Originally aired on YPR’s Flavors Under the Big Sky
In Big Timber, at the Grand Hotel, Executive Chef Amy Smith is still commanding the kitchen after 32 years. In the fire engine red painted building with green awnings at the corner of McLeod and East 2nd Avenue, Smith cooks up delicious memories. History reigns in the building opened in 1890, built with the $20,000 funds from sheep farmer Jacob Halverson. The two-story building housed those who arrived by train as the Northern Pacific Railroad extended west, and Big Timber was becoming a center of business.
Smith, originally from Toledo, Ohio, came to Big Timber in the late eighties after an older sister working at the hotel told her of a job opening for a cook. She asked if Smith would consider the opportunity. Smith said with a laugh, “I would try it for a year, and here I am.”…