At Shilla, a Korean restaurant on Denny Way - the first time I experienced family style Korean BBQ fare named "Bool Koki", a meal where you order your choice of marinated beef, poultry, seafood or even tofu. These arrive at your table raw, and the server pops off the top of the grill submerged in your table and lights it up. Bool Koki comes with an endless array of condiments such as cabbage and radish kim chi, pickled sprouts, wilted spinach salad, spicy bean paste (or as I call it, Korean Ketchup) dried anchovy, huge leaf lettuce, and of course, steamed rice. You grill your own beef, developing your own personal combination, wrapping everything in a lettuce leaf a la burrito style. The flavors are bright and clean - this is an extremely delicious meal. Cleveland Graham, Dahlia Cook
Les Crayeres, on our first trip to France in 1985 - the only 3-star restaurant I've ever been to. The whole experience was incredible, from the beautiful silver, china, crystal, the French service, not to mention fabulous champagne, a truffle en croute and my first foie gras. - Jackie Cross, Owner
At Stephen Pyle's Star Canyon, my friend and I were amazed by the number of ingredients listed on the menu that I had never heard of before. A trio of creme brulees in pastry crusts were most memorable. I'm still trying to figure out how these perfect creamy custards were cooked so that the pastry shells still remained crispy. When I met Chef Pyles the next year, I dropped to my knees in adoration. Duskie Estes, Corporate Sous Chef
The first meal I ever cooked for my family (creamed tuna on biscuits) where I misread teaspoons for tablespoons - it was pretty salty. Sean Hartley, Palace Cook
In New York last May for the James Beard Awards; I had little fried frogs legs and an unbelievable squab with corn shoots and corn cakes at Jean-Georges. Matt Costello, Palace Chef
Three memorable meals come to mind: in Strasbourg, at a place called Tony's, I had choucroute for the first time. In Venice, I had the quintessential tortellini en brodo, which we've been trying to imitate ever since. And a delicious gnocchi al pesto in Genoa. Steven Steinbock , Operations Manager
Truly, one of the best meals I've ever had was at the Dahlia Lounge when I first moved here from the East coast. I'm not a salmon fan, but I had a salmon in a mango glaze with Chinese eggplant that forever changed my opinion about salmon. Chris Schwarz, Etta's Seafood
At Chez Panisse in San Francisco - a simple and perfect Salad Nicoise, made even more perfect by a bottle of Bandol Rose. Dinner was followed by an unforgettable tangerine sorbet. Pam Leydon, General Manager
My husband Manuel and I took the train from Bologna Italy to Alba. It was a little "locale" train. We shopped in the market in Bologna before boarding, buying a huge lunch to take with us. Manuel had never seen anything like it. Every food store was beautiful and clean with huge flower arrangements. We bought a ton of food - lasagna verdi al forno, polenta, quail, cheese tortellini, bread. We ate everything on the train and it was extraordinary - we will never forget it! I love Bologna - to me, it is the food capitol of Italy, maybe Europe. Colleen Kennelly, Etta's General Manager
Restaurant Primi in Amsterdam, a twenty- seat restaurant with red wooden floors and just one server for the whole place. The kitchen was at the top a small flight of stairs where you could see the two chefs preparing your dinner. I had a shrimp bisque soup with ravioli, beef carpaccio, and a perfect goat cheese salad. John Sundstrom, Dahlia Lounge Chef
I drink too much wine during my memorable meals to remember all the details. Shelley Lance, Exective Pastry Chef
