Tastes of Idaho
travel well
Valley chefs work magic in Manhattan
By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer
Unbeknownst to much of the rest of the
world, there’s more to the tastes of Idaho than potatoes. To prove it a trio of
chefs from the Gem State—Keith Otter, Kenny Rudolph and Brian Hutchins—accepted
an invitation to turn a collection of Idaho produce, fish and elk into a gourmet
dinner last week for 75.
The invitation came from the James Beard
Foundation in New York through the sponsorship of Glacier Potato Vodka.
Such a theme dinner is part of a long
tradition. After chef and author James Beard died in 1985, Julia Child decided
to preserve his home in New York City as the gathering place it was throughout
his life. Over the years the Beard Foundation has become a national arena for
American cuisine.
Chefs are invited to prepare meals in
Beard’s Greenwich Village townhouse. Beard’s home has workspace unchanged to
accommodate chefs more used to commercial kitchens. In fact, that’s one of the
challenges of cooking there, said Otter, who’s been invited to cook three times
in five years.
Attendees for the dinner Feb. 12, included
editors and writers from national culinary magazines and foundation members.
Otter graduated from the California
Culinary Academy and came to the valley when his brother-in-law, Rex Chandler
opened Chandler’s in Ketchum. At Chandler's and subsequently at his own
restaurant, Otter's, he became known for his contemporary take on Pacific
Northwest cuisine. Last April, he returned to helm Chandler’s and Baci, as the
executive chef.
Kenny Rudolph, the chef di cuisine at Baci,
credits Otter as his inspiration to change his career. A long-time employee at
Microsoft, he grew up learning about food and cooking from his Japanese mother,
who’s also a chef. Rudolph is clearly passionate about the use of indigenous
produce in his cooking.
Brian Hutchins, the third chef at the New
York dinner, is the owner of Brix in Coeur d'Alene. A native of Idaho, Hutchins
has been cooking for more than 17 years. He worked at such renowned New York
spots as Union Square Cafe, Vong and Prune.
It took four months to plan and create a
menu for the dinner, Otter said. "It’s nothing but hard work. You have to
believe in the cause because we’re promoting the culinary art."
Hutchins flew to Ketchum from Coeur
d’Alene for three days of collaborating so they could finalize the menu.
"When you do that, there’s a certain
amount of pure creativity," said Rudolph.
"You need to create completely new food,"
Otter added. "Even if you have a signature dish and you think it’s flawless but
the other chefs say ‘something’s off,’ you work on it. You leave your ego at the
door. The majority rules."
Otter’s signature Black Canyon Elk was
included, as was a Ruby Red Trout dish of Hutchins.
"The most important thing was this Beard
Foundation dinner," Otter continued. "To be asked to go there is an honor."
The appetizers were all made with Glacier
Potato Vodka, which is distilled north of Idaho Falls. In 2001, the Beverage
Tasting Institute rated Glacier as the fourth-best vodka in the world.
Both Otter and Hutchins are executive
chefs, which means they plan the menu and oversee the cooking, but are not
behind the stove, necessarily. At the Taste of Idaho dinner all that was moot.
Only the chefs worked in the small
kitchen. They had no assistants, or as Otter put it, "no armies. It’s one of the
more challenging catering events ever. You have to make gourmet food in a
non-gourmet kitchen with non-gourmet utensils. I’ve seen better kitchens in
private homes in Ketchum."
The chefs spent one whole day shopping in
New York to supplement the foods that were shipped overnight from Idaho. They
spent another day just prepping, and then arrived to work at noon on the day of
the dinner, where they continued to prep and cook until the feast was served,
beginning with hors d’oeurves at 7 p.m.
"It’s customary for the guests to go to
the kitchen first," Otter said. "They watch you cook. Their philosophy is to get
the chefs back to their love of cooking."
Professional wait staff and volunteers
from culinary schools served the dinner on three separate levels of the home.
"It’s incredible, really, but that’s
what’s fun about it," Rudolph said. Their day ended at 11:30 p.m., and they flew
home Thursday.
Much of the food they used from Idaho was
donated, Otter said. "If we’d have had to pay, it would have cost $10,000."
Companies that donated the food and wine
were Trinity Springs, Bigwood Bread, Mountain Fresh Produce, Flown In Fresh,
Idaho Trout Processors, Idaho Potato Commission, Sysco Food Services and the
three restaurants the chefs represent.
Several wineries in Washington, California
and Oregon donated wine, as did the Ketchum-based label Phantom Hill.
Among the homegrown Idaho foods the chefs
used for the dishes were turnip, parsnip, rabbit, corn, horseradish, celery
root, huckleberry, wild ginger, peach, caviar, sturgeon and salmon. "We’re
promoting food that’s clean to us," Otter said. "And a lot of people don’t
understand where their food comes from."
Hutchins, Otter and Rudolph agreed on one
major point. "We tried hard not to try too hard. We wanted to keep it simple,
but have it look sophisticated. We let the ingredients speak for themselves."
Of course, they did end up using potatoes
to go with the elk —crispy potato cups filled with smoked trout, apple,
horseradish and glacier vodka cream, and parsnip and potato risotto in a puff
pastry—because even Idahoans know spuds are one of the key tastes of Idaho.