James Beard award nominee; Seattle chef who owns 4 restaurants: Anchovies & Olives, How to Cook a Wolf, Tavolata, and Staple & Fancy.
The food: Geoduck. In 2004, Oyster Bill from Taylor Shellfish came to my restaurant to show me what parts of the geoduck were edible, and how to cook it. I like weird things, and I loved this.The siphon (the neck) tastes like seawater butter with a cucumber crunch. The other edible part is the mantle, which you eat raw or cooked.
How it changed me: It made me realize that the Northwest's local food is not salmon and halibut, but shellfish--and it's so good here. I became obsessed with it. I devoted a big part of my cookbook to shellfish.