Parks has turned a Lincoln tradition into a must see and
experience.
The Hotel Lincoln
and Log Gastropub have served overnight patrons and gourmet foodies since
Laurie, her father, Don Tuschoff, and stepson, Kevin Parks, bought the business
in 2011.
It’s the ambiance
of the food, the stay, and the passion for cooking that keep the satisfied
tales coming from customers.
The reputation
that Parks, originally from Clarkston, Washington, has garnered in a short
time, gained her the delight of being chosen the University of Great Falls 2013
Taste of Montana Chef.
“A gentleman
asked if I would be interested and I was very honored and excited to say
‘yes’,” she says.
Parks will be at
the helm for the event Monday, May 13, at the UGF campus.
She will be in
the company of all the great cooks in her life: her husband and Grill Sargeant
Ed Parks; her brother and sous Chef, Jamie Tuschoff; and her favorite prep cook
and baker, Kathy Bennett.
Rolling up her
sleeves to prepare and cook for a major event is hardly new to Parks. From 1996 until 2001 she owned and operated “the
Dill Pickle Deli and We’re Cookin’ Now!,” a catering business in Lewiston,
Idaho.
Later, she left
the hospitality business and went back to study at the University of Montana.
She readily
admits, “I stalked my son Nathan to Missoula where we studied different fields
until we graduated in 2008.”
It was while she
was working on a Master’s degree that she and her husband were out for a drive
and stopped in Lincoln discovering the Hotel Lincoln which was for sale.
“We walked in and
instantly fell in love. I could see the
restaurant, the celebrations, the customers and my family happy in one
beautiful place. We moved to Lincoln in
December of 2010.”
Putting college studies aside, Parks’
passion from the eighties, when she started cooking, was resurrected. And, she harkens to the past and the great
chefs that have influenced her, though she hasn’t always followed the
trends. In fact, for a new dish (or an
old dish) to make it on her menu it has to have the “OMG factor.”
Today, she cooks with the freshest items
available and starts with raw ingredients ninety per-cent of the time. Three things that you won’t find in her
kitchen are: a deep fryer, a microwave, or a mixer.
Starting from scratch,
Parks throws her hard working self in all the pictures.
“No toques for
me. I have to run the hotel, the happy
hour, and everything else as well.”
For the sixth
annual Taste of Montana event, Parks has created a four course menu around wild
caught salmon.
Logs Signature House
Salad
Baby greens with
pecans, Asian pears, huckleberries, balsamic vinaigrette and warm leeks.
Fresh baked baked demi-loaves
of bread
with balsamic reduction and Extra Virgin Olive
Oil.
Poached Atlantic
Salmon with Wild Montana Skies Sauce.
Wild caught Atlantic Salmon poached in court
bouillion, served on steamed fingerlings with sweet peas, celery, green bean and
leeks, topped with a blushing butter sauce the color of a wild Montana sunset.
Mango Mosaic
Haagen Daz vanilla
bean ice cream, Haagen Daz mango sorbet and huckleberries pureed in Chambord,
frozen artistically in a loaf pan, then sliced.
It looks like stained glass, but tastes like Haagen Daz!
If you go:
University of Great Falls
Fundraiser
Sixth Annual Taste of Montana
Monday, May 13, 2013
Tickets: $100
Call: 791-5310
From 96 until 2001 I owned and operated “We’re Cookin’ Now!”
catering and “The Dill Pickle Deli.
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