Seattle Restauratuer Duke Moscrip has led a colorful life, one which you might even characterize as "flavorful".

The owner of six Duke's Chowder House, Seattle area seafood restaurants, known for his provocative promotions and community involvement has over the last 40 years amassed hundreds of recipes and learned lessons about sustainability that he realized were worth sharing.

The best of his collective experiences is now in book form with the release of "As Wild As It Gets: Duke’s Secret Sustainable Seafood Recipes", a cookbook featuring exclusive content including Duke’s Secret Sustainable Seafood Recipes and featured stories known as “Duke Tales.” The book, Published by Aviva Publishing, NY is 384 pages of professionally shot photographs, carefully prepared and proven recipes, and colorful stories with a lot of Moscrip's humor included.

"As Wild As It Gets" provides readers a glimpse into Duke’s Alaskan travels, his search for sustainable, wild seafood, and 40 years of restaurant success. And, although the book’s title includes “Duke’s Secret Sustainable Seafood Recipes,” Duke’s cookbook also includes recipes for grass-fed beef, cage-free chicken as well as Duke’s Forbidden Treats, Duketails (Duke’s original cocktails), and Classic Cocktails. It has over 90 gluten free recipes, "the most of any restaurant in the area I would guess," he said.

His collaborator Executive Chef "Wild" Bill Ranniger has worked with Moscrip for more than 25 years to develop chemical-free and sustainably sourced recipes.

"One of the motivations to write this book," Moscrip said, "came about five years ago when we started surveying our guests. We discovered that they didn't really know what we did. Which is pretty amazing. We have all these things that we do not have in our food. But people didn't know it, and the media didn't know it. Many people thought we had not changed one recipe in 43 years. We've changed the chowder recipe 20 times since the late 80's when we won the chowder contest three years in a row. Now the chowder is all natural, chemical free. Our major competitor has nine chemicals in their chowder and you can read the ingredients when you go to Costco. We have none. Our chowder is also gluten free. Which took about three years to come up with so it tasted identical to the one that won the contest."

Moscrip noted that all salmon served in his restaurants (which he eats sometimes twice a day) is no more than 2 days old after being caught and flash frozen to 40 degrees below zero. Ranniger noted that "Some of the salmon sold in Seattle can be as much as 26 days old. Fishing vessels can go out for two weeks at a time, and their catch won't be processed until they return to port, then shipped to Seattle.

Moscrip and Ranniger buy all their seafood from Alaska, "because that's where the fish are" said Moscrip noting that the fisheries are sustainable and wild, which is echoed in his book title, to emphasize both freshness and non-farm origins.

You can get the book autographed by visiting one of locations where Duke will be in person.
The schedule is as follows:

• Duke's Kent Station - Monday, January 25 - noon to 8pm
• Duke's Ruston Way - Tuesday, January 26 - noon to 8pm
• Duke's Lake Union - Wednesday, January 27 - noon to 8pm
• Duke's Green Lake - Tuesday, February 2 - noon to 8pm
• Duke's Southcenter - Monday, February 8 - noon to 8pm

As Wild As It Gets, is now available for purchase at all Duke's locations for $49.95. Email VIP club members can purchase the book for $39.95. They are working to make it available on Amazon.com and other area booksellers. A portion of book sales will benefit Long Live The Kings, an organization dedicated to restoring wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest. To order a copy or to book Duke to speak contact Marketing Director Bettina Carey, call: (206) 283-8422, ext. 4.