Cory and Tim are the homestead cooks. Cory is from South Minneapolis and Tim is from Duluth, Minnesota. In addition to the regular dinner crowd (four expedition members and the seven or eight homestead and expedition staff), we sometimes have groups of volunteers and media as guests for dinner. Sometimes Cory and Tim cook for as many as fifty people at once!

Cory has worked as a chef in several different restaurants. He says he likes working at the Homestead because it combines his two favorite things: cooking and winter camping. Some aspects of cooking at the homestead are quite different from cooking at a restaurant in the city. For example, when Cory wants to get vegetables, he doesn’t just reach into the refrigerator -- he walks outside through the snow to the root cellar. On a few really cold days, the well freezes and water has to be hauled up in big barrels from the lake.

Tim says that it's not very difficult as a homestead cook to make people happy; they always work hard during the day, so in the evening they are hungry and thankful for food. Several of the expedition members are also trying to put on weight before leaving for the Arctic, so they eat whatever is cooked. If they are too skinny, it may be hard for them to stay warm at really cold temperatures.