On Food

Feeding myself and others
by Rebecca Crichton

Most people don’t know about my career in the food business. I ran a catering business with a friend for a few years, discovering what it means to multiply ingredients from feeding four to feeding 100. What I thought were my biggest bowls wound up feeling like teacups when needed to feed a large group.

I spent two years as a recipe developer. I was hired to identify the ingredients and create a bulk recipe for the Signature Barbecue sauce for a man who had purchased an established neighborhood business. He had tried to replicate it, but something was missing. I came, I tasted, I took home the precious bottle of the original sauce and went to work with my collection of spices. The missing ingredient: Cumin! 

Then there were the four months in a drafty warehouse developing flavors for a product you never saw: Shark Jerky. My friends and family, who usually welcomed all things culinary from me, begged off the regular tastings. I thought the Lemon-Pepper variety had potential.

When I finally switched to writing about food, I wrote cover copy for newspaper food pages and a feature article about potatoes for a food magazine you also never saw. I know more about potatoes than you ever want to know.

For the past two years, I have been the food columnist for 3rd Act Magazine. Check out the Spring Issue, it’s on-line—although subscribing will help keep it going.

I often meet people who say they remember me for a particular recipe I shared with them. It might be my Cilantro Salsa, Sweet and Sour Avocado Sauce or Buttermilk Pie. Here is a recipe for an Easy Anytime Frittata that can be served, well, anytime!

And since food is so important to me, I have started to give to some of the many organizations that address food insecurity and are helping children and families who don’t have enough to eat and people in the restaurant industry. The links below are just a few that will help during these insecure times.

  • $25 Meals for Healthcare Workers: Ethan Stowell Restaurants is offering a meal matching program to benefit the heroic healthcare workers who are on the frontline fighting COVID-19. 
  • FareStart: Helps people with barriers train in culinary careers and is continuing to help their students through the COVID-19 crisis.
  • Feeding America: The nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization.
  • No Kid Hungry: Working to end child hunger in America.
  • Northwest Harvest: Washington’s statewide hunger relief agency.
  • The Plate Fund: A donor-funded effort to get immediate cash to restaurant industry workers in King County who have been hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis.
  • Say YES! to Older Americans Month: Sound Generations is working to alleviate hunger and social isolation for older adults in King County. Thanks to Aegis Living and the Clark Family Foundation, now through the end of May, donations of $100 or more will receive a 1:1 match up to $50,000!
  • Seattle-area food resources: An extensive list of sources for food available during COVID-19.