• Celebrate Julia Child's 85th Birthday
• Copper River Salmon Season
• Ramp....
• What am I Eating???
• Summer 1997 Calendar of Events
• Featured Recipe: Pea & Arugula Salad

And the winner is......well unfortunately, not the Palace Kitchen, but we were close! The Palace was nominated by the James Beard Foundation this spring as one of the best new restaurants opened across the country in 1996. Each year the Foundation conducts an annual poll of their membership to determine the finalists. The prize ultimately went to Rose Pistola in San Francisco, but we were very proud to receive the nomination, especially considering the competition. Jackie and I, General Manager Pam Leydon, Assistant Manager Gretchen Geisness, Executive Chef Eric Tanaka and Palace Kitchen Chef Matt Costello traveled to New York in early May to attend the awards ceremony.

The real winners were the New York restaurants where we ate - we dropped a bundle in 18 restaurants in less then 72 hours! Best meal of our trip was at Grammercy Tavern, Danny Meyer's three year-old restaurant in the Flatiron district. Other favorites were, as always, Restaurant Daniel and the Blue Ribbon (great fried chicken at 4 a.m.) Best looking new place was the ten day-old Balthazar in SoHo - shi-shi bistro food!

Congratulations to Chef Jim Han Lock from Wild Ginger who was awarded Best Northwest Chef by the Beard Foundation. The Ginger has always been one of our favorites and we congratulate owners Rick and Anne Yoder and Jim on their success.

The totals have come in on the Taste of the Nation held in April. It was another great event with over $155,000 raised to fight hunger. Many thanks to all of you who bought tickets in support of the cause! As a member of the Food Lifeline Board of Directors, I know how important this money is to them and how well the money is utilized - for example, every dollar we raise buys fifteen pounds of food. As an advisory board member of Common Meals, it's gratifying to see homeless people being trained to work in our industry. Taste money has much to do in keeping these worthwhile causes going strong. If you would like to play a part in this great event and be a member of our steering committee, please give me a call. (See inside this newsletter for info on a BBQ we host for Food Lifeline in the summer - a great event for a family gathering or your company picnic.)

Finally, KCTS-TV Channel 9 is running a cooking show "S is for Seafood" on June 7th & 8th at 4 pm each day. Hosted by myself and Mauny Kaseburg, the show features seafood recipes submitted by viewers. I'll demonstrate our Etta's Seafood recipe for Pit-Roasted Salmon with Cornbread Pudding and Shiitake Relish on the show.

Enjoy the early summer - Tom.