I am a big big believer in focus leading to quality. (Note: not just a big believer. That’s TWO bigs!) I enjoy all sorts of restaurants that focus on one item — chocolate, hot dogs, bagels, etc. But one of my favorite foods is macaroni and cheese. It’s a perfect food item in my opinion. [...]

It’s no secret to those around me, I am hooked on Top Chef.
This season I have been invited by Leslie Seaton a writer for Buddy TV to comment on each episode for their website.  It was particularly fun this week as Wylie was the guest judge.
“Once again, Dana Cree, pastry chef at Seattle’s Veil restaurant, [...]

I have been in the public eye long enough to have met my critics.  Those individuals for whom my work does not only displease, but offends.
My first year at Eva, my use of huckleberries in February sent a customer into a snit.  “These taste as if they had been frozen, and that’s disgusting in and [...]

I have a question I haven’t been able to answer.
Is there anyone out there making their own bubble gum?  I can’t find any.
The closer it is to Seattle the better.
Is there a mom and pop  candy store out there with home made bubble gum?
A small family run producer mixing batches?
A tiny taffy shop hidden in [...]

I manage the dessert menu in it’s entirety.  This means not only creating the desserts and producing the components on a daily basis, but developing their replacements as the seasons change, and managing the inventory and ordering of my ingredients, and producing extras like the little amaretti cookies that come with each cup of coffee.
But [...]

While surfing the web, I came across an article featuring 10 things a restaurant doesn’t want to tell you.
This little tidbit particularly irked me.
At high-end restaurants such as New York City’s Per Se and Napa Valley’s French Laundry, both owned by chef Thomas Keller, the practice (of tip pooling) is called service compris.
“The 20% [...]

Cancer.
There, I said it.  6 letters that represent undeniable suffering.  One word that has no doubt effected every one of your lives in one way or another.  A blanket category of disease that has not only eaten away at the bodies of us or people we know, but an illness that tears holes in our [...]

Bye bye valentines day.  Or as it is known in the kitchen, VD.
Valentines day is notorious in the restaurant industry.  Now don’t take this the wrong way, but we call it “amateur night.”
I know you are out there too, you foodies who love us for what we do.  I know that romance to you is [...]

At present I am on a brief one week hiatus from Veil.  I am in Arizona, feeding people.
You may be confused.  Technically I feed people all week, month, year at the restaurants I work in.  Technically.
But don’t we all know, really, that no one goes to a fancy restaurant to be fed?  We go to [...]

In the midst of the holiday craziness, Veil hosted a wedding party. A small wedding, the bride and groom, brought their very small wedding party in for a special 6 course menu on a Friday, following their ceremony, and all their friends and family in for a cocktail reception the next evening.
With all the [...]