Shall We Gather at the River
Imagine a long table, set in dreamy blues and greys that mirror the glacial silt of the water flowing just feet away. Copper-rimmed plates and short crystalline glasses glint in high summer evening sunlight. A pair of Alaska cottongrass blooms add a touch of whimsy to each place setting. The soundtrack is water hastening past, carving a meandering path through the Alaskan wilderness on its journey to the Gulf of Alaska. The food on the table is locally sourced and exquisitely prepared. Where is this table? At mile marker 36 on the Copper River Highway, an Alaskan Scenic Byway, a remote stretch of roadway laid on the bed of the Copper River and Northwestern Railway.
Our Secret Supper is a Portland, Oregon-based dining experience that invites guests to gather at an undisclosed location around a communal table with friends and strangers. The specific secret location is revealed 24 hours prior to supper. Past guests dined in in dreamy wooded landscapes, pastoral country locales, and even in a sugar cane field on the Big Island of Hawaii. This bank of the Copper River is their most daring remote location to date. Supper guests journeyed from as far away as New York, Los Angles, and Portland and from as near-by as Anchorage and Cordova.
Mile 36 is the end of the road. Literally the end of a gravel highway that used to extend 52 miles into the Copper River Delta. As braided rivers often do, the Copper altered its path in recent years, washing out several sections of the highway. This river delta is a wild place treasured by Alaskans, a salmon stronghold flanked by imposing mountains and glaciers. Its unlikely choice for a fine dining experience is exactly why Danielle Firle with Secret Supper could not have imagined her first Alaska supper anywhere else.
The guests were greeted at the river’s edge with an appetizer of toasted homemade pumpernickel bread generously smeared with smoked Alaska herring butter topped with thinly sliced breakfast radishes and and a sip of crisp white wine. The tinned fish on toast was Chef Zoi Antonitsas’s starter to her version of an Alaskan out the road cookout. Chef Antonitsas is a passionate and skilled seafood specialist. Her menu featured smoked Alaska Togiak herring, Haines coonstripe shrimp, Oysters from Southeast Alaska, and of course Copper River sockeye and Copper River king salmon. Each dish paid homage to the rich diversity of bountiful Alaska seafood.
Oysters topped with a spruce tip and chive blossom mignonette invited Supper guests to the table for what promised to be a memorable meal. Chef Antonitsas masterfully combined sea buckthorn berries, cucumber, chili, and a deep fruity olive oil with sockeye salmon for an exciting tartare course served with fresh brown bread from the hearth of local Cordova culinarian, Diane Wiese. Coonstripe shrimp have seafoam green blue roe. It made for a stunning and textural garnish on Antonitsas’s roasted vegetable shrimp risotto. As the chef’s guests experienced this edible tour of coastal Alaska, a 40-pound Copper River king salmon roasted slowly over an open fire on the banks of the very river from which it originated. Wild mushrooms, onions agrodolce, and hazelnut picada were served to highlight and set off this gorgeous king.
The ambiance was one of intentional conversation and connectivity. With each course, family style platters were passed; strangers became acquaintances. Throughout the evening guests approached Chef Antonitsas's outdoor kitchen to sneak a peek at the next course and glean cooking insight via friendly chat. As the midsummer sun dipped lower on the skyline, the conversations became more intimate as the acquaintances, now friends, shared this unique meal. Like a curtain descending on the evening, a bank of dense fog edged its way toward the al fresco dining room. Guests made their reluctant good-byes, tables were cleared, and like a dream, the Cordova Secret Supper became part of a collective consciousness.
