Wisconsin Foodie

Chef Shack

– Luke Zahm: This week on Wisconsin Foodie: [upbeat music] – So I guess they call us the godmothers of food trucking.

[laughs] Hi, I’m Lisa Carlson.

– Hi, my name’s Carrie Summer, the co-owner of Chef Shack, and we’re in Bay City, Wisconsin.

– Lisa: The style, or at least the thought behind it, people are kind of coming into our home.

– Carrie: And a story of our travels on a plate.

– Lisa: But we also have food trucks.

– Time to go to the market.

We’ve got lots of good food, lots of nice people, can’t wait to see our community.

– Carrie will come in the morning and pick out produce that is in season, and then she designs her menu around that.

– Oh, that’s amazing.

– That’s just a little gift from the chef.

– We have a little bite of Peru here.

– Ooh, that’s crispy.

It is like one of those perfect, perfect bites.

So luxurious.

That’s sublime.

– Carrie: We’re always just thankful we can make people happy with food.

– Luke: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

[gentle music] – Did you know Organic Valley protects over 400,000 acres of organic farmland?

So are we an organic food cooperative that protects land, or land conservationists who make delicious food?

Yes; yes, we are.

Organic Valley.

– Twenty-minute commutes.

Weekends on the lake.

Warm welcomes and exciting career opportunities.

Not to mention all the great food!

There’s a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin.

Learn more at InWisconsin.com.

– Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit “Swissconsin” and see where your beer’s made.

– We have one chance to do it right and not compromise the integrity of the products or the company because it’s easier, or cheaper, or faster.

– The Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers are proud underwriters of Wisconsin Foodie.

It takes love of the land and generations of farming know-how to nurture a quality potato crop.

Ask any potato farmer and they’ll tell you, there’s a lot of satisfaction in healthy-grown crops.

– With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

– Also with the support of the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[upbeat music] – Luke: We are a collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet.

We are a merging of cultures and ideas, shaped by this land.

[sizzling] We are a gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.

[glasses clinking] We are storytellers.

We are Wisconsin Foodie.

Today, I’m traveling on one of North America’s ancient highways, the Mississippi River.

One of the things I love about canoeing on rivers is the constant change.

You never dip your paddle in the same river twice.

The water, the sands, the view are always changing.

It’s with that spirit that I’m excited to share with you a restaurant that is constantly evolving its menu, based on the experiences shared with traveling the world.

Nestled between the bluffs in tiny Bay City, Wisconsin, Chef Shack is creating world-class food on the shores of the Mississippi River.

– Hi, my name’s Carrie Summer.

I’m the co-owner of Chef Shack, and we’re in Bay City, Wisconsin.

– Hi, I’m Lisa Carlson, co-owner of Chef Shack.

– Carrie: The vibe and the philosophy here is we’re a mom and mom shop, and we’re two chefs who really wanted to own our own building, and we decided to look in rural America, one hour outside of our radius in the Twin Cities, and here we are in Bay City.

– The style, or at least the thought behind it is maybe people are kind of coming into our home.

It’s really personal and maybe a unique experience that way.

– So what people can expect is two concepts under the one roof every Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday brunch.

So chef’s tasting menu and bar cuisine.

The bar seats are first come, first serve.

We do a lot of fast casual street food.

In the middle, we have some tables to reserve for the longer chef’s menu.

It’s like six, seven courses, very driven by the seasons, and a story of our travels on a plate.

We try to travel every winter, and we never know how those travels are gonna influence our menu.

– It’s 100% our goal to have experiences out in the field and bring them back.

You know, we’ve traveled to India a few times, and those flavors are pretty unique here, so to be able to take some local ingredients and have Indian flavors, or Southeast Asian, Thai, Laotian mixed in.

I mean, it’s like, people get really surprised, and some of those flavors they’ve never had before, but they like them.

– So Lisa and I met in 2001.

I thought, “For sure Lisa and I have to do our own thing someday, ’cause we’re a really good team.”

We bring a lot of creativity and marrying ideas together.

I make some sauces and things, I smoke the meats.

