Grant Anderson used to make delicious pulled pork for his kids and their friends in the family’s Keoma backyard. It went over so well, he bought a bigger smoker. Then he bought an even bigger one.
Now, the owner of the Broken Smoke BBQ food truck hauls around the mother lode of smokers so he can share that popular pulled pork with the province.
“I just love barbecuing and cooking food,” said Grant Anderson with a smile, adding his sons help nurse the meat for hours until it’s done, usually in the wee hours of the night. “You give someone a sandwich and they’re like, ‘Wow.’”
Anderson’s passion for food is the secret ingredient to his success – and the type of dedication that organizer Ron Knowles said made this year’s Taste of Cochrane event the most well-attended to date.
“I look at it as how the people smile and how the people thank us,” he said.
Micheline Kennedy and eight of her friends were definitely smiling as they left Mehtab East Indian Cuisine – the 18th stop on their tasting tour.
“We have two left,” said Kennedy as she put on her coat. She and her group are admitted foodies and meet for lunch two times a week, “but we don’t get to these restaurants all the time. It’s nice to see what they have to offer.”
“It’s something different to do,” she said.
At a nearby table, Chris and Marta Yull scooped out little cups of aromatic butter chicken and rice as their young son Horatio munched on a slice of warm naan bread.
The family moved from Bragg Creek to Cochrane three months ago and said the event allowed them to get familiar with the different flavours of their new community.
“It’s just an easy way of spying on everywhere,” Chris said with a laugh.
Taste of Cochrane really does give newcomers a simple way to sample the town’s collection of culinary delights, said Bergeron Cheese hostess Erika Chorney.
“We’ve had quite a few people who have been like, ‘Oh. I didn’t even know you were here,’” she said. “We get a lot of people … exposed to our specialties.”
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