September 11, 2018

With the bounty of summer slowly fading in the Pacific Northwest, Heartwood Provisions bartender Michael Cadden is preserving up a storm. With cherries on our heels, and peaches and nectarines just coming to an end, he hustles to turn stone fruit to syrups and jams that mix nicely into cocktails and mocktails and shrubs. “Preserving…

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May 15, 2018

Heartwood Provision’s Chef Varin Keokitvon is always up for an adventure. Laotian by birth; a Seattleite by upbringing, his culinary prowess crosses cultures and he loves a good culinary challenge. For instance, when he heard about Spain’s Cocinando con Trufa —the international cooking contest for cooking with truffles—he had to enter To be considered, every…

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July 25, 2017

It’s pretty obvious that Chef Varin Keokitvon knows his way around fresh produce. This is the man responsible for fermenting his own black garlic, poaching quince for a bevy of seasonal desserts, and the very funky roasted asparagus with fermented black bean chili making an appearance on the menu. United Fresh Awards Varin Chef Varin…

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February 6, 2017

FEBRUARY IS FOR (OYSTER) LOVERS Ah oysters, the little bivalve with the salty reputation that’s grown so exquisitely here in the Pacific Northwest. With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, we thought it would be a fun time to explore the rumored aphrodisiac a bit closer. Some say it’s bunk. Others say it’s the fact that…

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October 18, 2016

Chef Varin Keokitvon is passionate about mushrooms, and about foraging. Spring may find him hunting the burns of eastern Washington in search of morels, summer casting lines for salmon while scanning the shoreline for hints of porcini, but it’s fall that delivers the true fungal bonanza: more types of mushrooms than might be counted on…

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