28 May Packable Gourmet

Shannon Waters was living in New York City, training and eventually cheffing in some of the finest restaurants in the world. She was hungry to do everything — from making “perfect pasta and beautiful bread” to butchering pigs, chickens, and goats — and often spent 18 hours a day, seven days a week doing just that. When the stress showed up in her body, Waters shifted gears and moved West. From San Francisco, she started a business helping others open restaurants, which led her to Montana, where she helped open a brewery before accepting a teaching position at Montana State University in Bozeman.

Gastro Gnome’s packable meals serve up local ingredients that can be enjoyed anywhere. A few of the mouthwatering breakfast options include caramel apple French toast, bison chorizo hash, and maple-roasted pecan and banana bowl. | LEGACIE STUDIOS

As she continued to work at slowing down, Waters spent more and more time in the Montana wilderness. On past shorter adventures, she’d packed her cast-iron skillet, marinated meats, and all the accoutrements for fine dining in the backcountry. But when she had to travel far and pack light, Waters turned to freeze-dried meals. To say that the culinary experience was unsatisfying for her is like standing atop the Beartooths, looking around, and thinking, Meh.

“Flavor and food are how I tell a story. It’s how I show someone that I deeply care about them. To experience food that communicated a stark lack of care for ingredients, flavor … absolutely stunned me and permanently altered my life’s path,” Waters wrote in an essay for the nonprofit Fish and Wildlife Volunteers.

That life path resulted in the 2020 establishment of the Bozeman-based company Gastro Gnome, which makes nourishing, flavorful, packable meals — everything from spicy red chicken pozole and Montana beef shepherd’s pie to bison chorizo hash and molten chocolate lava cake. The meals, packaged in single and double servings, are made with locally sourced and organic ingredients whenever possible and are cooked, freeze-dried, and packaged in Gastro Gnome’s kitchen in Four Corners. Meals can be ordered online and picked up at the storefront or shipped right to your door.

Gastro Gnome meals are available online at gastrognomemeals.com. They ship anywhere in the United States and can be picked up at the kitchen and store in Four Corners, west of Bozeman. | LEGACIE STUDIOS

Waters and her team spent five years perfecting every recipe, “down to the smallest pinch of salt,” and weaved the business into the community by participating in conservation efforts around the state, including becoming a Fish and Wildlife Volunteers business (formerly 2% for Conservation), which meant dedicating 1 percent of sales and 1 percent of company time to conservation efforts. In 2025, Ellie Darr — the owner of Bozeman’s Genuine Ice Cream and an avid outdoor adventurer in her own right — became the new owner and CEO of Gastro Gnome when Waters left to focus her heart and energy on her family: a husband and two young daughters. “It’s a special brand,” Darr says. “And my goal through the transition has been to honor that foundation while building the systems and infrastructure needed to grow.”

In a fairly crowded market of just-add-water backpacking meals, where many brands emphasize cost over quality and often use faraway manufacturers and distributors, Gastro Gnome stands out in several ways. First, everything is done in Bozeman with an emphasis on ingredient integrity, which often puts Gastro Gnome on the more expensive end of the cost spectrum, with lunches and dinners costing between $18.25 and $19.25 each, and breakfast, snacks, and desserts ranging from $7 to $18. “We’re uncompromising on quality and passionate about what we do,” says Darr. “That shows up just as much in what we don’t do. We don’t use fillers or shortcuts. We make everything from scratch, and every step of the process is completed by our team under one roof.”

Every Gastro Gnome taste-tested recipe is spiced to perfection, prepared, and packaged in the Gastro Gnome kitchen in Bozeman. | COURTESY OF GASTRO GNOME

Gastro Gnome CEO Ellie Darr grew up in Colorado, guided in Alaska, and makes her home in Bozeman. Among her outdoor passions are backpacking, mountain biking, backcountry skiing, hunting, and fishing. | ALEX SAAD

The benefits of that passion are evident as soon as you open any of the meal packages and are hit with the scent of complex, layered spices. The dishes themselves are inspired by comfort foods from around the world, including Indian yogurt-braised chicken, spicy Kung Pao beef and broccoli, Italian fennel sausage rigatoni, and such breakfast items as caramel apple French toast and maple sausage biscuits and gravy. In addition to the sophisticated flavors, each meal packs dense nutrients to meet the elevated energy requirements necessary when recreating in the backcountry. “These are real meals made with intention,” Darr says.

But are they good? Yes. Very.

The chef-driven recipes, premium ingredients, and fast rehydration add up to meals that are superior both in flavor and texture. A January 2026 online review in Field & Stream ranked Gastro Gnome among the best-tasting backpacking meals and the third best overall, covering such categories as taste, texture, aroma, and appearance. Backpacker ranked Gastro Gnome second best overall in its 2025 Best and Worst Backpacking Food top-shelf category.

All of the backcountry meals are handcrafted on-site in small batches using locally sourced and organic ingredients whenever possible. | LEGACIE STUDIOS

The Four Corners shop at 96 Laura Louise Ln. Ste. 11 is open Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Fridays, 9 a.m. to noon. | LEGACIE STUDIOS

For her part, Darr has trouble choosing a favorite Gastro Gnome meal. “Two of my go-tos are the shepherd’s pie and the yogurt chicken,” she says. “The shepherd’s pie is comfort food at its best. We use local beef and homemade mashed potatoes. It’s simple, hearty, and the perfect meal after a long day outside. The yogurt chicken is a great contrast, with warm spices and a hint of sweetness from the golden raisins in the rice,” she says.

Recommitting Gastro Gnome to community and the environment, as Waters did from the beginning, was a no-brainer for Darr. “If the landscapes we depend on aren’t protected, or the communities we operate in aren’t supported, we don’t have a future,” she says. To that end, Gastro Gnome is partnered with numerous statewide organizations, including the Montana Mountaineering Association, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Fish and Wildlife Volunteers (of which Darr is a board member), and the Wild Sheep Foundation.

Gastro Gnome meals often incorporate spices from global comfort dishes, including coriander, turmeric, red chili flakes, and paprika. | COURTESY OF GASTRO GNOME

In support of the organizations’ missions, Gastro Gnome often provides discounted meals to volunteers and, in some cases, dedicates a portion of their sales. With The Cairn Project, for example, which elevates the profile of women and girls in outdoor adventure, Gastro Gnome collaborated with the organization to craft a coconut-and-honey trail mix geared to women’s health.

Gastro Gnome has also teamed up with local businesses, including Bozeman Brewing Company — with whom they developed beer pairings for each of their meals — and onX, the popular GPS mapping tool.

“It’s foundational,” says Darr of the company’s commitment to the community. “We operate in Montana and sell products designed for people to enjoy in our wild places. That comes with a responsibility to contribute to the local economy and community.”

Wyatt Stevens is the production and maintenance technician and a friendly face in the Gastro Gnome shop and kitchen. Organic green bell peppers are one of the ingredients in the vegetarian almond pesto and mushroom ragu farfalle, which offers an extra punch of protein from legume pasta alongside asparagus, roasted mushrooms, fresh basil, and parsley. In addition to their hearty meat-lovers entrées, Gastro Gnome offers 11 vegetarian dishes, three vegan dishes, 11 gluten-free options, and seven dairy-free selections. | LEGACIE STUDIOS

Darr’s plan is to keep on keeping on by maintaining product quality while growing creatively and responsibly. “The goal is to be the most trusted brand in backcountry food. Not necessarily the biggest, but the one people rely on for quality and consistency,” she says.

And let’s not forget deliciousness. Eat your heart out, Tom Waits.

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 on March 31, 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.