Two Mackinac Island chefs find inspiration in locally sourced farm-fresh produce and artisanal goods—it’s just a matter of getting them across the Straits. Here’s how Mackinac Island chefs Michael Cerrie of Grand Hotel and Randall Cox of Mission Point Resort are crafting thoughtful dishes that embrace Michigan foods and local island history.

In peak season, freight ferries from St. Ignace arrive at island docks six days a week around 6 or 7 a.m., each loaded with bushels of vegetables and fruits, pallets stacked with packaged foods and refrigerated meats and seafood, ready to be hauled by horsedrawn drays to the expansive kitchens of Mackinac Island’s two biggest hotels: Grand Hotel and Mission Point Resort.

Increasingly, the variety of food products—destined to feed thousands of people every day during the high season—bear the stamp of Michigan-made, arriving fresh from a host of local farms, fishmongers, bakeries and other food purveyors from across both peninsulas.

Look closely and you’ll discover greens, heirloom tomatoes and other vegetables from a small farm near Alpena. Whitefish and trout from fisheries in the Upper Peninsula. Ethically-raised chickens from an Amish farm near Cadillac. Dearborn Brand hot dogs. Maple syrup tapped from Michigan trees. Jams and jellies made from Michigan berries.

The list goes on …

Horses on Mackinac Island

Photo by Andy Wakeman

It’s part of a growing movement called farm-to-ferry, a term coined by Liz Ware, whose family owns Mission Point Resort, and is being heartily embraced by both hotels for their extensive food operations. It’s not only about supporting Michigan farmers but also about bringing the freshest ingredients to the table within just a day or two of being picked.

“You hear so much about farm to table,” Ware says. “But before you can set your table here on Mackinac Island, you have to get the food to the ferry. It’s meant to be fun. Mackinac Island is fun.”

Coincidentally, both Grand Hotel and Mission Point Resort have new chefs at the helm of their kitchens this year, a rare occurrence in their storied histories. But not coincidentally, they are both committed to ensuring local foods are a big part of their menus. Chef Michael Cerrie arrived at the Grand last spring. He replaces Hans Burtscher, who served as the hotel’s executive chef for three decades. Cerrie’s appointment came shortly after the iconic hotel was sold to a private equity firm by long-time stewards, the Musser family. On the other side of the island, Chef Randall Cox arrived at Mission Point Resort this past winter. As executive chef, Cox oversees the resort’s four restaurants and banquet services. Like Cerrie, Cox comes to the island with impressive culinary chops.

Horses carrying fresh produce on Mackinac Island

Photo by Andy Wakeman

Meet Grand Hotel Chef Michael Cerrie

Even before arriving at the Grand, Cerrie experienced an aha moment about Michigan’s bounty. The stay-at-home orders last spring meant he had to hang out near Okemos, where the Grand’s sales offices are located. While hiking with his miniature English bull terrier at a nature center outside Lansing, Cerrie was overwhelmed by the aroma of fresh garlic and green onions permeating the chilly air of the still-awakening forest.

“I couldn’t figure out what it was,” recalls Cerrie, who has a penchant for cooking with foraged foods. “I wondered if it was wild onions or wild leeks, and then I noticed the entire forest floor was covered with ramps (also known as wild leeks). I had never seen anything like it, and I hike a lot. I thought, ‘Here’s a welcome to Michigan and look at the bounty the state has to offer.’”

Unloading boxes on Mackinac Island

Photo by Andy Wakeman

Before landing at the Grand, Cerrie served as an executive chef for a hotel management company, helping open and run hotel restaurants across the country, including the Aloft and Element Austin Downtown in Texas. Trained at the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute in Pittsburgh, Cerrie’s résumé also includes stints at the Erie Club and Erie’s acclaimed Bayfront Grill, part of the same company.

Cerrie has embraced Michigan’s bounty, and now living on the island, he leaves when he can to visit local farmers and food purveyors and secure relationships to supply the hotel’s vast needs. And vast they are: In the summer, the Grand feeds thousands of visitors—and its employees—each day. “We’re sourcing as much as we can from Michigan and the region,” he says, adding that the region, for him, includes neighboring Great Lakes states and southern Canada. “In some cases, we have to bring in something from somewhere else. Sometimes it’s a question of something better or a better application. Quality is paramount.”

Responsible for menu planning and preparation at all six Grand Hotel restaurants and other food operations, Cerrie has revamped dining selections across the board, from the Main Dining Room to the Jockey Club at the Grand Stand to the Fort Mackinac Tea Room. Many of the changes have been made with substitutions that highlight or include Michigan food products.

