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"Eating at the Corson Building in Seattle is like dropping in for dinner at a wonderful old country house with a wildly talented cook in charge of the kitchen, which is just how chef Matthew Dillon envisioned his second restaurant. Four nights a week, he and co-chef Emily Crawford whip up a meal for at most 30 guests, who sit at long communal tables in the candlelit dining room. As you arrive, the host hands you an aperitif, leaving you free to inspect the rustic wines on the sideboard, chat with the other guests or poke your head into the kitchen to see what&amp;#039;s cooking. Dillon, the 35-year-old chef behind Seattle&amp;#039;s casual Sitka &amp;amp;amp; Spruce, wasn&amp;#039;t really looking to open another restaurant, but when he found the circa 1910 stone house tucked under a freeway in the city&amp;#039;s Georgetown neighborhood, he was smitten. Not only was the site romantic (the house was built by a family of Italian stonecutters who embellished it with carved stone lions), it had enough land around it to create a garden where he could grow much of his own food. Now raised beds spill over with lettuces, radishes, fava beans and peas, as well as herbs, both common and uncommon. Artichokes and cardoons festoon the garden with their spiky shapes. Potatoes and wild ginger grow among all sorts of berries, peaches, plums, cherries and persimmons. In one corner, chickens peck in their coop. Nearby, bees buzz in their hive. And a wood-burning oven stands to one side of the building. Mission accomplished\u2014a cook&amp;#039;s paradise. And the Corson Building is just as appealing to guests; it&amp;#039;s down-home and very relaxed. Dillon&amp;#039;s more likely to be wearing a T-shirt than chef&amp;#039;s whites. And lest you forget where you are, he has a map of Washington State tattooed on his wrist. The menu isn&amp;#039;t printed or set up ahead of time: it&amp;#039;s what he feels like cooking that night, prix fixe, served family-style on big platters. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s like going to your grandma&amp;#039;s house,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re having dinner as opposed to going out to dinner.&amp;quot; And with strangers sharing the same table, passing the plates could be the start of a conversation. Most evenings Dillon cooks a menu much like this one, which starts with his own air-dried ham from the two pigs he slaughters each fall. Letting the natural beauty of the ingredients shine, he combines the ham with ripe, sweet watermelon, crumbled sheep&amp;#039;s milk feta and feathery dill fronds, gently tossed in a vinaigrette lit up with Aleppo chili flakes. It is followed by a lovely dish of saut\u00E9ed porcini with grapes, almonds and bitter chicories from the garden. The porcini come from a forager who roams up and down the coast collecting wild mushrooms and sea vegetables. Wander through the restaurant and you&amp;#039;ll come across the kitchen&amp;#039;s library of cookbooks, many of them Middle Eastern and North African. &amp;quot;Those cuisines are so old,&amp;quot; Dillon says, &amp;quot;and truly the food of the people, which, for me, is a really beautiful approach to food.&amp;quot; Beets perfumed with rose water arrive with sweet-and-sour carrots, preserved lemon and dukkah (an Egyptian spice-and-nut mixture). Rich black cod is dressed up with tomato, chickpeas and thick, cool yogurt. Then comes a roasted chicken, cut up and served with local peaches, with anise hyssop leaves tucked between the pieces. To finish, the kitchen sends out a luscious tart, made with ripe plums in custard and topped with olive oil gelato drizzled with honey. Like all successful dinner parties, this one winds down slowly, with guests lingering over coffee and chocolates, reluctant to leave the world of the Corson Building.  Recipes Sliced Air-Dried Ham with Feta, Melon and Dill Beets Marinated in Rose Water with Sweet-and-Sour Carrots Saut\u00E9ed Porcini with Grapes, Almonds and Chicory Black Cod with Potato, Chickpeas, Tomato and Yogurt Roasted Chicken with Anise Hyssop, Peaches and Hazelnuts Plum Tart with Olive Oil Gelato  Click here to see the resources. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elledecor.com/life-culture/food-drink/a2074/a-cooks-paradise-a-58632/>