Critic Turned Cook follows former Seattle Post-Intelligencer food critic Leslie Kelly on her journey away from the keyboard and into the kitchen as she trains at various Tom Douglas restaurants. Take it away, Leslie! Martha Francis has been making pasta for Tom Douglas restaurants for 13 years. Being in the kitchen is like doing live theater every night. That’s what a veteran cook said to me recently and it makes perfect sense. There’s a script (the menu), but always some room for improv. The chef is the star, though the unheralded cast of characters do much of the heavy lifting. While working at Tom Douglas restaurants in Seattle, the biggest revelation for this former restaurant critic was discovering the rich... More

Critic Turned Cook follows former Seattle Post-Intelligencer food critic Leslie Kelly on her journey away from the keyboard and into the kitchen as she trains at various Tom Douglas restaurants. Take it away, Leslie! The signature Sea Bar sampler includes a rotating selection, including kimchi-topped Dungeness crab. Photograph courtesy of Tom Douglas restaurants "Don't break it," one of the cooks at Dahlia Lounge warned as she handed me a pitcher of oil to pour into the Robot Coupe, after she asked me to finish a batch of Russian dressing. I started to sweat, struggling to keep the stream steady so the yolks wouldn't separate from the oil. "You should be able to hear when it's done," she said. There are... More

Lola's Mediterranean-inspired menu recently featured I "heart" lamb dishes, including lamb heart kebabs. Photograph courtesy of Tom Douglas restaurants Being a newspaper food critic is a dream job. Being paid to dine on the company dime? I was in hog heaven. But when my dream job evaporated in March after the last print edition of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer rolled off the presses, I felt as if a huge weight had lifted. (From my ever-expanding gut, no doubt.) After 15 years of countless meals and hundreds of reviews, I was on the brink of total burn out. (Oh no! Not another over-the-top beet salad! I’m going to scream if I’m served another silly slider. Or deep-fried mac-and-cheese! Please, just bring me... More

Working the bench at Tom Douglas Bread Bakery in Seattle. Photograph courtesy Tom Douglas restaurants I'm a decent home cook, capable of rummaging through the pantry to throw together a quickie dinner or, on a quiet Sunday, searching my considerable cookbook collection for more elaborate recipes. Yet when it comes to any combination of yeast and flour, I've always been a hopeless failure. Even when following the no-way-you-can-blow-it no-knead recipes, I flop. So, I was nervous about working in the bread department of the Tom Douglas restaurants on my journey from critic to cook. Veteran baker Gwen LeBlanc seemed to sense my fear. "Don't be scared," she said soothingly while showing me how to arrange ficelle on a loader,... More

My journey from critic to cook began shortly after getting the gut-wrenching news the paper in which my reviews have appeared the past two years--the Seattle Post-Intelligencer--would soon be toast. More