Tom Douglas Quotes

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

I don't answer my phone in a restaurant.

I'm much less shy in conversation than I am on my own.

If you just feel lazy and don't want to cook, then don't cook.

One of my favorite ways to eat albacore is tuna poke.

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.

Most of America doesn't pay dishwashers $10.

My longtime friend Steven Steinbock, who has worked with me for more than thirty years, is a master at panfrying fish and seafood.

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

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

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

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

I don't have any interest in being a chef without being on the business side of things, or vice versa, because if you don't make money at the end of the month, you're going out of business.

If you're going to start a fire, why cook just one chicken?

How can anyone live off of minimum wage?

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

Razor clams are large, oblong clams, although not as big as geoducks.

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.

Horseradish is one of those perk-me-ups. You can use it in a cocktail sauce, you can bread fish with it - it loses its punch when cooked. It's a 'What is that?' flavor. It adds depth of flavor to things.

Sweet, delicious Dungeness crab is always a treat.

I don't ever preach to people.

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

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

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

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.

Salsa verde is delicious with trout or most any fish.

I'm not exactly the best capitalist ever.

The simplest way to prepare Dungeness crabs is to boil them in the shell and set them in front of your guests with crab crackers or crab hammers, cocktail forks, and plenty of napkins.

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've been taught by everyone I've ever worked with.

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

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.

Some of the best things you do are the things you don't do.

I was driving around the country when I was 19 and happened to run out of cash in Seattle, so I settled here.

Entrepreneurial people are never satisfied.

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

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

Every cook I knows loves to make pizza.

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.

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.

Ling cod is a mild-flavored and somewhat delicate fish that takes well to poaching, braising and pan-roasting.

Be sure to read a recipe all the way through before you cook. The time it saves you in the long run is invaluable.

Sweet Washington cherries and Walla Walla onions are two of my favorite local treats.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

I love restaurants from top to bottom.

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?

A chunk of seared albacore tuna, salted and peppered, then seared rare in a little oil in a hot skillet for just a minute or so per side, is the perfect addition to a savory plate of fried rice. Just slice the tuna across the grain and fan those mild, meaty slices over the top of the rice.

Sometimes managers are a little shy to criticize another manager or another operation.

I have a good flavor memory.

There's natural mentoring that goes on in my life every day.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

The one thing I could do with my eyes closed is my Grandma's schnecken.

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.

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.

Utrip makes it easy for travelers to experience the destination highlights that most interest them, be it food, art or history. Just like a culinary experience, every palate is different, and Utrip is all about personalizing travel for their users.

The lakes in Washington State give us tons of crawfish.

Farm to table is a personal choice.

We've become such a restaurant society.

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

There's something majestic about a 30-pound Chinook salmon roasted and served whole - people get excited when you present it with the head and tail on. It has beautifully browned skin and extraordinary bright red flesh when you cut into it.

I didn't go to university. I didn't go to culinary school, barely made it through high school.

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.

I use ginger like garlic. I love it for steaming fish and making barbecue sauces or roasted chicken.

Pork is my friend.

If deep-frying catfish, try a dredge of seasoned flour and cornmeal and add some bacon fat to the oil.

After being cooked, ling cod tends to bleed out some moisture, so, before serving, let it rest a few moments on a plate. Once the moisture has been released, you can carefully pick up the fillet with a slotted spatula and transfer it to another plate for saucing. This way, you won't sog out your beautiful sauce.

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.

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.

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