Greg Atkinson - Cooking, Entertainment
Greg Atkinson, celebrated chef and leading voice in Pacific Northwest culinary trends, is also the author of several cookbooks. His first book Recipes from the San Juan Islands (1992) features ten delectable specialties along with hand-tinted photographs of the islands' magnificent land- and seascapes. Atkinson's next two books In Season: Culinary Adventures of a San Juan Island Chef (1997) and The Northwest Essentials Cookbook (1999), highlight our region's bounty - apples, salmon, wild mushroom, and Dungeness crab among them. One reviewer on Amazon says of Northwest Essentials: "Infused with a love of food and respect for ingredients treated simply, Atkinson's book does full justice to the richness of the culinary Northwest and its cooking." In 2005 Atkinson published his most recent book to date, Entertaining in the Northwest Style: A Menu Cookbook. The book captures the Northwest lifestyle with an array of themed menus such as beach picnics, a spring meal to celebrate the return of the salmon, brunch aboard a cabin cruiser, or dinner that draws its ingredients from the luscious offerings at the Pike Place Market. In addition to the recipes readers will be inspired by beautiful photographs and personal anecdotes on how particular dishes were developed. Atkinson has won many awards for his writing over the years, including the James Beard Foundation's MFK Fisher's Distinguished Writing Award and several American Food Journalism Awards. He regularly contributes to Pacific Northwest Magazine and the Sunday edition of the Seattle Times, and was the host of KCET's 'Chefs 2006'. Atkinson's fans can also catch him weekly on 'The Beat' on KUOW, a Seattle NPR affiliate. The author and his family live on Bainbridge Island where they tend a small orchard of century-old apple trees, fig trees, grape vines, and of course lots of flowers and vegetables.
