Morgan Hill man cooks for cowboys and greenhorns in the high country

The Los Gatos Horseman's Association is best described as an eating and riding club. Members are horse lovers in Los Gatos and nearby cities who generally keep their animals in the foothills of town and have been riding and eating together for more than 37 years. Their rides usually end with a potluck meal, or at a restaurant with a place to tie horses. Nowhere was the happy combination of food and horse more evident than at the club's annual camping trip in the mountains near La Honda. Joining the group of 44 horse people — including 11 youngsters — and 33 horses at Jack Brook Horse Camp was longtime member John Rosica of Morgan Hill. His occasional trail cookout for fellow members in past years is now a nearly a full time job in the Sierra. Rosica is a backcountry chef, serving pack outfits that crisscross the eastern and western slopes of the mountains, some of his 21 mules carrying his collapsible kitchen. As a backcountry chef, Rosica's skills parallel those of chefs in any upscale restaurant, but he creates his dishes under primitive conditions. "I do it because I love it," he says. Another draw of the job is the cosmopolitan people he meets and learns from on his trips. To date, he's been taught how to cuss in Persian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Sicilian, French, Arabic, Spanish and Chinese...read more