Chef brings new life to old restaurant

Since she reopened The Historic Occidental Hotel in Buffalo in 1997, a number of cooks have come and gone from the hotel restaurant, The Virginian.

"We had so much trouble with chefs, we were ready to close," Dawson-Wexo said.

Then she found Norman Henry, an experienced chef who was looking for a change of pace. He made the move from California last spring, and has been carefully tweaking the menu, bringing the two-star restaurant up to four stars.

"It's been exciting to see what he's done," Dawson-Wexo said. "He's turned my restaurant around completely."

Henry, who grew up in Grand Rapids, Mich., has worked as an executive chef, manager, food and beverage manager and general manager at five-star restaurants, resorts and country clubs throughout the country. Years ago, he owned a restaurant in Billings, Mont. More recently, he owned Salt H2O Cafe in Dunsmuir, Calif., and Aspen, Colo., which was featured on the Food Network.

He specializes in French, Kosher, Scandinavian, Pacific Rim, Mediterranean, Japanese, Semitic, Continental and Creole cuisines.

"With food, you can innovate and virtually do anything," he said. "That's the fun of it."

The restaurant, which is named after the book, "The Virginian," by Owen Wister, is known for steak, buffalo, prime rib and fresh seafood.

Last summer, business was double to triple what it had been the previous summer. Henry says he doesn't care about the tourists. He wants to win the locals back.

One area he's working to improve is presentation. All steaks are served with a truffle sauce and many entrees are garnished with an edible orchid.

"People eat with their eyes," Henry said. "As long as it looks good, it tastes good. It's all in the presentation."

History also plays a role in the dining experience at The Virginian. The hotel opened in a log building in 1880. The current building was built in the early 1900s.

The first dining room was once a mercantile and the second dining room is where the hotel bank used to be. You can dine inside the bank vault or in the store-front windows.

The Victorian decor sets the mood with red walls, heavy curtains, gold, pressed tin ceiling and period paintings. Some of the fixtures and pieces are original. The previous owner was a pack rat, Dawson-Wexo said, and the attic was full of old decorations and furniture.

The restaurant is dimly lit by a mishmash of fixtures fitted with replica antique light bulbs. The setting is quiet and intimate, the kind of place you can hold a conversation.

"I think eating out should be fun and it shouldn't be expensive, and that's where we're at," Henry said.

Henry shared his recipes for Scandinavian clam chowder and hunters' sauce exclusively with Live Well readers.

Scandinavian Clam Chowder

If you are having a party or a special event, make this chowder the day before. It’s always better the following day.

Soup ingredients:

1 quart of minced clams with liquid

1 quart water

1 cup of diced celery

1 cup of diced carrots

1 cup diced onions

1 cup diced raw potatoes

4 bay leaves

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon of white pepper

1/2 teaspoon thyme leaves

3 tablespoons of chicken base (Choose a base with meat as the first ingredient, not salt, if possible.)

Roux ingredients:

1/3 pound butter

3/4 cup flour

1 tablespoon of caraway seeds

Finishing ingredient:

1 cup heavy cream

Instructions: Incorporate all of the soup ingredients in a large soup pan, bring to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes. Roux, white or brown, is the most common thickener for savory sauces and soups. To make it, melt butter in a large sauce pan. Add caraway seeds and toast lightly over medium heat. Stir in flour until combined, and simmer for about one minute, stirring constantly. After roux is complete, add the soup to the roux mixture and stir well. Finally, add the heavy cream and bring to a light, rolling boil while stirring continuously.

Hunters' Sauce

Henry learned this recipe during his apprenticeship under a great chef, but hasn't seen it since.

"In all my travels, I have never seen this sauce on a menu, nor have I ever seen it in a cookbook. I even went to the bible of French cooking, 'Larousse Gastronomique' and could not find it there, either," he wrote.

Henry shares his Hunters' Sauce recipe for the very first time in Live Well Wyoming. The sauce is excellent on all game meat as well as beef. 

"I hope you enjoy what seems to have become a lost sauce as much as I do," he wrote.

Ingredients:

 1 quart brown sauce or brown gravy (such as Bordelaise sauce, demi-glaze sauce, etc. Packaged sauce mix also incorporates well with this sauce and is a good time-saver.)

4 strips of diced bacon

1/4 diced onion

1/4 diced red bell pepper

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms

3 tablespoons fresh rosemary

2 cloves of minced garlic

2 tablespoons of chopped parsley

2 tablespoons cracked black pepper (optional)

1/4 cup sliced Spanish olives

1 1/2 ounce of crème sherry or Marsala

Instructions: Sauté the bacon over medium heat until it's about half cooked. Add the onions and mushrooms and continue sautéing another three to four minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and cook for an additional four to five minutes. Incorporate all of it into the brown sauce and stir well. Add the sherry or Marsala and simmer for one or two minutes. Serve any game or beef and enjoy.

Recipes courtesy of Norman Henry.

IF YOU GO

The Virginian restaurant is located at 10 N. Main St. in Buffalo.

Hours are 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays in the winter. In the summer, the hours are extended to 9 :30 p.m.

The menu is a la carte.

Appetizers range from $3 to $15 -- the coconut-crusted calamari is a customer favorite. Entrees start at $20 and include salmon, pheasant, duck and lamb. But, there's also a large selection of buffalo and beef entrees.

The buffalo is from Durham Buffalo Ranch in Campbell County and ranges in price from $18 for the chopped steak served with a hearty hunters' sauce to $34 for the bison tenderloin filet.

The beef selection includes filet mignon, baby back ribs and beef Wellington, in addition to steaks.

For those who prefer white meat, the prime pork chop is a good choice. Served with Caribbean chutney, the three-quarter pound French cut pork chops come from White Marble Farms, a well-revered, U.S. pork producer.

Whatever you choose for your entree, you'll want to order the grilled Caesar salad to go with it. Half a head of romaine is seared on the grill, then topped with Henry's fine-tuned Caesar dressing and pine nuts.

There's also a complete wine list and daily dessert.

For more information, go to www.occidentalwyoming.com or call 307-684-0451.

Carol Seavey is editor of Live Well Wyoming. Follow her on Twitter at Carol_Seavey.