'Tis the season with a reason: celebrating the many blessings of family and friends in our lives. Some of us might cut to the chase quicker and say that 'tis the season for EATING!!! With the possible exception of giving and receiving extravagant gifts, in no way is the spirit of the holidays perpetuated more enjoyably than in the manner in which we honor our annual food traditions, preparing and sharing time-honored recipes and carbo-rrific meals with loved ones.
In a season when we've got food in the collective front lobe, ParentMap brings you a delectable December series, Foodies on Food, in which we profile an esteemed culinary cohort of favorite Seattle-area chefs, restaurateurs, and food writers.
In compiling the interview series, we garnered an amazing collection of personal reflections on the role food and cooking played in each subject's upbringing and decision to follow a culinary career path, as well as unique perspectives on the primacy of food in sustaining connections with family and community, a few handy cooking tips, funny anecdotes, and — ring the dinner bell! — a bevy of truly amazing recipes! We were entertained and inspired by our interviewees' stories, and we thank all of them wholeheartedly for the generosity of their time and spirited participation.
Our favorite discovery? Career foodies are a lot like us! Here are some of the favorite commonalities we found while chatting up these friends-in-food:
1. In back of a good cook, there typically is a good mom, who instilled in her child (and chef apparent) a love of food through the simple daily act of putting three squares on the table.
2. Many foodies would happily die eating pork. (See, they really are like us!)
3. In terms of comfort food, we can all agree that the humble noodle is king.
4. We're not the only ones with a weird but oh-so-vital Jello-based concoction anchoring our holiday meal. So there's one secret shame you can scratch right off your list! (Ask me for the Lindley family's "Pink Salad" recipe — truly a color not found in nature...)
5. Sitting down and eating together as a family is meaningful. As one profile subject stated so perfectly: "I can't solve the world's problems in any way, but I sure think that it is good for all of us to sit down together for dinner."
Being inclined to savor the bounty of this series, we decided to present Foodies on Food as a virtual advent calendar, with its anticipatory and delicious counting down of days. Forget the misshapen discs of waxen, barely edible chocolate — our foodie advent calendar will delight you with a daily revelation in the form of a wonderful story and recipe. We begin our series with two yeoman fixtures of the Seattle food scene, each prolific (understatement) in his and her own way: serial restaurateur Tom Douglas and Seattle Times food writer Nancy Leson. We know you'll enjoy their musings as much as we did.
One of the enduring gifts of this series is the recipes our profilees have shared — we have salivated over these recipes ourselves and expect you will find among them several that may make their way into your permanent family holiday meal lineup too. So keep coming back every day for more Foodies on Food goodness, and yummiest of holiday greetings from all of us at ParentMap!
