By Rachel Hergett EBS COLUMNIST
“Fancy meeting you here” has taken on a different level with Tyler McManus. For years, whenever I seemed to discover a new gem on the food scene, McManus was already there. He was preparing spectacular small plates alongside chef Daniel Wendell at the Food Studio, meticulously garnishing dishes with tweezers. He was at the Fish Company, Sashimi Bar or Izakaya Three Fish, crafting spectacular omakase (chef’s choice) sushi dishes alongside “Sushi Paul” Naugle. He was helping Austin Brown stoke the fires at Yellow House Barbecue. Even when he’s not in the kitchen, I tend to find McManus in line waiting for food, like at a recent taco pop-up.
McManus was born in Bozeman. He moved to the middle of Alaska, then to Lewiston, Idaho, before returning to Bozeman in the eighth grade. Though I can’t say we were friends then, McManus and I were in the same Bozeman High School class. Now, he is my apprentice on KGLT.
Last week, I finally sat down with McManus to talk food. Naturally, this was over lunch.
“I’m always hungry,” McManus said, ordering no less than four dishes at Cafe Zydeco in Bozeman. One sandwich and some bread pudding even made it home with him—after I stole a couple bites.
In conversation, McManus lists some of the places he has worked, starting with Cafe International in the Emerson Center when he was 18, to restaurants on the waters of Idaho’s Lake Coeur D’Alene and the Caribbean Sea. He mentions learning on the job—pleasing the picky at the Yellowstone Club, catering mass volumes at Montana State University and breaking eggs at the Nova Cafe. He talks about food trips around the world with friends, chefs and foodies. One now defunct restaurant, Bror, in Copenhagen, served only offal, the often unwanted organs of animals. Though thousands of miles from home, the practice reminded McManus of Montana, of growing up hunting and fishing, of using every part of the animal possible.
This is how he likes to cook: to live. McManus maintains that the best food to eat is sourced locally. He forages—it was a good year for hedgehog mushrooms, he says. He gardens. He cans salsas, meats and other things to preserve them for the long, cold winter. And when possible, he loves to cook over open fire.
“I like the feeling of being almost timeless when cooking over fire, connecting with the past and the Earth’s elements,” McManus texted when I asked for a follow up. “Building a pit and collecting food and people around a fire is very intimate yet rustic and somewhat archaic. I love it.”
This year, McManus connected with Warriors & Quiet Waters, a Bozeman nonprofit that helps veterans create a sense of community and purpose through experiences in nature, especially fly fishing. In opening meals for each group, as well as pre-prepared meals for excursions, McManus has helped implement a healthy, locally sourced diet. The warriors are given a database of recipes to take home, including many that are naturally vegetarian or gluten free. Food should be delicious, first and foremost, but McManus said he also seeks to make it interesting and expansive to the palate.
“I always try to make something they wouldn’t normally have, even in a fishing lunch,” McManus said.
When not on the side of the river, McManus runs his own catering company, Velma Elaine, named after his grandmothers. He remembers watching Velma, his maternal grandmother, in her West Yellowstone kitchen when he was barely past her knees. Elaine, his dad’s mother, was a Wisconsonite more known for her holiday oyster stew and midwestern fish fry. Both, he said, led him to cooking. And like them, McManus now seeks to share his knowledge and skills.
“To me, cooking is teaching,” he said.
This is especially true with catering, where people are free to wander in and out of the kitchen, indoor or outdoor, and ask questions.
So while McManus may be everywhere, trying to learn from every chef in his vicinity, he is more than willing to share that knowledge.
To reach McManus, follow his catering journey on Instagram @velmaelaine or email velmaelaine406@gmail.com.
Rachel Hergett is a foodie and cook from Montana. She is arts editor emeritus at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and has written for publications such as Food Network Magazine and Montana Quarterly. Rachel is also the host of the Magic Monday Show on KGLT-FM and teaches at Montana State University.
