Brock was originally hired as a line cook at Lola and, in the space of only a few years, advanced first to Sous Chef and then, in 2007, was promoted to become Chef of Lola. In 2009, Brock moved across the street from Lola to Dahlia, taking on the position of Chef of The Dahlia Lounge.
Brock believes the first year of cooking food with a Mediterranean emphasis at Lola brought everything together for him: how to focus on one or two ingredients in a dish and make them shine, how to keep things simple and interesting, and most important of all, how to work with the seasons.
Currently, Brock has taken on the challenge of creating elegant dishes in a wide range of culinary styles that is signature to the Tom Douglas flagship restaurant, The Dahlia Lounge.
For a year and a half, Brock taught Culinary Arts at Shorecrest High School, and he considers this teaching job his single biggest learning experience. Teaching and explaining culinary technique to students exponentially advanced his own perspective on cooking.
Brock graduated from Western Washington University with an English degree but worked his way through school by cooking the whole time, and his path never strayed far from the kitchen.
In his high school days, in 1998, Brock participated in a two year tech-prep culinary program that included chef dinners. On a class trip to the then recently opened Palace Kitchen, he met Tom Douglas, and Brock instantly knew that Tom Douglas Restaurants was the company he was going to work for.
A “homegrown” chef hailing from Edmonds, Washington, Brock has lived in the Seattle area his entire life and this is exactly where he wants to be. He lives with his wife in Shoreline where they’ve recently started a vegetable garden. The couple’s current goal is to eat everything local and grow as much as they can.
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