Chefs Kitchen: recipe and tip, Bradley Dickinson, Mikel Rogers, Pearl Bar & Dining, kitchen mallet, rolling pin, heavy duty plastic wrap, pounding chicken, Schwartz Brothers Restaurants, chicken appetizer, savory chicken, Carmine Il Terrazzo, Rossellini

Chef's Kitchen

Each month we bring a guest chef into our Chef's Kitchen column to give us a tip that elevates their cooking (and hopefully ours). They also provide a recipe that showcases their tip. Our guest chef this month is Pearl Bar & Dining Executive Chef/Managing Partner Bradley Dickinson. Pearl is located in downtown Bellevue across from the Westin Hotel. Managing Partner Mikel Rogers worked for Schwartz Brothers off and on over a number of years while also working with Rossellini's The Other Place, Carmine's, as well as a few hotel chains. Together, Brad and Mikel offer contemporary Northwest cuisine in a cool atmosphere. Their happy hour in the lounge is a big draw in addition to their market and season-driven menu.

Brad's career developing menus and concepts and managing kitchens dates back more than 20 years in Seattle and Bellevue. As an Executive Chef he proved instrumental in developing and refining such restaurant concepts as Daniel's Broiler, Chandler's Crabhouse (Seattle and Yokohama, Japan), Spazzo Italian Grill and Revolution Bar & Grill at the Experience Music Project. He assured product quality throughout the restaurants and catering operations.

When he's not planning menus, developing a culinary staff or marketing the restaurant, Brad will be drawing inspiration from culinary trends, cultivating his home vegetable garden and tasting the latest vintage to add to his wine cellar. Born and raised in Seattle, Brad and his sweetheart wife Sistie have three school aged children. He also manages to find time to lower his handicap with a few rounds of golf in between entertaining friends and using his chef skills to support his community. Past charitable causes include Children's Hospital and Medical Center, The Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, St. Joseph's School, The University of Washington Medical Center and others.

Keeping the mess to a minimum, by Executive Chef/Managing Partner Brad Dickinson

You know what a mess it is to pound chicken breast? Chicken flying all over the place! Literally.

The trick is to cover the chicken with three or four layers of heavy duty plastic wrap and then you can pound away to your heart's content. Here at the restaurant we lay out plastic wrap, place the boneless chicken on top and then cover it with the three-to-four layers of plastic. We also like to use a rolling pin; it doesn't smash the chicken to bits like some of those heavy kitchen mallets do. No more messy countertops and say goodbye to bits of chicken all over the kitchen.

Pearl Bar & Dining
Lincoln Square
700 Bellevue Way NE
Suite 50
Bellevue, WA 98004
425-455-0181
www.pearlbellevue.com

Click here to see Brad's recipe

January 2009

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