The drives are long. An all-day affair. And if driving is not your thing, watching the miles thump by under your tires, then this might not be for you.

I dread the trips every year as it messes with my schedule a lot! Yet, once the first trip is underway, I am happy again.

A long time ago, decades, I used to drive over, come back and sort for hours after. I can't do this anymore, and though the drive still seems long, I am more relaxed and can enjoy the scenery!

And what scenery it is! Yes, there is some interstate driving, though most of that is just 2 lanes and if you pick your routes wisely a lot of the miles can be on "Two-lane Blacktop"! (Know the Movie of the same name? What famous singer is in it? You might have just seen him in concert.)

The stretch out of Seattle on I-90 is quite stunning! When you have towering evergreens and a mountain pass to drive over with the sun peaking over the range it is quite glorious.

I normally stop in Cle Elum to acquire some fuel as it has significantly less tax per gallon and the rate is below $6!!

And it is also where I buy my losing lottery ticket and something salty like fritos or bugles. And of course, almond M&M's. And yes, I could be eating Ara chocolate or Joan's Chocolat Moderne, but the memory and the convenience of a chocolate that melts in your mouth and not in your hand has a strong pull. And this is the only time all year that I snack on them.... :)

Then I turn left and head up towards another mountain pass. The drive is absolutely gorgeous! The road winds through changing landscapes of trees and pastures!

I see cows, falcons, and both, Golden and Bald Eagles, as well as orchards of all kinds. The uphill goes for a long way, gradual and the downhill is fast and the scenery changes all the way. There are rivers and lakes of all sizess. Winding fast roads and often no congestion at all.

I often think about how lucky we are to have such a varied landscape all within the borders of our country!

And how many people make the effort to come from all over to see the Northwest countryside! I think of how lucky I am to make this drive to pick up cherries!

The orchards are all over eastern Washington and this last pass sent me to south of Yakima for a pickup. The drive is spectacular! Turn right off of I-90 just past the wind farm and the land changes to a different landscape! Beautiful rolling land like a painting of soft muted colors!

And climb up to a pass and reach the peak and the landscape changes again! As we roll through the carved land, it is like driving a gentle roller coaster. Fun!

And then a big surprise—two mountains, volcanos actually, pop up on the horizon. Mount Adams and Mount Rainier! It is a WOW kind of view!

On the return trip I chose a little longer route to see a different view. And what an amazing view in store!

First into a "National Park" with trees enveloping the sides of the 2 lanes, gently curving back and forth, quietly climbing, gaining altitude. At some point we notice that we are really climbing, eventually reaching 5,430' at Chinook Pass.

It is crazy, but as you go you really enjoy all the evergreens towering above you and then you turn the corner and "BOOM", a visual explosion and Mount Rainier fills the entire mind's eye frame!!

What total joy! Now this is what makes the food business so much fun!

That, and all the great people you meet, especially this year, has made the journey even more memorable, with so many fabulous new people along the way!

The person behind Alabama White BBQ Sauce is Robert Lee Gibson, better known as "Big Bob" Gibson—a name he earned from his size, reportedly standing 6'4" and weighing around 300 pounds.

Gibson left his job on the railroad in 1925 to open a barbecue business in Decatur, Alabama. He specialized in smoking pork and chicken in hickory-fired brick pits, and while his food and famously charismatic personality drew crowds, it was his tangy, peppery white sauce that made him legendary.

The sauce is mayonnaise-based featuring a combination of mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, black pepper, and salt, and was originally made for his smoked chicken.

The classic technique, still used today, is to dunk whole smoked chickens into a vat of the sauce right off the pit.

White sauce distinguishes north Alabama 'cue in the same way that thin tomato-vinegar sauces do in the eastern Carolinas, mustard-based sauces in parts of South Carolina, and the thick and spicy sauces of Kansas City.

The chicken is smoked first, then dipped. White sauce is a finishing sauce, not a cooking or basting sauce.

Not a pie, not a crisp it is a buckle.

Confused? Me too! So here is a list in case you wanted to know:

Pie – Fruit baked inside a pastry crust. Can have a bottom crust, a top crust, or both. It's the only one in this group built around real rolled dough.

Cobbler – Fruit on the bottom, topped with dollops or a layer of biscuit dough. The bumpy, dropped topping is said to look like a cobblestone street, hence the name.

