MEET THE Culinary Outlaws
Educators, chefs, and voices bringing wild food back to the table.
Wild Food Chef
Eduardo Garcia
Chef Eduardo Garcia is a Montana based, James Beard award winning and Emmy nominated Chef. He is the host and the executive producer of the Magnolia series Big Sky Kitchen. Eduardo is also a principal keynote and motivational speaker to Fortune 100 companies and local nonprofits. Additionally, he is the founder and CEO of food brand, Montana Mex.
A devoted artist and storyteller, Chef Eduardo Garcia often references his ingredients as relationships and participants. His love of nature and exposure to wild places brings a vital richness to the lessons he shares through each story and bite.
As a cancer survivor and amputee, Garcia is passionate about helping others and giving back. He is actively in partnership with organizations around the world promoting education in regenerative agriculture.
Foraging Educator & Author
Orion Aon (Forage Colorado)
Orion Aon is an avid outdoorsman passionate about all things wild food! He was born and raised in Santa Fe, NM, where he became interested in mushroom hunting at a young age. He moved to Fort Collins, CO, in 2008 to study Natural Resource Management at Colorado State University, driven by his passion for the outdoors. In 2015 Orion started Forage Colorado, where he shares his love for edible wild plants and mushrooms, writes and creates educational content, and offers foraging and wild food classes.
Foraging Educator
Jesse Akozbek (Feral Foraging)
Jesse is a forager, and he wants you to be one too! He has taught thousands of students how to bring wild food into their lives through in-person foraging classes and online videos on his educational platform, Feral Foraging, as well as Gather, his foraging app. Obsessed with developing and refining better methods for gathering and processing wild food, Jesse is always looking for ways to make foraging easier and more accessible for all. He helps his students build a strong foundation for their foraging journey.
MeatEater Podcasts and CEO of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers
Ryan Callaghan
Ryan "Cal", Callaghan is a leading voice at the intersection of hunting, conservation, and public lands advocacy. As CEO of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and a longtime member of the MeatEater team, Ryan has spent his career championing the idea that hunters and anglers are among the strongest advocates for wildlife, habitat, and access to wild places. At Feral Feast, Ryan will explore the critical role public lands play in preserving hunting traditions, food sovereignty, conservation funding, and outdoor access for future generations. Drawing from years of work in conservation policy, storytelling, and backcountry hunting, he’ll share why ethical hunting remains one of the most powerful tools for wildlife management and habitat protection in North America.
Foraging Educator
Tim Clemens
Tim is a Consulting Mycologist for Minnesota Poison Control, Past President of the Minnesota Mycological Society, a Minnesota Master Naturalist, and a Certified Wild Mushroom Expert. Tim holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Minnesota and Certificates in Nature Education and Environmental Education from Cornell University. Ironwood Foraging Co. was founded by Tim Clemens in 2017 to offer hands-on foraging workshops to the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area.
Wild Food Chef
Antonin Filicetti
Antonin is a chef, farmer, forager, fermentation/preservation educator. With a background in Korean natural farming and gut health, he focuses on reconnecting people to seasonal rhythms through local food. Curating large community farm to table meals, supporting and hosting educational events, and sharing seasonal foraging/preservation techniques, Antonin is a steward of culture and community organizer, bringing people together to remember who and where we are.
Foraging Educators
Cathryn Raan and Sydney Morical
Cathryn and Sydney of Wild Wanders are experienced herbalists and foragers of wild food and medicine, dedicated to nurturing a deep connection with plants and fungi in Western Montana. Since 2018, they have actively served on the working board of the Western Montana Mycological Association and, more recently, the Montana Herbal Festival. Together, they craft elegant, hand-made botanicals sourced from the land and lead transformative, hands-on learning experiences aimed at empowering the next generation.
Wild Food Chef
Tyler McManus
Tyler McManus is a Montana-based chef whose work is rooted in wild food, seasonal ingredients, and cooking that follows the land rather than trends. Alongside his culinary work, he cooks for Warriors & Quiet Waters, using wild food and shared meals as a tool for healing, connection, and rebuilding confidence in the outdoors.
Butcher & Farmer
Anna Borgman
Anna is a Montana-based butcher, writer and farmer. Originally from Oregon, Anna moved to Montana in 2019 after finishing culinary school and a master’s degree in food systems policy and natural resource management. After working as a line cook for a few years, she decided to leave the kitchen to work full time as a butcher, spending two years at a state-inspected meat shop learning slaughter and whole-animal butchery. In 2022, she started Chaos Farms which specializes in mobile slaughter and wild game processing, as well as slaughter and butchery classes. Chaos Farms is also a working farm that is home to laying hens, meat chickens, turkeys, guinea fowl, goats, four dogs, two cats and a donkey.
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Hunting Educator
Keith Balfourd
Keith Balfourd serves as Director of Marketing & Communications for the Wild Sheep Foundation and has dedicated more than 40 years to the hunting, angling, and conservation community. His career spans roles as an outdoor communicator, marketer, publisher, television producer, podcaster, instructor, and guide. Prior to joining the Wild Sheep Foundation, he served in a similar leadership role with the Boone and Crockett Club.
