RED LODGE - Wes Warren, the head chef of Carbon County Steakhouse in Red Lodge, grew up working in restaurants like many chefs.
“(I) finally got my chance, it feels like, to showcase my food," said Warren.
Unlike other chefs around the country, however, he was raised by his grandfather, Gary McColl, on a Cody, Wyoming ranch.
“We would go do whatever we had to do with the livestock, come back, and you’d have a meal," said Warren.
His childhood experience ranching is part of the reason he sources his meats from local vendors like Gallagher Natural Beef in Clark, Wyoming, rather than larger meat companies.
“We will bottle-feed (some cows) through the year, and my kids will name ‘em," said Bridgette Gallagher, who owns and operates Gallagher Natural Beef with her husband and their nine children.
Her beef cows, which end the year at around 150 cattle, are raised on specific diets to ensure a particular meat quality.
“The beef (cattle), we start ‘em on a little different diet just because we like to have that good marbling," said Gallagher. "Once you cook that, that’s gonna be your juice that'll keep your meat tender and give it that flavor.”
Gallagher said she is proud to have chefs like Warren who grew up on ranches handling her family's products.
“He betters our product too with what he does up there," said Gallagher.
