The Northwest's guru of inventive recipes

With a hundred-plus carefully selected, taste-tempting recipes and seemingly as many glamorous food shots by E. Jane Armstrong, "Kathy Casey's Northwest Table" (Chronicle, 2006) captures not only the flavor and feel of the great Pacific Northwest cuisine that she helped define, but affords a lively portfolio of her work.

Casey, whose Dishing column appears the first Wednesday of the month in this section, burst onto the Seattle food scene in the early 1980s with an innovative way of doing hotel food at the since-closed Fuller's Restaurant in the Seattle Sheraton. But like most overnight sensations, Casey had been working hard out of sight before her debut. "I worked as the cook at a convent!" she recalls.

Then, at a time when most cooks worked their way up the ranks from dishwasher through prep cook to line cook, Casey completed the Seattle Central Community College Culinary Arts program. After school she launched her own catering company before going to work at The Sheraton. At Fuller's "I was not just the only woman in the kitchen," she says, "There weren't even any servers who were women!"

By the time Casey was "discovered," she had already climbed a mountain or two and she definitely had her own ideas. Dismissing the list of "approved vendors" assigned by the hotel, she purchased fresh produce and mushrooms from wild-crafters and farmers who delivered their goods directly to the kitchen. She also eliminated the expected or traditional menu items. Instead of the standard onion soup with a gratin of croutons and Swiss cheese, Casey offered a five-onion soup with leeks, red onions, white onions, shallots and garlic, spiked with sherry and cream and delivered sans cheese with a simple garnish of fresh chives. The recipe, which appears in the book, is still state-of-the-art delicious.

The Northwest's iconic salmon and halibut were served not with sober tartar sauce, lemon and dill that Seattleites had come to expect, but with colorful garnishes of berries or wild mushrooms, or seared in crispy hazelnut crusts.

Old standards like roast chicken were rubbed with spices and decked out with jewel-toned relishes made of stone fruits. Vegetables sparkled in the brilliant way that only those locally grown barely-cooked specimens can. And all those dishes are here, looking as good as ever.

Perhaps the most radical thing about Casey's tenure at Fuller's, though, was the application of a public-relations campaign to promote her as the colorful darling of the Pacific Northwest food scene.

A quarter-century ago, the notion of a "star chef" was practically unheard of. But Casey was featured on the covers of glossy magazines and paraded across our television screens. She was on "Good Morning America" and "Larry King Live" in the same day.

With her silent-film-star smile ready to flash at a camera, and a witty quip at the tip of her opinionated tongue, Casey has her carefully crafted persona. You can't miss the distinctive starlet wink in recipe titles like "Pink and Puffy Strawberry Chiffon Pie" or "Sassy Watermelon Salsa." Never mind mac and cheese when there's "Super Sexy Noodles with Artisanal Cheese & a Pouf of Herbs" to be had.

Oatmeal cookies aren't simply made with dried fruits, they're "Jewel Fruit-Studded." Sesame-roasted shrimp sticks are served with a "Zippy Apricot Dipping Sauce," and "Tasty Dungeness Crab Cakes" get "Poufs of Slaw" along with sherry aioli.

But cutesy recipe titles aside, this is a work of substance. From the "Sunset Sage Margarita" (sage in a margarita? Of course! Why didn't I think of that?), to the poppy-seed-speckled "Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Cascade Berries" (Yes! It's lighter and richer at the same time!), these recipes are sheer genius.

Behind the twirling umbrella of her own giddy performance, Casey is a fully cognizant Gloria Swanson. The razzle-dazzle on the surface belies a deep understanding of what makes food fun, and a rock solid knowledge of how to prepare it with aplomb.

Any home cook would do well to follow the no-nonsense Chefs' Secrets on Pages 32 and 33, and so would any number of professional chefs. Make no mistake. Casey's sixth book is a solid work by a consummate professional at the top of her game.

Greg Atkinson is a regular contributor to Pacific Northwest magazine and a culinary consultant. He can be reached at greg@northwestessentials.com.