31 Jul Dining Out: Bringing Montana to 
the Table

If you believe, as Picasso did, that “the purpose of art is to wash the dust of daily life off our souls,” or, like Kurt Vonnegut, that art is “a very human way of making life more bearable,” or, as Mary Oliver wrote, that “art is one of the things that could save us,” it might not surprise you to know that Chef Earl James Reynolds studied art in college. Oil painting, to be specific. The boy from Whitefish, Montana, who grew up picking huckleberries and catching rainbow trout across the Flathead Valley, wanted to be a painter like his uncle. But somewhere along his journey, his medium changed.

Reynolds, the executive chef at Herb & Omni in Whitefish, makes art in the kitchen now — on the plate, in the dining room, and within the lines of every menu he writes. This spring, Reynolds was named one of five 2026 James Beard Foundation nominees for Best Chef in the Mountain Region.

The theme of bees and beehives — like hive-shaped glass chandeliers and the shelving cut-outs behind the bar — is present throughout the elegant dining room.

But don’t let that fool you. Food is not about prestige for Reynolds. It’s not about awards or accolades. Food, for Reynolds, is about community. And it’s about fun!    

It’s a Friday night and the dining room at Herb & Omni in downtown Whitefish’s 101 Central building is bustling. We are three writers and two musicians, people watchers and story makers all of us. At a table nearby, an older couple still in gardening jeans is having a spontaneous date night, and next to them a family with two young children is stealing a moment of leisure at the end of a packed week. There’s a wedding party somewhere in the building; men in suits check their hair in the bathroom. Glammed-up women, out-of-towners no doubt, with fur coats and cowboy hats, make their way to a table. Mirrors hang like paintings above velvet banquettes in peacock green. Everywhere there is sparkle and shine.

But never mind the gold mirrors and crystal chandeliers, or the fancy folk at the next table. This is Montana in the greenest days of summer, and Reynolds intends to remind us of that with every bite.

The ethos at Herb & Omni, short for herbivore and omnivore, involves making plant-based options both exciting and appealing, like these chickpea fritters with pistachio hummus, tamarind chutney, and crunchy chili oil.

A special Restaurant Week menu tempts us, but instead we order à la carte so we can taste — and see, smell, and touch — as many of Reynolds’s creations as possible. We select the rainbow trout corn dog, a couple of zucchini dino nuggets with cashew garden ranch, and a buñuelo — goat cheese mousse with kraut powder and jalapeño relish. We laugh at the beauty of each plate as it is delivered. And then again with every bite.

The Incongruity Resolution Theory suggests that humans laugh after encountering the unexpected or the absurd so as to resolve the confusion with a sudden cognitive shift that makes sense of the contradiction. The relief of landing on a new understanding triggers happy laughter.

The kitchen is bustling with up to 16 people making food magic over the course of any given day.

Ordering corn dogs and dino nuggets in the fanciest restaurant for hundreds of miles? Confusion. Uncertainty. But when they are placed before us, we take in the colors of the fresh herbs, the golden crunch of sweet cornbread, the nuttiness of trout, and the smoky tang of tomato tartar sauce.

Ah. Yes. Chef Reynolds is at work, and this is fun. We get it. More laughter.

Reynolds forages for the restaurant in the mountains and valleys around Whitefish. Being outside and spending time with his wife and daughter are a vital part of his life and allow him to balance the intensity of his time in the kitchen.

So goes the whole evening. The grilled Korean short rib with furikake crunch and pickled pineapple pop. The tomato and stracciatella with grilled apricot, milk bread crouton, burnt green harissa butter, and white balsamic. The Wagyu with tallow-fried tater tot, charred gai lan, brown butter carrot purée,
and garden-green chimichurri. At one point, one among us says he could be sated just reading the menu over and over.

But we don’t just read. We are indomitable and order on.

Reynolds, 41, took the helm at Herb & Omni — short for herbivore and omnivore and specializing in thoughtful plant-based dishes — in December 2023 after an already storied culinary career that included such celebrated eateries as Canlis in Seattle under Chef Jason Franey and Restaurant Trokay in Truckee, California under Chef John Weatherson. His start in the industry, fittingly, came at age 16 when he washed dishes at Whitefish Lake Restaurant, where Reynolds remembers watching the chefs play with fire and sharpen their knives. “It looked like a pirate ship,” he says. (Read: which looked like fun!) Eventually, they let him start peeling potatoes, and, by 18, Reynolds took a prep cook job at another beloved Whitefish restaurant.

Here, Reynolds shows off freshly picked spruce tips which he uses in a variety of dishes, including crème brûlée.

A culinary education in Seattle opened his mind to the importance of sustainable food sourcing, supporting local food systems, and cooking seasonally. But for Reynolds, the practice of picking nettles before service or harvesting herbs and thyme blossoms for that evening’s plates drove home the concept of local dining. It also led the chef home to his own Montana valley.

At Herb & Omni, sourcing, harvesting, and foraging locally are part of the magic for Reynolds. “You spend the day in the woods gathering spruce tips, morels, and miner’s lettuce, then bring them back to the kitchen,” he says. “The next day, guests are enjoying those ingredients at the table. There’s an electric feeling in that process. Taking something from the mountains and carrying it all the way to the plate never gets old. It creates a connection to place that’s hard to replicate.”

