cut tongue into small cubes.

Elk Tenderloin 

1 Elk Tenderloin

2T of each rosemary, garlic, and sage

Kosher salt 

Black pepper
 
Clean tenderloin, reserving scraps for Elk Broth.  Cut the tenderloin in half.  Pack one half of the Tenderloin in salt and place in the freezer.  Rub the other half with rosemary, sage, garlic, salt and pepper.  Sear the rubbed tenderloin in a very hot pan, but leave it very rare. Hand slice.  Once salted tenderloin is firm remove from freezer.  Slice very thin on a meat slicer or carefully by hand.

Chanterelles

6 perfect chanterelles

1/2 cup of Elk Broth
 
Poach chanterelles in elk broth and season just before serving soup. Reserve for plating.

Cauliflower

1 cup of small cauliflower flowers

1 head of garlic 

1 stem of rosemary

1/2 cup salt

4 cups water

2 tablespoons butter

 Boil rosemary, garlic, and salt in water.  Quickly blanch cauliflower and pat dry.  Sear in a very hot pan with butter.  Reserve for plating.

To Serve

Place the homemade pasta noodles in bottom of individual serving bowl.  Next add chanterelles, cubes of salted tongue, seared cauliflower, then add salted elk tenderloin slices, seared elk tenderloin slices and pour hot broth on top.  Garnish soup with chives.  Serve with grilled rustic bread and the Elk Kidney Mousse.

Shown above is our colleague Michael Allemeier (right), executive chef of Mission Hill Family Estate winery in Westbank, British Columbia, during a ceremony where he was presented with a Silver Star of Excellence from the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs.The Chaîne des Rôtisseurs is an international gastronomic society devoted to promoting fine dining and preserving the camaraderie and pleasures of the table in more than 120 countries around the world.

The Silver Star was awarded to Allemeier in late October at the annual induction dinner held at the winery. It honors the chef’s 15 years of service and dedication to the Paris-based epicurean organization and for overseeing the Jeunes Commis Rôtisseurs Competition for young chefs.

“It’s a privilege to be part of such a prestigious organization with its long history of culinary and dining traditions,” says Allemeier. “Helping mentor and develop the next generation of cooks through the Jeunes Commis Rôtisseurs Competition has been a real pleasure for me. I believe all good farmers need to replenish resources we’ve taken out; giving back to the culinary community by cultivating future chefs is one of the greatest ways for us to do this.” Hear, hear!