Crisp – Fruit topped with a streusel that includes oats or not, giving it a crunchy, "crisp" texture.

Crumble – Basically a crisp without the oats. The topping is a crumbly mix of flour, butter, and sugar. (In practice, "crisp" and "crumble" are often used interchangeably.)

Buckle – Fruit is mixed into a cake batter, then more fruit is scattered on top. As it bakes, the surface "buckles," giving it its name. Think of it as a fruit-studded coffee cake.

Betty (or Brown Betty) – Fruit layered with buttered, sweetened breadcrumbs or torn bread.

Grunt / Slump – Fruit cooked with biscuit dough on top, but steamed on the stovetop rather than baked. The "grunt" supposedly refers to the sound the fruit makes bubbling away.

The quick way to remember it: pie has a crust, cobbler has biscuits, crisp has oats, crumble has streusel, and a buckle has cake batter. Sort of, depending on who you ask.

Making pies for the 4th is a great way to celebrate. Remember apples haven't been harvested yet, so other fruits can be great! In this case frozen blueberries are as good or better than almost all blueberries you can find in the store. Unless they are from your local farmer.

This sugar is like a miracle. Sometimes when all goes wrong when baking add this sugar and things are all better!

Each sugar has a reason to exist, but can it reach the level of devotion we have and have seen for this Dark Muscovado? Remember not all Dark Muscovado is the same.

Muscovado is a soft, moist, fine brown sugar. It's also known as Barbados sugar, where it was once made. But ours comes from the island of Mauritius off the African coast.

While most brown sugar these days is made by combining already-refined sugar with added molasses-like syrup, this is the real thing. This is a less refined product with rich, complex flavor.

This sugar adds a deeper dimension to cakes, fudge, pecan pie, and other desserts with its rich butterscotch flavors. Use it as you would brown sugar—take your morning oatmeal to new heights with a spoonful of Dark Muscovado on top!

Also known as "caster sugar", this superfine cane sugar has granules that are very fine and dry.

A superior quality sugar, it is the workhorse of professional Pastry Chefs because it dissolves so easily in batters and doughs, leaving them very smooth.

Especially appreciated for genoise, other sponge cakes, and meringue. It also dissolves very quickly in liquids, so it's great for iced tea.

From the cookbook, Herbivoracious, by Micheal Natkin.

One of the great thing about Michael's recipes is that they taste great without a lot fuss!

When the chef builds and designs his recipes because he has a family to cook for it makes the recipes practical!

What's Happening in the Store

Did you know the store often has more? And 3 parking lots! North, South and middle!

Come, taste and check it out! Pick your favorite and meet friends new and old who all love food. We love it when you hang out!

June, 2026
Monday - Saturday 10am-5pm
ChefShop Retail Shop, 1425 Elliott Ave West, Seattle

This is a terrific, tangy marinade for grilled meat or chicken. We love this marinated flank steak with a simple plate of rice and a green vegetable. Easy, quick to mix, the quality of the soy sauce makes all the difference. The sesame oil and the ginger are key ingredients, as well.

So crazy easy for fantastic results that makes the mundane disappear with ease. Oven roast your broccoli and do a few smashed potatoes or rice.

Wild Fennel Pollen is made from fennel flowers picked at full bloom. The plants are then dried and the pollen is sifted out, creating a seasoning that has the flavor and aroma of fennel, but with far greater intensity. Nothing is added to this beautiful golden-green dust—its incredible flavor stands on its own!

Our wild fennel flower pollen has become a pantry staple for many of us here at ChefShop. Unlike fennel seeds, you don't have to grind it, simply sprinkle straight from the package. We use it often, year-round. Think of it whenever you find yourself reaching for salt and pepper! The wild fennel flower pollen adds a wonderful touch to chicken, fish, and pork, as well as on grilled vegetables atop a sprinkling of good olive oil and coarse salt.

Golden apricots are the most delicate of the stone fruits, yet bursting with tangy sweetness, they are one of our tabletop favorites.

Harvested after sun-kissed perfection, we pack as many of these delicious beauties into each bottle as we can for your year-round enjoyment.

Drizzle on pancakes, waffles, and yogurt. The possibilities are endless!

One look and you see this wonderful lemon colored liquid.

Shake vigorously and see the bubbles!

Pop the top and smell lemon and more.

