Introduction By Matt Skoglund
Recipe By Jarret Wrisley
Photos By Henry Higman
I obsess over this work. “Good enough” isn’t acceptable here.
In the name of “progress,” our food system has become industrialized and mechanized, often at the expense of animals, people, biodiversity, rural communities, and our health.
At North Bridger Bison in Wilsall, Montana, we believe there’s a better way. A way to raise food that honors land and life, increases biodiversity, treats animals and humans with dignity and respect, and improves both ecological and human health.
A few years ago, shortly after he and his family moved to Bozeman, I met Jarrett Wrisley. We had mutual friends, shared interests, and a similar outlook on the world. My wife, Sarah, and I went to one of his pop-up dinners, and we were blown away. His was a different kind of cooking, a different kind of experience.
As he prepared to open his restaurant, Shan, Jarrett was deeply intentional about sourcing ingredients from Montana farmers and ranchers that shared his values. He wanted to know who was raising food with integrity. We met multiple times, and I recommended to him some of the producers I admire most in the valley.
Jarrett opened Shan, and people went wild over it – so much so that Shan was named a finalist for the James Beard Award for best new restaurant in America.
Jarrett obsesses over the small details of his cooking. “Good enough” is not acceptable.
He took his entire team at Shan from Bozeman to Asia to experience the food and culture firsthand. He sources the best ingredients he can find, treats his team with dignity and respect, and leads with his heart.
In 2024, we had the honor of hosting Jarrett as the guest chef for our Outstanding in the Field dinner on our ranch, a dream come true for Sarah and me. Even with Shan in full swing, Jarrett poured himself into that dinner. We met to discuss the menu, and his brain was buzzing with ideas. He even came to the ranch to witness the field-harvest of the bison he would be cooking, wanting to honor the story behind the food.
The result was an extraordinary, one-of-a-kind meal for more than 200 people that blew everyone away. And he did it all with grace, humility, and a sense of humor.
It’s an honor to call Jarrett a friend, and it’s an honor each time he cooks our bison meat. It feels like a celebration of everything we believe in.
This larb recipe is out of this world; cook it and savor every bite.
Matt Skoglund is the founder and owner of North Bridger Bison, a bison ranch rooted in Regenerative Agriculture principles in Montana’s Shields Valley. North Bridger Bison sells 100 percent grassfed, field-harvested bison meat direct-to-consumer across Montana and all over the country.
Isaan-Style Bison Larb
Serves 4
Larb — or laab, as it’s pronounced — is onomatopoeia for the sound a large knife makes as it cleaves through chunks of meat on the stump of a tamarind tree, the traditional cutting board of Thailand. Larb is something eaten across the Mekong River Basin in northeastern Thailand and Laos, usually seasoned with fish sauce and lime juice, herbs, chilies and toasted sticky rice powder. In Thailand’s north, there are raw and cooked versions that are reliant on dark, toasted spices, fried garlic and shallots, and lots of chili. (This is the northeastern version.) This dish is best eaten with sticky rice or steamed jasmine rice, along with a soup, a curry or maybe some stir-fried vegetables. Or, just cut some cucumbers and serve it with crisp lettuce — we use Little Gem at the restaurant — and lots of fresh herbs like dill, cilantro, Thai basil and mint. I love using the Skoglund’s bison for Thai recipes — its leanness and grassy, natural flavor is not unlike that of water buffalo, often eaten in Thai countryside.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons neutral cooking oil
- 20 ounces bison, either ground or, preferably, chopped very finely to a consistency like ground meat
- 2 tablespoons chicken or beef stock (or water)
- 5 tablespoons fish sauce
- 4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- 3 teaspoons chili flakes (or more to taste!)
- 3 tablespoons rice powder (to make, toast raw jasmine or sticky rice in a pan slowly, until it is very brown on the outside, flipping it so as not to burn. Then grind in a spice grinder or crush in a mortar and pestle to a texture that is grainier than flour — sort of like finely ground coffee).
- 4 tablespoons minced shallots
- 2/3 tablespoons fresh mint, cilantro and green onions, all roughly chopped
Method
- In a small saucepan, heat the oil and add the bison and cook through, over medium heat. You are not browning the meat but merely cooking it. Add the stock halfway through and continue to cook until the meat is no longer pink, then reduce whatever liquid is in the pot — roughly 5 minutes of cooking over medium-high heat.
- Add the shallots and stir.
- Next add the fish sauce, lime juice, chili flakes and rice powder and stir aggressively. Taste. You should have a nice balance of sour, salty and spicy. If you think it needs any more chili, lime or salt (in this case, in the form of fish sauce) add it now.
- Finish by stirring in your herbs. Decant into a bowl and top with more rice powder and chili flakes, and a dusting of cilantro and mint. Serve.
Jarrett Wrisley is a chef, author and owner of Shan, in Bozeman, and Appia and Peppina, in Bangkok. He spent two decades researching, cooking and writing about the foods of China, Thailand and Italy before returning to the U.S. in 2021.
