Food and Wine

The Culinary Program

The culinary program at Vista Verde Ranch is designed to impress even the most experienced palates. Food & Beverage Director Chef Jonathon Gillespie oversees a staff of talented up and coming chefs, many of whom come to work at Vista Verde Ranch just to train under Chef Jonathon.

Professionally trained in Business, and more importantly, in the Culinary Arts with a degree from the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, Chef Jonathon Gillespie continuously pushes the envelope with bold flavors and unusual combinations. Following the typical chef cliché, Jonathon began his culinary career helping–or rather getting in his mother’s way–in the kitchen. While the idea of cooking for a living hadn’t yet occurred to him, the seed had been planted.

Since moving to Northwestern Colorado in 1998, Jonathon has embraced the Colorado lifestyle. He strives to infuse that way of life into the Food and Beverage offerings at Vista Verde Ranch by utilizing local growers and ranchers whenever possible providing everything from honey to eggs to humanely raised beef and lamb.

Chef Gillespie’s team of talented chefs incorporate the highest quality ingredients to prepare uniquely refined meals to please all palates, allergies, restrictions & hankerings. For many of our guests, meal time at Vista Verde is one of the highlights of their stay. In addition to the impressive dining options, our team of chefs also offer a weekly cooking class and wine tasting.

With all the time you’ll spend outside using muscles that haven’t been used for a while, you definitely earn the right to enjoy all the wonderful cuisine, and enjoy the great company of the other guests and staff around the table.

Breakfast

Ranch breakfasts have a reputation to live up to. This is the meal when the ranchers stock up for the day on hearty fare that will keep them going however hard they work. Our breakfasts reflect that heritage, but with a little bit of fancy thrown in, and an understanding that not everyone wants to partake in a heavy meal. You can keep it light with fresh fruits, berries and homemade breads or go for it with a made to order breakfast burrito, eggs benedict or honey wheat pancakes with caramelized apples on top.

Lunch

Noontime is such a beautiful time of day at Vista Verde. We take advantage of that by scheduling as many meals outside on the deck as weather permits in the summer. These are casual cookouts when the staff and the guests all enjoy the warm sun and beautiful views together. The menu can range from grilled burgers and portabellas to veggie, steak and shrimp kabobs on the grill. In addition, there are always freshly made salads and a finger-licking dessert.

In the winter, we’ll venture outside on the deck on a warm, sunny day. But most of the time, it’s a treat to come inside the Lodge for lunch after an active morning out in the snow. And trust us, you really earn your lunch in the winter! Each day a variety of salads awaits you, as well as homemade soups to warm you from the inside. In addition, the Chefs prepare several hot entrees that can vary from simple and hearty to elegant and unique.

Dinner

Dinner is the main event at Vista Verde. Throughout the week, we offer several casual, family style dinners. But the big draw is for what we call our “formal dinners.” The dress is anything but formal, but the food rivals that of most metropolitan upscale restaurants. These multi-course dinners are truly events in themselves, and we intentionally do not rush through them. Here is a chance for you to relax with a nice glass of wine, delightful menu choices and wonderful conversation with the other guests you’ve met during your stay.

Families and Dining

While many parents join us to have some quality time with their children, there comes a time-usually quite quickly it seems- when a little adult time is quality time as well. So we structure a number of adult candlelight dinners while the younger set is in the capable care of our kids wranglers. What makes this possible is a tradition started some years ago called Dine and Dash. It features a nutritious and tasty (but kid friendly, e.g. no Brussels sprouts) menu. Then, while mom and dad are enjoying a leisurely dinner with adult conversation, the youngsters are off on a hayride or treasure hunt or to play Capture the Flag. Teens tend to ride the fence between wanting to be grown-up, and embracing the joys of youth. Knowing that, the teens are encouraged to join the teen wranglers for the Dine and Dash dinner and then their own set of activities. But they are also welcome to join the adult dinner with you if they prefer.

Now, our culinary institute-trained chefs are used to preparing culinary delights for those with the most experienced palates. But they are quite versatile and, after all, they were youngsters once, too. So they embrace offering fare that ravenous young guests (not to mention the kid wrangler crew) will put away happily. Even for picky eaters rest assured that no one goes hungry at the Vista Verde Ranch Resort!

For Wine Enthusiasts

A fabulous meal is only made better by great ambiance, fun conversation and, a delicious wine. As part of our truly all-inclusive ranch pricing, house wines as well as beer and a variety of sodas are included in your stay.

We do not publish our wine list as it changes frequently and our Chef is constantly keeping an eye on special and new wines (as well as fun beers) to bring into the ranch. We enjoy wine, have fun learning about new wines, and think that we have really great house wines. In fact, they must be pretty good as it’s rare that we have a guest purchase premium wine off of our Private Cellar list, which is available at an extra charge.