Ethan Stowell is more than just a Seattle chef and restaurateur. He is, in part, responsible for the incredible dining boom in this city—his restaurants were among the first to receive national accolades and help put Seattle on the larger culinary map. He’s been at it for 14 years, starting with his first restaurant Union right up to his most recent, a second location of Tavolata in Capitol Hill that opened last year. In between those two, he’s opened 13 other restaurants, plus two spots at Century Link Field.

He’s been working with FareStart—the nonprofit that provides culinary and life-skills training to students who have dealt with everything from poverty and homelessness to drug and alcohol addiction—since 2004. His first Guest Chef dinner took place in FareStart’s former location downtown on 2nd Avenue. On June 1, he’ll be at the FareStart Restaurant, helping students prepare a spring-focused dinner and imparting some of his hard-won wisdom. We caught up with him for a preview.

As an early pioneer of Seattle’s exploding food scene, what are some of the lessons you’ve learned along the way?

The thing in the restaurant industry is that it’s all about balance: balancing your culinary hopes and visions with people’s expectations, balancing work life and home life, balancing how much food to offer at what price point. In my mind, the restaurants that are successful aren’t just about food, but provide a solid job pool for employees, offer raises, vacation, and insurance. I want people to like working for me and to provide a good meal and a good sense of value. It’s about connecting to customers and the community. There’s so much expectation in the restaurant industry about being cool—but then you grow up and realize there’s more to it.

What is the most important thing you would like the FareStart students to learn from you?

My job isn’t to show how awesome a cook I am, but to teach them skills and give them confidence. For us, the program is about, “let’s build some stuff here so you can actually go through the process.” It’s not about things they won’t do on a regular basis. I don’t want to go in as a hard-nosed chef, but as a fun person who shows that that you can be successful.

At your upcoming dinner, you’ll be cooking dishes such as asparagus soup with curried cauliflower and a pork chuck loin with baby carrots, English peas and spring onions. What exactly is a pork chuck loin?

Pork loin is that big long piece of meat towards the front of loin. There’s a section that starts getting wrapped around the dark meat of the shoulder. Pork loin can be so lean and boring, but chuck has really good marbling and flavor; it’s fatty and rich. At the grocery store or butcher, it’s often called “pork loin roast.”

Chef Stowell’s dinner at FareStart is on June 1 at 5:30pm. Dinner is $29.95. Click here for more information and to make a reservation.