Distinctly Montana Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.distinctlymontana.com/i/20776
Chef ’s Corner DEPARTMENT OUEEN CITY CUISINE CHEF BEN OSBAND OF THE SILVER STAR STEAK COMPANY ARTICLE AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY JESSICA SOLBERG It’s where I’ve spent many a Friday night after work, shaking off the week, and launching two days of relax- ation over shared appetizers and drinks. I’ve brought work clients here, watched football games on the flatscreens, and even had a couple of first dates here. Some of us give this popular Helena restaurant the shorthand of “the SS,” but if you want to be official, it’s the Silver Star Steak Company. One morning before it opened, I sat down with the restaurant’s head chef, Ben Osband. Ben’s a friendly, outgoing Midwestern guy with some edge. “Knives and fire,” he jokes. “That’s why I got into cooking.” “For me being in the kitchen is about adrenaline—it’s about the excitement of creating something.” You have to have adrenaline in truckloads to keep his hours: he’s at the Silver Star’s impressive two-level kitchen from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. most days, leading a 15-person staff. “We’re a ‘from-scratch kitchen’—as all good kitchens are,” Ben notes. His passion for cooking began in childhood. Ben’s par- ents were foodies, and he was often in the kitchen with his mother and grandmother, cooking for his brother and sister. “They were picky eaters,” he remembers. “I made a lot of fettuccine Alfredo and grilled chicken.” Ben trained at the Western Culinary Institute in Port- land, where he developed a love of texture and special af- finity for the Northwestern / Cascade cuisine that informs many of his personal dishes. Five years ago, he moved to the Queen City, and he’s a regular on area fly-fishing streams, ski hills, and mountain biking trails. “I love small mountain towns.” Interior of the Silver Star restaurant. 48 DISTINCTLY MONTANA • WINTER 2011