Mac and Cheese Makeover

AFTER ROB MCCORMACK’S WIFE, Tania, spent a whole summer doctoring mac and cheese with frozen green chile, he detected a business opportunity. As a passionate outdoorsman, McCormack was always looking for easy, filling meals to enjoy on camping, fishing, and skiing trips. In 2017, he launched FishSki Provisions (get it? fish…ski?) with a simple premise: Take convenient packaged foods and give them the chile kick we all crave. The campfire-friendly meals require just two cups of boiling water and don’t need to be strained, but the elevated flavors have made them popular with indoorsy types, too. “Now it’s more gourmet, not your kids’ mac and cheese,” McCormack says. The green chile mac and cheese was FishSki’s first product, followed by red chile and jalapeño versions. But it’s the grits—green chile, red chile, and jalapeño—that have become bestsellers nationwide. “Historically, grits are from here,” McCormack says of the Southwest. The heirloom corn he buys is grown and milled by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in the Four Corners area. The company manufactures in Alcalde and gives back 3 percent of sales to conservation efforts like Taos Mountain Alliance.