Photo by Adriana GrantThis is the second installment of our interview with Violette (Vee-o-lette) Tucker, resident baker at The Kingfish Cafe. You can read part one here. Check back tomorrow for Tucker’s recipe for coconut bread pudding with bourbon sauce. SW: What are your culinary inspirations? Tucker: My parents. I grew up cooking with them a lot, especially with my dad. Big savory meals. I learned my way around the kitchen at a young age.What was the first thing you learned to cook? And how old were you?First thing: Chocolate chip cookies with my Mom. I was six or seven. With my dad, it was probably London broil. I was a little bit older then, maybe ten or so.Is there an ingredient or dish that you’re particularly into these days? If so, what?I am really loving coconut right now, coconut everything. Coconut flour, coconut milk, coconut flakes; it’s really versatile. Coconut flour in baked goods is amazing. It’s rich and dense that it adds a really nice sweetness and cheweyness to things, especially cookies.

What was your favorite food when you were a kid?

I’m a super carnivore at heart, so pretty much anything meaty. Probably my favorite would be my dad’s cheeseburgers. He made the best cheeseburger. With cheddar. And he always used a lot of salt and pepper in the pan.How do you mean?He would cook in a cast iron skillet, and before he would put the burgers in the pan, when it was really hot, there would be extra salt and pepper in the pan, for extra seasoning. I still make them that way, because of my dad.You’re making a pizza. What’s on it?Probably pepperoni would be my first choice. Or pesto and artichoke hearts and chicken and olives and goat cheese. Where do you eat if you have just $5? Where would you eat if you had $100?I would get the garlic fries at the little Mediterranean hole-in-the-wall at Pike Pace Market. I think they’re literally $4.99. A hundred? Cafe Flora in the summertime. They have an amazing–I can’t remember what kind of cheese it was–but they had this pizza that was made with blackberries. It was incredible.

What’s your after-work hangout? I love Chapel. Their rosemary gimlet is incredible. What would you like to see more of in Seattle from a culinary standpoint? Less of?I’d like a place that has really good sandwiches, East coast style sandwiches. (Tucker is from Albany, NY.) There is none. Anything you’d like to see less of?I’d like to see less fusion. I like to see places, like this place [The Kingfish Cafe], do one thing really well.