Fine Dining to Take Center Stage at Second Year of Whitefish Food & Wine Festival

The Whitefish Food & Wine Festival starts next week in Whitefish, and the multi-day eating extravaganza will give Flathead Valley food lovers a chance to experience partnerships between local chefs and festival guest chefs, themed events, multi-course meals, tastings and more.

The festival debuted in Whitefish in 2024, and was brought to the town through a partnership between Whitefish entrepreneur Joe Hess, Axcess Entertainment founder Ryan Heil and celebrity chef Todd English.

Local restaurants, food providers, caterers and businesses participating in the festival this year include Big Sky Honeyberries, Sarah Manuel of Farmer Meets Foodie, Red Poppy Gluten Free Bakery, Indah Sushi, Huck’s Place, Wasabi Sushi Bar, Buchanan’s Chop House & Whisky Bar, Region Sauvage, Abruzzo, Genesis Kitchen, Boards and Pours, Hellroaring Saloon, Mama Ev’s Pizzeria, Third Street Market, Montana Antler Mercantile, Bias Brewing, Beauty + Brow, BUILD Magazine, Grizzly Air, Montana eBikes, Montana Shirt Co., REMAX Glacier County, and Sweet Peaks Ice Cream.

Events begin on Sept. 9 and continue through Sept. 14. Ticket prices range from $125 to $235.

Haskill Creek Farms will serve as the setting for numerous events, including a pair of events dubbed Grand Tastings, which are scheduled to take place Friday, Sept. 12 and Saturday, Sept. 13.

The festival bills its grand tasting events as bringing together wineries, craft breweries, distilleries, local food purveyors, chefs and brands, to create experiences featuring sommelier-led tastings, cooking demonstrations, chef competitions, live music and complimentary food offerings.

The Friday grand tasting will feature an appearance by special guest chef Jess Pryles, an Australian chef based out of Austin, Texas, whose work focuses on preparing and cooking meat over live fire. She’ll be doing a special live fire cooking demonstration with chef Thomas Fitzgerald of Region Sauvage.

Saturday’s grand tasting will feature among its high-profile guests chef Todd English, one of the festival’s cofounders. English’s resume as both a chef and restaurateur is lengthy, and his honors include the James Beard Foundation’s 1991 National Rising Star Chef award and 1994 Best Chef in the Northeast award, Bon Appetit’s 2001 Restaurateur of the Year award and even a 2001 spot on People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People list.

English said that the Whitefish Food & Wine Festival is coming into its second year with momentum, and that he’s excited to see what he and the festival’s organizers have put together this year.

Calling it a bit of a homespun event, he also pointed toward Whitefish as a beautiful setting and a town with a great atmosphere, as well as an exciting restaurant scene. English said he’s enthusiastic about what he sees as the festival’s ability to support local chefs and the work they do.

One of the things that makes it a great experience, in English’s view, is what he called the “show-off factor” that chefs tend to bring to festivals like this. “The chefs want to put their best foot forward and feel like they can really show off,” English said.

“Whenever you sort of bring all these kinds of minds together, a lot of good stuff comes out of it. It always pushes the boundaries too, a little.”

The festival has undergone some changes heading into its sophomore campaign, including removing its previous event-within-an-event construction, which required an additional fee to access the Bank of America Kitchen Stage where demonstrations were put on by English and guest chefs. This year the stage will be open to everyone attending, and there will be four to five demonstrations each day during the Grand Tastings.

“Each year we expect to grow in attendance, and also increase what we can give back to the community through our charitable partnerships with DREAM Adaptive Recreation and Underwater Warriors,” said Heil, one of the festival founders.

The festival week starts on Sept. 9 with “Peak Palate: Where Mountain Meets the Vine,” a six-course meal staged at the Hellroaring Saloon on Big Mountain. The meal will be Alpine-inspired, and will pair food with wine made from grapes grown at high altitude.

Courses include elote corn fritter and charred octopus mojo, bison tartare with quail egg and potato pommes, braised lamb shank with creamy red pepper polenta and king trumpet mushrooms, and a dessert of orange posse and balsamic-macerated strawberries.

On Sept. 10, Abruzzo will be the setting for an event called “Santa Barbara Meets Montana,” which will revolve around a four-course meal and dessert experience curated by Abruzzo executive chef Jeremy Grossman. The SET Wines of Santa Barbara is hosting the Abruzzo event, and will be debuting a lineup of wines that have earned point ratings of 90 or more.

Grossman’s menu will include Montana wagyu carpaccio and Santa Barbara abalone, tuna tartare, caviar, cured egg yolk and a black garlic-shoyu vinaigrette, confit duck leg with Flathead Lake cherries and a huckleberry vinaigrette, and an elk striploin served with potato galette, celery root puree and oxtail ragu.

Also on Wednesday, Sept. 10, Buchanan’s Chop House & Whiskey Bar up at Kandahar Lodge will host an event called “Barrels & Bone,” which will revolve around servings of meat, wine and aged whiskey. Chef Steen Turner will oversee a six-course meal that begins with an amuse bouche of forest mushroom canape with madeira crème, toasted garlic, chive goat cheese and thyme filo, and advances through dishes of bison tenderloin tartare, pan-seared quail with house-cured pancetta, and braised bone-in lamb shank with a Flathead cherry demiglace. Also on the menu will be vegetable-based dishes including kohlrabi and watermelon radish salad with dill fronds and a citrus and dill pollen vinaigrette, a poached cherry tomato ragu and a mushroom and Manchego gratin. The dessert course will feature a dark chocolate mousse, and diners will also be served a whiskey cocktail digestif.

Two more events are lined up for Thursday, Sept. 11. At Haskill Creek Farms, attendees can partake in the “Farm & Foraged to Table,” an event curated by Montana chef and veteran Michael Tolomeo who does private catering under his business Veritas Chef. Working with Tolomeo on the meal is chef Thomas Fitzgerald of the Flathead catering business Region Sauvage.

The five-course meal will showcase items like duck salami, truffle tartufo salami, Montana wagyu prime rib and smoked bone marrow herb butter, morel mushrooms, Flathead Lake trout rubbed with strawberry and sage before being seared, and green beans roasted in bison tallow.

Also on Sept. 11, Chef Bob Valaika will work with the team at Indah Sushi for a “Dual Omakase” meal. Valaika, the chef of the celebrated Park City, Utah Asian fusion restaurant Shabu, will oversee the meal. Per the event listing, the menu is not fixed or advertised in advance, in accordance with how a traditional omakase meal is typically executed, but diners can expect sushi, sashimi and small plates.

The festival will close out this year with a Sunday, Sept. 14 “Ultra Brunch” closing party. The brunch event will feature dishes from Huck’s Place, Genesis Kitchen, Black River, Caviar, Indah Sushi, Region Sauvage, Mama Ev’s Pizzeria, The Spot, Boards & Pours and La Bella Crema. Bottomless Aperol spritzes will be served, and there will be a Tito’s bloody mary bar, champagne, wine and DJ’d music. Brunch dishes will include surf and turf eggs benedict, seafood gumbo, breakfast game pizza and peaches foster French toast.

For ticket sales, a full schedule and more event details, go to whitefishfoodandwine.com.

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