[Music] [DR. MIKE:] The story of food is the story of humankind.

The human race started with the very first chefs, you know, throwing some ribs on the campfire So those unquantifiable things that can affect our health.

It's how we prepare our food.

It's being mindful with whom we eat, how we eat, when we eat, where we eat.

Forget about eating healthy.

Think about eating delicious.

What's real is delicious.

That's why real ingredients are food of life.

My name's Michael Fenster.

I'm an interventional cardiologist, a professional chef, and a professor of culinary medicine.

I first got into cooking with my mom.

We moved around a lot as a kid growing up, and the kitchen was always a sanctuary for me.

It was very natural then that my first job was in the food industry.

I actually started right back there over my shoulder as a dishwasher.

And worked my way up to line cook and then to what we today would call a sous chef and then eventually executive chef at the back of the house.

They went on to medical school.

We live in a universe of relationships.

I'm a cardiologist and I follow the guidelines and use the algorithms.

But at the end of the day, I treat a patient and that's an individual person.

And I have a relationship with that person.

And the power of that food relationship.

That's where that medicine is.

Cooking for me is all about my relationship with food, and medicine is all about my relationship with people.

And teaching culinary medicine.

Well, that's how I bring all those things together.

Culinary medicine, as we teach it at the University of Montana, it's all about connecting those relationships that we have with food, with each other and with each other over food and empowering people to use those positively for health and wellness.

[Music] What is it that allows people to live a long time, makes them happy and healthy?

So is it the socioeconomic class that they were born into?

Is it exercise?

Is it your cholesterol level?

And what they found out is none of that matters.

The most important thing in determining how long you live, how well you live, how happy you are in your life, is the quality of relationships.

You can see we're already going outside the bounds of nutrition.

Um, nutrition is important.

It gives us a lot of valuable scientific data.

But it's not the whole story when it comes to us and food.

[Music] [DR. MIKE:] My journey to culinary medicine is a deeply personal one.

20 years ago, I was told I needed joint replacements because of inflammation.

Now I travel the world helping friends heal as I did.

People talk about eating healthy and healthful diets and they come to me as a physician all the time and say, Doc, you know, tell me about healthy eating.

It's really about establishing what are those foods that nourish us?

Way beyond just nutrition and RDAs, it's about mind, body and soul.

[Music] [DON TESCHNER:] My name is Don Teschner and I'm a musician.

I've been doing it since I was about 20 and worked with a lot of people, most notably Rod Stewart.

Oh, this one.

This is with uh, with Rod.

Look at how pretty I was [laughs].

Being on the road as a musician is a hard way to live because things do have a way of catching up to you.

[Don singing] I reached out to Doctor Mike because I read this article in Psychology Today, I think it was.

He said a lot of things that I agreed with and also that I was kind of looking for as far as um, eating better.

So I'm really looking forward to meeting with Don, getting to the roots of his story.

And my goal is to help him reclaim that story.

My hope on this journey with Dr. Mike is to learn to eat in a way that's better for me, better for the environment, and more sustainable because... ah, the earth needs help.

So what's shakin' man?

What brings you to our neck of the woods?

Healthwise, I'm getting more sensitive to certain kinds of food, and I don't eat red meat because I was told not to eat red meat because it's not good for you.

[Music] One of the big myths that I get, particularly as a cardiologist: this idea that red meat is bad because it contains saturated fat comes from an argument between John Yudkin of the United Kingdom and Ancel Keys of the U.S. Yudkin said it's sugar and refined carbohydrates.

Keys said it's saturated fat and cholesterol.

Keys won the argument in the United States and boom, here we are today.

It's all about the quality of the red meat.

This is such a horrible myth!

All right, my friend, you are in the right place.

We are going on a journey that's going to destroy those myths.

[Music] Tell me exactly what was it?

Was there a specific time or incident where you just said no more?

No more red meat.

I remember the moment exactly.

Dr. Mike and I had a conversation in the car that uh, revealed something that was deep-seated in me and, wow, that was powerful.

He asked me when it was that I stopped eating red meat, and I remembered exactly the moment.

I was sitting down to a fondue with my family.

I was 16 years old, and the family life was not... it was pretty rough.

So my mom made a fondue beef and there were little cubes of beef and little tiny forks, and I stuck that fork in that piece of beef and something inside me snapped.

And I just got up from the table and left and did not go back.

And I have also never eaten red meat from that moment.

