Nosh Pit

School the Chefs

This Saturday local celeb chefs team up with kids to create a delicious (and cheap) school lunch. Come watch.

Posted by: Anne Larkin on May 11, 2012 at 10:15AM 0 Comments

This Saturday. the final showdown. Photo via Skillet.

Warning: This is going to make you wish you were still in grade school. To celebrate the progress that’s been made in the past couple years in the Seattle Public School lunch program, a pack of local celeb chefs will be teaming up with actual kids this Saturday in a competition to put together healthy, delicious, cost-effective lunches. The teams have to keep the cost per plate below $1.25, while still making it tasty enough to wow the likes of Joshua Henderson, Skillet bacon-jam master, and Leslie Mackie, Macrina’s pastry queen.

The event is a joint effort of the Next Fifty (which happens to be in the middle of Sustainable Futures, a two-month celebration of conservation) and good ol’ Tom Douglas, fresh off his big Beard win. It’s also a celebration of the improvements that have been made in the school lunch system since 2010, when the district got a grant that enabled them to seek out the aid of a local chef in overhauling the cafeteria, says Grist. And who could Seattle schools have chosen other than T-Doug?

Over the past few years some of Douglas’s chefs have logged some serious hours back in elementary school, testing out new recipes on kids and figuring out how to make $1.10—the amount allotted for food for each lunch—taste good and be good for growing kids.

Saturday’s event is free and open to the public, and everyone gets to sample one of the Douglas team’s cafeteria options, a curry with couscous, and cheer on their cheflets. And envy the fact that these kids got to spend the afternoon cooking with some of the best chefs in the city.

School the Chefs
Saturday May 12
Noon to 4
Seattle Center

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Tags: Tom Douglas, Joshua Henderson, Good Causes

10 Fun Facts About Skillet

Joshua Henderson’s forthcoming cookbook combines hunger-inducing recipes and revealing recollections.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Mar 16, 2012 at 03:00PM 5 Comments

Joshua Henderson’s collection of recipes from his truck and diner goes on sale in July.

When he’s not tending to his two food trucks, planning a new outpost at Seattle Center, running a wildly popular diner, or preparing to host a new radio show, Skillet’s Joshua Henderson has been writing a cookbook. The Skillet Cookbook: A Street Food Manifesto comes out this summer, but local publisher Sasquatch sent over a preliminary copy, filled with favorite recipes from both truck and diner, and beautiful photos by Sarah Jurado. Henderson also weaves in his take on food safety laws, food quality in general, and the story of launching his high-end food truck in the days before everyone was obsessed with high-end food trucks.

My biggest surprise as I flipped through the pages was how much thought and preparation go into these recipes, since the end result never feels overly complicated. But there were a few other surprises too; here, a few facts gleaned from the book’s pages:

1. The original name Henderson envisioned for his truck was Le Pigeon, until a certain chef down in Portland opened a restaurant by the same name. Incidentally Skillet’s signature pork belly and waffle (currently looking awesome on the cover of our breakfast issue) was inspired by a brunch dish Henderson had at that same restaurant.

2. The inspiration for Skillet Diner’s kale caesar, a surprise hit on a menu full of less-leafy temptations, was none other than Cormac Mahoney of Madison Park Conservatory.

3. Henderson bought his signature 1962 Airstream trailer in 2007 for $5,000, after spending six months talking the owner down from his original $10,000 asking price.

4. Early ideas for Henderson’s street food venture included a grill cart and a scheme to operate Skillet as a private club, selling $1 lifetime memberships so people could buy the food. The city nixed both of those plans.

5. The now-signature burger made its debut (along with Skillet’s milkshakes and fries) at Henderson’s wedding.

6. Another signature item, the poutine, was originally made with cheese curds, “but they have more squeak than flavor, kind of like the Canadians when they bitch about our poutine.”

7. Running a restaurant, says Henderson, is easier than running a trailer. He likens mobile operations to legalized gambling, guessing each day on the right amount of food and staff. On a truck, “you can’t cut someone midshift and tell them to take the bus home.”

8. The book’s lunch recipe section closes with a mention that Henderson is considering what other bricks-and-mortar projects would best reflect Skillet’s spirit. The idea he throws out there—a beer hall. Yes, please.

9. Henderson’s biggest regret was keeping his prices so low in Skillet’s early days. Concerned that people would balk at street food with restaurant prices, he planned to gain a following, then raise prices to the level necessary to sustain the business. This tactic put Skillet “in a hole from day one,” he writes, despite the long lines of customers.

10. In late 2008, Skillet came very close to folding. Henderson writes that he and his wife Kelli had discussions about how to best shut down the operation. Enter the 2008 holiday season, and Martha Stewart and Real Simple magazine raving about Skillet’s bacon jam. A flood of orders ensued, which helped keep the business afloat. It’s only a matter of time before someone buys the rights to this story to make a feel-good holiday movie.

