As the original Buchanan’s Chop House in Calgary celebrates its 37th anniversary this summer, its new Whitefish location inside one of Big Mountain’s most storied establishments is hoping to build on the family-owned restaurant’s legacy.
The new Buchanan’s Chop House and Whisky Bar is operating out of the Kandahar Lodge, and in the restaurant space that formerly housed chef Andy Blanton’s James Beard Award-nominated Café Kandahar.
James Buchanan, who along with his sister, Caitlin, is helping to steer the ship at the new Whitefish location, acknowledged that it’s a hard act they’re seeking to follow. But at the same time, they’re not seeking to directly emulate Café Kandahar’s vision, which centered around multi-course meals executed with precision and artistry. Nor are they trying to reproduce a carbon copy of the Buchanan’s in Calgary.
Rather, it’s a balancing act, which seeks to take some of the tried-and-true concepts from the original Buchanan’s and in some cases adapt them to make it a successful fit with the local community. And the Buchanan family does have a connection to the local community. James said that his parents retired to Whitefish in the early 2000s and have been living there for 20 years. It’s a place near to his heart and he’s spent many a summer and winter in the Flathead Valley.
The menu at Buchanan’s is intended to be a sort of vibrant play on satiating chop house classics. Some of that is drawn from the mind of the Calgary location’s long-time executive chef, Phillip Ng, a French-trained chef from Hong Kong who moved to Canada more then 30 years ago. But other influences include those of the chef Steen Turner, who is running the kitchen at Buchanan’s in Whitefish, and had worked as Blanton’s chef de cuisine at the old Café Kandahar.
It’s the latest chapter in Turner’s longstanding relationship with Kandahar, which began somewhere around 2007 when he was finishing culinary school in Texas. As Turner recalls, his father, ski journalist Larry Turner, was visiting Whitefish and struck up a conversation with Blanton. Upon hearing that the elder Turner had a son in culinary school, Blanton told him to send him his way when he was ready. Steen had been to Whitefish before as a teenager, and the thought had already crossed his mind at the time that it could be a great place to live.
Turner said that he grew up in a rural farming community in southern Oregon, working at family-owned bar and restaurant businesses, as well as in catering. He started out as a dishwasher at 10 years old, and by age 12 he had cooking responsibilities. By the time he was of college age, he decided to head to Texas to learn how to be a welder and take the chance to also get to know some of his mom’s Texas family better. But even though he’d grown up showing an interest in metal art, the idea of going further with welding as a trade quickly came to seem like a bad idea. He eventually pivoted to culinary school and dove into the heavy coursework at the Austin location of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts.
As a chop house, the distinction Buchanan’s draws from a regular steak house is an emphasis on serving cuts of meat on the bone. For some, that might mean opting for the bone-in braised short rib of seemingly prehistoric proportions, served with heirloom carrots, fondant potatoes slow-cooked in clarified butter and morel mushrooms, all of which is blanketed with a gleaming morel mushroom demi-glace.
Diners seeking the primal experience of a bone-in cut can hunt through a menu replete with ribs, racks and shanks, but there are plenty of exceptions, both by land and by sea.
One example is the steak frites served with tallow-fried onion rings and French fries, and topped with a decadent garlic-herb bone marrow butter.
For those interested in seafood, the menu offers shrimp, bacon-wrapped scallops with a sweet chili glaze, crab cakes, king salmon and a lobster pot pie.
Like any good chop house, Buchanan’s also serves a wedge salad, in this case with bleu cheese, buttermilk ranch, bacon, pecans and croutons.
There are also some less buttoned-up dining options for patrons of the patio and Snug Bar (yes, Buchanan’s is operating Kandahar’s legendary cozy watering hole found just to the left of the hotel’s front desk). Those options include a bison sirloin burger, braised beef poutine, a pork belly banh mi made with turmeric pickled vegetables, and an angus beef sandwich served with a horseradish aioli, mushrooms and grilled onions.
The following conversation with chef Steen Turner has been edited for length and clarity.
FLATHEAD LIVING: What do you like to cook at home?
STEEN TURNER: I actually cook a lot of Vietnamese food. My uncle actually is from Vietnam, and I grew up cooking a lot with him. He even had a Vietnamese food cart for five years. It’s kind of my jam. Even though Phil’s got his Japanese and Chinese influence, I do a lot of Vietnamese influence here as well with the specials. The thing that I love so much about Vietnamese food is the French influence to it. They were occupied by France for such a long period. You’re looking at Asian cuisine with heavier items like pate, bread, braising items. At the same time a lot of Vietnamese food is very fresh, so a lot of fresh ingredients, be it herbs, veg, even uncooked items. So, the little aspect of having something super rich with something very fresh, acidic, and also with heat — you’re just kind of hitting all the elements of taste on it. It’s a beautiful little spot on that for Vietnamese cuisine.
FL: With this being a chop house, any thoughts on how to elevate a large cut of meat?
ST: I would say, especially for us here, something that I’ve always had a lot of pride in is I love to butcher my own animal. Granted, I can’t do that here, but I have done it a lot in the past. I love butchery in general. But, here, we’re bringing in whole primal cuts, and we ourselves are fully breaking them down. We even do a bit of our own dry aging here with a dry ager we have. When it comes down to the actual cooking process of it, starting off with a great product, you’re definitely gonna get good results. We’re trying to keep everything as fresh as possible by butchering and prepping for the day of, and trying not to get too far ahead of ourselves just so we can get lax on it. It’s more about keeping the product as fresh as possible.
FL: Is there anything about the menu that you’re especially proud of?
ST: I think our whole menu in general has got quite the selection. It’s definitely chop house-style. You’re looking at a lot of protein. I do try my best to get in as much local product as possible. So, even dealing with multiple local farms in the valley for veg and items like that. That’s something I’ve kept up from working in Kandahar in the past. It’s a great selection for anyone who’s looking to come up and dine, definitely if you’re looking for meat or seafood. If we had someone come in who’s vegan, all they have to do is mention that, I can make them something on the spot. I know we don’t have a lot of vegan options, as we are a chop house, but we’re always willing to accommodate for that.
