Zac’s Montana Kitchen Delivers
By Kris King
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Zac Cooking Bozeman, Montana
Photo by Larry Stanley
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Zac Kellerman embodies the adage “find a niche and fill it.” He fills both bellies and Southwest Montana’s high-end custom catering niche with Zac’s Montana Kitchen. Kellerman explains, “There is a clientele of people with second homes in this area who love to entertain and showcase their homes. I recognized this market and exploited it; cooking is the avenue that I use. I aggressively market to this clientele. Part of marketing is image, especially to this clientele; they demand attention to detail, so I put a lot of energy into everything from the company vehicles to the starched white chefs’ coats to make sure that everything is polished.” He explains that he doesn’t do lower-end jobs, “I like burgers and beans as much as anyone else, but there are other caterers to accommodate that price range.”
While most caterers focus on the food – which Kellerman considers a given – his focus is on assessing and delivering what the client wants. “Being accommodating is a big part of my philosophy,” Kellerman explains. “I’m a professional accommodator.” When asked what he enjoys about his work he says, “What I enjoy the most is taking care of people. That’s what makes us unique and it’s obvious from a client’s first phone call; they understand that we are there to take care of them and their guests.”
Kellerman’s dedication to his clientele is not where his energies end; his community involvement includes writing a weekly Q & A column with recipes as “Ask the Chef” in the Livingston Weekly, and regularly donating catered dinner parties from Zac’s Montana Kitchen for nonprofits to auction off at fundraisers. He says of his Livingston Weekly column, “Even if I’m busy, I’ll write it at midnight. It’s a great way to get my name out and be part of the community. It gets a lot of good response and if an ingredient gets inordinately left out, people will call me. I was doing a buffet the other night for 300 and a woman going through the line asked, ‘Who is Zac?,’ and then told me, ‘I love your column and read it every week.'
Kellerman is a southern boy, as his lilting accent attests, who first came to Montana in 1987 to study chemistry and wildlife biology at the University of Montana. His passion for cooking was ignited the following summer while cooking at a Glacier Park lodge. Kellerman decided to leave school to cook professionally. He returned to his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, to work in the kitchen of a new restaurant. When acclaimed Chef Dean Fearing came into the restaurant, Kellerman asked to work at his Dallas restaurant, The Mansion on Turtle Creek. Fearing asked for a resumé, and despite having only cooked for a year, the 21 year-old Kellerman submitted his resume, was hired, and cooked at The Mansion for five years. He then freelanced for another four years cooking at local restaurants and catering small private parties for a high-flying Dallas clientele.
Kellerman says, “After nine years in Texas, I wanted to come back to Montana. I went to the Orvis store in Dallas and researched high-end fishing lodges in Montana and came across Hubbard’s Yellowstone Lodge in Tom Miner Basin.” After two seasons at Hubbard’s, Kellerman moved to Livingston in 1999. He cooked at the Murray Hotel and traveled to New Zealand, Northern Italy, and Africa for bike rides. Of course, traveling includes adventurous eating and researching food, and Kellerman’s culinary scope increased even further. In 2001, he met Jewel Redmond and cooked with Jewel’s Catering for four years. In June of 2005, he bought Jewel’s business – which included an excellent kitchen – changed the name to Zac’s Montana Kitchen, and Jewel became his employee -- baking all the breads and desserts.
Zac’s plan for his new business, now manifest, was to seek out and market to an affluent clientele. He approached groups such as the Deaconess Foundation and Museum of the Rockies with his portfolio and has had an excellent response. Even his donations tap into this overall marketing plan. Kellerman donates a limited number of Dinner Party Packages to nonprofits on a first come, first serve basis and says, “It’s a good way to get my name out to people who are part of the community. I’m offering a great product – everything from staff to food and wine – and bringing in thousands of dollars to organizations, while the bidders get to enjoy making the donation and then enjoy the meal we prepare. They [affluent people] are a difficult group to access, but once they come to a party we cater, they get a business card and often call us up a few weeks later.”
Kellerman says that catering in Southwestern Montana comes with its own challenges, such as serving a meal to hundreds on the remote side of a mountain, unpredictable weather, cold winters, and a clientele with high expectations such as those at the Yellowstone Club. Kellerman says, “It’s our professional, clean image that creates trust with these clients.” He adds, “The exciting thing about this job is that we regularly go into these incredible homes that have beautiful landscaping and architectural details. It’s special to be trusted while in the client’s home.” He most enjoys doing small intimate dinner parties with plated courses where he can announce the course, serve the food, and interact with the guests. He says, “It’s fun to talk about the food, my cooking past, and what led me to Montana.”
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Zac Preparing a Meal
Bozeman, Montana
Photo by Larry Stanley
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Catering requires, above all, an enormous amount of organization. Kellerman says he often puts in 18-hour days and explains, “We show up on site early so the staff and client can relax; it’s important to make sure everyone and everything is calm. We plan weeks and sometimes months out from the actual day of the event. I make sure all the behind-the-scenes details are worked out so when we show up, it’s a seamless presentation.” When asked about the inevitable crisis that arises while catering, Kellerman insists that extensive planning and communication with the client prevents all crises. He says, “There are three parts to every event: shopping, prep, and execution. By the time it’s execution, the hard part is over.” Of course timing is crucial, for instance, pulling a roast out of the oven while rare since it will keep cooking in the insulated boxes on the way to the site. The staff brings high propane burners to sites in addition to insulated boxes and basically sets up a kitchen at every event. Kellerman says, “We might be serving on a remote side of a mountain, but it’s with a fully functional kitchen.”
