50 Shades of Delicious: 2 Chewsy for the Catwalk

Last evening we took a last chance to dine at an iconic Seattle restaurant that is closing in the next week, Rover's a French restaurant with definite Northwestern notes that has been open for over twenty-six years (almost as old as Ro).  Owner Thierry Rautureau is calling it quits in this chapter of his book, but we are confident this is not the end of the story.  There are rumors he is going to open a new restaurant in the near future.  He also owns the kid brother of Rover's-- Luc (named after Thierry's father) a more laid back French-American Bistro that is only steps away from its more mature sibling.   Chef/Owner Thierry Rautureau  with his famous fedora Photo courtesy of chefinthehat.com People like us, that are first-timers to his restaurant in the final days, are definite members of the last supper club.  We aren't in the club alone, Thierry estimates at least 30 percent of people making reservations for the very last meal on June 23rd to b...

Remember those classic American TV dinners?   The ones with the separated trays that you could pull out of the freezer and put in the oven and or microwave and then plop down in front of the boob tube and watch your favorite evening shows while eating your perfectly separated meat, potatoes and vegetables.    As kids, we used to think TV dinners were a special treat especially if we got to eat them off a TV dinner tray and watch our favorite shows.  FloJo's favorites were the back to back Saturday night weekly episodes of Love Boat followed by Fantasy Island and Mr. Roarke.  "My dear guests, I am Mr. Roarke, your host. Welcome to Fantasy Island." The earliest documented beginnings for TV dinners was in the late 1940's when Albert and Meyer Bernstein started packaging frozen dinners under the One-Eyed Eskimo label divided into three compartments all on aluminum trays.   The product took off enough that the company expanded it's market, renamed itself...

Cochon is the French word for pig and or the sound a little piglet makes. Cochon 555  is a story of pigs and 5's.  This year marks the fifth anniversary of this traveling culinary circus (although our first to attend) which strives to promote the sustainable farming of heritage breed pigs.  The event was held at the Cedarbrook Lodge  which is an urban oasis hidden right by Seatac airport.  It used to be owned by WaMu back in their heyday and used as a corporate conference center.  Now, it is owned by the Wright family (owners of the Space Needle). The competition pits chefs cooking five different heritage (more on that below) breeds of pigs with the goal to use the entire 200 pound pig snout to tail and everything in between to create their menus.  The Seattle St. Patrick's day stop on the circus tour had bonus action though- a sixth chef was added along with Mark Bodinet from Cedarbrook Lodge's Copperleaf Restaurant who cooked another pig BBQ...