Home Grown: A celebration of local culinary enterprise

Denis Hayes, Udder Truth-Teller

The country's largest private philanthropy, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which gave away two billion dollars last year, is based in Seattle, but it's not the only one. There's a tradition in American public life of family philanthropy (the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Endowment), and many of this region's First Families have followed that tradition to pass along their legacy. Not the least of these is the Bullitt Foundation, guardian of the fortune accumulated by lumber baron Stimson Bullitt in the early 20th century and enhanced with the sale of King Broadcasting.

Photo by Leah Boyer

Today, from its award-winning headquarters on Seattle's Capitol Hill (the country's "greenest" building), the Bullitt Foundation leads the nation in environmental responsibility. Its chief executive is Denis Hayes, who decades ago spent a post-college summer as an intern with King Broadcasting in Portland. Then, working on environmental issues with Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, his assignment was to launch an ambitious nationwide concept called Earth Day, which he did, 45 years ago, on April 22, 1970. Hayes went on to expand Earth Day to 180 countries, and eventually returned to Seattle and the fold of the Bullitt Foundation.

His latest book, written with his wife, attorney and educator Gail Boyer Hayes, bewails the increasing reliance on bovines to provide the planet with protein. Almost 100 million cows in the US alone, one for every three humans.

Feeding all those cows (so they will eventually feed us) requires vast resources. Some 100 million acres of corn alone. Unfathomable volumes of water, vast amounts of antibiotics. Much wringing of hands, along with predictable calls to eat less beef.

The worst part of our national reliance on beef may well be its energy inefficiency. Hayes points out that "finishing" cattle on corn, rather than grass, is ten times more costly. And corn, unfortunately, gives cows indigestion and gas.

But, surprise! We could break the "bovine industrial complex" by shifting away from cows to bison, for example. They range free, don't need a lot of human attention, drink less water, plow through snow on their own, don't need costly supplements, and don't trample their grazing grounds. Almost wiped out by hunters who shot them for sport and took only their pelts, bison are making a comeback; a few commercial herds are supplying meat (healthier than beef, by the way) to upscale markets. It's a tough sell, since bison runs into the established bulwark of the politically powerful cattle industry, an industry that has passed so-called "ag-gag" legislation in 13 states that prohibits criticism of feed lots or cattle pens.

It should be pointed out that "Cowed" is not a screed against meat. Rather, it ends with a note of thanks: "For ten thousand years, you've given us meat and milk, pulled our plows, and pulled your weight in helping make Western civilization possible."

Cowed: The Hidden Impact of 93 million Cows on America's Health, Economy, Politics, Culture & Environment. WW Norton, $27.95

Seth Caswell, Makeover Artist

The Dunbar Room at Seattle's Sorrento Hotel is not, as they say, Seth Caswell's first rodeo. His first appearance in Seattle was as exec chef at the Stumbling Goat bistro on Phinney Ridge. He got involved in what could be called "the politics of the plate" as head of the Seattle Chef's Collaborative. He then spent some time working on a new restaurant, which ended being called Emmer & Rye, taking over an old house on Queen Anne.

Then it was time for a more stable spot, and Caswell signed on with Bon Appétit Catering for a plum assignment: executive chef for Google's campus in Kirkland. He stayed for a year and a half before joining an old friend on Lummi Island. If the location sounds familiar, it's no doubt because Lummi has become famous as home to the Willows Inn, whose chef, Blaine Wetzel, was recently honored by the James Beard Foundation as the best chef in the Northwest. Caswell was hired to run a less formal outpost up the road named Beach Store Cafe.

The two chefs had known each other for years, mostly through nonprofit work (the Monterey Bay Aquarium). And by all accounts the Beach Store Cafe was doing splendidly when Caswell's phone rang with a job offer back in Seattle: the Sorrento Hotel, the venerable palace on First Hill, was revamping its aging Hunt Club dining room. Would Caswell be interested in taking over the kitchen of the new Dunbar Room? Indeed he would.

The Hunt Club's carpet has been replaced by Moroccan tiles; new tables and chairs now give the impression of a corner brasserie in a lively Parisian neighborhood. But it's not a big kitchen, so the trick for Caswell will be to keep his ambitions limited to the kitchen's capacity. Early reports are promising, with cheese and charcuterie plates proving popular at happy hour, and standby favorites like baked salmon and boneless ribs on the dinner menu.

"You come to the Sorrento and sense history," Caswell says, "so I want to make sure we're giving respect to the past. We're not trying to push boundaries with what we're doing. The food is very approachable."

June 2015

Ronald Holden is a Seattle-based journalist who specializes in food wine and travel. He has worked for KING TV, Seattle Weekly, and Chateau Ste. Michelle. His blog is www. Cornichon.org, and he has published a book "Home Grown Seattle: 101 True Tales of Local Food and Drink."