The Whitman Supper Club
Carolyn Erving
Matt Mitchell
Brennan Johnson
1. Where are you from?
Seattle, WA
2. What is your favorite dish to cook?
I’m drawn towards messy, juicy, rustic desserts. In an ideal world, I would make a seasonal galette (a fancy name for a messy tart/pie) every week. I love cooking with berries and apples.
3. What is your favorite dish to eat?
When my mom makes Copper River salmon with whatever seasonings she uses (I think it’s different every time), I almost faint from how good it is.
4. What do you draw on for inspiration?
I was encouraged to experiment and get messy in the kitchen at an early age so most of my inspiration has come from the excitement of haphazard trial and error. Also, when I’m walking to class or falling asleep I like to think of flavor combinations at a basic level (i.e., Madagascar vanilla bean and sage) and then think of ways to incorporate those flavors into a more complex dish (i.e., Madagascar vanilla roasted peaches in a sage-crusted tart).
5. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life what would it be?
Pulled pork for sure.
6. When you aren’t cooking, what do you do with your time?
I try to take every opportunity I have to go hike or explore. Distance running has always been a big part of my life and I also work as the General Manager for KWCW and am a writing tutor in the COWS.
1. Where are you from?
St. Paul, MN
2. What is your favorite dish to cook?
At the end of the day, despite all my creative yearnings, I always go back to sourdough. I'm soothed and enamored by the rhythm, meditation, and craft of making it. I'm still searching for that perfect loaf, and probably always will be.
3. What is your favorite dish to eat?
This one is too difficult for me. Maybe fish tacos.
4. What do you draw on for inspiration?
I'm absolutely fascinated by what's going on in the world's top restaurants these days. Since El Bulli opened (and, sadly, closed), there's been a big push to create and redefine food, and to infuse food with meaning. While it can be hubristic at times, I think it can be an act of humility towards the natural environment and the creative process when it's done right. I've spent a lot of hours reading cookbooks and watching The Chef's Table and Mind of a Chef to get inspired.
5. If you could eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Pizza. Brick oven pizza.
6. When you aren't cooking, what do you do with your time?
You can usually find me on the frisbee field, writing essays, or doing photography. I also manage a blog for a local winery and do video and other work for the Sheehan Gallery.
1. Where are you from?
San Francisco, CA
2. What is your favorite dish to cook?
I definitely have a certain nostalgia for "natural" ways of preparing food, ideally over an open flame. I find that working with a fire tends to pass onto the ingredient a flavor that is one-off and unrepeatable. Fitting with this raw approach, then, some of my favorite dishes to cook are pretty simple - it is quite hard to top a perfectly seasoned, seared, and rested hanger steak.
3. What is your favorite dish to eat?
I think my tastes change place to place, season to season per se. Currently, I've been finding myself visiting and revisiting various takes on salads, usually using whatever ingredients I can collect that are local. Striking the synergy found in a freshly prepared salad, when all the ingredients coalesce to produce a simultaneously unified and discrete gustatory experience is both satiating and satisfying.
4. What do you draw from for inspiration?
Anthony Bourdain, Francis Mallmann, Magnus Nilsson, Blaine Wetzel, Neitzsche, and every member of the Wu-Tang Clan, respectively.
5. If you could eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Sourdough bread, the staff of life
6. When you aren't cooking, what do you do with your time?
When I'm not reading as part of my English major or listening to podcasts, I love to get to the mountains to backpack.
