Today in the Pike Place Market at First and Pike, from 10 a.m. until noon, join King County Executive Ron Sims and local farmers to help kick-off Eat Local for Thanksgiving. It’s followed by a cooking demonstration by Chef Eric Tanaka of Tom Douglas Restaurants.

Take the Eat Local for Thanksgiving pledge to include at least one locally grown or raised food on your holiday table. You’ll be supporting local farms, you’ll be eating better, and you’ll be entered to win a locally raised turkey or organic milk for a year! You can also pledge online to include one locally produced food on your Thanksgiving table, and chart the CO2 savings, thanks to the good folks at Puget Sound Fresh. 

An e-release from our friends at Sooke Harbour House on Vancouver Island announced the new Kitchen Adventure
, which includes a two-night stay in one of the resort’s ocean-view guest rooms
, daily breakfast served in the privacy of your room
, a tour of the property’s Certified Organic Gardens (at 10:30 a.m.), spending time with the chef in the kitchen (from 1:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.)
, special culinary keepsake gifts
, plus a two-course dinner (valued at $50.00)
.

The offer is available now through June, and is based 
on availability. Prices vary according to the season, guestroom selection and the number of participants, with a maximum of four people. 
Prices range from $539.00 per person (Canadian) to $785.00 per person for two participants or $444.50 to $567.50 per person for four participants (sharing one guestroom) depending on room selection and time of year. 

Quoted rates exclude applicable taxes. Please call 250-642-3421 or email reservations@sookeharbourhouse.com to make your booking.

Since March 2004 I have been honored to belong to a group called Les Dames d’Escoffier International, an invitational organization of women leaders in food, beverage, and hospitality whose mission is education, advocacy, and philanthropy. Over the past 15 years, our Seattle chapter has disbursed more than $240,000 for educational programs, community projects, and culinary scholarships for women in Washington state. 

Every year we host a fund-raising benefit. Kathy Casey Food Studios has been chosen as the site for this year’s event, which will be held on Thursday, October 16, at 6 p.m. It will celebrate the Seattle debut of the brand-new, Dames-branded cookbook entitled, Cooking with Les Dames d’Escoffier: At Home with the Women Who Shape the Way We Eat and Drink (Sasquatch Books, September 2008).

The fundraiser will be a walk-around reception featuring dishes created by the Seattle Dames whose recipes were chosen for inclusion in the new cookbook. Seattle Dames with recipes in the comprehensive new book, edited by Seattle Dame Marcella Rosene with Pat Mozersky, include Fran Bigelow (Fran’s Original Cheesecake), Braiden Rex-Johnson (Salmon Fillets Baked in Grape-Leaf Wraps), Gina Batali (Batali Family Stuffed Artichokes), and Lisa Dupar (Walnut Fennel Tarts). The book also includes recipes, beverage-pairing tips, and kitchen wisdom from leading Dames and culinary authorities from around the United States and Canada, including Lidia Bastianich, Nathalie Dupree, and Gale Gand. 

Attendance is limited for this exclusive gathering, and tickets cost $110 per person, which includes one copy of the cookbook. Additional copies of Cooking with Les Dames d’Escoffier will be available for sale that evening, with fifty percent of the proceeds going towards the Seattle Dames fundraising efforts. 

I encourage you to purchase a ticket, or tickets, on our Web site, as they are sure to go fast!

The ever irreverent Andrew Zimmern, he of bug- and grub-eating fame on the Travel Channel, liked my latest book, Pacific Northwest Wining & Dining so much, he asked me to weigh in on five questions (actually 11 when you count all the sub-questions) about my latest  wining and dining experiences. I’m excited to say that, now through next Wednesday, you can find my answers by going to his Home Page, then clicking on the big link you’ll find there. After that, the question and answers will be archived for posterity.

Among other interesting topics, we cover my favorite Seattle restaurants of the moment, how I ended up in the Pacific Northwest, and five places every traveler (or lucky local) should visit in our very special corner of the world.

In May, I was honored to be one of the speakers at the second-annual Careers in Wine Symposium hosted by the Wine and Spirit Archive. According to the Web site: “The WSA offers wine, spirit and cocktail courses ranging from introductory level classes for beginners and enthusiasts to professional certification courses for the beverage professional or those seeking to enter that industry, as well as the serious connoisseur. Our recreational classes dispense with the myths and intimidations surrounding the world of wine and spirits and give you the tools, vocabulary and tasting skills necessary to explore and enjoy these beverages.” We’ve taken the Intermediate level course of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust and highly recommend it to serious wine enthusiasts, career professionals, and those seeking to get into the wine business. 

