Thomas Kollasch

Thomas started cooking as a junior in high school. One older brother was a singing waiter at the Top of the Inn near the airport, and Thomas thought he looked sharp in his white tuxedo shirt and black pants. Another older brother worked as a Banquet Captain at Holiday Inn, Boeing Field. He was destined, perhaps, to be in the food industry. But his first job was a caddy master at Rainier Golf & Country Club where he learned to say "yes, sir" and "no, sir," and learned it was a privilege to be at the Club. He then got a job as a dishwasher at the Holiday Inn where his brother worked, learning the ins and outs of the kitchen and how to set banquet rooms.

In 1981, he got a second dishwashing job at Rosellini's 410 in Seattle. The owner, Victor Rosellini, came into the dish room, rolled up his sleeves and told Thomas he would show him "the art of washing dishes." It was an awakening for Thomas--this is how restaurants and hotels should be. "I learned the dance: service, tuxedos, how to walk through the dining room. Victor made me feel I was as vital a part of the team as the servers. He gave me respect which I'd never had before."

He was awarded a Chic Evans caddy scholarship to the University of Washington  and was not supposed to work. "I always had two jobs. I liked money and adored food." His first cooking job was at the Holiday Inn. He was a dishwasher, but the chef liked to hand off his work. When the dishes were done, he'd show him how to cook. Just like a movie, the chef had a family emergency and didn't show up for work one night. Thomas said "I can do it!" After one dinner service, he was told, "The chef is fired, you're hired." He worked with a great banquet chef who taught him that part of the hotel business.

During the summer of 1984, a chef apprenticeship at the Governor's Mansion opened (when John Spellman was governor). Ten students applied, two made it, and Thomas was one of them. The chef was old school, lots of yelling and very demanding, but Thomas endured and learned about cooking styles, knife skills, haute cuisine, French food, perfect cuts, and how to break down an entire animal. He realized how little he knew about what he was doing, so he bought cookbooks of the greats and studied.

Through his apprenticeship and school, he worked at nearly every hotel on the Sea-Tac strip with chefs who taught him to cook from scratch. "I loved what I was doing and felt I had a purpose," he recalls. Internally, his golf and cooking sides were warring. One night a server took Thomas to 13 Coins. "I was done." Before leaving, he filled out an application. The chef showed him the kitchen where everything was moving at full speed--he was mesmerized. Then he showed him the drawer-full of applications of people who wanted to work there. To see if he was serious, the chef had Thomas come back at midnight and wash walls, telling him that every night he showed up to clean, he would move his application forward in the drawer by one position. He was there cleaning the next morning when the chef returned. In the meantime, he got a job at Diamond Lil's (now Freddie's). The chef there had worked at 13 Coins and knew all their signature dishes. Thomas learned the dishes and worked full time there, closing at 10, leaving at 11 and going to 13 Coins at midnight to do more menial labor to move his resume ahead of the others.

Another movie moment in 1985 or '86 when the staff at 13 Coins went on strike. He crossed the picket line to get his chance to cook and learned the entire menu. When the strike ended, he went back to Diamond Lil's. Knowing the staff wouldn't accept him since he'd crossed the line, he grew his hair and beard out and later went back and applied for a job. The chef kept their secret and gave him the deep-cleaning job on the graveyard shift to not raise any suspicion. Two years later he was the sous chef at 23 years of age, with the youngest line cook being 41. He was on the opening team for locations in Portland, Anchorage and Dallas (all have now closed). In 1992, he hit the wall. He was 28 and had been working 18 hour days for a long time. He'd learned everything at the Coins--bartending, hosting, bussing, catering, accounting, creating spreadsheets and building costing sheets, but couldn't get the executive chef position. He'd quit golfing after school, but decided he needed to return to his other love. The owner of 13 Coins told him to take a week off and think about it.

He took her advice and went fishing on the Tolt River. While reading a local paper, he found out there was an open apprenticeship at nearby Carnation Golf Club. He went in his waders and applied. The family called later to say the apprenticeship had been filled but would allow him to be an apprentice seasonally if he would help build the food service portion of the business. So he worked summers there, building a kitchen and a junior golf program, and 13 Coins in the winter. During this 4-1/2 years, he earned his Class A golf certification, going through PGA schools and taking the national test. While there, he met Bruce Christy, now the Director of Golf at White Horse. Thomas moved to Bear Creek Country Club to build up the junior program and stayed four years as an Assistant Professional.

In 2001, he and his girlfriend (now wife) were hit by a drunk driver and injured severely. For a year, neither could work: Thomas couldn't stand upright, let alone golf. His life in the golf business had come to an abrupt end. He was able to get a job flipping burgers in the kitchen he'd built at the Carnation golf course. At one point in his past, he'd met Tom Black at the Taste of Seattle. Now Tom was putting the Barking Frog on the map, along with Bobby Moore. "I hadn't cooked in 10 years, but they gave me a job," Thomas says. He started on the graveyard shift and began to read again, catching up with the culinary world. A few years later, Tom Black took on the chef position at the newly-remodeled Alderbrook Resort & Spa, running two kitchens counties away from each other.

 While at Barking Frog, Thomas catered his own son's 18th birthday. One of his neighbors came by and saw the food (he was the chef at the Double Tree by Hilton in Bellevue) and asked him to be the restaurant chef there. He took the job. "It built me into a restaurateur. The Hilton has a great training program and I learned the entire hotel thing. We focused on room service, turning it into our restaurant. It just took off." After a year, he moved to the SeaTac Double Tree where he learned all about systems and forms of big hotel operations.

When Tom Black left Alderbrook, Bobby Moore contacted Thomas and told him about the opening. After an interview and menu tasting with the MTM principles, he got the job and had 10 days to move. He met Stan Kott, Alderbrook's GM. They realized as a team that Alderbrook had several kinds of guests all with different expectations. So they outfitted the cabins with barbecues and amenities families would use, built the Patio Barbecue to handle the beachcombers and pool guests which then allowed them to focus on dining in The Restaurant. Thomas changed the menus and wine program to meet the expectations of romantic couples, float plane and yacht guests. It worked.

A year and a half later, Stan Kott, who had moved on to oversee the renovation of the Arctic Club Hotel, called him with that opportunity. Thomas was hired as executive chef/GM of Food and Beverage and created JUNO, the restaurant. He had total autonomy and got to develop the concept and menu. He hired his "dream team" in the kitchen and the restaurant was very successful and attracted great reviews from other Seattle chefs. Shortly after opening, the economy dropped and the hotel and restaurant were leased to Double Tree. Thomas transitioned the restaurant to fit the new business model and budget, doing it in half the time they thought it would take. When he had finished, they said 'great job,' then let him and almost his entire culinary staff go.

After the heartbreak of that experience, he took 2008 off to rest and rejuvenate. He received a phone call from a past manager he'd known from the Double Tree who told him about Jimmy's in Seattle needing a new chef. He took that job, and later that year opened the second Jimmy's (on Broadway), as well as the 9-0 Grill in Eastgate. After two years with Silver Cloud Hotels, he moved to Kingston and opened the "new" Point Casino in Kingston where he stayed a year.

 While at The Point, he got a call from Bruce Christy about the new White Horse Golf Club. Port Madison Enterprises had purchased the property and were building a new club house. Thomas was hired on December 17, 2012, and Cedar Ridge Grill opened March 16, 2013.

In May 2014, Thomas became the Executive Chef at Chihuly Gardens & Glass, Collections Cafe.