So many special things are fleeting. That rare total eclipse or that once-in-a-lifetime trip to a faraway land. One of them is the Campfire Jamboree, a three-day annual food gathering that takes place in the woods of Wisconsin. There, with historic Camp Wandawega as the backdrop, award-winning chefs put on one of the coolest culinary affairs in America.
It’s just a few short days, but memorable ones at that. Picture outdoor school but for grown-up foodies. There’s a lake to swim in, archery to be done, and forest to explore and while there is a mess hall, it’s not just cafeteria grub. Here, some of the best chefs in the game prepare incredible meals paired up with exciting wines. It’s a bucket list culinary event if there ever was one.
While the 1920s-era boy scout camp remains the constant setting, the lineup changes a bit year to year. The founders assemble a different cast of characters, all esteemed names in the culinary realm. This year, the likes of Bailey Sullivan and Dan Jacobs are in the mix, among others. The former works at Monteverde and competing on this season of Top Chef. The latter operates at DanDan in Milwaukee and is a six-tie James Beard Award semifinalist for the Midwest region.
Jim Snediker is the co-founder of the Jamboree and also Stock Mfg., a Chicago-based uniform company that hosts the event. He says the gathering started small in scale.”Back in 2019 we were planning a collaboration with Manion, who had been wearing our apparel for a few years at this point,” he says.
“The product was a raw denim chef shirt, durable enough to work around high heat and open flames, but still stylish. In a marketing brainstorm, we threw out the idea of an even where John cooked live over a fire. The planning kept getting bigger and bigger, until we ended up with five more chefs cooking and three days at Camp Wandawega,” he says. “We also completely forgot to photograph or market the chef shirts.”
The collaboration
“It’s always been important, but COVID really solidified a sense of community and strengthened bonds between chefs,” says John Manion of collaboration. He’s the guy cooking over the fire during the event and also the Jamboree’s culinary director. He also runs Brasero and El Che Steakhouse & Bar in Chicago. “There’s a sense that we’re in this together which is really comforting in an industry that is constantly taking it from all sides,” he says.
For Snediker, there’s a strength in numbers effect involved. “Strictly speaking as a consumer, it’s the excitement,” he says. “It’s always fun to see talented folks you admire work together on some bigger than themselves—whatever medium it happens to be in.”
The menu is on the hush-hush until the actual event. Being the Midwest, with protein-loving chefs involved, there tends to be some steak and various grilled meats on the table. Items are cooked over an open flame outside, which actually proves to be quite therapeutic for the chefs at hand. They’re so used to commercial kitchens and the pressures tied to traditional restaurant work. Here, they can move at a more unhurried pace, chatting it up with other chefs or diners. Details are often sorted out there and dishes are dreamed up on the fly. It’s a testing ground of sorts, with extremely delicious, sometimes formative results.
“Beverages will be consumed, stories will be told, friendships will be forged and there will be a lot of memories made,” Manion says. “That said, I’ve had meals at Wandawega that were absolute previews of acclaimed restaurants, which is pretty, pretty cool.”
The cool factor
Snediker paints a lovely picture of the scene. “You’re waiting in line, cafeteria style, to serve yourself food cooked right in front of you by some of the best chefs in the world,” he says. “You’re going to sit at antique picnic tables, surrounded by the Wisconsin woods, chatting up a group of folks comprised almost exclusively of some of our favorite people in the hospitality industry. There’s no ticket, no line to wait in, and no real analog to it that we are aware of happening right now. It’s a truly special experience, and we’re lucky we’ve gotten to do this for the last several years.”
The Campfire Jamboree checks all of the attractive boxes, from outdoor eating and gathering and exploring nature to feasting on world-class food and embedding oneself in a wild retreat for days at a time. It remains mostly unknown outside of cooking circles, a gathering that has every reason to be huge but is cool at least in part because it remains something of a secret. Manion has an apt analogy for the experience at large.
“You know how people talk about being at the first (insert your favorite band here) show in your city, or talk about that one meal at a restaurant that’s long gone, or a diminished version of itself?” he asks. “Magic happens. Not very often, and if you’re lucky enough to witness it, the occasion will inform the rest of your days. That’s the kind of thing we’re trying to achieve under the stars at Wandawega. Sometimes we get there.”