This whole aversion to red meat may not have even been based really in anything that had to do with arguments on one side or the other about is it good for you or not.

And more to do with something that was personal.

What a great guy, what an interesting guy!

Um, and have I got some things planned for him.

[Music] [DR. MIKE:] My goal with Dom is to empower to reestablish a healthy relationship with food.

Bring the joy back.

We're going to start at the roots of the story, which is: let's look for quality ingredients.

[Music] [DR. MIKE:] For this journey with Don, we're going to shatter the old red meat myth, and we're going to do that by using bison.

[TROY WESTRE] I'm Troy Westre.

We're here at Bitterroot Bison.

We're a humane certified bison ranch, and we raised around 220 head of bison on 3 different ranches.

What a great gift in this local area to have such a resource.

The local terroir.

[TROY:] Bison are actually a little bit better for you than wild elk.

Bison are higher in protein, they're lower in cholesterol, they're higher in selenium, they're higher in iron and vitamin B12.

Any way that I can get this out to the world, I'm game.

So I invited Dr. Mike and Don out here to learn a little bit about what I do, and I'm learning about what they do also.

Welcome to Bitterroot Bison.

[DR. MIKE] Troy, how you doing my man?

Good to see you, mate.

This is Don.

[TROY:] How's it going Don?

[DON:] Troy.

Pleasure to meet you.

How's it going?

[DR. MIKE:] Who's this handsome fella?

This is my boy Dozer.

He's a 14 year old bull.

He's been in my house.

He lived in my porch.

You want up here, Mike?

[DR. MIKE:] Sure!

[laughter] [Thud and laughter] And that's up and over!

[TROY:] Yeah up and over.

I gotta hang onto your foot more.

I've got a millon hours with this bull.

He's a one in a million even to be able to do this.

Any wild bison, you will not be able to do this, and you will get killed.

So I suggest highly that please don't try this.

Would you guys like to go on a tour?

[DR. MIKE:] I'd love to.

How about you Don?

[DON:] Yes, absolutely.

All right, let's do it.

[Music] You mentioned, you know, being certified humane.

What exactly is that?

What's the difference?

Yeah.

So in my mind, certified humane is that you look out for the animal first.

You know, as far as how you raise 'em to how you work 'em, and when I'm talking "work 'em" like, put 'em in a corral and split off the calves.

[DR. MIKE:] Like this?

Yeah or put 'em in a trailer.

Anything you have to do with that animal, as long as they're... the animal is first, see?

You know, most people look at money first.

I don't look at money first.

I look at the my herd health first, or the bison first.

So I just really have a heart for them.

And I really would like to see more of them back on our landscapes and uh, it's just a passion in my heart that I have.

[DON:] Boy, his ideas, he's got such pure intentions with his sustainable farm.

They're free range, they get to walk around and eat grass and chase each other and fight and do all the things bison are supposed to do.

In... in nature!

It's just an amazing, amazing experience there.

We went out on Troy's land and he shared that with us.

And for him, you could feel that passion that sharing that time on the land, that relationship with the animals.

He was baring his soul.

That's what I talk about when I talk about understanding the connection, the roots of your food.

It's not just something we get in a supermarket.

It comes from somewhere.

It has a terroir.

And, you know, Troy's own influence is in there.

That caring.

The honor, the dignity that he bestows upon every single bison.

And when you have that wholesome, real, authentic food that comes to you by way of someone like Troy, man, you can taste the difference.

[Music] So today we're going to take it from field to plate.

We're gonna hook up with Troy, and then we'll go to a place where the chef actually uses that same bison.

And you'll see how how easy it is.

[Music] [DR. MIKE:] I love this place.

Mountains, rivers, beer.

[TROY:] Welcome to Lolo Peak Brewery, boys [Music] [TROY:] We're proud to work with Lolo Brewery up the road and I try to do everything possible local.

We like working with our, our neighbors.

[TROY:] Hey Shane how's it going?

[SHANE FREDERICK:] Good how you doing?

[TROY:] Brought a couple buddies with me.

Don and Mike.

[SHANE:] My name is Shane Frederick.

I'm the executive chef here at Lolo Peak Brewery.

We get our bison meat from Bitterroot Bison because you can really taste the difference when you know where your meat's coming from.

Working with bison is a lot like working with any game meat out there.

You know, it's not like working with beef.

You have to take extra special care of it.

Marinating it always helps break down those proteins and really come through in your final product.

