STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

The man hawking boar and elk sausage had an ulterior motive for encouraging people to eat more boar.

The wild boar that run roughshod over Texas are pests, he said. Brought to Texas by Spanish explorers 200 years ago, there are now between 1.5 and 2 million of these feral hogs running through the Lone Star State and they cause up to a billion dollars’ worth of crop damage and even equipment damage each year.

“The more we eat, the better we are,” said the distributor for Broadleaf. “Mix them up with a little jalapeno and they make good sausage.”

Up to 300 people got exposed to everything from boar to yellowfin tuna during the third annual Apres Ski Tasting put on by the third annual Sun Valley Food & Wine Celebration at the Limelight Hotel. The week-long celebration is organized by the Sun Valley Culinary Institute to raise scholarship money for its students.

James Beard Award-winning chefs brought to Sun Valley for the week-long celebration hobnobbed with guests, while the guests sampled everything from Chef Ethan Stowell’s Rigatoni Cacio de Pepe Pecorino Romano and Parmagiano to Chef Jonathon Sawyer’s Blue Chip Chop Salad made with Ahi Tuna, Hawaiian Kanpachi and King Crab.

Third-generation Idahoan Chase Shoemaker served up tender bison steaks from his Shoemaker Bison Ranch in New Plymouth, Id., near the Idaho-Oregon border. His family has been raising bison since 1980 when his father Dan began importing bison from Canada and Wyoming as he transitioned from beef cattle.

“We have 450 bison now and they’re easy to take care of,” said Chase Shoemaker. “We rotate them through the pastures and they don’t mind snow and cold. We can do anything with them because they’re so used to us. And the health benefits are numerous—they’re high protein, low fat, rich in iron, zinc and vitamin B12 with all 20 amino acids that humans need, including omega-3 fatty acids and linoleic acid, which has anti-inflammatory properties.”

Chefs Britt Rescigno and Kindsey Leodler, who plan to open a new Fiamma Restaurant in Ketchum, took advantage of both the boar and bison in preparing a Lumache Bolognese with Wild Boar and Ground Bison.

Meanwhile, James Beard Award winner and Iron Chef champion Chef Vitaly Paley reveled in the fact that he was in Sun Valley, even as it was starting to snow. Back home in Kona, Hawaii, he said, the wind was blowing 65 miles per hour and it was raining three inches an hour—enough to cause flooding.

“It’s the Pineapple Express and it’s headed to Sun Valley!” said the Belarus native who recently moved from his longtime home in Portland, Ore., to Kona. “In the meantime, we’re offering tropical fish in the snow here at this Apres Ski Tasting.”

That tropical fish he was talking about was yellowfin tuna, a fish that is indigenous to the waters of Hawaii. The males chase the females around a big tank at 40 miles per hour, he said. And their fertilized eggs rise to the top.

Paley marinated his yellowfin steaks with a North African Chermoula marinade made of such ingredients as cilantro, parsley, garlic, cumin seeds, sweet paprika and coriander seeds. Then he topped the steak with a yogurt garlic sauce.

“We stuff it with French fries and, in this case, potato chips for crunch. I squeeze a little lemon from my garden. And we top it with a yogurt garlic sauce.”

Food Network star Crista Luedtke came to the celebration from California where she is chef at Boon Eat + Drink. She started her cooking career at 5, standing on a milk crate in her family’s pub in West Bend, Wis., where she helped her mother make burgers and brats. She named her California restaurant after Boon, her rescue pit bull whose name, she said, means “gift” or “blessing.”

At the Food and Wine Celebration, she teamed up with Alabama Chef Kelsey Barnard Clark, author of “Southern Grit.” And together they concocted a so-called West Coast Crab Salad with Southern Charm.

It included apple salsa verde, pickled mustard seeds and caviar.

“It’s important to really support small local farms. The quality of produce, meat cheese so much better,” she said. “But, of course, with it comes a price to pay.”

Caitlin Holesinsky hawked Holesinsky Vineyard and Winery’s organically grown Ghost Stallion Merlot named for a legendary ghost stallion and his phantom herd said to descend from the sky to help farmers in need. And she offered samples of the winery’s new IdaWater, which she said “comes from an ancient geothermal aquifer 20 miles deep in the earth between Pine and Featherville to your mouth.”

“We grew barley on our 200 acres near Buhl last year and next year we plan to grow potatoes as we get into the business of distilling vodka,” she said.

Chef Kevin Cryan showed off a Big Eye Ahi Poke made with Mango Salsa and Avocado Mousse. And Judith McQueen added a sweet touch to the tastings with her Sticky Date Pudding with Warm Toffee Sauce, a smooth delicious dessert with stick-to-it qualities.

“There’s a lot here,” said Patty Lockhart. “I love how the whole Food and Wine Celebration has grown. It’s amazing.”

Phil and Sheri Johnnie and Jena and Bill Vasconcellos found a little corner to compare notes about the dishes they were tasting.

“I’m impressed with the amount and numbers—it’s so fun to see the variety,” said Johnnie. “So fun,” added Vasconcellos. “I don’t know if I will remember the names of the chefs and their restaurants tomorrow but what a treat.”