1. Willows Inn, Lummi Island Washington Blaine Wetzel Progressive American 2 Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare Manhattan New York César Ramirez Japanese - French 3 Single Thread Farm Healdsburg California Kyle Connaughton Progressive - Japanese 4 Saison San Francisco...

Lummi: Island Cooking by Blaine Wetzel To get to the isolated Willows Inn on Lummi Island, you have to first land a coveted reservation and then travel to Seattle, drive two hours north (or one-and-a-half hours south from Vancouver) and take a ferry to Gooseberry...

This is an excellent time to have some absorbing cookbooks on hand. Not only because many of us could use inspiration figuring out what to cook while we shelter but also because we’re craving connection. A parallel has emerged between restaurants and cookbooks in...

Households around the world right now are being tested when it comes to their culinary repertoire. With restaurants shuttered, people are left mostly to their own culinary devices which can have their limitations. Thankfully, in the bookselling industry, spring also...

When I first saw Lummi: Island Cooking, the new cookbook from Willows Inn chef Blaine Wetzel, I couldn’t help but pick it up. The book itself is wrapped in a rough but texturally pleasing yellow fabric, and the cover — a single deep-blue photograph affixed to the...

The love story started in the summer of 2018, with a chance encounter at a pintxos bar. Blaine Wetzel had just landed in Bilbao, Spain, after a long series of flights from his home on remote Lummi Island, Washington, a two-hour drive and 10-minute ferry ride north of...

The Willows Inn.  Internationally renowned as the epitome of Pacific Northwest cuisine, the restaurant at this Lummi Island inn is a bucket-list destination for anyone who calls themselves a food lover. Helmed by James Beard Award–winning chef Blaine Wetzel, the...

“By mid-December, the pumpkin pile will be depleted. When the pumpkins are gone, it’s time to close our doors for the winter season.” So said Reid Johnson, manager of The Willows Inn on Lummi Island. The pumpkin pile, bright orange like a warm fire, sits beneath a...

Just off the coast between Vancouver and Seattle, tiny Lummi Island is home to a totally unique dining destination called The Willows Inn. Blaine Wetzel spent formative years under René Redzepi at Copenhagen's Noma before taking over this 100-year-old inn at the...

Seattle has long been Washington State’s mainstage for the culinary scene. But a little college town called Bellingham, just a half-hour south of the border with Canada, looks to give the big city a run for its lunch money. With a thriving microbrewery scene, a...

Lummi Island is a perfect getaway for families looking to unplug and enjoy time in nature. This easy day trip from Bellingham is just 25 minutes to the Lummi Island ferry terminal at Gooseberry Point. From there, the ride across the channel aboard the Whatcom Chief...

No longer is award-winning food resigned to "perk" status during a hotel stay. Properties around the world are making their food programs an integral part of the experience, where culinarily curious travelers can indulge in the art of cooking, farming, and eating like...

LUMMI ISLAND, Wash. -- While Lummi Island is only an 8-minute ferry ride from the shores of Bellingham, it feels like a world away. Escape to The Willows Inn lodge for a 20-course dinner, or enjoy a weekend getaway in one of the several on-site suites. The...

1 The Willows Inn Blaine Wetzel Progressive American Lummi Island, Washington 2 Single Thread Farm Kyle Connaughton Progressive - Japanese Healdsburg, California 3 Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare César Ramirez Japanese - French Manhattan, New York 4 Saison Laurent Gras...

Unless you live on Lummi Island, a small island among the San Juans between Seattle and the Canadian border, a meal at the Willows Inn is as much a pilgrimage as it is just a dinner. The tasting menu restaurant is nestled among a tangle of wooden cabins where you can...

Every intrepid chef who strikes out to Washington’s distant pockets and expresses those immediate surroundings in the form of ambitious food furthers a movement that began with a Craigslist ad. Or, more specifically, with a 24-year-old kid from Olympia on a plane back...