Andrew Potter can do barbecue like nobody's business. And Italian food. And Chinese food. And Mexican food. The list goes on, a testament to both his well-stocked cookbook shelf and the mileage traveled through his culinary escapades.
The saga of how Potter, born in Kentucky, has made his way to becoming the executive chef at Spokane's Steam Plant Restaurant and Brew Pub, with its historic smokestacks punctuating the downtown skyline, starts with his mom's bookshelf.
"She was really, really interested in food, and I would definitely consider her a foodie. She was a librarian, so she loved researching and had a massive cookbook collection and was really into traveling," Potter says. Practically "born and raised in the kitchen," by the time Potter was 7 years old, he was making meals on his own.
Kentucky barbecue holds a fond place in his heart, though the family moved to California by the time he was 3. He was in the food biz early on. "I started actually selling food at my school as kind of like side money as a kid. I was probably like 8 or 9, and I started selling burritos and Philly cheese steaks," Potter says.
In high school, he built a large grill to serve barbecue for his school and football team. He'd also cook for friends and their families whenever he spent time at their houses.
"I realized that if I cooked for them, they were always so excited and happy about that," Potter says.
Potter was 16 when he got his first official restaurant job — as a dishwasher at Wuksachi Lodge in Sequoia National Park. He was working at Yosemite National Park when then-President George W. Bush dined at the lodge.
"Having the Secret Service in the kitchen was a really wild experience and just super memorable," Potter says. And the experience revealed the travel potential of work in the food industry.
"That was really addicting, especially in the old days, you could really almost kind of go to a new city and get a job in a kitchen almost instantaneously," Potter says.
His parents, however, had other ideas. They grounded his nomadic lifestyle and convinced him to go to college, where he double majored in creative writing and art at St. Andrews University in North Carolina.
Though he continued to be drawn to food — living and working in Alaska in the summer, spending a semester abroad in Italy — Potter decided to go to graduate school. A Google search for schools near ski slopes proved to be life-changing when Eastern Washington University popped up.
"I moved up here, sight unseen, to get my MFA, and had never been to Spokane before in my life," Potter says.
Strolling through downtown shortly after moving to Spokane, Potter happened upon the PF Chang's that was then on the cusp of opening. He was hired on the spot as a pantry cook.
"I immediately got just hooked on wok cooking because it's really fast, and I love the speed of it," says Potter, attributing his dexterity with the wok pan to his juggling and drum experience.
"It felt like a combination of the two because it's very rhythmic. You're using both of your hands and knees, as far as adjusting the temp levers of the burners," Potter says.
He says his experience in a Chinese restaurant continues to inform his cooking techniques today, like when adding an Asian flair to American barbeque. The Steam Plant's array of kitchen equipment allows him to take even more creative liberties. Using the combi oven, which cooks with steam and hot air, he is able to slow cook meats, such as ribs that would traditionally require a Canton wok.
Like many in the food industry, Potter has racked up experience in many venues. He worked at multiple pizza joints in Missoula while his wife was in graduate school, and on returning to Spokane, he took up brewing beer as a side hobby.
"I got really into it, and made about 600 batches of beer over a couple-year period," Potter says, of the experience he later put to use as an assistant brewmaster at Waddell's Pub & Grille. Then he was off to the Rusty Moose, where he helped incorporate wild game into the menu, something that came easy to Potter but was a new venture for the restaurant.
"I had grown up hunting as a kid, and so that was right up my alley," Potter says.
Now Potter's at the helm of the Steam Plant using all the skills he's gained in more than 25 years in the food industry. "We've been growing the catering side of this restaurant considerably, because this restaurant is really kind of like three restaurants in one," says Potter, highlighting the Steam Plant restaurant, the Sapphire Lounge and the catering they do for Montvale Event Center.
Despite his executive chef position, Potter takes pride in still being in the "trenches of service" with his crew.
"A great chef should be able to work every single station, including that dish pit, and not be afraid of it and not be above it," Potter says.
While classic American dishes — like wood-fired pizza, burgers and pasta — are on the Steam Plant menu, Potter likes adding other references to other cultures to create original dishes such as coconut curry clams, Chinese five spice pork ribs and Cajun chicken fettuccine.
Though Potter might not get to travel as often he used to, he continues to explore world cuisines through his cookbooks and countless hours of research.
As an armchair culinary tourist, "you can travel to a place in your own kitchen that you could never go to any other way," Potter says.
