Welcome back to the historic and iconic
Fairmont Olympic Hotel in downtown Seattle.
Now we are here specifically to
celebrate the opening of the new George
Restaurant and I am joined by the
restaurant executive chef Thomas Cullen,
who has brought this incredible
spread for us to try.
I mean, so many beautiful things here.
I have to just ask before we jump in.
What inspired you to create this menu?
Actually the Pacific Northwest.
Yeah, just the availability of the
freshest seafood in the, you know.
The amount of items that
come from this region, yeah,
is like a chef's playground.
It is yeah so.
And we have a lot of seafood here.
First of all, what are we tasting today?
Right now we have two crudos.
One is a gooey duck which
is super local to Seattle.
Oh that is a local legend gooey duck
and I've never tried it and I bet you
a lot of people haven't so you can
come here and try the gooey duck.
OK, that's interesting.
This looks like an iconic Pacific Northwest.
This is Oregon troll king.
Salmon belly, as stressed
with a little pickled ramp and
watermelon radish noctum, yeah,
so it's a little sweet and sour,
a little spice and it looks good.
Very fresh.
This one seems to be a showstopper
when you brought this out.
The entire crew just went,
CUDA nod over this.
This is an octopus. Yeah,
this is one of my favorite dishes.
I like to do octo a lot so
this is octo alla plancha.
So we sear it on like a flat
top and put a weight on it
and get it nice and crispy.
It's cooked and braised beforehand,
so it's nice and tender so it
gets a little that crispy skin
and little creamy inside and
it's it's the textures amazing.
Yeah, I already asked you like it's
OK if my stomach starts growling.
'cause you're a chef,
you're probably used to it,
but I'm getting hungry.
These are the main dishes that
use some of the main dishes here,
right? Correct?
This is what kind of whitefish is this?
Does halibut in season just
just became in season?
And so you know we we can't wait
for halibut to come in season
and it goes right on the menu.
May I try it? Not my fault
while I try this tell me about
this beautiful red meat dish.
Yeah, so this is our 32 ounce
bone in cowboy rib eye.
It's dry aged for us and we just cook it
till the temperatures is about medium.
About medium is what I would recommend
cooking this steak because the fat and
connective tissues get rendered out
and becomes more tender piece of meat.
I didn't realize yeah,
a lot of people want to eat it.
Medium rare, but sometimes it's
a little chewy are that way.
Oh my gosh, yummie
look, gosh that's so good.
What is in there? So
this is a spring onion soubise
it's like an onion sauce,
but since spring onions are in season,
we just cook a little bit of spring
onion and some heavy cream until
it really really nice and soft
and then puree them and the sauce
is basically just spring onion.
If I weren't sitting here with the camera
and it would be really unladylike how
quickly I finished this meal, do it.
It is so, so delicious.
You open the restaurant mainly right
now for for dining and for for dinner,
but there is going to be breakfast
and lunch coming up soon, huh?
Absolutely? What kind of what kind
of meals would we expect then?
So we're going to have this
standard fare at breakfast.
You know eggs and bacon and
and some lovely potatoes,
but we're gonna put a few other things,
you know, mingled in with the brunch,
like we'll have a nice twist on Amigas dish.
We're going to do eggs in purgatory,
things like that. That's some fun.
Alright, well I actually have
been living in the Pacific
Northwest for almost a decade,
and I've never tried gooey ducks. So
Oh yeah, you have to try. I'm
gonna try the gooey deck and I'm not gonna.
I'm trying to ignore what it looks
like before you made it so beautiful.
What is the red stuff here?
So the red is a little bit
of shaved Fresno chili.
And So what we do is we take the
ribs and the seeds out so it's
not very spicy and you just get
the fruitiness of the chili.
Oh my gosh, why people like
some people have a textural thing with it,
but if it's sliced really, really.
Then it's stressful than ice acidic sauce.
The texture is just melts in your mouth
and what I didn't realize is it's
not a really overwhelming flavor,
but perhaps that's the way you prepared it.
Maybe? I love it,
so let's talk about desserts now.
'cause those are my favorite mine too.
Oh really sure.
OK, so can I jump in here?
Absolutely this is our rum Baba Baba.
So the Baba is made in house and
then soaked with a rhubarb rum syrup.
It doesn't even want to get in
my mouth, but it's going to.
And then there's some rhubarb and
berries and a little bit of fresh cream.
Love that is that what
that is absolutely yeah.
And so we basically recommended.
Just take that and put it right on
the bowl and start like this. Oh yeah,
we're on top. Yeah, it's just
like that, yeah, why not?
OK, and that's
how I do it anyway. Is that how
you do it? Well, this chef does it
like that. All right there you go.
Oh my gosh, talk about unladylike.
It's about to get so here. This is so
so good. Nobody else touched this OK
before we wrap up because
I just have to ask you.
I know that they were talking
about the wines and and how is
everything the beverages going to
pair with what you've created?
Honestly the the glass pour list is pretty
extensive and there's a lot to choose from.
And you know people have different tastes
as far as what wine to pair with what,
and you know, I like I would pair.
Like a nice buttery white Chardonnay
with this 'cause it's kind of acidic.
Yeah, you know we have some really
big Reds for the steaks on the menu,
barolos and nebulos and things like that.
Oh my gosh, well,
she's a cab franc on the menu.
I love. Oh, really yeah,
hey congratulations, thank you menu.
Thank you for my pairing this for us.
It's been real honor and if you
would like to check out the George,
you better really make reservations soon.
'cause they're filling up fast, right?
Absolutely filling up fast.
So check it out pretty soon.