Shedding non-epicurean ways at Beaver Creek’s Winter Culinary Weekend
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I’m not a foodie. My top two nutritional groupings involve burgers and burritos. Add pizza, brats, wings and rib-eyes to the menu and I’m happy as a raccoon in a Dumpster.
My wife, Dianne, is just the opposite. She loves to cook and enjoys good food. When we dine out, other patrons often arrive, order, eat and leave before she’s finished studying the menu. When she learned about Beaver Creek’s Winter Culinary Weekend, she decided it would make an ideal birthday getaway for her gastronomically challenged husband.
Beaver Creek has long been one of our favorite ski destinations. It features both groomed and challenging slopes, it’s seldom overcrowded and they offer warm chocolate-chip cookies at closing time.
The Winter Culinary Weekend offers a pick-and-choose array of lunches, dinners and après ski options. Each features gourmet dishes prepared by prominent chefs and paired with enough beer, wine and cocktails to make us glad we booked local lodging at the Park Hyatt. After checking in, we headed down to the Burgers and Beers culinary event held outside beside the village ice rink.
Like Jimmy Buffet, I like my burgers “with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57 and French fried potatoes.” Not here. These epicurean creations included “burgers” made from Japanese pork tonkatsu and sliders coated with foie gras gravy. I have to admit they were tasty. And while I didn’t get a big kosher pickle, there was enough cold draft beer available to keep me feeling paradisiacal.
Our evening agenda included dinner at Saddle Ridge, a half-mile shuttle ride from the Hyatt. Its ground floor holds a Western artifact museum whose treasures include Geronimo’s tomahawk and George Custer’s hat, presumably not the one he wore at the Little Bighorn.
In the upstairs dining room, we enjoyed a two-chef, four-course dinner that included elk mini-tacos, BBQ rabbit, bacon crusted redfish and buffalo tenderloin with green-chili cheese grits. I didn’t need a translator to know what I was eating.
I wasn’t so lucky at Saturday’s Ski-EatSki event. After sliding slopes with guides all morning, we participants headed to Zach’s Cabin for lunch. The log-and-rock restaurant sits high on the slopes above Bachelor Gulch. We entered, swapped boots for slippers and took seats at tables set with more stemware than forks. A menu card provided a list of what we would be served. I recognized nothing.
Evening brought the Culinary Weekend’s Grand Tasting, a mega event held in a village hall. More than 20 stations lined the perimeter of the convention-sized quarters, each offering a chef ’s specialty. Wine, beer and spirits stations centered the room with 28 vintners represented.
While I sipped varietals, Dianne flitted from station to station, relishing everything from vesta charcuterie to lambheart tartare. To avoid her “try this” appeals, I struck out solo, hoping to unearth edibles more my style.
Like manna catered straight from heaven, I found nourishing salvation at Beaver Creek’s Coyote Cantina station. There sat plates of carnitas tacos crafted from roasted pork, rose onions and avocado crema. Not far away, the Blue Moose served autumn pizza made with cremini mushrooms and goat cheese. Plates of savory sustenance in hand, I joined Dianne at a table.
Maybe this epicurean eating, I finally had to admit, isn’t so bad after all.