Grillaxin' with Belle Epicurean's Carolyn Ferguson, Part Two

photo by Adriana Grant

Carolyn Ferguson, on the right, behind the counter at Belle Epicurean

This is the second installment of our interview with Carolyn Ferguson, the Cordon Bleu-trained pastry chef behind the swirls of caramelized brioche filling the bakery display at Belle Epicurean. For some background on Ferguson, read part one. Today she talks about how she makes pizza with her two small children, and where a seven dollar food allowance would take her.

SW: Is there an ingredient or dish that you're particularly into these days? If so, what?
Ferguson: We've really been tinkering fresh pastas at home. There's a lot of Italian food at our house. And Howard did fresh halibut last night on the grill, on a cedar plank. It's very rare to get it when it hasn't been frozen, and this was never frozen. I'd never had it on a cedar plank because that's typically something that's done with a different type of fish. It was buttery. It was amazing.

You're making a pizza. What's on it?
Everything, I look in my cupboard and it's everything. Well, we had some wild mushrooms that we foraged, these chanterelles and these lobster mushrooms. So you cook them down with some butter and garlic and deglaze with some sherry. Oh, it's wonderful. I set it up so there's the dough, and the olive oil. I set it up at a bar for the kids, and for Howard. Everybody gets a ball of dough. They did little pizza hearts at Valentine's, their imaginations just go, and it's home, so the shape doesn't matter. So we have just the plain marinara, sometimes they like that, and olive oil infused with garlic. Sometimes we have just a plain béchamel, just to try, but usually they don't go for that. Capers, fresh green onions, parsley, anything that's fresh and green. Bell peppers are a hit with them. They'll eat red and yellow bell peppers, though they don't eat a ton of fresh stuff. So it's anything that we have. Stay away from anchovy, they'll look at it and go agggh. Sausage, any kind of meat. It's so fun.

What was your favorite food as a kid?
I don't know that I really had a favorite. I had a lot of likes. I loved salmon. I could taste it today, with tartar sauce my Mom would make. Oh my god. Lasagna, macaroni and cheese, those are the staples that kids like. We always had this rule that you always had to try it. There were all these of things I didn't want to try that I actually ended up loving. Spinach. It's one of my favorite things to eat. As a child, if I wouldn't have tried it... And after I tried it, I remember I really loved it.

Where do you eat if you have just $5? Where would you go if you had $100?
If I had a hundred I would go to Nell's, out on Greenlake. We love that place. Last time we were there I had this black cod, and it was the most amazing dish. I believe that everything you get there is really amazing. It's reasonable, it's casual in its ambience, it's not hoity-toity, so you can go there and relax, but the food is amazing.

Can I have seven dollars? [SW:Yes.] The best sandwiches are at Paseo, those Cuban sandwiches are the best things you've ever had. I'm not kidding. It's messy, it's extremely messy, but the flavors. It's great bread, and their meat is cooked with Caribbean spices. I don't know what they put on it but it's their own, they call the Paseo marinade. We never ask what's in it, but they put cilantro and pickled jalapenos. The flavor combination is to die for. And then we'll eat it in like five seconds.

What's your after-work hangout?
At home with my kids. A day like today maybe we'll go out to Greenlake or something. It's so great and they are growing so fast. I look and my stepdaughter is fifteen, now she is taller than I am and I think, 'Oh, stop growing.' It goes back to why we opened this place. The bitter edge, wanting to do this project but also maintaining a healthy life with our family. You can't lose sight of that. They are important in our loves and we are so important in their lives. When it's time to go home from school, we're with them. It's not with the sitter. So, if they get out of school early, we leave work early. There's a picture here of Nancy, from the Seattle Weekly and she's just a little baby, and Howard's sitting here. Someone took the picture here and you could see this bald baby. They've been here the whole way. Belle. Belle Epicurean is for Isabelle.

Check back tomorrow for a recipe for Ferguson's Chocolate Decadence Cake, an ultra-rich dessert made with very few ingredients.