For instance, the beef goulash, a popular long-time menu entrée at Woods Restaurant, has been upgraded with higher quality Michigan beef short ribs from Detroit’s Eastern Market. Cerrie also touched up the plating to make it more contemporary. The lobster claw macaroni and cheese has been given the same treatment—the pasta now comes fresh- made from a Michigan producer and not from the shelves of a bulk food distributor.

“When we look at making changes, they have to make sense. Some things are never going to go away, like the Grand Pecan Ball,” he says, noting the hotel now solely uses Michigan’s Hudsonville Ice Cream for the popular dessert and all recipes with ice cream.

Grand hotel dining area

Photo by Andy Wakeman

“The biggest thing I’ve noticed about Michigan is the abundance of farms and ranches and different artisans making everything from jam to cheese,” says Cerrie, who is 40 and grew up on the shores of another Great Lake, Erie, in Pennsylvania. Cerrie had never been to Mackinac Island before his appointment and has primarily worked in urban areas.

“I had heard of Mackinac through friends but only knew it as that place with the horses and no cars,” he recalls, laughing and adding his impressions. “It’s really a throwback in time with all the Victorian-era buildings. Nature is so present and there is this overall calmness.”

In his search for the best chicken, he discovered the Amish-run Double L Farms in McBain, near Cadillac. Owners Lavern and Linda Miller raise their free-range chickens without preservatives, hormones or additives. The feeding practices are 100 percent GMO-free.

“I’ve had my share of farm trips, but I’ve never seen a more meticulous, clean farm in my life,” Cerrie says. “All the feed they use is grown in Michigan. The Millers do so many things right … it’s the best chicken I’ve ever had.”

The hotel also has procured jams and jellies from an Amish producer. Bacon comes from Plath’s Meats in Petoskey. One hundred percent of the hotel’s bread comes from Michigan Bread, a wholesale baker and distributor from a Detroit suburb. That includes dinner rolls, hamburger buns, slider buns and sliced toast.

“Any breads we don’t produce, Michigan Bread provides,” Cerrie says. “Most hotels our size use frozen bread. It’s very difficult to produce that amount of bread for a hotel this size.”

All of the Grand’s fish arrives fresh by ferry from the Massey Fish Co. in St. Ignace. The Native American-owned company catches fish daily in the Straits. The Grand’s selection includes whitefish and lake trout.

“I’ve been to two of the largest fish operations in the United States and I’ve never seen anyone take care of their operations like Massey,” he says. “It’s immaculately clean. I’m proud to sell their fish.”

Cerrie, known for his friendly demeanor and often interacting with guests, concedes the Grand’s menus have long contained Michigan items but never to the extent he has managed to achieve in a year or so. The changes, though deliberate, are made with recognition of the hotel’s history and its connection to generations of Michigan families.

At the Grand’s Gate House, the Trapper Burger, long a guest favorite, has been upgraded with beef from a butcher at Detroit’s Eastern Market, bacon from Plath’s Meats in Petoskey and a Michigan-baked bun. He also added a new burger, the Yooper, made with the same beef, cheese from a Michigan company and fresh produce, when possible. It’s now outselling the Trapper.

“I’m very cognizant of what Grand Hotel is for many generations of people. It means so much to so many,” says Cerrie, who has become familiar with the island through his daily walks with his dog and hikes around the fort. “How do we keep those traditions and never bastardize them? How do we elevate the experience? My palette is food. It was time to lighten some of the offerings and to showcase the region. How do we do that for the next generation?”

Chef's dish on Mackinac Island

Photo by Andy Wakeman

Meet Mission Point Resort Chef Randall Cox 

The island’s farm-to-ferry effort traces its beginnings to Mission Point Resort, a decades-old hotel complex that was purchased by the Ware family in 2014.

“My parents always knew they wanted to grow the food culture here,” Liz Ware recalls. “Mackinac Island is not known as a food destination like Traverse City. We’re known for fudge. But we are an island where families gather and they often gather for meals. My parents saw an opportunity to create a culinary destination in Michigan with our restaurants.”

It’s been a slow rollout. Initially, a former executive chef and his staff solidified the family’s vision of farm to ferry, bringing a cornucopia of Michigan fruits, vegetables and other products to Mission Point. Local dried cherries were added to the chicken salad. Thick cuts of bacon from Petoskey’s Plath’s Meats topped burgers. That chef also nurtured relationships with local farmers to secure lettuce blends, greens and herbs, as well as other ingredients such as buttermilk, heavy cream and maple syrup.