And for Reynolds, being home in Whitefish, where he can cook for his family, friends, and community, is next level. “These are the mountains I grew up in. My connection to place is more personal,” he says, pointing out that he went to high school with the rancher who provides beef to the restaurant.

While the zucchini dino nugget was created with kids in mind, the golden crunch and cashew garden ranch have made it a bestseller with grown-ups too.

But any dining experience is more than the source of ingredients, and Reynolds and his kitchen team, which can swell to 16 on busy nights, think big picture about what they want for diners at Herb & Omni.

“Our goal is to create an experience where people can celebrate each other and celebrate themselves,” Reynolds says. “I think fine dining can come off a little stiff, and my goal is to create the opposite. I love the idea of people eating with their hands. I love making people smile.” Case in point, Reynolds created a three-course tasting menu for kids, inspired by his own nostalgia for food from his childhood.

In addition to his passion and playfulness, Reynolds’s humility shows up when he talks about his recognition from the James Beard Foundation. He doesn’t so much deflect as redefine what is being recognized, describing it with a fundamentally new perspective and giving it new meaning. His words follow his actions, which follow his deeply held beliefs about food and community. “The recognition is for me as much as it is for my team,” he says. “And beyond that, I feel like it’s for our community that supports us in the dining room every night. It’s for the farmers and ranchers who put their hands in the dirt and their boots in the stirrups every day to bring Montana to the table.”

Though his James Beard Award nomination has made Herb & Omni even busier, Reynolds keeps it all in perspective. “I think food and dining, from a very primal level, bring people together,” he says.

That idea of bringing Montana to the table is something Reynolds does with stunning creativity, appealing to all five senses with every dish. Whether he is saucing a plate, plating a dish, creating a recipe, or writing a menu, Reynolds is always focused on composition: how the elements relate to one another, visually, texturally, and in terms of flavor. Even the crunch is considered. Everything matters. And for Reynolds, the thrill of such creative freedom is more than enough. “It’s probably been eight years since I’ve picked up my oil paints because my desire to create art is quenched every time I write a menu.”

There is community in gratitude, too. We are all quenched, sated, and happy as we drift off into the summery evening, bellies full and imaginations on fire.

A writer and editor for various publications, Carter Walker covers art, architecture, food, travel, and culture. Her latest travel guide from Moon Books, Yellowstone to Glacier National Parks Road Trip, was released in 2026. She has a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program and always has at least one creative project going. Walker is a founding board member of The Montana Project, which empowers Montana artists to advocate for the places that inspire them.

Aaron Agosto is a freelance photographer based in Montana’s Flathead Valley. His clients include Esquire Magazine, The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. While not making pictures, he can be found out with his fly rod and his dog, Hayduke, on one of the state’s many rivers.

Spruce Tip Crème Brûlée

By Earl James Reynolds of Herb & Omni

Makes 4 (4–5 ounce) ramekins

This twist on a classic dessert embodies the idea of eating fresh, seasonal, local food, which is integral to the philosophy at Herb & Omni in Whitefish, Montana. Featuring freshly harvested spruce tips, this crème brûlée brings Montana to the table.

3 cups plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream

¼ cup loosely packed fresh spruce tips, roughly chopped*

1 vanilla pod, split lengthwise and scraped**

5 large egg yolks

⅓ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Extra granulated sugar for brûléeing

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Combine the heavy cream, spruce tips, and vanilla bean and pod in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium-low until steaming and small bubbles begin forming around the edges. Do not boil. Remove from heat, cover, and allow to steep for 15 minutes.

Strain through a fine-mesh strainer or cheesecloth, pressing gently on the spruce tips to extract flavor. Discard the solids and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until fully combined and slightly lighter in color. While whisking, slowly add about 1 cup of the warm infused cream. Continue gradually whisking in the remaining cream until smooth. For the silkiest texture, strain the resulting custard through a fine-mesh strainer into a measuring pitcher.

Place four ramekins into a deep baking dish. Evenly divide the custard among them. Remove any foam from the surface with a spoon or by lightly passing a kitchen torch over the tops.

Place the baking dish on the oven rack. Carefully pour hot water into the dish until it reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 35–45 minutes. You’ll know the custards are finished when the edges are set, the centers still jiggle slightly when gently shaken, and the internal temperature reaches 170–174°. Do not overbake. The custard will continue setting as it cools.

Once baked, remove the ramekins from the water bath and cool at room temperature for 30 minutes. Refrigerate uncovered until completely cold, at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Custards can be made up to 2 days in advance.

Just before serving, remove from the refrigerator and sprinkle about 1 teaspoon granulated sugar evenly over each ramekin. Using a kitchen torch, heat until the sugar is the color of a golden retriever. Top with fresh huckleberries for bonus points.

Notes:

* Young, bright-green spring spruce tips produce the cleanest citrus-pine flavor.

** The vanilla should support the spruce, not dominate it. One whole vanilla bean gives enough floral warmth while allowing the spruce tips to remain the star of the dessert.