During CMH’s 60th year of heli-skiing, we thought it would be fun to share some nostalgic recipes from the CMH kitchen of years gone by.
We’ve assembled a complete dinner menu for you to have fun with and try, along with stories and anecdotes from Lynne Grillmair, who spent two decades as the chef at Bugaboo Lodge, CMH’s first location.
The recipes are from Gourmet in Paradise, a cookbook of guest and staff favourites that Lynne wrote and published in 1987. Its coil-bound pages are dotted with light-hearted tidbits about food and life, and intricate hand-drawings sketched by Lynne, who is also an artist and painter.
Lynne first started at CMH in 1969 as camp cook for the workers who built the first expansion of Bugaboo Lodge. This temporary gig snowballed into a 20-year career during which Lynne grew into a culinary leader who helped shape CMH’s hospitality style and the standards for hosting, cooking, and caring for guests.
The modern-day creations that today’s CMH chefs bring to the dinner table have evolved substantially. Yet the core legacy Lynne created still lives on: the practice of bringing people together over thoughtfully prepared food and sharing it together inside a warm lodge, at a welcoming table, following a day in the mountains.
Enjoy experimenting with these much-loved legacy recipes and see if you can embrace Lynne’s food philosophy. As she says in her book, ‘Bon Appétit!’
Suggested dinner menu
The following is a Canadian-inspired menu suggestion from Lynne’s cookbook.
It’s steeped in CMH-isms: Anniversary Salad is named after a peak in the Bugaboos, and Gâteau Gmoser aux Framboise is a nod to CMH founder Hans Gmoser’s penchant for chocolate.
To start:
Anniversary Salad
Little Brown Buns
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Main:
Barley Casserole
Puréed Turnip with Peas in Tart Shells
Green Beans
Roasted Beef Tenderloin
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Dessert:
Gâteau Gmoser aux Framboise
Click here to view, download or print the full recipes >
From limited ingredients to an in-lodge food evolution
Here are some interesting tidbits of CMH history and cooking wisdom from Lynne, pulled from her cookbook:
When I first started, transportation by helicopter limited everything—luggage, liquor, food. We never made an extra flight for food so this severely limited the amount of fresh goods we could have. A tossed salad on Friday night was the “hit” of the week and that had to be carefully portioned out.
But this was luxury compared with the ski touring camps where only canned goods accompanied meat, cheese and eggs, the latter being brought by backpack into camp. Even the transportation of staples could be endangered when the person throwing foodstuffs out of a fixed wing missed the mark and embellished the surrounding trees with peanut butter and jam!
I feel my culinary aptitude has unfolded as the company has grown. As we have expanded clientele, I have expanded my repertoire, including favourites from all over the world. This has been reinforced by assistants like Britta Allgoewer, Trudi Wagler and Renee Hayes. Their input at different stages has been provocative and stimulating. It seems there is no limit.
Human beings have to eat and it’s my job to see that they eat well.
Lynne Grillmair
Recipes
Recipes are meant to help people. There are no secrets or tricks, only practice and experience. Use your own common sense and imagination when approaching a recipe.
No two people will use a recipe the same way. Recipes are only a convenient way of passing on or immortalizing ways of preparing and combining foods.
Season them to your own taste. Taste is unique to everyone, so it is impossible to measure out exactly so many teaspoons of this herb or that spice. It depends on how you prefer it. I tend not to over-salt because personally I don’t like salty food and many people use copious amounts of salt and pepper before tasting. One thing you should do is to season your meat with a favourite seasoning salt before cooking it. This enhances the flavour so much more than sprinkling salt and pepper at the end.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with new taste sensations. Nouvelle Cuisine has done a lot to break down the set ideas of what goes with what. Try rhubarb sauce with scallops, pork medallions with black currant sauce, carrot-dill sorbet, sweet asparagus mousse in cookie cups, pumpkin ice cream. Food combinations can go on ad infinitum.
“The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a star.” That was said by Brillat Savarin (1775-1826). Have fun.
Bread
Probably the most-requested recipes are those for the variety of breads served at all the lodges.
When spending many hours preparing food, it is not difficult to work in bread making. For the working person, weekends are probably the only suitable times for this task. It is a very rewarding endeavour on a rainy, miserable day. Invite a few friends over, serve a bowl of soup, good cheese and freshly baked bread.
My first attempt at bread-making was at the Bugaboo Lodge when I was hired to cook for the work crew during the 1969 addition. The men had been reminiscing about the good bread they had enjoyed at home (Europe) and “couldn’t this be done here?”
From my time working at Lake O’Hara, I had procured the recipe for “Buns for 50” and proceeded to try it. The project was well underway when I thought I should turn it out on the counter to knead. I poured the dough out. It began to run everywhere, heading for the floor first. I was madly scooping it up, trying to work some flour into it when Leo, my boss, came in and asked, “What are you doing?” Totally nonplussed I replied, “Making buns.” Believe it or not the dough and subsequent buns turned out quite beautifully.
Tip: At higher altitudes (over 4,000 ft or 1,600 m) reduce the amount of yeast called for. A good ratio is 1 Tbsp per 3 to 4 cups of liquid.
Main courses
In North America, the menu traditionally revolves around the meat dish. Meat has always been the cook’s centre of attention. At the lodge the evening meal menu is set up this way.
Serving a hot menu, family style, at the end of the day has been our way of extending hospitality. Newcomers are amazed when they find themselves seated at tables of 10 with no menu or waitress. However, it doesn’t take long to thaw the ice. The gemülicheit* found in Austria inns soon emerges as the hot soup and fresh bread warms souls.
Toni Noichl provides beautiful zither music at the Bugaboo Lodge in the winter. This heightens the ambience and, before long, strangers become lifelong friends.
*Gemülicheit: A word used to describe an atmosphere of friendliness, good cheer and relaxation.
Desserts
This is the pièce de résistance for most of us. It is hard to push ourselves away from the table when a delicious looking confection appears. When one is active, a small piece of dessert is not apt to be a problem and when on holidays, it is part of the price of the package.
Wherever you may be in the world, we hope these recipes transport you from your kitchen to the CMH dinner table.
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