Page 16 - Flathead Beacon // 2.19.14

16 THE FOOD ISSUE // FEBRUARY 19, 2014
FLATHEADBEACON.COM

LEFT: Andy Blanton, executive chef at Cafe Kandahar, prepares a
meal. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON

America through a peer-review competition that rates
and ranks chefs.
As he goes up against other chefs from culinary epi-
centers like Portland, Ore., and Seattle, Blanton, ac-
knowledging that Montana is an unlikely foodie mecca,

said the exposure from his evening at the James Beard
House helped brighten the spotlight over Caf́ Kanda-
har.
The European-style Inn is tucked into the quarter-
century-old Kandahar Lodge at the village of White-
ish Mountain Resort, where Blanton has been creating
some of the inest and most pioneering food in Montana

and the Paciic Northwest.
On a recent evening at Kandahar, another past
James Beard-nominated chef, Nathan Lockwood, exec-
utive chef and owner of Seattle’s Altura, dined with his
family in a cozy enclave of the dining room.
“As chefs, a lot of our inspiration comes from other
dining experiences and the work of other chefs,” Blan-
ton said. “We went skiing together earlier today. He’s a

really nice guy and we hit it of.”
Before Blanton came to Montana, he worked for two
award-winning restaurants in New Orleans. Command-
ers Palace in the Garden District won a James Beard
The Kandahar Experience
Award for Most Outstanding Restaurant in 1996. While
working at Brigtsen’s two years later, executive chef
Frank Brigtsen won a James Beard Award for Best Chef

in the Southeast.
Andy Blanton, executive chef and owner of Caf́ Kandahar, In 1999, at the age of 23, Blanton arrived in White-
ish in search of a lifestyle change, one in which his pas-
showcases “thoughtfully constructed cuisine”
sion for skiing and the outdoors could temper the in-
trinsic stress of working in a kitchen. Soon, his cooking
talents were recognized and in 2000 he became execu-
tive chef of Caf́ Kandahar. Six years later, he purchased BY
Last year, the quality of Blanton’s work was rec- TRISTAN SCOTT OF THE BEACON
the restaurant.
ognized for the third time in four years by the James
A
Inspired by French and Creole traditions, Blanton Beard Foundation, whose accolades are regarded as the mid the simmering lure of liquescent
also is a deft experimenter. Local produce and meats Oscars of the culinary world. In 2010, 2011 and 2013, shallots and caramelizing pork belly, the
dominate the menu, a la the farm-to-table philosophy, the foundation named Blanton a Best Chef Northwest kitchen staf at Caf́ Kandahar labors at
and favorite creations include seared elk roulade with semiinalist and, although the coveted title has eluded a frenetic pace, a tribe of gourmands ply-
forest mushrooms. Patrons can choose of two menus, him, he hopes to again be named one of 20 semiinalists ing its expertise in the trenches of what
one that changes nightly and another that is seasonal.
is arguably the inest restaurant in Montana.
in the regional category for the 2014 awards, to be an-
The Kandahar staf also sends more traditional pub The grill-man, forearms festooned with culinary- nounced next month.
themed tattoos — one bears the sectioned pig of a pork Although Blanton was not nominated in 2012, he
fare down the hall to the nearby Snug Bar. Visiting from
Atlanta, Leigh Barnett and Mark “Switch” Swiecichows- chart, the other a chef’s blade — delicately balances a and his staf had the even greater honor of preparing
ki had just inished sharing an elk burger and a Montana poached quale egg atop a diadem of house-cured ba- a seven-course meal at the auspicious James Beard
mule — an efervescent mixture of ginger beer, bourbon con layered over truled focaccia, applying the steady- House in New York City’s Greenwich Village, an invita-
and lime.
handed precision that a bomb-disposal technician
tion-only performance space for visiting chefs to show-
“This is our irst stop and it’s promising,” Switch might employ to render an explosive inefective.
case their creations and draw broad recognition from
said. “You think of a small town and you don’t expect
As he performs the fastidious task, the other sta- critics, peers and foodies from the most renowned cor-
tions bustle around him, each member of the brigade ners of the culinary world.
this kind of food.”

de cuisine negotiating a lurry of saucepans, pots and
Also in 2013, he was named one of the Best Chefs of
[email protected]
plates, ducking the blur of servers whisk-
ing dishes away.
At the fore of the kitchen, positioned
closest to the plush dining room, which
is highlighted by bay windows that over-
look Big Mountain at Whiteish Moun-
tain Resort, Caf́ Kandahar’s executive

chef and owner, Andy Blanton, surveys
his crew while coiing rows of gleam-
ing white saucers with poached halibut
cakes, shrimp gratin and beef tartar,
while the waitstaf deftly dispatches the
plates to the seated patrons, working
clockwise around the expansive tables.

Despite the operation’s fever-pitch
metabolism, there’s no discord among
the Kandahar staf, each position part of
an intricate interplay of moving pieces,
and Blanton’s motto — to consistently
create “thoughtfully constructed cui-
sine” — is on full display.
“We’re always trying to integrate new

dishes that luctuate with the season, but LEFT: Quail egg with house cured bacon on trule focaccia prepared by Andy Blanton at Cafe Kandahar. RIGHT: Bufalo tenderloin, prepared with hedgehog
I also like to keep it simple,” Blanton said.
mushrooms, Humboldt fog, sage and thyme roasted baby reds. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON