In the Kitchen with The White Buffalo Club’s Brian Marino The homegrown talent prides himself on a perfectly cooked piece of meat. by Julie Kling photos by Jay Nel-McIntosh
SELF-TAUGHT
Chef Brian Marino grew up in the back of the house at some of the most historic restaurants in Jackson Hole. He put in his time peeling garlic and seasoning beef — and that’s still where he likes to be. His mother owned the Cadillac Grille (where Local now resides), home of the infamous Billy’s Burgers, and his father ran Jackson Hole Buffalo Meat Co. for 18 years before they retired. When his family sold the Cadillac, his parents brought Brian and the Billy Burger to Lift, a restaurant they then started at the base of Snow King Mountain Resort. After Lift closed in 2018, Marino took over at The White Buffalo Club for Joel Hammond, another local chef, who went on to work for Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto. “I just love to cook,” Marino says. “I don’t really care about fame and being on TV.” He prefers a simple life and is grateful that he gets to raise his kids in Jackson, doing what he loves to do. Now he brings his 10-year-old daughter to the kitchen to help.
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