[DR. MIKE:] Long time ago, beef cattle used to be like, we saw the bison right?

They were on the range, they ate grass and actually they were like four or five years old before you would harvest 'em.

Now it's like a year or two, you know, and they're fed grain and it's a completely different product.

I mean, they looked at people eating Your kind of bison versus, you know, industrial meat, and they found much lower inflammatory response.

In fact, a better profile lowering of LDL raising of HDL, good cholesterol.

So you're putting things in that we know, right?

I mean, it's natural, but we can actually measure these effects and see, wow, there really are you know, great benefits.

And I'm like totally starving now so can we cook it?

[Laughter] [SHANE:] Yeah let's get going.

So what I like to do is: I'm always very generous with my seasonings.

So I'll do a heavy layer of just salt and pepper.

And what that's going to do is, once we hit it on that high heat, it's going to make a crust and really seal in all those juices.

70% of the sodium people get is from eating processed crap.

So when you get real food and you put a season on it like a real chef does.

Don't worry about it.

You're just making it taste great.

[Sizzle] [DR. MIKE:] Listen, everyone!

It's the sound of victory.

That looks great.

[SHANE:] We're going to just leave these alone for a while.

And I'm also gonna fire up one of our bison burgers for you guys as well.

[DR. MIKE:] Oh yeah!

[SHANE:] Again, nice generous salt and pepper on there.

We like to do our burgers on the flat top to really seal in all those juices.

Our bread is one of the only things we don't make here in house, but it is also locally sourced.

You know, one of the local bakeries in Missoula custom makes this bun for us.

It's a lightly seeded brioche bun.

So it's lighter.

It's not as dense and heavy.

It is buttery.

It's naturally buttery.

We didn't want to take the easy way out, you know, we wanted to do it right.

Having a scratch made kitchen, you know, it gives us a sense of pride and, you know, having everybody, your consumers can really tell the difference.

For me, being on the road, um, it's hard for me to figure out that kind of thing.

How would I research something like that so I know how to go... You know, what kitchens to go to?

What restaurants?

I mean, really, you just gotta talk to the locals and they can let you know the good spots to go.

Check the menu, right?

You guys got a menu online and you can see you got: housemate ketchup, pickled vegetables, and that's a clue.

Here, I mean, they're taking pride in what they source.

You're going to taste that difference.

As it turns out, man, that's got huge implications for our health.

You're not just a chef, man.

You're practicing, you know, health care in a way.

Well, I appreciate that.

I never really thought of it that way.

But you are.

I mean, we are what we eat, right?

And, you know, and when you take the effort and you're serving people out there, you're bringing 'em joy.

It makes us happy.

People don't appreciate often enough where the food comes from.

I mean, thank you, man.

[Music] Cheers.

[Laughter] Here's to awesome company and bringing back the old mighty bison.

[DR. MIKE:] Oh, yeah.

[SHANE:] Enjoy guys.

[DR. MIKE:] Thank you, Chef.

[Music] That is good.

[DR. MIKE:] It is good, isn't it?

Is this one of yours?

[TROY:] Yeah.

That's a taste of Montana, my friend.

[Music] So for me, when I'm looking to be inspired in what to cook, I'm really looking to nature.

I'm looking to the seasons.

What's abundant?

That's my inspiration.

I want to empower Don with some knowledge, with some simple techniques that anyone can do so I think it'll be important, you know, for Don to put all these things together, because I'm going to bring him in the kitchen and I'm going to show him you don't have to be a chef to make something like this.

Yeah, roll up them sleeves.

We're going to get cooking.

We're really cooking in here.

[DR. MIKE:] So people make this really complicated.

This is the easy way.

Gotta put a little olive oil in there and take a little salt, just some fresh herbs.

We're going to throw it down on the bottom.

I got those wonderful local Montana potatoes, and then we'll get a little bit more of that thyme that you got and while you do that, I'm gonna do a little of the same thing, so we got we got tops and tails: We've got top and bottom covered right here, right?

[Music] [DON:] That's it?

[DR. MIKE:] That simple.

Then put that in the oven for about 40 minutes.

And now these should be nicely blanched.

Grab that paring knife.

And we just want to see... See how it slides in real nicely?

And then we're going to put them in the ice water because that stops the cooking process.

[DON:] That's blanching, right?

[DR. MIKE:] That's blanching.

[Music] [DR. MIKE:] A little spicy pineapple pickle.

It'll be a beautiful complement to that burger.

Remember how juicy that burger was?

