{"id":11726,"date":"2016-04-22T07:06:29","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T13:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=11726"},"modified":"2016-04-24T08:15:44","modified_gmt":"2016-04-24T14:15:44","slug":"steen-comes-home-to-head-up-kitchen-at-northern-hotel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/04\/steen-comes-home-to-head-up-kitchen-at-northern-hotel\/","title":{"rendered":"Steen comes home to head up kitchen at Northern Hotel"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Steen\"<\/a>

Stella Fong<\/p>

Billings native Nick Steen is the new executive chef at the Northern Hotel in downtown Billings.<\/p><\/div>\n

Nick Steen has been summoned back to Billings. He has returned to his hometown to command the kitchens at the Northern Hotel.<\/p>\n

With the four-letter word\u2014CHEF\u2014emblazoned on the fingers of his right hand, his intentions are obvious. Soon Steen will interweave his style of fire and ice through the hotel\u2019s food offerings for events, meetings and the restaurants TEN and Bernie\u2019s Diner.<\/p>\n

Having grown up in Billings, graduating from Senior High School in 2003, Steen knows the Billings palate. He is accomplished in traditional cooking methods, yet he also used liquid nitrogen in a recent Montana State University Billings chef competition, part of the “What\u2019s Cooking?” lecture series. Steen, with sous chef Wally Bone, won the competition.<\/p>\n

Steen left Big Sky\u2019s Lone Mountain Ranch, after finishing most of the winter season, to don the executive chef jacket on March 19 in the Northern Hotel kitchen. Accompanied by his wife, Ashley, and 4-year-old son, they left behind \u201ca small town, snow and mud\u201d for the biggest city in Montana.<\/p>\n

Steen admitted \u201cpestering\u201d general manager and owner Mike Nelson for the job.<\/p>\n

The former executive chief, Tim Freeman, publicly announced on Jan. 21 that he was moving on to a new job in Colorado. That was the night he and a crowd of supporters sat in the Northern ballroom and watched the show “Beat Bobby Flay”\u2014the highlight of which was that Freeman beat Bobby Flay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw the job opening in January, but I was not ready to leave Lone Mountain Ranch then,\u201d Steen said. He says he had wanted to work at the Northern since its reopening.<\/p>\n

\u201cNick had to compete for the job,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cWe had resumes from all over the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Nelson\u2019s standards are tough; he expects employees to be entrepreneurial and yet fit in as part of the team. A worker\u2019s priorities should be \u201ccustomer, fellow employees, and \u2018I\u2019 come third,\u201d Nelson said.\u00a0With Steen, Nelson is confident he has made the right choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 30 years, I have hired a lot of chefs,\u201d he pointed out. He worked in hospitality management in Las Vegas and other places before purchasing the hotel with his brother Chris in 2009.<\/p>\n

Steen credits Chuck Schommer, owner of Buck\u2019s T-4 in Big Sky, with spurring confidence in his culinary capabilities as he \u201cplanted a seed that I could do it.\u201d Steen worked for Schommer at the Yellowstone Club about 10 years ago. Schommer set an example of being a \u201chappy chef with a family and kids,\u201d Steen said, adding, \u201cChuck instilled in me that one could be a good leader and a good chef.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steen\u2019s path included exploring careers in medicine and law. He jokingly places \u201cscalpels and chef knives\u201d on the same level. After spending three winters at the Yellowstone Club, he worked at Johnny Carino\u2019s and Weebees in Bozeman. He even sold vacuum cleaners door-to-door, and worked as a \u201clunch lady\u201d at Monforton School.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to work with kids teaching cooking classes,\u201d he said, beaming. Then, as a firefighter for a short stint, he managed to feed the crew on occasion.<\/p>\n

Most of Steen\u2019s skills have been learned on the job and from the Internet, specifically YouTube videos.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really inspired by watching TV and started teaching myself to cook,” he said. “When I watch someone do it, I can do it too.\u201d<\/p>\n

“There is no book on how to use liquid nitrogen,” he continued. “I had to try it and experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Chef\"<\/a>

Stella Fong<\/p>

The tattoo on Steen’s right hand says it all.<\/p><\/div>\n

Steen surrounds himself with talented chefs and cooks, and consults seasoned professionals. Celebrity chefs such as Thomas Keller of The French Laundry in Napa Valley, and Sean Brock of McCrady\u2019s Restaurant and Husk in North Carolina provide inspiration. Locally, Steen is within shouting distance of Executive Chef Marlo Spreng at Walkers American Grill and Tapas Bar.<\/p>\n

When traveling, Steen seeks out eateries frequented by locals. On a recent trip to Wichita, Kan., he researched fried chicken in \u201chole in the wall\u201d restaurants. In Detroit, he researched ham from hocks to shanks.\u00a0Yet Steen acknowledged that his favorite food is tuna casserole. He confessed to surviving on Top Ramen and Hot Pockets in the lean years as he was starting out.<\/p>\n

Heather Hale, food and beverage manager at the Northern Hotel, works closely with Steen. Hale\u2019s main responsibility is to \u201ccommunicate the company\u2019s mission from location to location.\u201d Hale, with a civil engineering degree, is analytical, making sure the kitchen and bar staffs have the ingredients to serve customers.<\/p>\n

The menu will remain the same until the end of May, according to Steen and Hale. Steen wants to work with the menu and evaluate what steps need to be taken next.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not need an entire new inventory, or totally new recipes. I would rather be in the kitchen and make changes one at a time. I want to do this intelligently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steen\u2019s food philosophy is: \u201cfresh, local, seasonal and sustainable.\u201d \u201cLocal\u201d to Steen extends to the Pacific Northwest, Alaska and Washington as well as Idaho.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love shellfish and seafood, and the beef is amazing here in Montana,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fun has come into the kitchen with Steen\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I step into the kitchen I learn something new,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a team effort in the kitchen. You should be passionate about cooking. It is important everyone has a voice in what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the flip side, he said, \u201cI take everything in the kitchen seriously, but it is in a lighthearted way. You should be the best you can be. You should give the best you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hale added, \u201cI have not seen this kind of excitement in the kitchen. Every single cook was in the kitchen at the first meeting. The energy is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Nelson said that the last few years for him have been mixed emotionally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted a path for TEN, a five-year plan. I want TEN to be a staple, a restaurant guests can depend on. Right now, we are exactly where we need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steen has similar feelings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so unbelievably happy to be here,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nick Steen has been summoned back to Billings. He has returned to his hometown to command the kitchens at the Northern Hotel. With the four-letter word\u2014CHEF\u2014emblazoned on the fingers of his right hand, his intentions are obvious. Soon Steen will interweave his style of fire and ice through the hotel\u2019s food offerings for events, meetings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":11727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[4247,4246,1974,755,4245,217,3701,3622],"class_list":["post-11726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-bernies-diner","tag-heather-hale","tag-lone-mountain-ranch","tag-mike-nelson","tag-nick-steen","tag-northern-hotel","tag-ten","tag-tim-freeman","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}