November 25, 2015

Not all of Chef Varin’s work happens in the kitchen. An avid outdoorsman, Varin can be found fishing and foraging on a regular basis.  Below, he gives us a glimpse into his life on the Puget Sound—recipes and all. Chef Varin: “In the fading hours of fall and winter daylight, Seattle’s waterfront illuminates with lights beaming…

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November 17, 2015

In October, Amanda Reed joined hundreds of other beverage industry insiders from around the country at Portland Cocktail Week. The educational convention is arguably the second largest in the United States, after New Orleans’ Tales of the Cocktail. The trip began in an Amtrak car reserved exclusively by Brown-Forman (makers of Woodford Reserve.) Then it…

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November 10, 2015

The stretch between roasted pumpkin seeds and pumpkin pie—the weeks between now and Thanksgiving—is ripe with opportunities to work with pumpkin. So, we tapped Chef Varin for a gourd-ish twist on desserts for the holiday season. He gave us an alternative to the standard pumpkin pie recipe: an effortless pumpkin cake. “As summer winds down and…

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November 3, 2015

After years in the restaurant industry in San Francisco, Beverage Director Amanda Reed has worked with lists that feature wines from all over the world. Although mostly an old world drinker herself, her clientele in San Francisco craved Napa Cabernets and Sonoma Chardonnays, so naturally she became very familiar with the vast world of California…

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