Yeah.

This is going to add the sweet, heat, and a little bit of that tangy note [Music] Now we're going to cut these in quarters.

And then I just want to go ahead and trim off that bit there.

I've got some, uh, pickling spices here that I put together.

I make my own little blend.

Just dump the whole thing in there.

[DON:] The whole thing?

[DR. MIKE:] The whole thing in there!

Now I can take that off the heat.

Go ahead pour the contents right in there.

You're making pickles, my man!

[Music] So I've got some of the last of the goodies from the farmer's market, which means I get 'em cheap.

[Music] To get started, We're going to take this nice sweet onion, we're gonna cut it in half, and then we're going to take maybe about a pound of these tomatoes.

And I want you to smell this vine.

See how it has that essence of tomato?

So we're going to throw that in there because we're going to season all this [Music] we're also gonna grab a little bit of garlic.

So here's a trick to get the... uh, get the paper off very easy.

So gonna take the little clove of garlic here and, light tap like that, and then just rub it with your hands like that and the paper comes right off.

And this little bit here might catch, so cut it off.

Right?

That's going to be unpleasant if somebody eats that.

So just just throw that whole thing in the We want those big cloves, yeah.

And I'm gonna add some olive oil to this if you can grab me some rosemary and thyme And what we want to do here is just fill it up about three quarters of the way Throw that right on there.

[DON:] Oh!

Right on there?

[DR. MIKE:] Yeah right on there!

So we're just gonna put this in on a low temperature like 180 for a minimum of 6 hours up to 8, maybe even 12 hours.

Low and slow.

That's, that's the way to win this race.

We've got a lot of sweetness from all these tomatoes and these onions particularly, remember, they're sweet onions.

So I just took some of poblano peppers, put 'em under the broiler.

I like it because this adds a nice kind of smoky element to the dish gives it a little depth of flavor.

Like everything we try to do in the kitchen, we want to accentuate, bring those characteristics, we want to the surface and we want it in balance.

And it's just like life, right?

When things are out of balance, what happens to us?

We become uneasy.

In medical terms.

We call that "dis -ease."

Disease!

That's where it comes from.

Now, we're going to save that oil.

It's just infused with flavors.

And so with this, you could take this and make an incredible salad dressing.

we're going to make a roasted garlic mayonnaise with this, and we're going to recycle this oil so we're not using and throwing it away.

'Cuz this is culinary gold.

Take a little, a little taste of that.

It's going to be just chock full of flavor Talk about a Sunday morning Bloody Mary.

That is really good.

Man, those roasted poblanos.

You got that, you know, that wonderful tomato onion herb infused jammy goodness.

[Music and sizzling] [DR. MIKE:] Not all red meat is created equal.

I mean, as a fast food burger, the same as a grass finished, you know, bison fillet?

Of course, not!

Every chef knows that that's not the case.

Real authentic food has what the French call terroir, which means that it reflects where it came from.

That's a taste of Missoula.

Grown in Lolo, right down the road.

Welcome to burger town.

Finally!

But this is the meat of the lesson today.

Now think about how far this journey has come and think about You know, that afternoon with Troy and what we experienced and what we felt and, you know, I've talked about it before and we'll do it before we eat but i want to take a moment and just whatever works for you, take a moment and thank that animal that gave its life for us.

We just changed the whole dynamic and the whole way we're going to process and digest and the benefits that we're going to get from this.

I mean just eating bison alone has been shown to lower inflammatory response as we can measure with things like C -reactive protein compared to having a fast food burger.

And now we've amplified that by changing our attitude.

I call it just an attitude of gratitude.

And I like to keep this simple because I love the flavor and hopefully you enjoy the flavor.

So I've got a little Wooshta Shooshta Shire I failed that part of culinary school.

So just dump them in as I call them out.

And that's got a lot of compounds that deepen that beef flavor, something called umami.

We've got a little tomato paste here and that's got those glutamates.

So it's going to deepen that sort of beefy essence that bison-y essence that we're getting.

And that's just a little bit of apple cider vinegar.

OK, I'm going to do a little salt, just give a little bit of pepper there.

So then I'm just gonna take it and, you know, make a nice little patty with it If you divide into four, this is a pound of beef, so divide it in four.

Then we're getting quarter pounders.

And we've got our hot pan over here, and then we're just gonna put these babies there and they're just gonna look beautiful.

Yeah.

Put yours on, man.

[Music and sizzling] [Music] So now it's the final component.

