A good way to stir a person's heart is through their stomach, right? And Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library executive chef, Candice Stock, fully plans to manipulate that organ. “You could go through the exhibits and then come out here,” she said. “And if we were serving really heavy cheeseburgers and you went home, you would think about how uncomfortable you were in the car and had a gut ache. We want people to literally get out and experience the Badlands. Like the goal is to get good food and get sunlight and fresh air and really enjoy this space.”
With an extra spring in your step, you may feel like exploring, not only the winding labyrinth of interior exhibits and artifacts like TR's handwritten journal in which he documents the tragic Valentine's Day he lost his wife and mother and what will probably be the most talked about and debated of features, the AI teddy, which you can ask questions, but you might feel like hiking or wheeling up the snaking, accessible pathway on the roof of the museum. “Right now, you can hear the crickets chirping and we've got over 80 different varieties of native plants growing, everything from flowers to Forbes to shrubs,” Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Communications Officer Matt Briney said. “And a lot of this is, you know, how do we build back the ecology that Theodore Roosevelt would have recognized? “
So, no cheeseburger will slow you down, but in the spirit of the library’s namesake, what did the self-described former weakling who lived a strenuous life as a cattle rancher in the Badlands to flee grief, like to eat? What was the way to Theodore Roosevelt's heart?
Stock said, “TR was a big fan of fried chicken. So, we have a fried chicken sandwich and it's just like lightly dredged. It's seasoned with chilies and orange zest and in the buttermilk and then just fried. And it's like the only fried item we have. And I refuse to buy a deep fryer for this restaurant, but we're pan frying.”
A little more up the alley of Candace Stock, a Culinary Institute of America trained chef who cut her teeth in the Fargo restaurant scene and taught classes on foraging and indigenous foodways as healing medicine, would be the hearty, earthy ingredients that make up most of the menu at the aptly named Salt and Scoria. “We've got a smoked salmon salad with wild rice, shaved fennel, onions, herbs,” Stock said. “And then we have a cedar smoked chicken kebab salad also. And that goes over cooked amaranth and oat groats, kale.”
Salt as in saltbush, a four-winged native plant that grows in the surrounding weather-beaten soil. Scoria is the color you see in the fire formed red rock of the Badlands, as well as the library's rammed earth walls. Candace, who is of Ho-Chunk, Cherokee, Pawnee, Caw and Choctaw ancestry said every dish creates a learning opportunity about the ingredients unique to this part of the world. “So, I grew up in northern Minnesota, and so I bring wild rice. But as far as like what indigenous people would have been eating from across this land, we try to incorporate those ingredients and always have them the focal point for whatever it is for our sandwich,” she said. “We have a bison sandwich and you need to honor the spirit of the bison for people to come away with a little bit more intention in their food.”
One aspect of President Theodore Roosevelt that cannot be forgotten are his words and actions when it came to Native Americans and African-Americans. He expressed a superior view at times of the White race, hierarchical at the very least, while some of his policies resulted in loss of land for indigenous people. And then there's that statue donated by the American Museum of Natural History in New York, in which Roosevelt seems to rise above on a horse while African-American and Native American men are walking alongside him. The symbolism is not lost on anyone. Communications Director Matt Briney noted the statue will someday be displayed and framed in a proper context and with consultation with a diverse set of voices in the community, like the tribes involved in the land blessing of the 93-acre Theodore Roosevelt Library site in 2022. Chef Candice Stock was there as well. He said, “She made the for the land blessing ceremony and the team just absolutely fell in love with her. There was a big wake-up call of who is this person and what are we eating and it is amazing, right? And so, we were lucky to be able to get her on board as our executive chef. This is going to be one of the best restaurants in North Dakota.”
Chef Stock addressed how her feelings about joining the team at the library evolved. “There was hesitation to join this project because of how TR viewed Native Americans and how my family kind of responded to the job. They were like, ‘Is that what you really want to do?’ The reason I came out here was because of the land blessing ceremony and how they (officials at the library) engaged with the Native American community. Being brought into the project, I did have a lot of reservations and that in certain situations, you can be used as a product basically. But for like our CEO and for all of our leadership team that I've been working with since 2022, we've all become very close and their intentions are very tied into this mission. And for every space that I've been in and not being able to see Native American face or someone that represents our people and our history, I want that to change. And it starts with us being present everywhere.”
One of the key members of the library's Native American Advisory Council is activist and educator Prairie Rose Seminole, enrolled member of the three affiliated tribes- that's Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. I asked her what the hiring of Candice Stock as executive chef of the library means for representation and preserving indigenous food cultures. “She, I think, is probably the best hire they could have made because she is so knowledgeable about our food systems here. I mean, we're living in what was considered at one time the breadbasket for tribal nations, right? Like we had bread plants like turnips and root vegetables, things that we would gather and forage and hunt, but we also planted. And I think that's pretty historic that she's being hired out here.”
The restaurant's tall windows with delightful views of surrounding grasslands and badlands entice diners to take menu items like Theodore Roosevelt's venison and beef chili, or for the kids a creamy peanut butter and mixed berry jam sandwich out onto the breezeway, where you could sit in a rocking chair and enjoy the stunning scenery or the boardwalk, which comes complete with an in-ground trampoline! The layout inside Salt and Scoria, with the long, beer hall-style tables, too is by design. Stock said, “We can break it up a little bit, but the purpose of having more family style tables is to get people talking to one another. I like I come out and maybe I won't sit right next to somebody, but I'll introduce myself, see how their meal is, see how they're doing. The intention is for you to be able to see the space wide open and then go outside and enjoy it. Someone came in here a while ago and said that they felt like every time they ate my food, I was cooking for them. And so, I don't know if there could be a bigger compliment in that and that like that is how I feel.”
Chef Candace Stock, who many miss in Fargo as much as the Scandinavian/Jewish restaurant she cooked in, the now-closed, Bernbaums, is opening new doors and representing food culture and people from the land surrounding the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota. But all those grand things aside, Stock boils down the essence of her potentially star-making career to something more personal. “That is what I want to do. I want to cook like I'm cooking for the person I love and for that person to receive that in that way.”