You just gotta love a pizzeria where you can choose among 100 different bottles of wine from Italy, France, and the Northwest, not to mention 18 wines offered by the glass along with carafe options. That’s the latest news from Ken’s Artisan Pizza in Portland, where owner Ken Forkish offers everything from Alsatian Rieslings and Rosés to several types of bubbly, Sangiovese-based wines, Brunello and local Pinot Noir.

“Our list is one of the most extensive pizzeria wine lists in the country, and reflects my personal tastes and complements our food,” explains Forkish. “Currently our list includes 17 local Pinot Noirs and we often buy the wines direct from small winemakers we know. Our wines are also priced to sell with even the more expensive wines priced just over retail and accessible to the general public.”

Open since 2006, Ken’s Artisan Pizza (an offshoot of Ken’s Artisan Bakery & Cafe) put itself on the map thanks to chef and co-founder Alan Maniscalco’s seasonal cuisine cooked in the restaurant’s wood-fired oven—from individual pizzas topped with seasonal ingredients to the roasted vegetable plate that changes with the season’s farm-fresh offerings to the house-made charcuterie. Ken’s Artisan Pizzeria has been featured nationally in Bon Appetit and The New York Times and was chosen as one of the “15 Restaurants Changing the Way We Eat” in the November 2006 issue of Portland Monthly and one of the “Top 10 Restaurants in Portland” in the November 2007 issue of Portland Monthly.

A July 15 press release trumpeted the news that for only $500,000 (and up) 28 lucky homebuyers will be able to, “Step back in time to a cottage-country lifestyle that captures the joys of an era when the family gathered on the porch swing for an ice cream after a long day swimming in the lake and kicking up sand barefoot at the beach.

“Only 15 minutes from the Washington State-British Columbia border crossing at Osoyoos and Oroville, nostalgic, laid-back lakeside living can be found with the first release of Lakeside Vineyard Cottages. Sweeping views of Lake Osoyoos, the beach, and mountains combine with the pastoral charm of a cottage nestled within a working vineyard.

The single-level Chardonnay and Merlot Cottages, and the double-level Cabernet and Barbera Cottages are fully furnished with everything buyers need to complement the cottage lifestyle at Veranda Beach. This includes one and a half garages per cottage, with the half portion suited to storing a golf cart or scooter. The Cottages blur the lines between indoor/outdoor living with expansive terraces stretching into the vineyards and screened-in verandas for outdoor dining and entertaining. Access to a vineyard-vista pool and pavilion amenity area allows cottage owners exclusive enjoyment of the outdoor pool and changing rooms, a outdoor kitchen and barbeque area. 

Mark your calendars. On Tuesday, September 23, in a program entitled, “Taste of the Willamette Valley,” Chef/Owner Matt Bennett and Wine Director/Owner Jamel Bennett, of Sybaris restaurant in Albany, Oregon, will make their debut at the prestigious James Beard House in New York City. As with many restaurants in the Pacific Northwest, “the menu at Sybaris changes with the crops each month, spotlighting the best, freshest local foods. Its semi-rural location allows us the restaurant to work directly with the best small farms and ranches, as well as the celebrated wineries of the Willamette Valley. Sybaris also accesses the big city’s best importers and distributors for specialty items.”

The Web site states, “Our current menu is always featured on our homepage; here you can find information for upcoming special events and an archive of our past menus. The only items on the menu that are constants are the Sybaris chocolate cake and the green salad: everything else is imagined and developed for a specific month’s menu. As a result, the archive of menus can be interesting reading, as well as a great insight into the ‘Sybaris Sensibility.’”

Sooke Harbour House, which is well represented in Pacific Northwest Wining & Dining with a lovely recipe for Coriander-Crusted Albacore Tuna and several photos (including one of the back cover shots!), won the gold medal for Best Restaurant on Vancouver Island at the Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards in April. According to SHH proprietor, and our good buddy, Sinclair Philip, “This is the biggest restaurant event of the year in British Columbia. Sooke Harbour House has won this award every year since Vancouver Magazine began their awards program.”

In related news, in January 2008, Travel & Leisure named SHH One of Canada’s Top Five Hotels.