"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." - J.R.R. Tolkien
So while a lot of posts on here are inspirational musings, this may be the most inspirational of them all because it's about my other great passion in life outside of film: food! (If this seems unimportant to you, I have included the above quote just for you!) I grew up in a family where we made plans only after we settled where we wanted to eat, and to this day whenever I come back and visit, the first thing I get asked is "where do you want to eat?" When vacationing at a familiar spot, we usually know exactly where we want to eat and have no idea what we are going to do between meals. So the chance to make a video about the food at Mountain Lake Lodge a while back was a literal treat.
I think the biggest thing looking back is that it's completely real. Nothing is filmed just because it looks cool and markets well; it all happens at Mountain Lake Lodge and we were just along to capture it. Every farm, farmer market, crop, preparation, and satisfied guest is completely real. Nothing was doctored with chemicals to make it shine like you normally see in food commercials, everything you see is ready to be eaten! Meeting the head chef, Ashton Carter, we quickly discovered this wasn't just a job for him, it was a way of life. He farms and raises pigs himself and we got to travel with him to the local farms and farmer's markets where he gets the freshest local ingredients, even creating his menu according to what's available.
While this farm-to-table philosophy is organic friendly, the food at Mountain lake was good before, so the question remained if it could be as good. It wasn't. It was better. Even though I didn't know what half the things the menu said was in the meal I got, everything was exquisite. Ashton doesn't sacrifice style or substance when creating a tasty work of art. I had never had bison before, but the bison and bison burgers made my insides sing and they were definitely my favorite thing I had there.
So let the news ring out: bison burgers are great. Let that inspire you. It definitely inspired us.
Jesse Miller