This James Beard Foundation Award-nominated chef makes the most of Idaho’s seasonal harvests.
The other day, a guy showed up on my doorstep with 10 pounds of morels,” says Gary Kucy, the executive chef at Rupert’s at the Hotel McCall in McCall, Idaho. “He said, ‘Can you use these?’ Other days, it could be 5-pound buckets of huckleberries.”
In 2013, Kucy was recognized by the James Beard Foundation as a semifinalist for Best Chef of the Northwest, and he works harder than most to source ingredients locally. In part, because he has to: His restaurant is located 100 miles from Boise.
“We are the new pioneers of bringing food up to this area,” he says. “We’re taking what’s here and putting a more modern spin on it.”
Kucy says getting fresh produce year-round is the hardest part. “I do a lot with the farmers here and from the Boise area. I have great connections, but their growing season is short. When I worked with Mark Miller [at Coyote Café in Santa Fe], I had a purveyor for anything I wanted to buy. I moved here, and it’s a learning curve. I just have to be more resourceful. Our venison comes from 5 miles down the road, but my venison guy just said, ‘Our butcher stopped for the winter and won’t be back until spring, so make it last!’ ”

And he has. Kucy has been successfully exposing his clientele to more adventurous cuts than they might be used to, whether they know it or not. “The cool thing about it is that I end up forced to use cuts that aren’t prime cuts — there’s not a ton of tenderloin. It’s using other parts and pieces, a lot of great stuff people have been using for centuries.”
He has to be creative about how he names the dishes that make use of the lesser-known cuts so that his diners will give them a shot. “I can’t put the words beef cheeks on the menu; that’s a tougher sell. So, we call it Cattleman’s Pot Roast, and it’s a big hit. People say, ‘This is the best pot roast I’ve ever had!’ ”
Sample the best of local Idaho breweries, wineries, and restaurants at River Ranch on August 1. Visit www.tasteofmccall.com for details.
From the May/June 2015 issue.