Whitewater Cuisine

by Ken Robinson • The Fresno Bee
May 22, 1996

Welcome to the Kings River Bistro. Please take a river-view table.

Chef Kathleen will start you off with a Caesar salad. Entrees include marinated tri-tip, chicken with chi-potle honey sauce and salmon fillets, all cooked over a charcoal fire. Mango salsa is available as a garnish.

Entrees are accompanied by bulgar pilaf with pine nuts and sautéed asparagus and yellow squash. Desert is lemon poppyseed cake covered with fresh berries and whipped cream.

Your meal includes a ride down the Kings River. Bon appetit.

There's no such restaurant as the Kings River Bistro. But everything else is true when Kathleen Lorimer is on duty as chef for the Zephyr Whitewater Expeditions on the upper Kings River.

From Zephyr's base camp, she cooks up fine vittles for the hungry hordes that build up an appetite paddling their rubber rafts through Bonzai, Tiger's Tail, Sidewinder and other rapids on the upper Kings.

From Lorimer’s mango salsa to the ice cream sundae bar offered by Kings River Expeditions, food service is an important factor in the whitewater rafting experience.

In a competitive atmosphere, where word of mouth is crucial to survival of your business, food can draw the customers. Zephyr president Bob Ferguson used a common cliché: "The way to got through to their hearts is through their stomachs"

That sentiment was evident on a recent Saturday night, when Richard Blair of Valencia approached Lorimer after dinner to exclaim, "We've got a party of three here that is going to come back next year just for the food."

A professional chef on the river is a rarity among whitewater rafting companies. But even when the river guides themselves handle the meal chores, dinner is special.

At Zephyr, Lorimer does all the shopping and meal planning from the base camp. Her kitchen is extensive - six burners and a large griddle, both fueled by propane, and a large charcoal barbecue grill. Baked goods are created in Dutch ovens.

Lorimer said she's never been burdened with special dietetic needs she couldn't handle. Her food is salted sparingly; non-dairy creamer and rice milk are offered as alternatives to dairy products. When a lot of children are on board, she said, "we go heavy on fruit and make sure we have lots of cookies." (Minimum age limit is 7 years old in summer, 12 in spring.)

She estimates Zephyr spends between $4,000-$5,000 a week in food during its peak summer season, shopping at Sav-Mart in Sanger and local produce stands.

It's a labor of love for Lorimer, a caterer and former restaurateur who waxes philosophical about her role in the river experience. "We want people to leave [the river] with a wonderful sense of well-being, knowing they’ve been nurtured and well-fed on their river experience," she said. She described that experience as an educational endeavor, where guests learn reverence for nature, respect for the river and how to eat well.

Lorimer is a convert to the simple-is-better lifestyle. You end up that way when you live in Zephyr's "tent city," which she does on weekends in spring and full time in summer.

Until recently, her home was a 9-by-9-foot tent on a wooden platform, a comforter and Indian blanket resting on four foam mattresses. "It's pretty cozy," she said, "You don't need a sleeping bag." Her tent faced the rushing river. "There's something really nice about the simpleness of it," she said. "All the stuff you think you had to have - the TVs and VCRs - you don't miss them. "We take evening walks. We sit around the campfire and tell stories. My front door looks out on the river. It's pretty great."

Last week, though, she lost it all when the river, swollen by warm weather and rains that melted the Sierra snowpack, rolled through camp and wiped out her abode. Lorimer took the news in her characteristic philosophical manner: "That says a lot for simplicity. I can remember the 10 items in there and replace them. This teaches you respect for Mother Nature. We just didn't build my platform high enough. I think I'm going to put some paddles in my tent, just to make sure."

The peace of her surroundings is in contrast to the business of meal preparation, when crew members hustle around in organized efficiency - building fires, cutting vegetables, heating dish water, cooking meat, stirring vegetables and making salad. It's the same buzz of activity at breakfast, where on a recent trip about 20 guests were served bacon, eggs, fried potatoes with peppers and onions, fresh fruit, orange juice and coffee.

Lorimer creates the post-rafting appetizers by herself while the crew is on the river. Appetizers range from pizzettas and smoked salmon spread to chips and salsa and sliced watermelon.

The Zephyr cooking-dining complex has a cement floor and is covered by a large canopy. It includes cooking and storage facilities, dining tables and benches. Potted flowers are set on the tables for mealtime.

Food service is cafeteria style, with crew members serving. Beer, wine and soft drinks are among the beverage offerings at dinnertime.

Lunch, served on the river during a two-hour stop at Mill Flat, was do-it-yourself sandwiches and vegetarian taco salad on the recent trip. Dessert was cookies. Rafters sat on the rocks or stood to eat - there’s no dining room on the river.

The crew unpacked, prepared and repacked the meal, which was transported in water-tight containers in the equipment boat. Every crew member had a chore - cutting fruits and vegetables, setting up the serving table, making the salad, fixing lemonade. "If you’re not good in the kitchen, you can’t be a good river guide," said Bert Baker, Zephyr's resident manager.

Baker, a veteran of 18 years as a river guide, conceded that he initially resisted the move to a more healthful cuisine a few years ago."Diets change," he said. "We used to cook New York steaks, and people were happy." But then the staff noticed that many folks were leaving half their steaks uneaten.

When the menu change was implemented, Baker said, "I thought, 'baloney!' This is red-meat country. We're pseudo river cowboys; we need to be cooking meat on a grill. "But I realize we had to change our ways."

These days, there is plenty to eat even for vegetarians. The luncheon taco salad was a mix of avocados, tomatoes, beans, cheese and lettuce. The sandwich fare included lots of cheese as well as peanut butter and jam. fresh fruit was plentiful.

"People who float down the river are health conscious," said Lorimer. "We want to give them a lot of healthful food."

The meals vary according to Lorimer's whim and seasonal produce. Salad is almost always Caesar, because romaine lettuce holds up well in transporting. Appetizers and side dishes can include artichokes, polenta and tofu. Lorimer just planted some zucchini and Sweet 100s tomatoes at Zephyr camp for use this summer.

None of the other river trips offered by Zephyr on the Tuolumne, Stanislaus, Merced and American rivers have a chef because they do not have base camps. Lorimer occasionally caters a "gourmet river trip" on the Merced River. A recent one featured beef tenderloin and lobster in the half-shell.

"I was a nervous wreck, of course" Lorimer admitted. "But it turned out beautifully."

The 51-year-old Lorimer signed on with Zephyr five years ago because Ferguson caught her "in the middle of a mid-life crisis." She had owned a restaurant, but wearied of the long hours and paperwork.

Today she maintains a catering company in Columbia when she is not on the river - mainly, early spring, fall and winter. Lorimer's talents are appreciated by the crew as well as the customers. "She's a great chef. The menu is varied and delicious," said Drew Parker as he tended the barbecue fire.

"The river helps build an appetite, so food is very important," said Brandon Smith, head waiter for a Bay Area restaurant when he's not a river guide. "The food here is excellent."

Costa Mesa dentist Tom Charon and his Russian wife, Natasha, also raved about the Saturday dinner. "There wasn't a thing that was not perfect," Charon said. "Last night we ate at the Sherwood Inn, and this is just as good."

"Fabulous food," said Natasha Charon, a newcomer to the United States. She had expected to eat sandwiches, said her husband.

That's a common reaction among river rafters, said Butchert of Kings River Expeditions.

"People half expect to get a bologna sandwich for lunch," he said. "We served chicken fajitas the other day for lunch [in camp]. So it's often a pleasant surprise.

But the good-food reputation is getting around, said Zephyr's Ferguson.

"People come to expect more in river trips these days. In the' 1970s, it was bare bones, canned food. Today, we have to provide that extra touch. "It costs us more money to do that, but it makes the trip that much more special for folks. We want them to enjoy the river, but also to enjoy us."

And part of that enjoyment is having nutritional needs cared for by Kathleen Lorimer. "I'm a nurturer," she said "That's what I do best."