Chef is honoring but also evolving a tradition

It is not your grandmother's Snoqualmie Falls breakfast.

It is your grandmother's Snoqualmie Falls breakfast.

It is a conundrum — one Roy Breiman, no doubt, is very well aware of.

It's his job, as executive chef for Salish Lodge & Spa, to honor the countless, local taste buds that literally have memorized the old Snoqualmie Falls Lodge famous country breakfast and want that experience repeated. They can, in fact, still get a country breakfast at the lodge. (And perhaps more — Breiman says coming soon will be a more family-style, hands-on touch to lodge breakfasts, perhaps a nod to the time that locals practically caravanned to the lodge on weekends. "We take the tradition very seriously; we hope to revisit that and recapture some of it.")

At the same time, the 44-year-old chef also has the task of pulling his 36-person crew together to bring those taste buds along with them into this century and into a Northwest noted for food offerings, many of which simply didn't exist when Salish opened.

The pull (or tug or push) really takes place at dinner, where things like a Confit of Yakima Valley Suckling Pig, Glazed Duck Prosciutto or a Butter Poached European Turbot just might have sent grandmother over the edge — 20 years ago.

Not now. Most of our grandmothers (and us) have become distinctly more sophisticated when it comes to food.

"This is a process of evolution," Breiman says. "We become more authentic as the years go on, creating many dimensions within the food and beverage program that all demographics can identify with. We're showing a little bit more international exposure at night" — spoken by a man who trained in California and France, who has worked on the East and West coasts, and who now lives in North Bend, near the lodge.

"I'm hoping to become Washington's newest adopted son."

He would get many votes. The more formal dining room can be nearly impossible to get into without reservations on weekends, both for breakfast and dinner. His creations have drawn raves.

And then there's that breakfast.

— Terry Tazioli