Burggraaf Charity - Sea and smoke: flavors from the untamed Pacific Northwest

SEA AND SMOKE

Copyright 2015 by Blaine Wetzel and Joe Ray

All photos Charity Burggraaf (unless noted)

Published by Running Press,

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ISBN 978-0-7624-5311-5

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015937004

E-book ISBN 978-0-7624-5311-5

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Digit on the right indicates the number of this printing

Designed by Joshua McDonnell

Edited by Kristen Green Wiewora

Typography: Brandon

Author photo on back endpaper by Steve Raichlen (www.barbecuebible.com)

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FOR RAQUEL, OF COURSE

BLAINE

TO ELISABETH, FOR TAKING THE PLUNGE

JOE

CONTENTS

by Grant Achatz

BY GRANT ACHATZ

I stood ankle deep in steamy muck, swatted bees away from my face, skinned my knee on jagged rocks, pierced my fingers with thorns, and, with some guilt, apprehensively ended the lives of gorgeous pink trout with my bare hands, the traditional way, as it has been done on Lummi Island for more than 100 years. Not exactly what you would expect before eating one of the best meals of my life. But, without a doubt, experiences that not only shape the identity of the restaurant at Willows Inn but also help people understand the chef and his cuisine.

I knew about Blaines work experience at Manresa and Noma after reading about him in Food & Wine magazine, from blogs, and from whispers coming from the James Beard house. People were talking about this magical restaurant that procured most of its ingredients from the waters, fields, woods, and forests a stones throw from the kitchen. I heard about the commitment to simply arriving thereplanes, cars, and a ferryreminding me of the great restaurants of Europe that I put on a culinary pedestal, Bras, El Bulli, and Veyrat. This only added to my excitement and elevated my expectations. I hope this guy can cook.

I imagined the hyperfocused seriousness of a chef who was so sure of his style and convictions that it might feel preachy. He was young, twenty-six, and I feared a chef following the tsunami-size wave of popularity started in some ways as far back as Chez Pannise in this country but recently gaining enormous momentum as it evolved into what would become the New Nordic revolution for the wrong reasons.

And then the first course came.

A simple smoked mussel. That is all it was. And all of what it was. Sincere, provocative, mature, and intelligent defined the voice of Blaine Wetzels cooking, and it immediately dispelled my previous fear. I grinned after that single mussel was gone, not because it tasted delicious, it did, but because at that moment I understood what the chef was doing. It was my ah ha moment, the curtain was pulled back, and I was happy. I knew then exactly why he was here on this remote, tiny island using the surrounding environment to evoke a true sense of place with his cooking. Blaine was teaching his guests about Lummi Island, telling its story through his cooking.

At one point in every chefs career, we dream of running away. Running away from the impurities that control our lives as chefs, as cooks. We dream of finding a simpler paradise removed from cars, concrete, congestion, and complications allowing us to connect to the product we cook, understanding it from seed to plant, young to mature, imperfect to optimum. Along the way, feeling the subtle nuances of the very thing we often most take for granted as cooks, the ingredients.

Blaine ran away too. But instead of apprehension and fear, he did so with determination, risk-taking confidence, and unabashed ambition directly toward the dream. And he found it.

PHOTOS BY RAQUEL

I grew up on the edge of open wilderness, always spending as much time as possible outdoors. My family and I would hike in the Cascade Mountains and walk along the rocky beaches near our home in Olympia, Washington. Id fish in the mountain streams, collect wild blackberries, and spend all day in the woods.

When I was fourteen, I got a job as a cook at a steakhouse in a Walmart parking lot. I cooked fried catfish and steaks and caught the bug for working in the kitchen. I stayed there all through high school, and when I was eighteen, I got a job at The Phoenician hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona. The years that I spent working there were very good training for working in high-end restaurants. I also worked as much as possible with chef Bradford Thompson at his exciting French restaurant, Mary Elaines.

While I was in Scottsdale, I went to culinary school and met my beautiful Raquel. She and I jumped around the country together, working in fine-dining restaurants and dreaming of opening our own small place.

After a few years, I got an offer to work at the soon-to-open Alex restaurant in The Wynn Las Vegas. A friend of mine had recommended me for the job, and after a quick phone call, I received a thick package containing the recipes that I would be responsible for and a handwritten note from chef Alessandro Stratta, one of Alain Ducasses protgs. Raquel and I moved to Las Vegas for the opening and worked for a few years with the amazing Chef Stratta at his namesake restaurant. Everything was over-the-top luxurious and the restaurant even housed an original Picasso painting. The experience of working for the chef and the team that he had built at his most ambitious stage still inspires me today.