Some turn to a bottle of bourbon. Others head for the nearest pizza joint. Yet, for a small group, nothing helps them cleanse themselves from a night in the kitchen like updating their personal blog. We’re talking, of course, about chefs. There are a handful of them in Seattle who have some stories and opinions worth reading. What makes a good chef blog? Ultimately, it’s a nice mix of information and entertainment. Like any good chef, a good chef blogger will understand the importance of these ingredients. There are actually some other fun chef blogs out there, but sadly, they haven’t been updated in ages. Are you listening chef writers? Get back on that laptop and give us the goods! We have an intrinsic need to know what our chefs are doing and thinking when they’re not feeding us. With that in mind, we amassed a collection of our Top 5 favorite Seattle chef blogs. Bill Morris is not only a talented chef, he’s a talented photographer5. Cuisiniers KitchenWho knew the executive chef of The Rainier Club kept a really cool blog? “I have been writing continuously and passionately since about November of 2005,” says Bill Morris, who actually has two blogs. The main one, Cuisiniers Kitchen, is where Morris does most of his creative writing — menus, photos, ideas, philosophies, contemplations, etc.. The other, The Digital Kitchen, is more of a little photo gallery. “I like the other one better,” says Morris. We do, too. 4. Recipes for LifeLisa Nakamura, the former Chef de Cuisine of The Herbfarm and Sous Chef at the French Laundry, started her blog in November 2009. “It’s always been a dream of mine to write a cookbook for life in and out of the kitchen; simple lessons translated from food, if only we are willing to listen,” says Nakamura. “Take the onion, so often overlooked, but very complex and versatile if handled with care and love. Isn’t life, often at times, like that? Writing is a catharsis for me, a way to digest what I have learned over the years, and also a way to look back and laugh at the funny things I have experienced.” Nakamura’s newest blog post addresses her most recent venture: opening her own restaurant on Orcas Island called Allium. Tom Douglas family meals must be awesome3. Family MealTom Douglas began mailing out newsletters 20 years ago. Those newsletters became totally electronic six years ago. Now, it’s strictly a blog that examines all things food and wine. “All of my newsletters have always been an open dialogue about my travels, eating adventures, etcetera,” says Douglas. “They’ve been chatty and conversational, and so is the blog.” The Douglas staff, everyone from the bookkeeper to the line cook, takes turns updating the blog. Douglas says he gets a kick reading about their point of view on restaurants and foods. “There’s lots of cool voices out there worth hearing.” If you want to hear from the big guy himself, Douglas chimes in on the blog every six to eight weeks. 2. OrangetteIt wasn’t that long ago that Delancey co-owner Molly Wizenberg was a disgruntled UW grad student studying the French social security system in Paris. “I was much more interested in walking around and finding, you know, what so-and-so claimed to be the best baguette or the best croissant,” says Wizenberg, who decided to quit studying and start eating. In 2004, she started the blog Orangette, named after those chocolate covered candy orange rinds in France. The blog centers around the nuances that are born out of the kitchen, “The people who are sitting at the table with you, where you got your recipe, who taught it to you — all that. So, in my blog, what I try to do is each week, focus on one recipe and sort of tell the story that spins from that.” The blog has spurred a successful monthly food column in Bon Appetit and the cookbook, A Homemade Life. The Times of London even named Orangette the number one food blog of 2009. Becky cooking without garlic1. Chef ReinventedBecky Selengut is a lot of things: a private chef, a recipe developer for Bluebird Grain Farms, an instructor at PCC, a cookbook author, and a local freelance food writer. She’s also insanely funny. The combination makes her blog, Chef Reinvented, our favorite read. “I started Chef Reinvented (which was first born as Chef Interrupted) when I developed a garlic allergy and thought I was going to go flipping mad,” says Selengut, who has worked the kitchens at La Medusa, La Spiga, and The Herbfarm. “A chef with a garlic allergy – it’s like a bad joke. The writing helped me and I love to write and make people laugh, so at first it was therapy, then it just became a fun habit and now it has nothing to do with allergies, it’s just a view on my crazy life with food. I don’t have time to write as often as I like so I’m going for the quality not quantity model of blogging.” Selengut’s favorite blog entries are also ours: “I fucking hate Vegas” and ” Life is just a bowl of Montmorency Cherries.”