Creative chef about to offer her services at home

If culinary cred, zeal and creative thinking have anything to do with it, Patty Davis is about to make a mark on her home turf.

Davis has studied and worked in the culinary arts from coast to coast in the United States, and in Hawaii, especially, before coming back to the coulee area, where she's starting a business to share her gift with her fellow community members.

A Lake Roosevelt graduate, Davis left the state of Washington for Hawaii at the age of 21 to pursue her culinary dreams.

There she worked at Wolfgang Puck's Spago Maui, an upscale restaurant owned by the world-renowned chef, then attended the Maui Culinary Academy, where she earned degrees in the culinary arts, baking and patisserie, and restaurant supervision. That was all while still working at Spago, where she worked as a prep cook, then on the pastry line, eventually trained in all seven stations in the kitchen there and becoming one of the main line cooks.

She also worked as a private chef at estates in Hawaii, where she met people from around the world - from Sri Lanka, Tokyo, Sidney and Oklahoma all within a two-week period.

"It was cool to talk to them," Davis said. "Some people wanted flavors they were familiar with, others wanted the Hawaiian experience."

Back in Washington, Davis ran a kitchen at Desert Canyon Golf Course, a high-end course outside of Wenatchee, then at SunCadia in Cle Elum. She received a promotion and transferred to Maine working as one of three opening sous chefs in the Cliff House Resort in Cape Medic, "a super historic hotel" that was being renovated and reopened.

Then in New Hampshire, Davis worked as the executive chef in a French bistro.

She ended up back in Washington, catering in Seattle, then landed back in the coulee area that she considers home.

Here, Davis is opening PK's Culinary on Midway Avenue in Grand Coulee next to the post office, a business that will focus on, but not be limited to, meal delivery, fine dining dinners, catering, and custom cakes called "Patty Kakes." The PK in PK's Culinary, refer to her first and middle initials, standing for Patty Kay.

The delivery service will be "for that busy mom ... who has to take kids to practice and get home and do homework and bathtime and just doesn't have time to cook," she said, and "for people who don't know how or don't want to cook or don't have time."

It will cost less than eating at a restaurant, Davis said, and customers will order by Friday meals that will be delivered the following Wednesday. They will range from traditional dinners to casseroles, soups, desserts, and more, giving people a home-cooked meal, but with convenience.

Davis says she is most excited to host fine-dining dinners at her business about once a month or so, depending on demand.

She envisions serving a maximum of 30 people, who will each buy a ticket in advance for a four-course, fine-dining experience that will be paired with four kinds of wines provided by The Wine Bar in Grand Coulee.

Every dinner will have a theme, such as Italian, French, or Spanish foods, paired with wines from those regions.

Someone from The Wine Bar will pour and be able to explain the wines, Davis said, while she will explain each course of the meal and why it was paired with a certain wine.

The first such night she plans for Sept. 6, at 6:30 p.m. She'll serve Italian foods paired with Italian wines, with tickets on sale at The Wine Bar now.

She'll offer an "information night" on Aug. 28 and Aug. 29, both at 7 p.m. at PK's Culinary, where Davis can answer questions and sell tickets for the upcoming dinner. The first delivery service date, Davis said, is "tentatively" Sept. 4, which would make the order cutoff date Friday, Aug. 30.