10/16/2026
Join us tonight as we remember my mentor, Chef Sandor Zombori.
Olympian. Green Beret. Chef.
A graduate of Le Cordon Bleu Paris, he worked with the rockstar chefs of France in the '80s, such as Paul Bocuse and Joël Robuchon. A pioneer of the fine dining scene in the Panhandle.
This man lived enough for five lifetimes.
If you're lucky in this life, you'll meet one person who changes everything for you.
I never worked under him, but beside him.
When we met, I was working in my first kitchen. He had already earned his laurels. He saw the passion I had for cooking, and he believed in me when everyone else was very outspoken against me.
Normally very quiet and a man about his job, Sandor wasn't one for a lot of words.
One day, I told him I had saved shiitake stems for six months because I really wanted to make ramen. The next day, I came into work, and he had made me ramen noodles.
Just said to me, "55-second pickup," and left.
After that, he just kept giving me Easter eggs.
He never gave me a recipe, just a list of ingredients, and said, "You should know how to make it from that."
He was pushing me to be my own Chef.
The man challenged me to make liver seven different ways after he heard me say I hated liver. Because I can't say I don't like something unless I've had it seven different ways.
Still not partial to it, but I try it every chance I get to this day.
He said things to me like:
"You can't make chicken salad with chicken s**t."
"You can't feed pigs with pound cake."
"We chase perfection, but that's like walking through the woods waiting for two birds to land on your finger and sing a song just for you."
Most importantly, remember that it all goes to s**t in two hours.
Things that sound so simple, but are so profound.
That's who he was as a man and a chef to me.
I look back now, remembering the time we spent together, and I can't help but laugh at how much of an influence and impact he had on me as a man and a chef.
His words are in action every day at Bitterroot, and who knows, if I had never met him, I doubt I would be where I am today.
I owe him so much more than some words.