She does all the other cuisine and bringing that all together.

You know, we really love to collaborate that way.

And that was back in 2001.

We’ve been cooking together 23 years.

– The really amazing thing about Carrie and my’s specialty is she’s really got a lot of experience with brisket and pork and everything, so she’s really into smoking.

We’re both Kansas City barbecue judges, but she’s really, like, dialed it in.

Her strengths, my strengths I think really work together, and I’m really flexible and she’s a little bit more rigid.

I’m the good cop, she’s the bad cop.

You wouldn’t guess that, I might seem like the bad cop, but she’s the bad cop, for sure.

– So we opened in 2012, and we started to develop a rhythm of dining, and our first nomination for JBF Best Chef Midwest was 2017 and ’18, and then again one in 2024, so super proud of that.

We’re really quite grateful that people love our cuisine and they just come no matter what we’re making.

We’re always just thankful we can make people happy with food.

I just can’t emphasize that enough.

Just, like, it’s such a blessing.

– I do believe that this is a passion project and has been, and the fact that we’ve been here for 13 years.

We’re only open 15 hours a week.

We’ve been able to keep this passion project because we do have the food trucks, which, you know, we’ll do this tasting menu, and maybe we’ll feed, you know, 10 or 12 people, but we also have food trucks where we do a larger scale number of people.

– So back in 2005, we weren’t quite ready to do a full-on restaurant, so at that time, nationwide mobiles were really making their mark, and we thought that’s something that we could probably do.

Also at the time, Brenda Langton, one of our other mentors, she was creating a farmer’s market and she implored us to create a product for her market, so we did.

I did a small little handmade donut and Lisa did gazpacho, and that was a super exciting time and people were just coming out in flocks.

– And we really started out just like any kind of pirate cook with very little money.

So we started, like, on a table and she really wanted to do donuts, and I wanted to do, like, tomato watermelon gazpacho.

So she had me buy this donut machine and I was like, “Oh, my God, this is all the money I have.

It’s like $3,000 or something,” and I turned to her, I said, “This better work,” you know?

[laughs] Sure enough, like the first weekend, we’re literally giving the donuts away, you know?

And then of course, like, we got one little blurb in some writeup or something, and then the line was like, an hour and a half long.

She became the donut lady and I was like, “No waiting for gazpacho!”

[laughs] – So our Saturday markets include the Red Wing Farmer’s Market down by the depot by the riverfront, and then we are a part of the Mill City Farmer’s Market up in Minneapolis by the Guthrie.

We’ve been a part of that market now 18 or 19 years, I’ve lost track.

That’s where you’ll find either Lisa and myself every Saturday.

[groovy music] Morning, early morning.

Time to go to the market.

We’ve got lots of good food, lots of nice people.

Can’t wait to see our community.

We love it.

– Luke: Good morning, Chef.

– Carrie: How are you?

– I’m so good, how are you?

[Carrie laughs] It’s so good to see you.

– Carrie: Yeah, you too.

Thanks for helping.

– I’m so excited, I just can’t hide it.

[Carrie laughing] – Carrie: You’re getting the full Chef Shack experience.

– Luke: Seriously!

There’s no stopping the idea of rise and grind at Chef Shack.

It’s exactly 7 o’clock in the morning, and Carrie is fully loaded up.

We’re going to the Red Wing Farmer’s Market.

– Carrie: It’s all my neighbors.

[horn honking] – This is actually my first time in a mobile food truck, like an actual, actual truck, and I love it.

I mean, everything you need is right here.

I’m really super excited to get to see some of the other vendors and help assist with, like, the setup and execution of today’s service.

I feel like I finally get to cut my teeth in the food truck world with Chef Carrie.

– Carrie: Here we are.

– Luke: Yeah, that was fun.

– Carrie: Morning.

– Luke: Good morning.

Okay, what are we doing on the menu today, Chef?

– We have smoked and pulled lamb today, so those are gonna be on tamales and our tacos.

I am gonna do an egg taco also, with pickled red onion and fresh corn, and a fresh, beautiful salsa.

We have tomato tart, so let’s take these.

