ANNOUNCING:

2004 PRIVATE PREVIEW:
Dinner will be prepared by reknown
Chef, Greg Atkinson

We are thrilled to have an extraordinary chef catering our Patron Event this year.

Greg Atkinson, director of "Culinary Consulting" in Seattle, has been a chef for more than twenty years. After launching the nationally acclaimed Friday Harbor House on San Juan Island, Atkinson was drafted to revitalize at Seattle's venerable Canlis restaurant in conjunction with a major renovation in 1996. Canlis, one of the premier dining establishments in the Pacific Northwest went from 1 1/2 stars to 4 stars in the local press and earned glowing reviews from Gourmet, Bon Appetit, and Saveur. "The secret," claims Atkinson "was a new focus on seasonal influences on the menu and an orientation towards sustainably-raised, local products."

While he was chef at Canlis, Atkinson assumed the position of chef and food programs director at IslandWood, an environmental learning center near his home on Bainbridge Island. The learning center serves as an outdoor education facility for school age children who come for four-day overnight programs during the week and as a retreat center for other non-profit groups on the weekends. "In the dining hall," says Atkinson.

"Our goal was to integrate what the students were learning in the field by helping them understand how their food choices impact the world around them."

The author of In Season, Culinary Adventures of a San Juan Island Chef, (Sasquatch 1997) and The Northwest Essentials Cookbook, (Sasquatch 2000) Atkinson is a prolific writer. "It started with a weekly column for The Journal of the San Juan Islands;" says Atkinson, and this evolved into a series of Taste columns for Pacific Northwest, the Sunday news magazine of The Seattle Times which have appeared regularly since 1989. Atkinson also serves as a contributing editor to Food Arts. In 2001, he won the M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award (best food story of the year) from the James Beard Foundation.

Atkinson is a weekly guest on "The Beat" on Seattle's NPR affiliate, KUOW, where he discusses the latest trends in dining and home cooking. A Certified Culinary Professional (CCP) Atkinson is active in the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), serves on the board of directors of Seattle Slow Food and works closely with Chefs Collaborative. Currently, he's completing work on The Northwest Menu Cookbook.