Cody Morris and Travis Kukull
Claim to Foodie Fame: Owner and Chef, respectively, of Epic Ales
What is your earliest memory of cooking?
Cody: Earliest memory is a tricky one, but I think an experience that left a lasting impression was making pasta from scratch with my dad. We didn’t have any drying racks so we put the pastas on open cupboard doors.
Travis: My earliest memory of food is my dad making bread. When I was young my family was tight on money — having three kids can be cause for penny-pinching — and so my dad would make loaves of bread for the week every Sunday. It would take all day, and by the time they were finished and out of the oven the smell would wake my brother and me out of our bunk beds. We would get a fresh hot slice of the bread with butter, eat it quietly for ten minutes, and slink back into bed as if we had been sleep-eating.
What is your idea of comfort food?
Cody: When I think of comfort food, I visualize food that helps deal with the moist chilly air of fall, winter, and spring in Seattle, where I grew up. I tend to want a bowl of pho or ramen, though I rarely have time to make them the right way. That being said, I make a mean miso. On the other hand, grilling outside on a summer day is easily the most comforting act I can think of.
Travis: My Ideal comfort food is anything cooked over open flame with my family and friends around to share it. My tastes in the type of food always seem to change with time, but the people I want around never seem to.
Food or meal you would happily die eating, or, what is your last meal and testament?
Cody: Fried chicken and a piece of Époisses [a pungent unpasteurized cows-milk cheese]. It’d be super-tasty, way too rich, and I wouldn’t have to live with the ramifications the next day.
Travis: I have eaten at some pretty decent restaurants and have had some fantastic meals. I would have to say one of the places that I miss the most is Avila. It has been some time since a restaurant in Seattle has managed to serve such innovative food, without being pretentious and with the option for affordability. I had an excellent meal there before they closed and if I could choose my last meal I would choose Avila to open again and cook it for me. They seem to cover all my bases. If I couldn’t get them to open, then just give me Omakase at Either Village Sushi or Kisaku.
How did your family honor food traditions in your household?
Cody: We ate dinner together every night. My brother and I each had to cook one dinner per week as part of our chore list. My family still does all the classic American food holidays pretty big. This Thanksgiving, we had 18 guests and three different turkeys!
Travis: My mom was always big on traditions, and we siblings were always big on breaking them. We have one on Christmas, however, that my sister came up with around eight years back: breaking the previous tradition of something I can’t even remember anymore, we make spicy seafood cioppino. My sister and her boyfriend Jason don’t eat meat, but we all love seafood. Sometimes traditions get tiresome after awhile and you have to change things up.
Who first taught you how to cook?
Cody: Equal parts my mom and dad. I grew up during the dawn of the Internet and having so much information available really helped.
Travis: I don’t know if I could say if one person first taught me how to cook. My mom and my dad both cooked — my mom was pretty good with the pies and cookies and my dad would do things like handmade noodles in chicken soup and the aforementioned bread (the combination of the two was a favorite of mine). I think my desire to cook, however, came from seeing my younger brother paying attention to my parents cooking and becoming good at it himself, and I like my brother and I wanted to do things with him, so I started learning too. Even later my sister became an excellent cook, and when we all get together for family cookery, look out! It can be quite the feast.
Who do you credit with inspiring in you a love of food and cooking?
Cody: I love cooking for my wife — sitting down and sharing a meal with her is always great. I also like sneaking food to my dog, though he never seems to appreciate it to the degree I, oddly, think he should. I also enjoy sharing food with Travis — we both like to be playful with our ingredients and learn a lot from each other.
Travis: Again, there is not one person. It took years to love restaurant work and at least a decade for me to develop the confidence I have with food now. I took little things from many different people. I learned inner connection of family and food from my family members who are all excellent cooks. Professionalism from Erik McWilliams and Jessica Hernandez at Mandalay Café. I learned work ethic and innovation from Josh Grinker, who told me that “You have to listen to your cooks, as they might have some good ideas and I am bound to run out of them at some point.” I learned comfort from Shannon Butcher at the Hotel Halsingland in Haines, Alaska, where I got to see exactly where the food was coming from; that comforted me. There are many more but too many to list — some I still talk to and some I have broken ties with, however all I consider to be family.
Share an example of one of your family food traditions.
Cody: Pancake breakfast. We make ours almost as thin as a crêpe. Served with fruit, honey, and yogurt.
Travis: I love making seafood paella in a giant paella pan in my parents' backyard over apple wood from our Granny Smith apple tree. It is easy, delicious, and feeds a lot of people.
What is your favorite dish or meal to cook?
Cody: I love doing a cheese plate with a mix of brews. Mussels with a Belgian Tripel or a Saison is one of my favorite beer-and-food pairings — super-easy to do at home and always tasty.
Travis: As a chef, the things I cook change all the time. I might be into something for a week or a month but it always changes. If I had to choose, I would have to say that there is nothing better and more satisfying to eat than freshly foraged food that you yourself found (or shot) and cooked in the same day. Free, fresh, and very tasty.
If you could invite anyone to your holiday dinner — living, dead, or imaginary — who would it be?
Cody: I’d like to invite all my great-grandparents. I only met two of them before they passed. While I’ve heard many stories, I’d love to learn more about them, our family, and the times they lived in.
Travis: I don’t like the idea of inviting celebrities to dinner for fear that they might be a major disappointment. Just the fact of getting over the awkwardness would take about the same amount of time as it would to eat the meal! I would have to say my brother Ben — he lives in Prague so I see him once or twice a year and he is just about my favorite person in the world. I hope that doesn’t creep him out.
