If you think it’s cold on the peninsula this time of year, you should try it up on the North Slope.
That’s where Soldotna chef Todd Ritter is based this winter, three weeks at a time. He’s working as a head baker.
“I just stay inside," he said. "I go outside every now and then and my nose hairs will literally freeze in like, 10 seconds. Through my mask.”
But his kitchen is warm. Ritter’s baking and cooking breakfasts for workers employed with Doyon Drilling. He’s at a small camp, with about 30 people.
“And then they need a whole commissary of ready-to-make foods and baked goods that they can just grab and go out to work with," he said.
Ritter bakes pumpkin cinnamon rolls, homemade hot pockets and apple fritter French toast. He’s serving a hungry crew.
“Yeah, it’s hilarious. They’ll come up and grab like an M&M Rice Krispies treat. And they’ll just be like, ‘Thanks, brother. That’s a good Rice Krispies treat,'" he said, laughing.
He lives in a dorm-like room at the camp. Employees are tested for COVID-19 every week and before they fly up.
Ritter is actually trained to work in the industry, as an oil worker. His degree is in process technology and instrumentation from Kenai Peninsula College but he went the culinary route instead, building breweries in Alaska and cooking around the country.
Like other oil jobs, his current gig pays well and has good benefits. There are chefs up there from all over the country, who have worked in New York and Las Vegas, Ritter said.
Later this year, Ritter’s opening a sushi restaurant in Kenai, in the same building as Kenai Kombucha. It will be called “Arasuka,” which means “Alaska” in Japanese.
“The remodel’s almost done on the place and it’s looking kind of snazzy," he said.
He also has a catering business, Alaskan Roots Catering. He says being up on the Slope and having long days in the kitchen has given him time to think. And sleep.
“I sleep really good," he said.
Soon, he’ll be switching into another role on the Slope, as a head chef. While his current gig is about the meat and potatoes, he says that job will give him more freedom to be creative and do the kind of cooking he loves.
