Summary: Hidden Kitchens explores the world of Basque sheepherders in the American west and their outdoor, underground, one man, 2,000 sheep, two dog cooking traditions. Basques have been well known as sheepherders in the United States from as early as the 1850s. When there was a shortage of shepherds in the 1950s Basques were recruited from Spain and France to tend sheep throughout the western states. Within days of arriving in America these men, with little or no sheepherding background, found themselves working alone, with two dogs and 2,000 sheep, sleeping in canvas tents, walking hundreds of miles across the mountains, in search of food and pasture. They cooked underground using Dutch ovens to bake bread and stew lamb, or ate at boarding houses that popped up along the sheepherding trail. And in Boise, once a year, they feasted on chorizo and broad bean stew, while dancing to the Jota, at the Sheepherders' Ball.
