By Annie O’Neill EDITORIAL INTERN
Nancy Radick Butler, Big Sky chef and owner of Gourmet Gals, has advanced to the semifinals of Carla Hall’s Favorite Chef competition. And this week, she’s the one being cheered on.
Radick Butler has worked in food nearly her whole career, crediting the 2008 recession for shaping her outlook: “People still have to eat. Feeding people is recession-proof.”
Her style is seasonal and fresh, built around what’s available. Bison tenderloin is her signature dish, and through Gourmet Gals, she builds menus around each client, including a growing number of clients asking for vegan, gluten-free or seed-oil-free food, which she treats not as a limitation but “a wonderful challenge.”
Radick Butler cleared the quarterfinals last week and is now in the semifinals, where voting closes this Thursday, July 30, at 7 p.m. Each round, contestants are given a set of parameters and must create a dish that fits the specifications of that round, with the field narrowed by public vote. The stakes are a chance to win a feature in Taste of Home, a $25,000 prize and a cooking experience with Carla Hall on her show, “Chewed Up.” Voting includes a free daily option, plus paid votes that benefit the James Beard Foundation.
Radick Butler calls the final stretch “nail-biting.” If she wins, she plans to throw the Big Sky community a party. “They’ve always supported me,” she said, “it’s a no-brainer.”
While campaigning for votes has pushed her out of her comfort zone, the response has been “mind-blowing” as the same community she regularly cooks for has shown up for her in return.
For Radick Butler, the prize money isn’t the draw. What is: the chance to meet Carla Hall, the celebrity chef whose recipes she has cooked for years, and the reason she entered in the first place.
Her favorite dish, without hesitation: cioppino, made for family and friends, “merged with whatever is available and cooking to perfection.”
The semifinals close Thursday night, with the final round of Favorite Chef to follow for those who advance.
