Renee Erickson: Sunlight & Breadcrumbs
Renee Erickson is the James Beard Award–winning chef and co-owner of numerous Seattle restaurants, including The Walrus and the Carpenter, The Whale Wins, Barnacle, Bar Melusine, Lioness, Westward, and more. She is the author of Getaway: Food & Drink to Transport You and A Boat, a Whale & a Walrus: Menus and Stories. Erickson currently serves on the board of the University of Washington’s School of Art + Art History + Design.
About Sunlight & Breadcrumbs
After more than 25 years running award-winning restaurants, acclaimed chef Renee Erickson realized that she had started to lose touch with her creative side, which she had nurtured in art school and had always considered as key to her approach to cooking. She decided to reconnect with her creativity by painting, taking photographs, making ceramics, and, of course, cooking.
Sunlight & Breadcrumbs highlights the beauty and creativity in making everyday food at home. To accomplish this, recipes are the jumping-off point—and there are more than 100 of Renee’s best here. But there are also essays that connect the dots between creative practices and the food she cooks. “Work in Progress” sidebars zoom in on the creative decisions made when cooking—the seasonal ingredients, textures, shapes, and colors that help make each meal a more thoughtful expression of life at that moment.
As this book shows, cooking can provide an outlet for meaningful personal expression, even when making decidedly straightforward preparations. Renee highlights the little, easy things that take a simple dish from nice to memorable—like the rich crunch of olive oil–toasted breadcrumbs on top of a hearty escarole salad—and persuades us to seek out and celebrate these details.
Sunlight & Breadcrumbs features delicious recipes like:
- Melted Anchovy Toast
- Oven-Dried Tomatoes with Whipped Feta, Mint, and Basil
- White Beans with Pork Sausage, Lemon Peel, and Green Herbs
- Raspberry and Pecan Crumble Cake
- and many more
