Transition

I come here to you, my small but faithful readership to bid adieu.

I am leaving Phat Duck, my humble little blog behind. Just nearing it's second birthday, this blog has been a documentation of my growth. Started to share with friends and family a journey I took to England, the first few months opened my window into The Fat Duck kitchen for you. While filling a 2 month stage, I wrote, photographed, and shared the amazing education I was receiving at a kitchen that is leading the culinary world right now. Many of you joined me after bits of the blog were published in the London Guardian. I'll never forget that day, when Heston walked up to me with a look of mischief and said, "I read your diary."

Upon my return to the states, the blog began to follow me through the ins and outs of becoming a pastry chef. I took my first "chef" job running the pastry department (of 1, that's I was the department) at Eva, a small neighborhood restaurant in Seattle. Using their strong beliefs in organics, seasonality, and local producers, I developed the skills needed to manage a dessert menu. You'll see in my posts from beginning to the end a progression in not only the desserts, but the format in which I wrote about them. Finding my niche in thoughtful essays with recipes and photographs, it seems I have just settled into a format the readers could count on, and here I go running out the door.

But don't fret just yet. You can come with me!

I will now be co-writing Tasting Menu with Hillel Cooperman. We met years ago when I worked at Lampreia. I spent my time in the kitchen, him at the table. But his passion for food brought him to the back of the house time and time again. When Hillel and his friends applied their talents to a menu Scott Carsberg had created to celebrate apples, an amazing digital cookbook was produced. And I got to know Hillel and the people of Tasting Menu.

Since then a mutual respect has grown, and it's become clear that our complimentary voices will be best suited writing together. Tasting Menu will now give it's readers perspective from behind the plate, and behind the stove.

I am also taking yet another career step into the kitchen at The Rainer Club. Looking to fill some holes in my education, I will be working with banquet production/catering, butchery and charcuterie, then finally cooking on the hot line in one of the most developmentally supportive, highly professional high end kitchens I have encountered.

Expect to see some of the dessert writing Phat Duck is famous for, insight into the industry, and a bit about the work I do at The Ranier Club.

So to Tasting Menu we go, just a click away........