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Tags: Cookbooks, Skillet, Joshua Henderson, Josh Henderson

Skillet at Seattle Center: It’s On

Josh Henderson will open a grab-and-go counter in the reimagined food court.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Feb 29, 2012 at 08:37AM 0 Comments

Photo: Iris Dumuk

A Skillet burger can soon be yours at Seattle Center.

For a couple months now Josh Henderson has reportedly had his eye on Seattle Center House. Graham Baba Architects is revamping the food court there, which will reopen in late spring with a beefed up culinary program.

On Tuesday Henderson confirmed to Nosh he has inked a deal with Seattle Center and will bring his Skillet enterprise to the historic property.

Henderson isn’t opening another Skillet Diner, exactly. Rather Henderson described the setup as a grab-and-go counter with an area to take a seat while watching the kitchen. “It will be a fantastic spot to just hang out and have a burger and a beer.”

The menu will be comprised of “greatest hits”: pork belly on waffle, biscuits and gravy, the fried chicken sandwich, poutine, the burger. As for an ETA: “I really am not sure of the opening date as there are contractor questions that are being mulled over right now. We are hoping for June.”

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Tags: Seattle Restaurant Openings, Street Food, Coming Soon, Skillet, Joshua Henderson, Seattle Center, Seattle Food Trucks, March Nosh News, Seattle Center House

Skillet’s Joshua Henderson Talks Restaurants on New Radio Show

The street food maestro and food reporter Julien Perry take to the airwaves soon.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Feb 13, 2012 at 02:15PM 0 Comments

Skillet founder Joshua Henderson, seen here schooling us in tailgate grilling, will be co-hosting a yet-unnamed new radio segment. Fire not included (but whiskey is). Photo: Chad Coleman

Coming soon: a new weekly segment on KVI AM 570 hosted by food writer Julien Perry and Joshua Henderson, founder of Skillet Street Food and its resultant diner.

The duo will be on the air as part of a cocktail segment Saturdays from 5 to 6pm, and both hosts say they are eager to change things up from the standard recipe-ish food radio show format. They are envisioning a (slightly booze-fueled) conversation about Seattle’s restaurant industry, most likely with a dash of smartass. No formal name or launch date exist yet, but word is these two take to the airwaves in the very near future.

Perry says she first met Henderson when she interviewed him for a “Go Eat!” radio segment on KOMO back in 2007, shortly after Skillet first rolled into town, and the two struck up a friendship. Apparently Henderson’s talents extend beyond inventing addictive bacon jam and opening wildly popular eating establishments—Perry says the restaurateur has a very charismatic radio presence.

Henderson says he’s “excited to drink whiskey and chat about anything food-related with Julien.” He also promises to not drop any F-bombs, a promise that might become more difficult with each successive sip of whiskey.

Is it just me, or is Seattle’s restaurant scene having a multimedia moment? Sure, national food media pass through every few months to write about geoduck, food trucks, and how much they love Walrus and the Carpenter. But locals now have both TV and radio forums for geeking out on dining. This is a good thing.

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Tags: Skillet, Joshua Henderson, In The Media, Radio, Josh Henderson, Julien Perry

Give Skillet Your Skillet, Get a $40 Gift Certificate

“The funkier the better.”

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Jan 27, 2011 at 09:11AM 0 Comments

A whole bunch of these will decorate Josh Henderson’s Capitol Hill Skillet diner.

Josh Henderson plans to festoon his forthcoming Capitol Hill diner with an “art wall” of 6-10–inch pans, says this week’s Skillet newsletter. A fitting decision, wouldn’t you say?

To ensure he has enough pans to pimp out the wall, Henderson is peddling $40 gift certificates to those willing to part with their friers. Any ole’ cooker probably won’t cut it—the newsletter makes mention of upmarket brands Le Creuset and Emile Henry, and specifies “the funkier the better.”

For more info on the swap read the Skillet newsletter.

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Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, Capitol Hill, Skillet, Joshua Henderson

Sneak Peek of Skillet Diner

Joshua Henderson plans a pop-up preview of his future restaurant.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 07, 2010 at 09:29AM 4 Comments

Next week, experience your first indoor Skillet burger.

Want to get a sneak-peek of the diner that Skillet Street Food owner Joshua Henderson has planned for Capitol Hill?

Go to the Mount Baker Community Club (2811 Mount Rainier Drive S) on September 13, 14, or 15 between the hours of 5:30 and 9:30pm. There, Henderson has planned a three-day pop-up where he will preview the menu.

The menu will include four “tastes,” (including, yes, your precious poutine, $8), five mains, and four desserts. Of course, Skillet’s famed hamburger made the list of mains, as did seared sockeye, mac and cheese, farro risotto, and spiced pork belly (on a cornmeal waffle with fried egg and braising jus.) These entrees range from $13.5 (for the burger) to $17, for the sockeye. Desserts—nutella crostini, a fruit crisp—range from $4 to $6.

A kids menu—chicken fingers, grilled cheese and fries, cheeseburger and fries, and spaghetti and red sauce—will be served from 5:30 to 6:30.

There will be beer and wine too. No reservations.

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Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, Restaurant News, Street Food, Joshua Henderson, Restaurant Popups