Renee Erickson (born 1972) is a

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

-based chef and restaurateur. Owner and chef at a group of six Seattle restaurants, Erickson won the 2016

James Beard Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media awar ...

for Best Chef: Northwest. Erickson began her restaurant career while an art student at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

: needing a job to afford her studies, she worked for some years at the restaurant Boat Street, but then unexpectedly was offered the opportunity to buy it when she was 25. Though she had planned to go back to school, she accepted and bought Boat Street. A business partner eventually persuaded her to expand further and she has become owner and chef of a group of restaurants in Seattle, including Bar Melusine,

Bateau A bateau or batteau is a shallow-draft, flat-bottomed boat which was used extensively across North America, especially in the colonial period and in the fur trade. It was traditionally pointed at both ends but came in a wide variety of sizes. ...

, Boat Street Cafe, The Whale Wins, Barnacle, and

The Walrus and the Carpenter "The Walrus and the Carpenter" is a narrative poem by Lewis Carroll that appears in his book ''Through the Looking-Glass'', published in December 1871. The poem is recited in chapter four, by Tweedledum and Tweedledee to Alice. Summary The ...

. ''

Bon Appetit Bon or Bön (), also known as Yungdrung Bon (, ), is the indigenous Tibetan religion which shares many similarities and influences with Tibetan Buddhism.Samuel 2012, pp. 220–221. It initially developed in the tenth and eleventh centuries but ...

'' titled a 2016 profile of Erickson and her restaurants, "Why Seattle Is One of the Most Exciting Places to Eat in the Country," and compared Erickson to

M.F.K. Fisher Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher Parrish Friede (July 3, 1908 – June 22, 1992), writing as M.F.K. Fisher, was an American food writer. She was a founder of the Napa Valley Wine Library. Over her lifetime she wrote 27 books, among them '' Consider th ...

Elizabeth David Elizabeth David ( Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-20th century she strongly influenced the revitalisation of home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and books about Europea ...

, and

Julia Child Julia Carolyn Child (Birth name#Maiden and married names, née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for having brought French cuisine to the American pu ...

in her generational significance as a chef. In 2014, Erickson published a cookbook called ''A Boat, a Whale & a Walrus''. ''

Eater Eater may refer to: * Eater (band), an English punk rock group * "Eater" (''Fear Itself''), a 2008 episode of the NBC television horror anthology ''Fear Itself'' * ''Eater'' (novel), a 2000 science fiction novel by Gregory Benford * ''Eater'' ( ...

'' described it as a cookbook while also part narrative and memoir. It has 70 recipes organized into seasonal meals. Erickson has been a prominent supporter of Seattle's minimum wage increase, adopting the $15 minimum hourly wage five years ahead of the legal mandate.

References

1972 births Living people American women chefs American cookbook writers James Beard Foundation Award winners American women food writers Chefs from Seattle {{chef-stub