Lockhart bringing stately cuisine home to Marcus, Combining old and new at the cooking school, Surprise staples from her time out west
By: Madeline Combs, Cherokee Chronicle Times
Teresa Lockhart – or Teresa Kauffman as many in town still remember her – says she never enjoyed cooking. But she kept coming back to it.
Her on and off cooking journey has spanned many decades and states but eventually brought her back to her hometown of Marcus.
Lockhart, the oldest of four kids, moved away after graduating from Marcus High School in 1969. She began cooking for mine exploration teams in Nevada and eventually managing potluck dinners at the RV park she and her husband owned in Washington state.
After 50 years she returned to Marcus and began cooking again for farmers during harvest season.
She will soon present some of her favorite dishes from her time in different states as this year’s presenter at the Marcus Fair Cooking School.
“This is the first time I’m preparing a whole meal, they usually don’t do a whole meal,” Lockhart said of the cooking school program. “They usually pick out a theme, like a picnic theme, and do random picnic dishes. I am actually having a meal.”
She said that she also wanted her dishes to be completely unique and avoid any repeats of past dishes. While curating her menu and recipes for the fair cookbook, she spent time studying previous fair cookbooks.
“There are a lot of good cooks in Marcus on farms and what have you. I wanted to look at the cookbook because I didn’t want any repeats,” Lockhart said. “What I’m doing this year is completely different than what they usually do.”
She’s calling her cooking school demonstration ‘Travels with Terry, aka, Teresa Kauffman Lockhart.’
Her exact dishes will remain a secret until she presents them at the fair, but hints that each of the four items she is preparing will bring something new and even something old to attendees.
She will also have a wine pairing with each item using varieties sold at Jeff’s Foods in Marcus.
Her first dish will represent her time living in northern Nevada where her husband began working in the mining industry. The dish is inspired by the large population of people from the Basque region in northern Spain who flocked to Nevada during the gold rush in the 19th century.
Lockhart’s main course is one people may already be familiar with. In January, she was selected to appear on ‘In the Kitchen with Jacob’ on channel four. The dish was one she originally made as a harvest cook for local farmers and represents her ties to Iowa.
Once she moved back to Marcus in 2022 following her retirement and the death of her husband, Lockhart asked around to find farmers who wanted a field cook during harvest season.
“And I thought, ‘you know what? Maybe this is what I need to do,’” she said.
Steve Hueser of Marcus was one of the first farmers she cooked for. When she asked if any other farmers in the area would like a field cook, he asked her to keep cooking for him and his team.
She has been a field cook for him for three years.
“Sometimes I do one meal a day, sometimes I do two meals a day and I take it out to the farm, into the field or wherever he needs me to go,” she said.
One of her two final dishes – both desserts – originated during her time feeding farmers. She said she was asked by a young farmer if she knew how to make a type of cake that his grandma would make frequently.
“Everything old is new again. A lot of people have never heard of it, much less made it,” she said of the first dessert.
Her other dessert and final dish will represent her time living in Washington state with a recipe from the British Columbia, Canada town Nanaimo.
Lockhart said her menu was her attempt to show the Marcus community the variety of cuisine and cultures that exist beyond the small town of 1,060 people.
“I just want to let people know that there’s other things out there,” she said.
She further explained that presenting dishes at the cooking school has always been an item on her bucket list.
“It’s one of the things that I want to know I can do,” she said. “I did the TV thing just to justify my wanting to be the fair demonstrator this year.”
So when she expressed the desire to demonstrate at this year’s fair, her wish was granted.
She believes that, even though she may have left Marcus, her Marcus roots never left her.
“You can come home and still be sociable.”
Lockhart will be joined by her sister, Nancy Clark, to assist with her cooking school demonstration on Aug. 10 at noon in the Hall of Progress.