A canoe trip on Montana’s Wild and Scenic Missouri River is an unlikely place to be introduced to spice blends such as harissa and dukkah. But it was my good fortune to share this adventure a few years back with Ray and Susie Risho. Each evening on our Ports of Call trip, Ray not only prepared our evening meals, but he demonstrated the hows and whys of meal prep using spices from places such as North Africa, Ethiopia, and Morocco.

The Risho family has been spicing up the Missoula food scene for over 50 years. It started when Ray and Susie opened Emmaus Road, a church-run eatery, in the early 1970s. The duo would then open a second restaurant, the Northern Pacific. In 1995, the couple and their sons, Sam and Abe, opened Perugia Old World Cooking. The boys gained a wealth of experience in the food industry, from washing dishes, waiting tables, food preparation, and along the way, obtaining the skills needed to execute and manage a restaurant and catering business. Ray’s worldly travels over the years focused on studying worldwide cuisine in places such as Yemen and South Korea. In his lifetime, he has presented more than 100 teaching dinners and cooking demonstrations based on what he has gleaned from his international explorations.

Abe and Sam, along with Sam’s wife Elise, moved on to open a fourth restaurant in Missoula in 2009, The Silk Road. Their menu featured tapas-style dishes reflecting global flavors. At the same time, the family was developing marketable spice blends that were proving to be very lucrative. They opted to retire the restaurant in 2016 and concentrate on their catering and spice business. Today, The Silk Road offers 10 varieties of spices, sold in colorful 2 oz. tins, each with a quick and easy recipe on the back. The spice blends are the product of Ray’s incredible knowledge of world flavors. All blends are 100% natural, non-GMO, contain no salt or sugar, and are gluten-free and vegan. The family buys their spices as whole seeds, then roasts and grinds them at a local facility in Ronan before being packaged in Missoula.

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For those seeking not only a food adventure but a fantastic river excursion, Lewis and Clark Trail Adventures (trailadventures.com/) out of Missoula is making plans for a Wild and Scenic Missouri River Culinary adventure with Abe Risho in the summer of 2023. This will be a magical canoe ride with guaranteed good eats enjoyed in Montana’s jaw-dropping scenery!