By Rachel Hergett EBS COLUMNIST
I was back at the Big Sky PBR last weekend, and much like last year, I was drawn in by the food in the Camp Chef VIP experience. This time, however, I was determined to try to work less and enjoy more, to enjoy the food and the atmosphere. As a Montana girl, I love to be around horses and cows and rodeo of all sorts. I even brought along a handsome cowboy of a rodeo date.
The expected crowd filled the covered portion of the VIP area—a massive white tent next to the arena that housed vendor booths, multiple bars and a row of wooden food stands. This was my destination. Here, organizer Emily Hahn had invited five other noted chefs and tasked them with creating a dish showcasing local ingredients and preparing upward of 1,200 portions for hungry guests. Some leaned into more rustic or simple fare like one might typically find at a rodeo, others into their own culinary style. And then the chefs do it again a second night with a completely different menu.
The cowboy queued at a bar while I started down the line of chefs. First up was Jarrett Wrisley, chef and co-owner of Shan in Bozeman, where he leans into the flavors of northern Thailand and southwestern China. His High Country bison and pork belly bowl featured slow-braised bison from North Bridger Bison and pork belly seasoned with soy and warm spices. It is served over steamed jasmine rice and topped with pickled jalapeño, wine-marinated soy beans, herbs and crispy garlic.
In my experience eating at Shan, Wrisley is a master of creating depth of flavor in his dishes. His often spicy Asian sauces happily play with local ingredients. Today’s dish is no different. It is a pretty classic Thai recipe, Wrisley tells me—except for the bison.
“Top Chef” alum Jamie Lynch greeted me when I reached the front of the line at his station. After studying the menu board, I had a question: “Is the sauce the same as last year?” Yep. What was then “Chef Jamie’s Awesome Sauce” is now known as “Wicked Awesome Sauce.” The ketchup-based New England style barbecue sauce is basically unchanged from last year’s version, though it takes on new life and additional tangy-ness when not baked atop a meatloaf.
Wicked Awesome Sauce is somehow key to a new “concept” Lynch and his wife are hoping to develop by next year: No wonder he wouldn’t give me the recipe. And although I wasn’t mad at the meat loaf, Lynch didn’t believe it was the best showcase for his sauce.
“This sandwich is how it’s meant to be eaten,” he said of this year’s dish.
The sandwich in question wasn’t entirely pretty. It didn’t have fancy garnishes to “chef it up” like the meatloaf. It was a roast beef sandwich: the most tender, most thinly shaved Wickens Ranch rare roast beef and a slice of white American cheese topped with Wicked Awesome Sauce on a local slider bun smeared with mayo.
The handsome cowboy and I each took a bite of the sandwich and looked up at each other in recognition. This sandwich felt familiar. It was elevated Arby’s, with white American cheese standing in for the cheddar cheese sauce. I went back for another and told Lynch that his “Buckin’ Beef” was everything that Arby’s wished it could be. He seemed to understand it was meant as the highest of compliments.
When I look up “palabok”—as in chef Sheldon Simeon’s spot prawn palabok fried rice—I learn that it is a garlic and shrimp gravy over noodles or sometimes rice, then topped with pork and pork rinds. I’ve had Filipino food, mostly made by friend’s aunties for large gatherings like rehearsal dinners and such. It was always a smorgasbord of such variety that I have no idea if this is something I’ve tried before.
Simeon is another “Top Chef” alum, based in Maui, Hawaii. His version of palabok has a spot prawn gravy with prawns from Peeler’s Wild Alaskan Seafood over garlic chili fried rice and topped with guanchale chicharron crumble. The small portion felt rich and luscious with the silky gravy and rice melding into a porridge. Prawn flavor sings, and that depth is certainly what made it the favorite of the handsome cowboy—a man who snacks on tins of anchovies.
I couldn’t get enough of the bison chorizo made by chef Hahn. I would have gladly eaten the sausage plain, and I almost had to as I spilled half of the toppings down my dress on the first bite (wiped clean by the also gentlemanly cowboy). Hahn’s house made sausage was served in a crispy baguette from Aurore bakery and layered with creamy burrata and a pistachio and garlic scape salsa verde that provided a nice crunch and pop of acid.
Josh Adams of Campione and B-Sides in Livingston highlighted SporeAttic mushrooms in his vegetarian dish, “Mushroom on a Barrel.” There was an acidic brightness to the dressing on the mushrooms that was an appreciated counterpart to the other offerings.
And let’s not sleep on Bozeman chef Eduardo Garcia. His dish “High on the Hog,” was a crispy pork carnitas tostada with a lacto-fermented slaw and garlic scape picante sauce. It ate well, but part of me wanted it to be saucier, to have a crema to tone down the crisp and crunch.
When I first saw her, Hahn gave me a hug and pointed out a couple of my other chef friends prepping food in the outdoor kitchen just outside the main tent. Service was going well, she said, and she was enjoying the combination of fellow “Top Chef” contestants alongside lauded local chefs. But part of her brain was already looking to the future.
”I don’t know if it’s scary or awesome that we’re already thinking about next year,” Hahn said.
I say it’s awesome.
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.
