Food & Wine

Wine In My Kitchen: Cooking and Reading Everyday

by Karen Tripson

Tom Douglas' Seattle Thanksgiving

In the season to be more thankful than usual, I'd like to start with how lucky I am to enjoy the company of my family and friends, to live in Seattle — and to have easy access to Northwest food and wine. To celebrate my good fortune this year I looked to our local hero of good times in restaurants, Tom Douglas. His food is always great. It's stylish and fun. It's very Northwest. The exuberance of the chef and his three successful venues contribute to his fabulous cookbook, "Tom Douglas' Seattle Kitchen". It's a good read, the recipes work, but Seattle steals the show.

No one trumpets the Northwest's treasures better than Tom Douglas. The Chamber of Commerce should give him a prize for producing the best guidebook to the city and its resources. His top ten list of things to do with tourists will re-energize anyone who has suffered from too many houseguests. His favorite spots to shop for all sorts of ingredients introduce you to the shopkeepers by name. His enthusiasm for the regional farmers and wine makers will make you feel foolish and unpatriotic to buy anything that's not locally produced. I expect to see tourists with the book open at Mutual Fish and walking around the ID debating which Pha shop to stop in first.

The Reason to Own this Book
My first experiments with the recipes were for a summer barbeque buffet anchored with a giant roasting pan full of Etta's Cornbread Pudding. As I approached with refills on shredded pork I heard someone in line say, "I don't know what that is in the big pan, but I want more."

Tom Douglas says every recipe was tested on a home stove installed at the Palace Kitchen. I believe it. The recipes include some of his most famous dishes and in the process a concise cooking lesson in creating great northwest flavors.

The reason he came to my mind as a Seattle Thanksgiving inspiration was the description in the book of the big day at his house every year. He loves to host Thanksgiving by grilling a 20-pound salmon, his wife roasting a 20-pound turkey and letting the guests bring the rest. That's got to be a fun event for family and friends. Lots of side dishes for Thanksgiving appear in this Seattle times article.

Seattle being the friendly place it is, I asked what his favorite wine pairings of the moment would be for this menu I created from his book. Being the man he is, here they are. Happy Thanksgiving!

A Tom Douglas Thanksgiving Menu

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