It's been two weeks since the latest layoffs at Starbucks, when the company passed the pink-slip to 1000 employees nationwide, including nearly 200 locally. That's when the SBUX stopped here for pastry princess Sue McCown, seen prettier in pink in June at the James Beard Awards in NYC, where she kicked up her heels with "Best Chef"-award nominee Maria Hines and PR-pal Michi Suzuki:

In today's paper I wrote about FareStart, Seattle's much-applauded not-for-profit culinary training program. I recently volunteered my services there as a waitress at one of their frequently sold-out weekly "Guest Chef Nights." If you've never been, it's a screaming deal: only $24.95 for a three-course meal. I encourage you to check it out. Ditto for weekday lunch, another enormous value where you can eat good and do good all at the same time.

During Guest Chef Night, dinner is prepared by some of our city's finest, in concert with FareStart students and staff. And it was here that I met Seth Caswell, president of Seattle Chef's Collaborative and late of Stumbling Goat Bistro: