Top 75 Tom Douglas Quotes

Disappointing cakes have often been sitting out too long. They should last just long enough to have the last pieces the next morning with coffee – who doesn’t love cake with coffee?

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.

The best meal I was served was ribollita, an Italian bread soup at the Castello di Ama winery in Tuscany. I usually hate ribollita, and the people I was traveling with thought I was crazy for ordering it.

In some cities, McDonald’s rules, but Seattle is ruled by teriyaki joints.

Often we eat squid fried, so it’s fun to grill it for a change. To grill squid, slice the cleaned bodies open into two flat pieces and thread them, along with the tentacles, onto skewers, then grill quickly over a direct fire with the coals as close as possible to the grate, turning the squid several times.

Summer in Seattle allows me to indulge in some of the region’s top culinary delights – I’m talking about wild king salmon and fresh, ripe Washington stone fruits and berries like cherries, peaches, plums, and blueberries.

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.

In the restaurant business, there’s the concept of pivot. Pivot to the stove, pivot to the refrigerator.

My wife and I decided to try and kick start our kitchens to a $15 minimum wage for cooks. I’ve probably had to go through and raise every menu price now by 50 cents because it took away my profit. I just underestimated what it was going to cost.

Another way I like to barbecue king salmon is as a whole fish stuffed, literally to the gills, with sweet onions, sliced lemons, and summer sage.

I have a good flavor memory.

To shuck oysters, you’ll need an oyster knife, a handy tool with a sturdy handle and a short, rigid blade which you can pick up for about ten bucks in a kitchenware shop or fish market. A quick trip online will yield any number of videos and slide shows with step-by-step instructions on how to shuck an oyster.

Every time you make a fruit crisp for me, you are my favorite person in the world. It’s something delicious and warm, right out of the oven. I mean, what more could anyone want? And all you’re doing is taking the best fruit of the season, putting a crumb topping on it and putting it in the oven.

It’s just an American tradition to make sure people don’t leave hungry. The worst thing is to have them say, ‘Great dinner, but now I have to go get a burger.’

Support a small chef. Not these big chains… but support the people who are out there trying to do things right and working hard to do that.

I try to eat in one of my restaurants every day, and I eat out in another restaurant every day. It’s what I do.

My favorite way to cook trout is whole, bone-in, on the grill. The fish are stuffed with sliced lemons and herb sprigs, brushed with oil, and cooked over fairly hot coals until the skin is crisp and the flesh is moist and flaky. Go ahead and gild the lily by adding a sauce.

Catfish’s mild taste adapts well to a wide array of flavors, especially strong assertive ones, which is why you used to see it ‘blackened’ Cajun style on so many restaurant menus – a trick which soon became a tired cliche.

Coho or silver salmon are very common and easy to get for a good price.

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

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 want to do the basic things, like putting my daughter to bed. It’s the sweetest thing.

It’s important that your shucked oyster is clean and pristine.

I’m kind of fat.

While it’s typical to find steamed clam recipes which include a bit of bacon or sausage, you might not think of adding shredded ham hock, but it’s another way to pair the lusty, smoky flavor of animal fat with the briny ocean flavor of shellfish.

I particularly like to make crunchy slices of garlic bread to serve with steamed clams.

Most of America doesn’t pay dishwashers $10.

I think about sustainability all the time, whether it’s with fish or farmers in Eastern Oregon.

Customers are more friendly when they’ve had a meal.

The flesh of king salmon, which varies in color from white to pink to red, has a high fat content, making it perfect for grilling.

I know Jeff Bezos because I cater at his home.

Spanish chorizo is a spicy cured sausage that’s especially tasty with clams.

My dad never explained anything growing up.

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

I’ll never understand those greasy little deep-fried wings most bars serve.

When you watch ‘Shark Tank,’ everything is about off-shore this, off-shore that.

Every cook I knows loves to make pizza.

I don’t answer my phone in a restaurant.

Albacore tuna has a mild flavor that’s delicious served raw or seared briefly on the outside so that it’s still rare on the inside.

I can’t believe how many people don’t have time to cook but have time to watch football and ‘The Voice.’ They’re certainly making a choice.

I would say a full-time waiter in a high-price house could easily make $75,000, $80,000 a year.

One-pot meals make a lot of sense… because so much of what people hate about cooking is really the cleanup, the mess, the grease.

Catfish has a nice firm texture and mild flavor.

Alaska Airlines and I have a lot in common, so coming together to delight travelers with savory, high quality food from the Pacific Northwest made sense.

How can anyone live off of minimum wage?

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.

It’s really fun to have a convection oven, even it if it’s a little convection toaster oven. It really changes the way you bake.

Cooks are an undervalued, awesome profession.

Steaming is a great way to cook any firm fleshed fish, but it’s often overlooked by the home cook.

The key to great fried squid is ‘flash-frying’ in hot oil for only a few minutes, which keeps it tender.

There’s a restaurant in Manhattan called Balthazar, and next to it is Balthazar Bakery. It’s tiny, and it’s very charming to have that little retail outlet to sell the house desserts and breads.

Sustainability includes how you run your business, and my bottom line includes how you treat your people. Sustainability starts with your staff.

My own favorite way to cook and eat razor clams is to simply dredge them in a mix of seasoned flour and cornmeal, then pan fry them in butter until crisp and golden. Be careful not to overcook them so they stay tender, not tough and chewy.

When I wrote my cookbook, ‘I Love Crab Cakes,’ I asked some of my best chef buddies to contribute recipes.

When I eat oatmeal, I’m hungry by 10 A.M., but pho is a great way to start the day.

When I was young, I would make my parents breakfast in bed on Saturday mornings.

The classic Italian green sauce, salsa verde, is easy to make and especially nice in the spring when bunches of fresh herbs start appearing in the farmers market or in your garden.

Some versions of crab cakes are mostly crabmeat lightly bound with egg, but I’m a firm believer that a crab cake should contain bread crumbs.

I’m a compassionate person, so if a product is 15 percent more than what I typically pay, and I see the purpose, I’ll foster that kind of sustainability for the farmers/fishers.

Tender and sweet, Manila clams partner well with a wide variety of foods – white wine, sake, beer, butter, leeks, fresh herbs, roasted peppers, olives, and wild mushrooms, to name a few.

If you want something beautiful to put on the dinner table, pick up a sockeye, the salmon species with the most vivid red flesh.

Pork is my friend.

Money is like manure: if you don’t spread it around, nothing grows.

Every chef has his treats. By that, I mean bits and pieces from things you’re working on – crusty little cake trimmings, ends from a brisket, collars from a salmon, scraps. But they’re snacks to me, and I eat them right off the cutting board – maybe too much.

I was $4,000 short on my first payroll.

I’m just sick of food going in the garbage.

It’s always a good idea to chill your crab cake mixture for a few hours, or even overnight, before frying because they’ll hold together better.

Spooning a seasonal fruit relish onto a plate of grilled king salmon is very much my style – flavorful, straightforward, and unfussy. I also like the way fresh, ripe fruit balances the richness of the salmon.

If you don’t have the confidence in baking, commit to making the recipe three times. The first two, do it exactly the way I’ve told you to make it. Twice. The first time you’ll screw it up. The second time it will come out pretty good, and then the third time, make your adjustments.