Atkinson launched the dining program at the nationally acclaimed FRIDAY HARBOR HOUSE on San Juan Island and was drafted to revitalize the menu at Seattle's venerable CANLIS restaurant. He developed the food and beverage programs at ISLANDWOOD, an Environmental Learning Center on Bainbridge Island. And he currently develops menus and recipes for ORGANIC TO GO, a certified organic retailer that delivers quality sustainably grown and freshly prepared breakfast lunch and dinner to the workplace, with stores in Orange County, Los Angeles and Seattle.

Atkinson is also a contributing editor to FOOD ARTS, a magazine for the restaurant trade and writes Taste columns for PACIFIC NORTHWEST, the Sunday newsmagazine of The Seattle Times. In 2001, he won the James Beard Foundation’s M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award for the best food story of the year.

Atkinson has served as the host of KCTS CHEFS, and is featured on the award-winning PBS series CHEFS A'FIELD. He reports weekly on food and cooking trends on KUOW radio, Seattle's NPR affiliate.

His enthusiasm for food is eclipsed only by his love for his wife, Betsy and their two sons, Henry and Erich. He lives on a peaceful acre on Bainbridge Island where he tends an organic vegetable garden and a casual orchard of century-old apple and fig trees where he is currently celebrating the release of his latest book, WEST COAST COOKING.

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