April 2022 • Nebraskaland 33
Nebraska's Native American origins:
a delectable bite of bison tartare
served atop Indian fry bread; bison
short rib and striploin paired with
the three sisters of corn, beans and
squash; and a Latin-inspired wild boar
chop garnished with slivers of fried
sunchoke — the starchy, edible root of
a common wild species of sunfl ower
(Helianthus tuberosus) historically
harvested by indigenous peoples of
North America for food.
"There's a lot of Native American
infl uence here in the prairie, and I
think it's important that we include
that in what we do," Sirois said.
"There's also an awesome Latin-
America community here and Italian,
too. We have our own little Midwestern
melting pot, so it's fun for us to use
local ingredients and prepare them in
not only diff erent techniques but also
cultures."
Other dishes at the Hunter's Harvest
Dinner were refreshing takes on Old
World classics — a deconstructed duck
cassoulet with foie gras and venison
Wellington with huckleberry. For
dessert, an eye-catching sweet potato
cake exposed this humble New World
tuber to classic pastry techniques.
The fi sh course off ered the most
memorable bite: pumpkin seed-crusted
lake sturgeon with a clever eastern
redcedar-infused aioli.
"There are juniper trees on this
property," Sirois said. "We cut the
branches, heated oil to 375 degrees and
fried a ton of juniper branches. And
that's the oil we used to make the aioli,
and it worked. It really came through.
I thought it was one of the best things
we put on a plate that night."
Sirois and his team of seven
managing chefs, plus cooks and
dishwashers, made this wild game
dinner happen on top of regular service
at the hotel. Each chef researched
and tackled a diff erent dish, which
was paired with wine by a consulting
sommelier from Synergy Fine Wines
in Omaha. The menu's focus was to
highlight Midwest hunting, fi shing,
foraging and small-scale farming
heritages.
Sirois's appreciation for wild and
local ingredients runs deep. He lived
in Steamboat Springs, Colorado,
throughout his teens and 20s and
dedicated many hours to fl y-fi shing
Alpine lakes and hunting elk in the
Buff alo Pass wilderness. As such,
the harvest dinner was an amazing
opportunity to work with and form
relationships with local producers.
Sirois's culinary team sourced
Wild boar chops to be served with yucca, husker banana, crispy sunchoke and sofrito, a Latin sauce of peppers and aromatics.