We have all these incredible ingredients.

Yeah.

we're grateful for 'em, we're in the right frame of mind.

Now it's time to please all our senses.

You know, we smell it, we see it, and it triggers emotions and hunger.

So, because I love you, as a brother, um, I got up early this morning and made us some fresh Kamut baps.

[Music] And so we're going to start here.

And what I'd like to do is just put a little mayonnaise on both the top and the bottom.

Here's some fresh, local Napa cabbage.

I put that on the bottom, and that forms a little layer of crunch and, again, helps keep our patty from melting and making the bun all soggy.

OK, I'm going to go ahead and get the burger off for you.

I'm going to go ahead and lay this guy up here like so and then I want you to go ahead and put a little bit of that smoked rosemary tomato jam and yeah.

So we're going to kind of put that there.

And so it's visually pleasing.

So we're going to finish that off with a little bit of butter, alright?

And that's just going to add some richness in there.

And then these are some spicy Marcona almonds.

So it's a smoked Spanish almond.

Almonds and green beans: a French classic.

See how we've got a little heat here.

We've got smoke here, we've got smoke here, We're tying all those elements together.

Like that.

We'll get a little bit of salt and pepper.

Now, did you like those?

The pineapple that we made here?

Yes.

You wanna taste one of the pickles and make sure you like it?

And then I'm gonna have you turn the plate right here.

Wow!

And you can put a couple of little pickles there [Music] Yeah, exactly.

Perfect.

Beautiful.

That is a lovely plate.

And when I look at this, and if you were the chef, and you are the chef, I... my apologies, chef.

[Laughter] You put this out here.

[DR. MIKE:] So when we get a meal like this: Real, authentic, natural ingredients.

That makes us happy.

This isn't just for the body.

This is for the soul.

Go in!

[Music] [Laughter] You can be my sous chef any...

Even better: I'd cook with you any time, brother.

I'd love that.

You are welcome in my kitchen.

Thanks, man.

So glad you're here.

[Music] And I stuck that fork in that piece of beef and something inside me snapped.

And I just got up from the table and left, and did not go back.

And I have also never eaten red meat from that moment until [laughs] with Doctor Mike.

And I just realized maybe this is out of context, but I haven't talked to my mother in years, and I talked to her for the first time.

You're kidding me.

[DON:] Like, an hour ago.

Well, I've definitely experienced some healing and some really deep emotions Through Doctor Mike.

Through the food.

Through this journey.

Yeah.

So now it's different.

Wow.

So what an incredible journey this has been with Don.

When he bit that bison burger, he shattered a barrier.

And that's what we wanna do.

And we're going to get some br...

I don't mind taking some bruises.

If I'm going to knock down walls for people, I'm going to take some bruises.

That's OK.

I've learned from this journey that um, red meat, if, not only grown, but prepared the right way, is fine.

Is, in fact, good for you.

And I feel different.

I feel better.

I feel stronger.

I feel a difference for sure.

All this week, I've been able to build this relationship over food with Don, share my passion with him.

And now I get to be on the receiving end of him sharing his passion for music with me.

So I'm totally excited to catch his show tomorrow.

Um..

I don't have to work.

Don's buying the beer.

I can't wait.

So I just want to take a moment thank both you guys for being part of a journey that I will absolutely never, ever forget.

[DON:] You both got to show me your passion.

Now's my chance to show you my passion.

But I want to thank you for taking me on this journey and you for being part of this, because it changed so many things that I did not expect.

So much change for me.

On this.

So.

What it's about, brother.

Thank you.

[Glasses clinking] A food experience with real, authentic food wholesome.

That may not solve every problem in the world.

But it's a great place to start.

[DON SINGING:] It's okay It'll be alright Everything's easier Under the big sky.

[DON AND NINA ALVIAR SINGING:] It's okay It'll be alright Everything's easier Under the big sky.

Ooooooooh.

[Cheers and applause] [DON SINGING:] it's OK.

It'll be alright.

Everything's easier under the big sky.

It's okay.

It'll be alright.

Everything's easier under the big sky.

Just as you start your day.

You get on your knees and pray.

It's not just what you do.

It starts with what you say.

If you follow through with your crazy ideas, whatever you want to do, you can get there from here.

Oh-oh yeah.

It's okay, It'll be alright.

Everything's easier under the big sky.

It's okay.

It'll be alright.

Everything's easier under the big sky.

Ooooooooh.