In 1948, Cab Calloway had a hit song that might well double today as an anthem for Saskatchewan.
“Have a banana, Hannah, try the salami, Tommy ... Everybody eats when they come to my house!” Calloway crooned to a jive beat.
Before I crisscrossed this Prairie province, I expected to be charmed by undulating wheat fields and big prairie skies.
What I didn’t know was that my first visit to Saskatchewan would end up being defined not just by the sights I saw, but by the people who fed me.
Georgian surprise
My flight had landed in Regina, but the chef I most wanted to meet wasn’t here. He was cooking in a small town about two hours southwest.
In the softly lit dining room of his restaurant, Trigo Food + Drink, I broke off a piece of flatbread and dipped it into the centre of a soft egg yolk. It was my first taste of adjaruli khachapuri, a Georgian bread dish that’s meant to be torn, stirred with egg and shared.
The remarkable thing wasn’t that chef-owner Adam Henwood used to be a lawyer. It wasn’t even that he continually reinvents his country-themed tasting menu.
It was that this astonishing seven-course Georgian meal, with wine pairings, was unfolding in Lafleche, population 373.
Henwood was visiting his parents in Manitoba when he spotted Trigo listed for sale. He’d always loved to cook and, on a whim, made a lowball offer. To his surprise, it was accepted.
Today there’s some support locally for the themed suppers, but most people drive 90 minutes or more to take part.
Which is to say, Henwood isn’t getting rich doing this — and that’s fine by him.
“If this was just about money, I would go back to being a lawyer,” he says with a shrug. “But life’s too short to do something you don’t want to do.”
Henwood isn’t the only one in this corner of Saskatchewan driven by passion.
In Assiniboia, about 30 minutes away, the Shurniak Art Gallery houses the immense private collection of businessman Bill Shurniak, who travelled the world but never forgot his roots. Its presence here feels both unexpected and yet perfectly right.
Prairie comfort cooking
Harvest Eatery in Shaunavon has made such a name for itself that it seemed criminal not to check it out.
This proved to be an exceptional decision.
When chef-owner Rusty Thienes opened Harvest Eatery, his goal was to offer high-end cuisine that could be enjoyed in jeans and sneakers.
Twelve years later, Thienes considers all of southwestern Saskatchewan to be his city. Menu favourites include brisket, pork belly burnt ends and my top pick, the buttermilk-brined fried chicken.
“We make everything from scratch and then we put a whole ----load of love into it,” Thienes says.
Protein needs met, I wandered Shaunavon’s streets and saw that creativity doesn’t stop at the kitchen.
A weathered farmer checks his crop; a blue-tongued tiger looms over a liquor store. The South West Mural Fest, featuring large-scale paintings by regional and international artists, turns Shaunavon’s streets into an open-air gallery.
Continuing west to Eastend, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum’s T. rex Discovery Centre reminded me that this province is a fossil hotspot. In fact, Scotty, the largest Tyrannosaurus rex ever found, was unearthed right in this area.
Hometown flavours
On the road again, I headed east toward Lumsden. The town, about 20 minutes north of Regina, moves at an easy pace.
At Free Bird, named for the Lynyrd Skynyrd song, chef-owner JP Vives applies the same approach to his cooking. A hometown boy, he takes deep pride in creating good home cooking he’d happily serve to friends.
Or, as he puts it: “Common food, done uncommonly well.”
From house-made gnocchi to paella mixta, as well as the chicken & French toast I indulged in, Vives’ dishes are lip-smackingly tasty but deliberately unfussy.
“I’m just doing me,” he says.
Earlier on that long drive across southern Saskatchewan, I’d rolled through Moose Jaw, where I couldn’t resist a photo with Mac the Moose, claimed to be the world’s largest. In the city centre, the Tunnels of Moose Jaw chronicle tales of Prohibition-era bootlegging and Chinese immigration, and are a worthy stop.
Class act
I spent most of the trip as an observer but that changed in a cooking class at Schoolhaus Culinary Arts in Regina.
Ask chef-owner Aimee Schulhauser whether everyone is suited to cooking and she’ll tell you: There’s a chef in all of us.
And so, with a baker’s torch in hand, I approached the ramekins on my station. It was time to caramelize the meringue-topped flapper pie parfaits for dessert.
“OK, I think that’s good, right?” I asked, awkwardly moving the torch over the meringue.
It actually wasn’t — because browning meringue evenly is far trickier than it looks.
But I did what I could, helping to create a meal that included Saskatoon berry & goat cheese crostini, pan-fried pickerel and unevenly browned meringue-topped parfaits.
The class wasn’t really about the recipes anyway; it was about participation and the power of food as a connector.
Before heading north, I made time for the Mackenzie Art Gallery. I knew its Indigenous and contemporary art would yield food for thought as I journeyed to my final destination.
A thoughtful finale
I’d heard enough about Hearth Restaurant, tucked inside the Remai Modern museum in Saskatoon, to arrive hungry.
“We make unpretentious, delicious Prairie food,” chefs and co-owners Beth Rogers and Thayne Robstad promise online, and they deliver.
An amuse bouche — a savoury dumpling floating in oniony broth — arrived in a bone china teacup that could have come from my grandmother’s cupboard.
It was pure vintage, and a warm counterpoint to the museum’s clean minimalism.
After mains of beet-cured trout and a smoked pork chop, we finished strong: a bubbling Saskatoon berry crisp was the perfect coda to a road trip highlighted by local flavours.
At home now, long after the kilometres have blurred, the flavours are what stay with me.
Saskatchewan may be known for its wheat fields and vast skies. But it’s also shaped by the people who cook with passion.
And when they do, everybody eats.
This article first ran in the Victoria Times Colonist
Where to Stay
Regina: The Hotel Saskatchewan is a grand railway-era hotel with historic charm, located right downtown. Don’t skip The Burrow, its signature restaurant.
Assiniboia and Shaunavon: Canalta Hotels is a new-to-me chain that I wish we had in B.C. The rooms are clean, modern and spacious, and a great base for exploring the area.
Saskatoon: The Bessborough Hotel is iconic, with castle-like architecture, South Saskatchewan River views and easy access to downtown.
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