Chef on Mackinac Island

Photo by Andy Wakeman

Chefs looking at local produce

Photo by Andy Wakeman

“We just got started and then that chef took another job,” Ware recalls. “Finding the right fit to make farm to ferry happen consistently has taken time. We’ve had our challenges, including COVID and other stuff. But now we’re ready to roll, to make this happen. When you take the time to do it right, it all works out.”
Helping Mission Point make it all work out is Cox, whose culinary career began at the former Ritz Carlton in Dearborn, where he grew up. Cox was living in Oklahoma before moving back to Michigan, and he recently served as executive chef for a 450-room Hilton resort on another island—Barbados.
In just a few months of directing food and beverage operations at Mission Point, Cox has already established relationships with local farms, including Presque Isle Farm near Alpena. From Presque Isle Farm, Mission Point secures microgreens, lettuce mixes, baby kale, heirloom tomatoes and herbs—ingredients that show up in salad selections, burger and sandwich toppings and garnishes.
That relationship with Mission Point means more work for Presque Isle Farm, but is welcomed, says owner Molly Stepanski, who was impressed Chef Cox had visited the 40-acre property to learn about their operations. The contract with Mission Point will enable Molly and her husband, Dion, to hire full-time employees to help with their growing enterprise.
“We love having chefs out here,” says Stepanski, who makes the trek to St. Ignace early every Thursday morning to deliver produce, picked and boxed a day or two before. “It shows a real investment in what they’re serving their guests and the quality of the food. We’re really excited … we have been wanting to bring on full-time employees but didn’t have the ability to do so. Accounts like this make that possible for us.”
Cox calls the relationship a “win-win,” further bolstering his goal to bring in as many Michigan products as possible and to have that bounty be reflective of the seasons. “I want to embrace the seasons and seasonality of foods and apply that to our menus in a way that will excite our guests. We want them to be excited about eating here.”
Ferry on Mackinac Island

Photo by Andy Wakeman

His seasonal wish-list includes cherries, apples, different flavors of honey, wild and cultivated mushrooms, nuts, ramps, onions, tomatoes, beef and wild game.

“For me it’s about having a true partnership with farmers,” says Cox, who is 52 and explores the island on evening walks with his wife. “A generic tomato is not what I want. I want that heirloom tomato from a farm with no pesticides, that is organically grown, that has unbelievable natural flavors. It’s the same with lettuce. I want great hardy greens that are fresh and will last for several days and not break down and turn to mush as happens when you’re getting them from California.”

Cox is making menu and ingredient changes slowly, preferring to iron out kinks in the resort’s food system, which includes Round Island Kitchen, Boxwood Coffeeshop & Cafe, Bistro on the Greens and Chianti. Mission Point’s kitchen, for instance, has already undergone $100,000 in renovations since Cox’s arrival and Ware says Cox has improved the quality of food and service at Round Island Kitchen.

“I have to crawl before I walk, walk before I run,” he says, explaining his philosophy of taking things slowly and doing each step correctly before moving on to the next.

Helping Chef Cox find the right farms and food purveyors for the resort’s massive needs is Taste the Local Difference, a food consulting, media and marketing agency whose goal is to sell more Michigan-grown and produced food across the state. The U.P. Food Exchange has also been a great resource, helping connect Mission Point to farmers for beets, baby kale and other greens.

Realizing how popular fish is with visitors he’s kicked up the resort’s whitefish offerings, adding ingredients from local farms. The whitefish sandwich is coated with bread crumbs, beer-battered and served with shredded lettuce, marinated tomatoes and lemon aioli. The herb-crusted whitefish filet, an entrée, is accented with fresh garlic and dill.

Both the Grand’s Cerrie and Cox are well aware of the affinity generations of families feel for Mackinac and its iconic hotels as they tap the benefits of farm to ferry.

It’s not just about buying Michigan-made products as a matter of local pride. It’s about finding the best ingredients, improving their menus and heightening the dining experience at their respective hotels as each charts his own course.

“How am I as a chef representing this building—Mission Point—and the Ware family? How am I representing the island?” asks Cox. “How do I help us stand out in the culinary world?”

Mackinac Island Chef's dish

Photo by Andy Wakeman

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Photo(s) by Andy Wakeman