– Yep.

– Arrange some tomateys on top of there.

– I’m arranging tomatoes in the morning, Carrie.

[Carrie laughing] My singing gets better as the day goes on.

What do you think Lisa’s doing right now?

– She’s setting up and… – Luke: You think she’s having as much fun as we are?

– We’re at the Mill City Farmer’s Market down on the Mississippi, but we’ve been down here for 18 years at this farmer’s market.

We actually helped pass the ordinance here in Minneapolis for all the food trucks to be able to cook from scratch on the trucks, so I guess they call us the godmothers of food trucking.

[laughs] – Carrie: We could go walk around a little bit now.

– Luke: Let’s go walk around.

– Carrie: Yeah, let’s do that.

I’ll drop my knives off to my friend.

– Farmer’s markets are an amazing way to learn more about the foods that you’re eating, and I think that they’re an essential part of understanding that relationship between a chef, a farmer, and the place that makes the food system just a little bit smaller.

– I’m Hank Bremmer, and you are today at the Red Wing Area Farmer’s Market in Red Wing, Minnesota.

It basically started many, many years ago, actually in the ’50s and the ’60s, where farmers would come to town on Friday nights, that was kind of the time when the rural people would come to Red Wing, and they would set up on the sidewalks.

It evolved eventually to become more of a organized market.

What really excites me is Carrie will come in the morning and walk around and pick out produce that is in season, and then she designs her menu around that, and it really helps our vendors because it shows people what you can do with the produce that they are selling today in season.

– Hey, Twin Folk Farms, these are our neighbors, it’s Darla and Ashton.

– Hey, what’s up guys?

– Yeah!

– It’s really nice to meet you.

– So Ashton works with Chef Lisa in the kitchen.

He’s her assistant.

– You know what kind of education you’re getting yourself into, right?

– [laughs] Good to see you.

I’ll be back.

Tomato tart, tart tart tart tart tart tart tart.

– Luke: Tomato tart tart tart tart tart, tomato tart tart tart tart tart tart.

Mm, booyah!

– Here we go.

– Wow!

– Yeah, look at that.

– This looks outstanding!

Oh, my God!

– So pretty.

Oh, I’m excited.

Oh, ho, ho, heirloom tomatoes.

I’m diving in.

[pastry crunches] Mm-hmm.

Mm, wow.

Oh, that’s amazing.

– Okay, so Chef Luke, I need one more tart.

– Luke: One more tart.

– Oh, it’s fast and furious, we love it.

We’re addicted to that.

[laughs] We’re line junkies.

[laughs] – Luke: Yeah, seriously.

So pretty, oh.

Sometimes, the most delicious and complex food is the most simple.

Puff pastry on the bottom, roasted heirloom tomatoes.

We’ve got some fresh basil, a little smoked sea salt, some balsamic vinegar.

This is like the essence of summer, the essence of simplicity, and I find that this time of year, this is exactly the food that I want, I need.

I want it to be simple, I want it to be straightforward, I want it to be delicious.

I want it to be the essence of the garden or the farmer’s fields.

I don’t need anything too fancy and complex.

That’s what wintertime cooking is for here.

This is pure, unadulterated sunshine, and I’m down for it.

Carrie, what’s the day look like today?

Like… – Carrie: I cut out about 1:00, drive back.

– Oh, would it be cool if I helped out today and then popped in for dinner tonight?

Is that all right?

– Yeah, that’d be so great.

– Thank you.

– Carrie: Yeah.

Oh, here comes the corn truck!

– Luke: Corn truck.

– Oh, my god, yes!

– Luke: Holy corn.

– Carrie: Corn.

Ooh, it’s good too, that’s really good.

I’m gonna be spending all the money today.

[both laughing] – Luke: Just corning it up.

– Carrie: Yep.

We got corn.

– I guess so.

– Yeah, we’re processing all the things right now.

– You’re my hero.

[Carrie laughs] – Seriously, look at you.

– Yeah.

– Do you ever get, like, all this stuff from the farmer’s market back and Lisa’s like, what… – Sometimes.

