via Shore Lunch
There are a few things I do only for the food. I run to keep the cheeseburgers in my life, I will golf as long as there's a bar cart, sportsball finals are just for wings, and let's be honest, I only brave 250K+ people on the second Saturday of the State Fair because maybe I need one more Netterfield's griddled bologna sandwich. So, while I really kinda detest fishing, I would hang with Nate P. for the lunch, but also the catch. And maybe, the jorts.
Shore Lunch is a YouTube series that started during the pandemic. Nate Pischke and Erik Sudheimer thought it would be a fun little project to film an outdoor fishing and cooking show, which has now been running for two years. It happily breaks fishing and cooking show rules on the reg. Nate coaches you through all the fishing tech, tells you where he is and how to get that fish, and he's very much a man-of-the-people fisher guy in crocs, jorts, and a Black Lives Matter shirt. As for cooking, his cheffing pedigree goes not much further than Taco Bell. These are all the reasons why I would ever watch a fishing show. So I took a deep swim in the waters, and not only did I learn some cool outdoor cooking ideas, but I now know what a tip-up is, can't stop saying "wormski", and felt like I would invite Nate and Eric over for beers. So I thought we should chat.
First of all, I thought this was going to be a catch and cook thing, but no?
When we started to think about the kind of show we would do, we wanted it to be different than the extreme white guy fishing show, to be more inclusive, one that could give more tutelage on how to fish anywhere. And the thing was, we would never, ever cook what we caught, it would be catch and release. I mean, I eat plenty of fish, but we got a great response from people on the internet happy about the catch and release. So here we are.
I'm always looking for knowledge on where and how to fish, and lots of shows on the internet won't tell you exactly what they're using, or they may hint about the body of water they're on, but they don't tell you WHY they're fishing that spot. Maybe they're being protective, I don't know. We just hope that everybody learns something and goes out to fish.
So why not just make a fishing show?
I love to cook, but I'm not trained at all, like my biggest food job was Taco Bell. But when I go on fishing trips with friends, everybody makes a big deal about making something fun and elevated, and we wanted to show that hey you can make spaghetti carbonara outside and it's not super difficult. You don't have to be afraid to try new things and maybe people will see this and learn that cooking isn't a daunting beast.
How did it end up that you invited Doug Flicker, one of the best chefs in town, to come cook with you on the show?
Oh man, I was super, super nervous.
I sell beer for Fulton, so I'm in Bull's Horn a lot. We partnered up on a party for Nokomis Days and Doug's wife Amy Greeley said they love Shore Lunch, and that I should have Doug on the show sometime. I was like HELL yes.
He was such a nice dude. I've been nervous about what real people who can cook think about the show, like when they see me hacking shit sometimes. But he was really nice and maybe I'll even say: gentle?
Who else do you hope to bring on the show?
Well, we only have one microphone. It's been a bit of a roadblock. But now we have access to another one, so double the microphones! What we'd like to do is bring on a woman of color who fishes, who can maybe teach a new fishing technique?
Who's your dream guest on the shore?
Chris Isaak. I've been sliding into Chris Isaak's DMs on Instagram, but he's not responded.
[You're going to have to watch some episodes to reeeallllly understand that one.]
What has been your favorite meal that you've made on the show?
On the north shore we made these Minnesota hot brown sandwiches, those were very good. So, my wife Jessica is our culinary director, she actually does know how to cook very well. We often work on recipes together, and then I don't listen to what she says, and eventually screw things up. But for this one, I was going to take pounded out turkey cutlets, and she said it's never going to work. And it worked out SO WELL.
We did a winter episode where we did a duck confit on the ice. That actually came from something I bring along on ice fishing trips. I'll make it at home before, and bring the Dutch oven with duck legs submerged in the fat, and just fry them up. And then if you're doing shore lunch you can just fry your walleye in the duck fat, that's very delicious.
What's the ultimate goal, are you headed into Babe Winkleman status as a YouTube star?
We have a goal, it's to film an episode on the fjords of Norway. It's been our goal since we started. But we'd love to just keep doing this, keep having fun with it. It's still just a very fun, creative thing to work on.
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Nate is clearly the personality on the show, but Eric's editing makes the magic. They'll take your Patreon loyalty or feel free to sponsor the Fork Cam. Nate asked me one question at the end of our chat: Who should he ask to be on the show? I said he should call Yia Vang who can hold his own in front of a camera and has mad outdoor cooking skills, maybe my friend Paul who is a fly guy, and I think he should take chef Nettie Colon out on the ice because she can light all the good fires.
