I know the right way to do the dishes

I remember this.

I was around 5 years old the first time I did the dishes. It happened at the kitchen sink in my family’s house, a home that was built on the then-expanding edge of the city limits of Spokane in the 1950s. I stood on a stool. Light from the sun streamed through the windows.

That is my origin story.

I learned early, and I learned well. I entered the professional dishwashing ranks when I was age 17, working in a steamy, fetid, after-thought of a space next to the kitchen at Clinkerdagger, Bickerstaff and Petts, a swanky-for-Spokane downtown restaurant that overlooked the Spokane...