Northwest Food Lover Getaways

Tom Douglas Culinary Summer Camp

Photo: Benda Pederson

YOU KNOW HOW, at the end of summer camp, kids wail and hug and swear (and cross their heart, hope to die) to stay pen pals with their bunkmates? At the Tom Douglas Culinary Camp, the grown-up day campers actually keep that promise.

They’ve bonded over five days of cooking demonstrations, a Top Chef–like restaurant war, and face time with culinary superstars. Celebrity chef Douglas started the camp in 2006 to teach nonprofessionals with rotating guest speakers at a demo kitchen in his own Palace Ballroom. It was the participants themselves who made it a yearlong experience, meeting for meals on the first Friday of the month. Darryl Duke, who has attended camp four years in a row, organizes the gatherings and looks forward to the boisterous camp experience all year. “We’re like teenagers with alcohol, only it’s not illegal,” he says of the giddy atmosphere at the Palace Ballroom. “And no one gets pregnant.”

Camp is much more than a social experience. One day, the 40 or so attendees might watch Armandino Batali make sausage, then move on to a guess-the-pig-guts challenge. On a field trip, they might learn how fortune cookies are made before having Nathan Myhrvold explain molecular gastronomy. Chefs like Ethan Stowell and Mark Fuller show off three or four recipes, handing out samples while their work is projected on the two screens of the demo kitchen. The bites are small, but “You’re always in the perfect state of consumption: constantly satiated,” says Duke. Douglas doesn’t merely slap his name on the event; he’s a constant presence for every day of the camp, even interjecting his own thoughts into a guest lecture—visiting chefs just love that. In between camps, he and wife Jackie have been known to host reunions at their home in Ballard.

Participants take home more than a full stomach; there are signed cookbooks from the visiting chefs, plus a revised perspective on food. Repeat attendees say they’ve learned to approach cooking not by recipe but by balancing the three Ts: taste, temperature, and texture. At the monthly reunions, campers report that they’re buying more whole animals to cook with, rather than prepackaged pieces. But having learned those lessons, they’re still not done; many return year after year, using vacation days not to jet off to Europe but to simply go downtown for total foodie immersion. “It is a vacation, but you can sleep in your own bed,” says Duke.

• Do-It-Yourself Trips

Jazz Up Your Picnic

Illustration: Vidhya Nagarajan

• Get a luxury look without ruining your own 
linens by shopping Goodwill for tablecloths and napkins. The mismatch is charming alfresco, and they can all become dust rags tomorrow.
• Buy a flat of whatever berry is in season and bring a variety of preparations for the strawberries, raspberries, or blackberries: shortcakes with whipped cream, salad greens and blue cheese, even high-end olive oil or dark chocolate. You’ll burn through the flat in a single sitting.
• Skip the pots and pans and dine on fresh fare that can be cooked over a simple fire.
  Corn goes on the coals in its husk, oysters can be cooked in the shell.
• Add a corkscrew to your key chain or purse for the entire summer. It’s amazing how often afternoons at the beach become impromptu picnics…and gnawing your way into a wine bottle with your teeth is so unseemly.
• That said, champagne now comes in a single-serving can (tiny straw included!), and box
  wine isn’t always a low-quality joke.
• If eating on the ground just sounds awkward and uncomfortable, look into packable tables ($40 at Crate and Barrel) and low-riding picnic chairs (starting at $20 at REI).

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Published: July 2011