K
Guy
en
ch
it
Catch and
Release —
Or Catch and Eat?
in 2 00
w a s n a m 5 , Ji m gr ay
e
c he f o f d m o n ta n a's
t he y e a
r!
I
have never held a fishing rod in my life. The only
fish I ever caught was in a pet store when a clerk
handed me a small net so I could "catch" the
angelfish I wanted for my aquarium.
When I polled my closest friends in Montana,
nearly all of them said they spend a minimum
of a week each year fishing, most of them
practicing the art of casting with flies
they tied, catching and releasing
their quarry.
I don't hunt either.
Clearly, I am the odd man out.
But I do know how to cook
fish (and game) and that's
why this magazine pays me the big bucks — to do a little
show and tell.
I'm sure we could
debate for hours which
Montana fish makes the
best eating, but I have a
weakness for Brown Trout
because that's the first fish I
learned to fillet and cook in
culinary school. I won't tell
you how many fish my classmates and I butchered before our
chef instructor gave us the go-ahead to
prepare the fish for cooking and eating.
Go to Chef Gray's weekly
blog
DISTINCTL MONTANA | DIGITAL
Y
36
www.distinctlymontana.com/chef134
D I ST I N CT LY M ONTANA • FALL 2013