Known for his ability to connect conservation science with compelling storytelling, Balfourd has spent decades advocating for wildlife, habitat conservation, and the outdoor traditions that support both. Based in Ennis, Montana, he remains a passionate voice for the people and organizations working to ensure wildlife and wild places thrive for future generations.
Foraging Educator & Chef
River Shannon Aloia
For 25 years, River has provided instruction in foraging practices throughout Western Montana. Her approach emphasizes reciprocity and fostering a mindful relationship with our food sources. In 2018, she established Western Montana Wild Forage, a Facebook community that has grown to over 15,000 members. Her expertise in ethical wild harvesting was subsequently recognized in The New York Times. Her extensive culinary background includes roles as a baker for Worden's Market, La Petite, a cook at The Old Post, a pastry chef for Break, and Head Dessert Chef at The Mustard Seed. Currently, she operates as a Private Chef, Full-Time Forager and Foraging Educator.
Wild Food Chef
Emily Hahn
Chef Emily Hahn is a former Top Chef contestant and Chopped competitor, and the Chef/Owner of Mountain Provisions, a premier private chef and catering company based in Bozeman, Montana. Specializing in out-door open-fire culinary experiences and elevated in-home private dining, she showcases Montana’s agricultural bounty, from farm-fresh vegetables and heritage grains to regeneratively raised beef and local bison—crafting meals deeply connected to the land and the people who sustain it. Always cooking with love, Chef Emily Hahn has an endless passion for bringing folks together with her food.
Wild Food Chef
Jaime Teigen
Chef Jaime went to Western Culinary Institute in Portland, OR, went on to be an Executive Chef in Portland, and then moved to Jackson Hole, WY to do the same. That is where she met her husband, Caleb, and began her journey with field to table and learning the whole process of truly knowing where your food comes from and sharing that with others. Jaime currently is a freelance chef, does recipe development for various conservation groups, an instructor for wild game cooking for OutdoorClass, an Ambassador for Montana Wildlife Federation, chef for Carnivore’s Kitchen for RMEF’s Bugle Magazine, and works for Wild Sheep Foundation.
Forager
Joseph Hrysenko
Joseph Hrysenko is an avid mushroom forager and amateur mycologist. He enjoys days in the woods foraging with his wife and daughters in Montana. When not in the woods you can find him gardening and cooking for his family and friends. Over the last few year's Joseph has been growing lots of wild and culinary mushrooms in his backyard and wants to teach you how you can do it as well.
Wild Food Chefs
Rick and Jona Visser (Latent Commons)
Latent Commons is Rick and Jona Visser. Their botanical products are a celebration of place and a love letter to the land— featuring ingredients they forage, grow in the garden, or source from neighbors. Latent Commons specializes in foraged beverages.
Foraging Educator
Poldi Wieland
Poldi Wieland is the creator of Year of Plenty, a wild food and traditional foodways media brand helping people reconnect with where their food comes from. Through YouTube, podcasts, and hands-on education, he teaches foraging and resilient food skills built for people who want to rely less on grocery stores. Poldi believes that we all need to try our best to pass these old ways on to the next generation. His mission is to build more resilient people through food. He is also one of the people behind the Feral Feast.
Wild Food Chef & Herbalist
Spencre McGowan
Spencre McGowan is a writer, cook and herbalist living on a big hill in Butte, Montana. She is the author of Forest + Home: Cultivating an Herbal Kitchen and Blotto Botany: a Lesson in Healing Cordials & Plant Magic. Originally from New England, Spencre learned how to cook with foraged herbs and plants at a cafe on an island outside of Stockholm, Sweden. She attended the California School of Herbal Studies and started developing recipes and making herbal zines before starting her blog and brand, Gingertooth in 2016. Since living in two separate food deserts, Spencre focuses on accessible herbalism and affordable recipes that are attainable to any person, no matter their location or income.
Owner - North Bridger Bison
Matt Skoglund
Matt Skoglund is a first-generation bison rancher and the owner of North Bridger Bison in Montana. Matt is passionate about raising bison regeneratively, using holistic methods that improve biodiversity and soil health on the land. Matt is a board member of the Western Sustainability Exchange and the Bozeman Community Food Co-op, and he is the former Vice President of the Montana Bison Association.
Wild Food Chef
John Torres
John Torres believes the best meals are earned outdoors and shared around a fire. As the owner of Old Breed BBQ and a longtime camp chef for veteran nonprofits, he's built a reputation for transforming wild ingredients into unforgettable meals while creating spaces where food, fellowship, and healing come together.
A former U.S. Marine who served with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines from 2007–2011, John now calls a historic family ranch outside Thompson Falls, Montana home. Nestled along the Clark Fork River, the property has become a gathering place where veterans reconnect with each other and with the outdoors through shared experiences around the campfire. When it comes to cooking, John isn't afraid to push boundaries. He's smoked everything from bobcat to morel mushrooms, embracing the philosophy that wild food tells the story of the landscapes and people who harvest it. His approach blends traditional barbecue techniques with wild game, foraged ingredients, and a deep respect for every animal and every meal.