Zac’s Montana Kitchen doesn’t advertise sample menus because each job is customized for the client. He says, “I design everything to the clients’ desires; either they tell me what they want, or they tell me to do what I feel. My culinary ability allows me to pull off any style of food requested.” He says, “The food is awesome; that’s a given. I’m passionate about its flavors, presentation, and appeal.” His passion for cooking is evident in arenas such as his approach to spices. He explains, “When it comes to hard spices, we toast them in a pan to release perfumes and then grind them. The spice mill is one of the most used pieces of equipment in our kitchen. For instance, black pepper is a spice used on every cut of meat, and when you grind it just before you use it, there’s a huge difference in bringing out the essence of that flavor. Getting the potential from flavors of food has to do with timing; like adding a fresh herb just before serving gives a freshness and spark.”
Kellerman is following the current culinary trend away from the elaborate architectural presentation of the 1990s and toward, “a simple, clean linear presentation with food that stands on its own. It isn’t confused with a lot of meticulous garnishes.” He adds, “I start with high quality products that aren’t overly manipulated. For instance, we take a fresh piece of halibut, season it with sea salt and sear it in good olive oil. It’s unmasked. That’s the strongest philosophy for my food: keeping it identifiable.”
Kellerman shops and hand selects all his ingredients personally for each event; there are no trucks dropping off bulk goods at Zac’s Montana Kitchen. He utilizes the local Deep Creek Greens, his neighbor Matt’s Meat Market, Big Timber Meats, Bozeman Produce, and the Montana Fish Company. He says, “I look for first-rate freshness with local appeal. I get some requests for organic events, and can accommodate that.” He describes his cooking as classical, using traditional sauces but infused with Montana ingredients such as berries, sage, wild game, local meats and Montana cheeses. For instance, Kellerman will employ classical French sauce-making techniques of roasted bones, caramelized vegetables, and wine reduction and serve this sauce over local beef tenderloin or rack of lamb. Of course, Kellerman’s southern heritage is an influence and he enjoys serving chard, kale or mustard greens with sautéed onions in bacon drippings deglazed with a bit of vinegar and finished with salt.
It’s no accident that the state of the art kitchen Zac cooks out of is part of the business name. He says of the kitchen, “It’s a source of pride and enables us to do what we do.” The kitchen is the planning, storage, and cooking command center; a place equipped to push culinary creativity with a county-music soundtrack rolling in the background. Kellerman says, “This kitchen is the ultimate playground for me. It’s one of the best kitchens I have ever worked in.” The kitchen, which is behind Matt’s Meat Market on Livingston’s north side, is a non-descript block from the outside but spacious and teeming with tools on the inside. It is equipped with jumbo Hobart mixers, triple-deck pizza ovens, slicers, cuisinarts, a walk-in refrigerator and freezer, racks of mini and maxi-muffin pans, and stock pots and ladles hung from the ceiling. Kellerman effuses, “The new roll-in convection oven heats up to 600 degrees and browns prime rib for 300 people perfectly.” Another new addition is the high-end ice cream machine. Kellerman says, “One of my chefs is a fabulous ice cream maker, so we are making gourmet ice creams for smaller dinner parties such as espresso chocolate chip, strawberry champagne sorbet, or a palate cleansing mid-course asparagus granita.”
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Zac Warming a Tortilla
Bozeman, Montana
Photo by Larry Stanley
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When asked about Zac’s Montana Kitchen specialties, Kellerman describes his baby back ribs from which he removes the membrane on back to reduce their fattiness; seasons them with kosher salt and fresh black pepper; grills them; and then lets them set for 24 hours to let the smoky flavors soak in before slow roasting the ribs for 3 - 4 hours. “This technique is essential and makes our product superior,” he says, “The ribs are spectacular: dry roasted, not braised, and lean not fatty.” His signature “Yellowstone Kitchen Sauce” is served with the ribs and marinated chicken and emulsifies acidic flavors such as yellow mustard and cider vinegar and “secret ingredients” with rich butter to round out the sharp flavors. Kellerman says, “One day, Yellowstone Kitchen Sauce signature sauce will be on the shelves of Town & Country.” He says that one of the Kitchen’s more popular offerings is, “A free-range chicken breast marinated overnight in honey, lemon, fresh herbs, tons of garlic and then grilled so that the garlic intensifies and the honey caramelizes while the olive oil keeps the chicken moist.”
Zac’s Montana Kitchen’s busy season is June through December 31 but they are available for major events year round. Zac’s Montana Kitchen is scheduled to do more than 100 events in the coming season; sometimes two a day. They have catered intimate dinners for two, a BBQ for 500 people, and everything in between. Kellerman works with his labor pool of about 25 individuals who do food preparation or serve. He says his phone rings all the time with inquiries from people who want to work for him.
Contact Zac’s Montana Kitchen at 406.222.4892, info@ cookingontherange.com; P.O. Box 975, Livingston, MT 59047, or online at http://www.cookingontherange.com
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