Gavin McMichael
Chef, Restaurateur, Master of the Ordinary
"Gourmet Comfort Food"
The rough-hewn, solid fir tables, in a room of exposed brick and stone walls, illuminated only by candlelight, under richly finished wood beams, creates an intimate mood that predisposes the diner for an unexpected offering, depending on the season, that jumps off The Blacksmith Restaurant's menu: Lobster or Dungeness Crab Corn Dogs.
Chef/owner Gavin McMichael looks out his eatery's rustic wood-framed windows onto the historical downtown district of Bend, Oregon. With a history dating back to Oregon Trail settler days, the town's center was built of local red brick in the early 1900's and has been revamped with cobblestone walks and old-town street lamps that shed light on chic shops and restaurants.
While some of the eateries in this revitalized section of town are the familiar formula venues found most anywhere in the country, the Oregon-centric, head-turning collection of unique dishes created by chef Gavin stands alone in its originality as well as culinary excellence. McMichael calls it New Ranch Cuisine. I call it being deeply in tune with the lifestyle of Central Oregon, as well as a savvy business sense by a chef of his customers, who are truly his close neighbors in this moderately populated high desert community of less than 100,000 people.
This imaginative restaurateur reflects his surroundings in style, presentation and use of local ingredients, as clearly as the Cascade Mountains provide a live scenic postcard from most every west-facing viewpoint in this eastern Oregon town. Bend is situated at the center-point of a strip of fertile ranch land that runs north-south for some forty miles in each direction bordered by the volcanic coned peaks of the very young Southern Cascade Range on the west and the arid desert country that stretches east more than a hundred miles to the Idaho border.
In New Ranch Cuisine, Chef Gavin makes use of locally produced common ingredients, seasoned heavily with the cultural roots of this western ranch community, to build his very uncommon dishes. Or as the chef himself put it: "I am not only basing the approach on dishes that might come out of the bunkhouse kitchen, but also trying to celebrate the values, work ethic, and tastes of this rural community and hard working producers who provide me with both the ingredients and spirit for my dishes". Chef Gavin combines the awareness and bounty of this Oregon ranchland country with the bold flavors of the Southwest cuisine of his Texas culinary training, which was then simmered with several years of high-end experience preparing elegant dishes for the rich and famous aboard some of the most sophisticated yacht galleys in the world. The result is a compilation of very familiar American dishes infused with rich, regional ingredients and then built into some of the most creative plate presentations that this writer has ever been served. In a phrase, comfort food with a sophisticated flair.
McMichael attributes his cooking style in a great part to this picturesque locale. "The idea of New Ranch Cuisine was something that I kicked around back in Texas, but the timing wasn't right. The move to Oregon in 2001, specifically this high desert ranch country, gave me a whole new perspective on fine dining from my background in Texas kitchens and ship galleys," the chef explained, and then continued, "This was a wholly different terrain for me, not only topographically but demographically; I had to find a way to create a successful business in a cowboy culture, if you will, where many of my potential customers were hesitant to venture into the culinary unknown."
The appeal starts with the restaurant building itself; a historic blacksmith shop that was restored to its original 1923 wood-brick-stone interior, designed and furnished by co-owner Burk Dagget. The relaxed rustic elegance of the decor and candled atmosphere immediately puts the diner in a comfort zone that matches his partner McMichael's menu motif perfectly.
A quick scan of the bill of fare brings full meaning to the term, New Ranch Cuisine, by way of mouth-watering visions. While dishes like Campfire Trout, Cider Brined Pork Rib Chop, Sassafras Chicken, Not Your Mother's Meatloaf, and Fired Up S'mores are found on no other menu on the planet because of what the chef does with local ingredients that allow the word "cuisine" to describe these roadhouse favorites.
The chef is not entirely about high-end corn dogs, however. Gavin is deeply committed to the small, local producers in his immediate locale and throughout the state. Gavin explains, "The presence of locally-produced fresh foods by small-scale producers is vital to us as restaurateurs and consumers in this country. The trend toward mass production of food has adversely affected the way we Americans eat and identify with food. On the local level, I am simply trying to reintroduce local and regionally grown foods to Central Oregonians."
To that end, The Blacksmith menu selections are changed four times each year to reflect the various fresh ingredients available seasonally. McMichael works with as many small producers in the Bend area as he can. The beef used at The Blacksmith is locally raised. Gavin himself is involved in a local commercial truffle growing project. In fact, when interviewed for this feature, the chef was in the midst of trying to organize other chefs in the area into a buying cooperative in order to make it practical to set up some direct relationships with growers of fresh specialty produce located in the more agricultural regions of the state on the other side of the Cascades.
Gavin's concept of New Ranch Cuisine may have been designed to entice a tough local audience, but the style has caught the eye of the international culinary world. In 2004, The Blacksmith Restaurant was rated as one of the best new restaurants in the world by Conde Nast Traveler Magazine. It was the only restaurant from the Pacific Northwest singled out, and one of only eighteen in the United States so honored. It is no surprise that the locals fill the restaurant's reservation book nightly.
This feature, like any great meal at The Blacksmith, should not end without revisiting in more detail that luscious dessert briefly mentioned in the opening paragraphs. Mirroring Chef Gavin's focus, Executive Pastry Chef Shelly Du Plessis also takes the ordinary to new heights. Her Fired Up S'mores and the other tempting finale dishes are, well, so much more. To the usual graham cracker, chocolate and marshmallow she adds peanut butter mousse layered between caramel bananas! She gives all of us adults a chance to order Shelly's Home-Made Lollipops or invites you try her Warm White Chocolate Cherry Brioche Bread Pudding. The dessert sampler includes cotton candy, special ice cream sandwiches and more. Shelly is obviously the house temptress charged with managing The Blacksmith's department of decadence and she knows her stuff; this writer's advice is not to fight it, if you please!
Chef Gavin has been kind enough to contribute some great recipes using fresh ingredients readily available from his local producers at this time of year to dress up a few familiar favorites. These tasty dishes may have been inspired by American bunkhouse cooking, but once the reader has tried these inventive dishes the reader will understand why Gavin McMichael is appreciated by connoisseur and cowboy alike, without pretense.