And boy what fun to taste!

It's not liquid like water! Nope, it's like a syrup that is smooth and light with a shape that moves magically in your mouth.

With little bits of surprises of lemon zest floating, it's a joy to sip!

Sweet, yes of course. 100 percent lemony? No, not all. With a touch of orange citrus this drizzle sauce is more than one note! It really does sing!

Top the top, drizzle on pastry, a pie, fruit, or cottage cheese. Versatile and simple. Or, just sip to make yourself happy!

From the cookbook, Herbavoracious, by Chef Michael Natkin

One of my most memorable and favorite videos I did with Michael for his cookbook, Herbavoracious, was this Dutch Baby. His enthusiasm is infectious when he starts cooking and he passionately talks about his cast-iron pan for making this recipe. It is a quite fun, glorious production of what he called a great brunch presentation and it is quite simple to make.

Over the last few years the Sweethearts have gotten sweeter whilst still maintaining their sharp cherry personality!

And their size has been really good. Now rivaling the Lapin!

The Sweetheart cherry traces its roots to Summerland, British Columbia, where breeders David Lane and Richard MacDonald made the original cross back in 1975 at the Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre (the old Summerland Research Station). A deliberate pairing of the Van and Newstar varieties, the seedling was selected in 1982 and worked its way through years of trials before the variety was officially released to growers in 1994.

Sweetheart was bred with the commercial grower in mind, and it earns its keep with a handful of traits that make it a standout in the orchard:

It ripens very late in the season (well after the mid-season stalwarts like Bing have come and gone) landing on the market when the bowls are empty and demand is high. In the Okanagan and across the river in Washington, that late timing is exactly what opens the door to export sales.

It is self-fertile, so it sets a full crop without a separate pollinator tree standing nearby. As a bonus, its bloom timing makes it a fine "universal pollinator" for other varieties, too.

The fruit is large, firm, and bright red, with a heart shape true to its name. That firmness, paired with skin that's moderately resistant to rain-induced cracking, lets it travel well and hold up on the long haul to markets in Asia, Europe, and beyond.

The variety's influence runs deep as the Sweetheart went on to parent several newer cultivars, including Staccato, Sentennial, and Sovereign. In 2012, this Canadian-bred cherry took home the Outstanding Fruit Cultivar Award from the American Society for Horticultural Science, a fitting nod to its mark on the world's cherry industry.

It is lavender season almost everywhere, and the bees are busy making food for the queen and honey for us.

We are fans of honey made from flowers and trees, as well as honey from all over the world. We have tasted a lot of honey in our time!

What is truly amazing, at least to me, is that honey from a plant, a flower in this case, can be so different from the same plant, in this case, a flower of a specific species grown in different places in the world.

Yes, the underlying tones are often the same, yet they can also be wildly different. Perhaps that is the definition of wild?

And this is one of my all-time favorite Lavender honeys! There is also a Maritime Lavender honey from the same bees that has a hint of the sea in it, which I truly love, but it is much harder to get.

When you open the jar of this honey, it is warm, creamy, and has a gentle, soft, inviting look. That is how you feel even before you sink your spoon in to savor and taste this elixir!

In the mouth, it is just as you anticipate, and even better. Soft and delicate, the flavors are as you expect and want. Sweet Lavender, subtle, delicious, and just right.

It is how you want your honey to be, but way, way better!

Think iced tea, yogurt, salads, morning toast, or Creme Fraîche!

Professional pastry chefs are using ChefShop Grande Brut because it does several things well at once: deep flavor, smooth texture, rich color, easy blending, low acidity, and real versatility across applications. It is a many-trick cocoa powder.

We stock it now because after working with it ourselves, we found it spectacular! It makes a giant difference!

ChefShop Grande Brut contains 22% to 24% cocoa butter. That is significantly higher than most cocoa powders on the market, and it is one of the main reasons we chose it. That extra cocoa butter is not a minor detail. It changes how the cocoa tastes, how it blends, and what your finished desserts actually feel like.

Most people focus on cocoa percentage (and with cocoa powder it is always 100% as it has no sugar) and overlook fat content entirely. It is the balance between cocoa mass and cocoa butter that matters. Cocoa butter is the natural fat in the cacao bean, and it shapes everything about how cocoa performs in a recipe.

Shop now for ChefShop Grande Brut Cocoa Powder here!

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