Come Wine and Dine with Team Canyons!

February 22, 2024 7:43 pm

As a Canyons Guide, every year I look forward to our annual Wine and Culinary Trip. This is a specialty trip that takes place towards the end of every season on the Mighty Main Salmon.

Everyone’s favorite river guide and chef extraordinaire, Lisa “Whizzy” Whisnant prepares the menu with delicious meals inspired by her “Off-the-Grid Restaurant” in which she runs during the Winter called the Blue Moon Yurt! All of Whizzy’s fabulous food is paired with Old and New World Wine from around the Pacific Northwest. We are lucky enough to be joined by some fantastic sommeliers that will help educate and explore your wine palate!

It truly is a magical trip! Delicious food, paired with incredible wine, and 6 days on the Main Salmon River?! Heck Ya! What could be better?

I have been lucky enough to work this trip year after year, and have gotten to help prepare so many of Whizzy’s amazing food creations. Whizzy is incredibly talented and creative, and comes up with a lot of her menu ideas in her dreams!
One of the reasons I love working this trip is getting to step outside our comfort zone in the kitchen. Whizzy is a great teacher, and has an incredible vision for putting such amazing flavors together and creating a “party” In your mouth with each and every bite! She is patient with having a bunch of river guides asking her questions, always has the best attitude, and teaches us to taste what we are cooking. The food that we prepare on this trip is absolutely fantastic and made entirely from scratch.
My favorite meal we have prepared on the Wine and Culinary trip is her “Portobello Kiss” which is a grilled portobello mushroom, topped with her poblano pesto sauce, grilled peppers and onions, manchego cheese and pesto all wrapped in filo dough and baked in a dutch oven. When baked, the portobello looks like a Hershey’s Kiss! The portobello is then placed directly in the middle of two separate sauces: garlic basil sauce and green chile. Also served with this meal is sauteed brussel sprout leaves with chorizo. I love everything about this meal, and it tastes unlike anything I have ever eaten before! Can you say, best meal ever?
The is a Six Day River Trip that ends at Mackay Bar Ranch. We will spend four nights and five days sleeping on the banks of the Salmon River and dining in Paradise. The last night will be spent at Mackay Bar Lodge where the trip will end and guests will fly out the next morning!

Come see the Magic of Our Wine and Culinary Trip for yourself! We would love to have you join us! Just know that you will need to book early for 2025, as this trip sells out every year!

Stay tuned for the next blog post where I’ll talk about the Magic of the Blue Moon Yurt.

Kelli O’Keefe, Canyons Guide