Tom Douglas

My dad never explained anything growing up.

I have a good flavor memory.

Around the time I opened my second restaurant, Etta's, I had just finished judging at the Jack Daniels World Invitational BBQ Championship in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Back home in Seattle, my goal was to recreate the sweet and smoky taste of that BBQ using our local wild king salmon instead of pig.

Cooks are an undervalued, awesome profession.

Maybe there are too many restaurants. Maybe some of mine need to close. So be it. I'll live with the market place.

Oysters, such as Dabobs, Quilcenes, Westcotts, and Willapas, to name just a few, are often named after the place they are harvested.

I can't stand it when restaurants don't have a sense of place in a city. When I'm in London, I want to know I'm in London. When you're sitting in my joint, you know you're sitting in Seattle.

I think that people need to stand up with their backbone and not go to places where they feel like the workers aren't taken care of.

I have an affinity for the old Seattle coffee shops, places like the Green Onion and the Copper Kettle, the classic kind of coffee bar - little places that served breakfast, lunch and dinner and have pretty much disappeared.

I don't know too many kids who ask to weed the garden.

I think you owe it to your kids to teach them how to cook - you know, self-survival.

When I was a kid and my mom made tomato soup, she would cut buttered toast into squares and float them on top of each bowl.