Pitchfork Fondue remains a Hettinger tradition

There are easier ways to cook a steak.

But few are quite as memorable as putting it on a pitchfork and lowering it into a cauldron of hot oil.

For years, that unusual cooking method has brought hundreds of people together in Hettinger for the annual Pitchfork Fondue, a community tradition that continues today under the Hettinger Area Chamber of Commerce.

The premise is wonderfully simple: steaks are placed on the tines of pitchforks and submerged in hot cooking oil until they are ready to serve. To someone unfamiliar with western North Dakota, that might sound like an unusual combination of ranch work and culinary experimentation. Around here, it’s just supper.

Part meal, part spectacle and part community gathering, the Pitchfork Fondue has become one of those distinctly Hettinger traditions.

And it takes a lot more than a few pitchforks to pull it off. The event has grown into a substantial undertaking, with preparation extending well beyond the cooks gathered around the hot oil. This year, Mike Marion sold more than 550 steaks for the event.

That is a lot of beef — and a lot of pitchforking.

For the third year in a row, the Hettinger Jaycees kindly helped offset the rising cost of the meat with a donation. Kennedy's Fresh Foods made sure the steaks were cut to thickness and the potatoes were baked to perfection. It is that cooperation among local organizations, businesses and volunteers that has helped keep the Fondue going year after year.

Longtime volunteers have also become part of the tradition, and behind the scenes are plenty of people who help make the annual meal possible.

For 2026, the tradition returned to the Hettinger Country Club on Sunday, Sept. 13. The social began at 3:00 p.m., followed by the meal from 4:00 to 7:30 p.m. Advance tickets were $30, increasing to $35 at the door, with deliveries available within Hettinger city limits.

The Pitchfork Fondue may ultimately be about steak, but an event capable of serving more than 500 of them doesn’t happen by simply heating up the oil and hoping everyone remembered to bring a pitchfork. It takes organizers planning weeks in advance, cooks working around the pot, student groups setting and clearing tables, volunteers serving meals and cleaning up when everyone else has gone home, and most importantly, Mike Marion selling tickets and making post-event deliveries. We also couldn't do it without the locals who donate cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and bars.

The history of Pitchfork Fondue in Hettinger dates back to the first pot, owned and operated by the Howe family, in the late 1970s. Today, the Chamber promotes Pitchfork Fondue as one of the community’s featured annual events, alongside celebrations such as the Fourth of July and Wake Up Santa. It is an opportunity to combine good food, music and western hospitality — with a cooking method that is guaranteed to get the attention of anyone seeing it for the first time.

While Hettinger has certainly put its own stamp on the tradition, there is evidence that this unusual method of preparing supper has deep roots in North Dakota. The State Historical Society of North Dakota has a photograph of men preparing pitchfork fondue during the society’s groundbreaking ceremony in Bismarck on Oct. 9, 1976. Another account appeared in a 1988 North Dakota Geological Survey newsletter. Visitors attending a geological gathering were treated to steaks placed on pitchfork tines and lowered into a large pot of boiling cooking oil.

Apparently, North Dakotans have been finding creative uses for farm equipment for quite some time. Today, Hettinger has made the tradition its own.