BRENTHOVEN'S RESTAURANT

These fingers make beautiful music and food.

Although dinner at Brenthoven’s nestled in the pines at the Nordic Inn near Alpine Junction, is wonderful any night of the week, Sunday evenings are very special nights. The late dinner seating takes place at the early hour of 7:30 p.m., because an hour later the owner and chef, Brent Johnston, takes off his cook’s coat, walks to the gazebo on the front lawn and sits at his baby grand piano. For the next hour and a half, Brent and three fellow musicians on sax, bass and drums play light jazz to entertain patrons finishing dinner on the terrace and others who arrive to dance or just listen while they have a cocktail.

Imagine looking out over Greys River, dancing under the stars. "Last Sunday, Venus, large and brilliant, came out at 9 0’clock," Brent said, describing the first musical Sunday of the summer. "It was unbelievable, …like one of those Tuscan blue skies, with the pine trees … no place on Earth like it."

Brent is one of the most colorful chefs I’ve ever met. He successfully pursues two careers simultaneously. For him, food and music have always gone together. "The two are really very much alike," he said. "They involve color, feelings … you are working with peoples comfort areas, their stomach and their emotions. Food is very comforting, just like music." For Brent, it is a spiritual and beautiful process to combine his two great loves.

Fifteen years ago, Brent brought his talents together when he opened Brenthoven’s in partnership with Nordic Inn owners Michael and Ann Clinger. From Memorial Day through mid-October, Brent works every day, cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner. November and December find him either in New York studying with his teacher and performing at occasional concerts, or recording CD’s at Bill Hungate’s Llamingo Productions studio in Jackson Hole. Finally, in January, Brent can slow down and relax. He spends the winters in Queenstown, New Zealand, enjoying the outdoors, hiking, writing music and occasionally performing in clubs and concerts.

Although Brent’s parents and grandmother began teaching him how to cook when he was a young boy, music was his first passion. "I always wanted to be a musician from the time I was 6 years old," he said. "It was because of my music that I learned how to cook."

Goin "out on the road" in 1966 at the age of 21, he discovered that additional means of support were necessary. "Back in those days you just traveled and played and did whatever you could," he said. Playing the circuits and performing in club show at Marriott and Sheraton hotels, Brent would supplement his income by helping out in the kitchens. It was also a great way to eat well.

Though out his early musical career, Brent had several opportunities to learn to cook professionally. Performing with the USO, traveling extensively during seven world tours, he was exposed to all types of international cuisine. "Being a kid, coming out of Utah, I never saw food like that," he said. He would meet other musicians who also cooked in restaurants; they would get together and exchange ideas.

It was during one of his USO tours when Brent acquired his nickname. On tour with him was a comedienne Martha Raye. Having trouble remembering his name, she mentally connected him with Beethoven and dubbed him Brenthoven.

One of his best cooking lessons happened many years ago while he was stranded in Elko, Nev., for five weeks due to car trouble. Brent wandered out of town and found an old truck stop with a help wanted sign. Needing money to get his car fixed, he took the job. "We’d fry steak, hamburgers and fries and shove them through a window into the dining room for the truckers," he said. After we were done, Mr. White would say, ‘Now we’re going to make ourselves a real meal.’" Mr. White, a well-trained chef from Washington, D.C., taught Brent classic cooking techniques and how to be organized in a kitchen.

In light of Brent’s debut at Carnegie Hall in 1990 as a concert pianist, a person might ask, "How did he find his way to Alpine, Wyoming-" Like many of us, Brent loved to visit the Star Valley Area. In 1985, he was invited to play piano at the Nordic Inn for a Mother’s Day brunch. After a particularly enjoyable visit, he decided to stay. Brent first went to work for Western Wyoming College, teaching piano to students in Star Valley and parts of Idaho through the Rock Springs extension and outreach program. Then in 1987, he opened Brenthoven’s.

Brenthoven’s is an intimate charming restaurant that offers delectable cuisine at very reasonable prices. Its wine list is reasonably priced as well. With entrees such as Icelandic cod filet stuffed with crab and baked in a parmesan sauce, grilled chicken breasts draped with fresh plum sauce, crepes filled with shrimp and scallops in hollandaise, or ribeye steaks grilled with red wine, to name a few, there is something for everyone. Brenthoven’s signature dessert is a rich, yummy bread pudding.

Christine Goodman is a caterer and author of the cookbook, "A Taste of Jackson Hole II.