AURORA | Despite a trend of avant-garde restaurants, Colorado is still a meat and potatoes kind of place.
That’s not to say the average palate in Aurora and the rest of the metro area is unrefined, but it’s still hard to come up with a quintessential Colorado meal without including some old-fashioned staples. According to Jason Lee, executive chef at Wine Experience Café in Aurora, that often means meat.
“People love their steaks out here,” Lee said. “I think it’s our job as executive chefs to take that traditional meat-and-potato dinner and turn it into something a little more elegant, a little more refined.”
At the Wine Experience Café, that’s meant incorporating the kind of meats that aren’t easy to find at restaurants outside of the Western states. Wild boar, elk, antelope, lamb and bison have all figured onto the menu. But Lee insists that he doesn’t make those kinds of choices for the sheer novelty of being exotic or bizarre. These are foods that have a deep connection to the land. They’re culinary selections that reflect Colorado in a way that goes much deeper than a recipe like green chile.
“Two hundred years ago, there were lots of elk running around this area,” Lee said. “It’s part of eastern Colorado. I can introduce elk to someone. It’s not necessarily a piece of meat you put on a spit and roast around a fire anymore. It’s done in a nice way, and it’s a little more approachable.”
Bison is top among the meats that have become more and more of a mainstream dish in the past 20 years. A lean option as far as game meats, bison has cropped up as a modern piece of Colorado cuisine. The state boasts more than 150 bison ranchers and, according to the National Bison Association, demand for the meat has boomed. The price paid for a young bull carcass in 2013 was more than 80 percent higher than the rates five years ago.
Lee has a simple explanation for the renewed popularity of a meat that was once the most common in the West.
“To me, bison is what beef should taste like. It’s what it tasted like 100 years ago, 1,000 years ago,” Lee said. “Currently, bison is very unprocessed. We’re not farm-raising a lot of bison, feeding them a bunch of stuff that they wouldn’t eat in the wild.”
That’s given the animal a unique flavor profile, Lee said, and it’s one that’s tied closely to the natural profile of Colorado. In preparing bison-based dishes, he’s kept that in mind, opting for minimal flavors. The spices and herbs he does use have a connection to the land and the animal’s own diet. For example, Lee insists that a subtle, sage-based flavor addition for a bison dish is ideal.
“When I do something like bison, you don’t have to season it a whole lot. You want to let the natural flavor of the meat come through,” Lee said. “Don’t try to make the bison taste like beef.”
Diners have adjusted to those flavors since the Wine Experience Café opened more than five years ago. Along with the neighboring World Cellar, the restaurant has carved out a steady niche with its native meat dishes, as well as its large wine selection. The two businesses are operated by husband and wife Eldon and Rita Larson, and the pair has seen a shift in how diners approach their meals.
“I’d say our customers out here are very adventurous. We’ve really gotten them out of the box on their wines,” Eldon Larson said. “It’s the same thing with their food. We serve escargot and rabbit and all kinds of different things. We usually sell out of them pretty quickly.
“It wasn’t the case when we first opened,” he added.
Some of that inhibition has come from a shifting customer base, Lee said. As more residents move to southeast Aurora from other parts of the country, they bring a more adventurous palate and a different range of favored flavors. But part of that progression still has a lot to do with tapping into what is uniquely native in terms of cuisine, protein and sides.
“Food is simple,” Lee said. “What are your fondest memories of eating? An elaborate meal from Fifth Avenue in New York City, or what your grandmother made that was a family recipe for four generations?”
In Colorado, a lot of those storied and sacred recipes are bound to include some kind of meat and potatoes. But that doesn’t mean it has to be boring.
BISON TENDERLOIN
Wine Experience Café and World Cellar Executive Chef Jason Lee stresses simplicity in cooking bison. The lean meat has its own flavor profile, and it’s important not to ruin it with excessive spices and seasoning.
• Start with a single serving (6 ounces is the standard) of bison tender loin. Such cuts are available at local health food stores or groceries.
• Season very simply, sticking to salt and pepper. Use sage sparingly.
• Barbecue the cut to order on an outdoor grill. Because bison is a leaner meat than beef, grilling times are usually longer. Grill until the meat forms a crust on the outside.
• For an extra dab of flavor, use sage-infused butter. Mix ground sage powder or fresh herbs with unsalted butter, but don’t overdo it. “Be careful, it can be very overpowering,” Lee said.
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at 720-449-9707 or agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com