fa m i l i a r fac e s BY LISA NYREN
The Spices of Life Nacho Orduno, Grand Targhee’s most ‘tasteful’ employee
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Summer 2010
TETON VALLEY MAGAZINE
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF NACHO ORDUNO; OPPOSITE PAGE, LISA NYREN
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here’s nothing like coming down off the slopes and enjoying a nice hot bowl of chili. And for Ignacio “Nacho” Orduno, executive chef at Grand Targhee Resort, there’s nothing quite like cooking up thirty gallons of that spicy sustenance. Nacho has been a staple at the resort since the late 1980s, when skiers wore onepiece snowsuits, headbands, and mirrored sunglasses. “My standards are pretty high for soups and chilies,” Nacho says, sitting in the cafeteria of Wild Bill’s Grill at Targhee, adding that he has between thirty and forty of his own recipes just for these two menu items. And, like any good chef, Nacho has had years of experience to perfect those recipes. It started with his mother in Mexico; Nacho remembers her grinding corn to make tortillas. “I learned a lot from my mom,” he says. From Mexico, Nacho moved to Arizona, landing a job as a dishwasher at a restaurant while attending night school to learn English. Eventually, he was promoted to pantry chef, making salads, cold appetizers, and desserts. Then an executive chef at the Carefree Inn in Carefree, Arizona, hired Nacho to be his culinary apprentice. Three years later, at just nineteen, he became a sous chef at the Inn, and he hasn’t looked back since. Now, at age fifty-five, Nacho combs his black hair back and sports a groomed mustache. He wears his chef coat as if it were a second skin. His friendly smile beams with pride. He manages Wild Bill’s, where all of the menu items are of his own designing. He also created a large share of the menu for Targhee’s Trap Bar. The resort website describes him as “the backbone of Grand Targhee’s Food and Beverage Department.” What brought Nacho from Arizona to snowy Teton Valley? Love, naturally. He met his future wife, Jana Lie Woolstenhulme, who is from this area, in Arizona, where she happened to be looking for work. Eventually, the two moved north and opened Nacho’s Mexican Food in Rexburg. Later, after trying Arizona one more time, they settled in Teton Valley and now live in Victor. Their four children range in age from sixteen to twenty-nine. Soon after moving here, Nacho began setting up taco stands at local fairs and other events in Jackson Hole and Teton Valley. One stand in particular—Nacho’s Carnitas, which he ran in the late 1980s during Pierre’s
Rendezvous Days in Driggs—propelled him onto the path of becoming the wellknown character he is today. Among his customers at that booth were Carol Mann and Mori Bergmeyer, then husband and wife and the owners of Grand Targhee. They saw that the line stretched long, so they figured the food must be worth waiting for. “They had some tacos,” Nacho says simply, recalling the incident. “I bought one and I loved it,” says Bergmeyer, who gave Nacho his card. “I said, ‘If you’re ever interested in working up at Targhee, we have a Mexican restaurant.’” Nacho called the next day—and the rest is history. Even with the transfers in ownership and revolving staff during his two decades at Grand Targhee, Nacho says he wouldn’t trade his job for anything. “They treat me good,” he says. “That’s why I’m still here.” Still here, cooking up spicy surprises for resort visitors. Among other dishes, Nacho makes a locally famous hot-wing sauce called “Forget About It,” which
comes out at the Trap Bar’s wing-eating contests. The wing spicings go from mild, medium, and hot, to Forget About
Nacho’s
FAIL BOARD
It. Anyone who can bear to eat wings prepared with the final one earns Trap Bar renown on the “Wall of Flame.” Those who can’t handle it get the letters F-A-I-L written next to their names. The day I visit Nacho for this article, two new failed papers hang on the wall (as shown in the photo above). “There are tears,” he says, smiling and shaking his head. The peppers for
TETON VALLEY MAGAZINE
the Forget About It sauce come from India, he says, and you have to be careful even when just handling them. It’s more than Nacho’s food that keeps ’em coming back year after year. His engaging smile, energetic personality, and enthusiasm for making people happy have made him a beloved fixture at Targhee. “He’s a very lovely person,” Mann says. “He always has been … [Nacho] has a really good heart; you can see it in his eyes and you can taste it in his food.” As Nacho sits at a table in his cafeteria talking about his cooking, an older woman wearing ski boots clomps in and spots him. Her eyes brighten as she walks toward him, and his do, too. They hug and look truly happy to see one another. Later, when she’s gone, Nacho says, “I love the people … Like that woman, she comes here every year.” Though his tenure is already long, Nacho won’t be leaving Targhee anytime soon—if he has anything to say about it: “I am planning to be here until they say, ‘you can’t do it anymore.’” Here’s hoping that day is along way off.
Summer 2010
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