– …are you doing?

– This time of year– We have a walk-in down in the basement.

Yeah, so I fill that and we’re just, like, prepping, prepping, prepping.

– Oh, my God.

– Yeah, Ashton will be peeling corn for– – Sweet.

– A couple hours tomorrow.

[laughs] – Hey, I really do, I wanna say thank you.

– Aw, thank you, it’s been great to– – Allowing me into the truck and– – Great to meet you, and work with you, and– – And I’m really looking forward to coming into Chef Shack tonight.

Literally, you’re an amazing human.

– Aw, thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

– I really appreciate you.

– Oh, gosh.

– Let’s be friends, can we do that?

– Thank you, yeah, please.

– Luke: Great.

– Carrie: Great.

– After spending some time at the market, hanging out in the food truck, and watching Chef Carrie literally serve her community, I’m so excited to head back to Chef Shack to see the more refined version of Chef Lisa and Carrie’s cuisine translated to the plate.

[mellow music] – Hey, welcome Chef, welcome to Chef Shack.

So Chef Lisa is gonna cook for you and send out a few courses, and do you wanna enjoy the Juice Berry?

– Yeah, absolutely.

– Okay, terrific.

– Thank you so much.

[laughs] – Carrie: See you in a bit.

– The first thing that goes out is the amuse.

These are like little chickpea puffs, like in Nepal, you get, this is like street food.

Filled with maybe lentils or something like that on the street, but here in Wisconsin, we’re gonna fill ’em with roasted red peppers and sunflowers.

And I’ve got some sunflower garnish.

This is the wild scape, it’s kind of like a little meatball, it’s meat on a stick.

I guess it’s kind of Wisconsin meat on a stick.

We’ve got local pork.

I’ve seasoned it with a lot of classic Thai seasoning, you know, galangal, ginger, lemongrass.

That’s just the first course.

That’s just a little gift from the chef.

There you go, Jules.

– Okay, we have a little bite of Peru here.

– This course, for me, it’s an insight into seasonality.

And the reason that I say that, the sunflower in the middle of this tiny, little pastry puff is one of those ingredients that I think chefs and cooks in the upper Midwest are just starting to kind of figure out.

It’s actually a cousin to the artichoke, and like an artichoke, it has a globe that you can peel and remove all the outer tough bark of the sunflower stem itself, and then braise it exactly like you would an artichoke.

Mm.

It’s impossible not to talk about the contrast in the flavor, both in texture and actually in flavor notes.

The pastry is crispy, crunchy, flaky, but still has enough integrity where when it gets on your palate, you actually get the physical sensation of crunching it.

Contrasting that is the sunflower artichoke puree, which, for me, has that beautiful acidic, Mediterranean feel to it.

On to the Thai pork and pickled scape bite.

I get some chilies in there.

As I’m talking about it now, that chili kind of intensifies on my palate.

Fish sauce, ginger, lemongrass, all those big, bright, beautiful flavors.

The richness of the pork, the pickle kind of cutting through all of it.

That’s a darn, darn fine bite.

[laughs] [mellow music continues] – This is the Gruyere and guava empanada.

– Carrie: So next, I have a beautiful empanada for you.

[empanda crunching] – Ooh, that’s crispy.

Oh, yeah, this is exactly what I’m talking about.

That’s such a good bite.

The crispy, flaky pastry crust kinda gently ensconced around that Gruyere and the guava?

It’s such a great point-counterpoint.

You get the richness of the cheese, the crispy, delicate pastry, but then you get that guava that kinda cuts it all up, and with the sugar, kinda bolsters all that in your palate.

That’s good, that’s really, really good.

– So I’ve got diver scallops.

I marinate them with a little bit of fresh lime, lemon, and some orange juice.

I’ve got some wonderful jalapeos and fresh corn, cilantro.

I put a little piri piri down first.

It’s a little spicy, not too spicy.

I love ceviche, but we did just come back from Peru, and this is our Peruvian-inspired tasting menu.

I love diver scallops and I love ceviche.

We’ve got corn, kind of Wisconsin representing, but also in Peru, there’s a million different varieties of corn.

