Renee Erickson
Renee Erickson is a Seattle-based chef who won the 2016 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northwest.
Erickson is the owner and chef of a group of restaurants in Seattle, including Bar Melusine, Bateau, Boat Street Cafe, The Whale Wins, Barnacle, and The Walrus and the Carpenter. Bon Appetit titled a 2016 profile of Erickson and her restaurants, "Why Seattle Is One of the Most Exciting Places to Eat in the Country," and compared Erickson to M.F.K. Fisher, Elizabeth David, and Julia Child in her generational significance as a chef.
In 2014, Erickson published a cookbook called A Boat, a Whale & a Walrus.
Erickson has been a prominent supporter of Seattle's minimum wage increase, adopting the $15 minimum hourly wage five years ahead of the legal mandate.