So there’s a little crunch with the fresh corn and it’s right off the cob, it’s not cooked.

So it’s raw corn, raw scallop.

I think it’s nice and refreshing.

[mellow music continues] – The thing I love about ceviche is it’s one of the cleanest foods you can eat.

And when I say cleanest, I mean, like, flavor profiles are so, so clean.

There’s obviously acid, that’s what you’re using to cook or change the enzymatic structure of the fish.

And that, complemented with tomato, sweet corn, fresh herbs, and jalapeo is like one of those perfect, perfect bites.

And the thing that’s really fun about ceviche is that texturally, it’s so luxurious.

You know, I may kind of hold it into the same category as like, you get that perfectly cooked egg that you can dip your toast into.

It has a really nice, luscious mouthfeel.

This is exactly the same way.

[mellow music continues] – This is gonna be a main.

We’ve got the lamb shank.

I did a little cumin cinnamon-crusted lamb shank.

I do a slow braise on it.

I think that brings out some nice flavor.

I’m putting it with potatoes because this menu is meant to be Peruvian-inspired.

All we saw in Peru was potatoes.

[laughs] A million different varieties of potatoes.

I try to balance it out because I think people wanna feel like they’ve eaten, but they are light and not, like, heavy.

Like I think it’s really, you know, a lot of French cooking in the past has been, like, pretty heavy, lots of butter and heavy, and it’s really nice to go heavier veg and just lighter on the meat.

[mellow music continues] – Lamb shank.

– Mmm, braised lamb shank.

I love braised lamb shank.

It’s just the right size with the potatoes and the zucchini and the scapes and the sunflower petals and the pan sauce, mm.

This is kind of a meat and potato dream.

Potato, sunflower petal, lamb, smoked salt.

That’s sublime.

The other aspect of dining here and getting to enjoy dishes that frankly take time.

Braising a lamb shank.

All these pieces, the scapes that have been pickled and now charred, the thoughtful presentations, it really is very motivating to have your pace slowed just a little bit, to appreciate the attention to detail, to taste the various complex flavors, like the richness of the lamb or the butter in the potatoes.

It truly is a unique dining experience.

Mm.

[mellow music continues] – Where’s makeup?

[upbeat music] Did you guys bring a makeup crew?

– Camera Operator: Action.

Nope, nope, sorry, Dan’s in the shot, never mind, sorry.

– My bite is much worse than my bark.

Now it’s time for another unusable take.

– Camera Operator: Oh, disappointment.

– I know, wah wah wah.

– Carrie: I grew up on Neil Diamond.

– Luke: Yeah, me too.

Has that shaped you at all as an adult?

– Carrie: For sure.

– Luke: Yeah?

– Carrie: Yeah.

Neil Diamond, my mom was in love with him.

– Luke: Really?

[laughs] – Carrie: Definitely, yeah.

– Camera Operator: If you turn it a little bit.

Other way.

Keep going that way.

That’s nice.

There you go.

Nope, too far, way too far.

– Producer: Awesome, can you tell me, like, what’s in the donut, what kind of donuts they are?

– I’d have to kill you.

[laughs] – Producer: Oh.

– Luke: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

I have something in my teeth?

[gentle music] – Did you know Organic Valley protects over 400,000 acres of organic farmland?

So are we an organic food cooperative that protects land, or land conservationists who make delicious food?

Yes; yes, we are.

Organic Valley.

– Twenty-minute commutes.

Weekends on the lake.

Warm welcomes and exciting career opportunities.

Not to mention all the great food!

There’s a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin.

Learn more at InWisconsin.com.

– Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit “Swissconsin” and see where your beer’s made.

– We have one chance to do it right and not compromise the integrity of the products or the company because it’s easier, or cheaper, or faster.

– The Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers are proud underwriters of Wisconsin Foodie.

It takes love of the land and generations of farming know-how to nurture a quality potato crop.

Ask any potato farmer and they’ll tell you, there’s a lot of satisfaction in healthy-grown crops.

– With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

– Also with the support of the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.