Just off Interstate 90 at Exit 367 in Big Timber, tucked beside the Town Pump Travel Plaza, is an unexpected culinary treasure. Off to the side of the sprawling convenience store and gas pumps sits Taste of Siberia, a modest food truck where owner and chef Yelena Mattheis serves authentic dishes from her Siberian homeland. What appears to be a simple roadside stop quickly becomes a memorable destination, where hand-crafted recipes and warm hospitality transport travelers thousands of miles from the Montana prairie to the heart of Siberia.
The menu features comforting Siberian classics, including pirozhkis, chebureks, pelmenis, and borscht. Pirozhkis are generously sized, hand-held pies made with house-made yeast dough, deep-fried until golden brown, and filled with choices such as cabbage, egg and cheese, or ground beef and onions. Chebureks, reminiscent of a mini calzone, are crisp, semicircular turnovers stuffed with seasoned ground beef and onions. Pelmenis are tender boiled dumplings filled with savory beef, while the vibrant borscht is a hearty beet and vegetable soup served with a side of dill sour cream.
“I was born and raised in Eastern Siberia, in Buryatia, near to Lake Baikal, the deepest and oldest lake in the world,” she shares. Following the footsteps of her parents who were teachers, Yelena taught school for 14 years. Then, in 1991, “after the collapse of the Soviet Union, life became very difficult, and the teachers went unpaid for a long time.”
Yelena then lost her best friend, “my husband passed away, and I was left with two children, alone, raising them,” which led her to make the difficult decision to leave her teaching job and start her own business. “I was to travel to Manchuria, China every month, buying goods and bringing them back home and selling them in the local market. That’s how we survived.”
Years later, in 1998, an unexpected connection would change the course of Yelena's life. The principal of the school where she taught traveled to Montana with three students as part of a cultural exchange program. “She met an agriculture teacher in Melstone, Gary Mattheis,” Yelena shares. “He helped the Russian students adapt to American schools and experience local life, and then he was invited to visit Russia.”
“So when he came to Russia in the summer, in June, that’s how we met, and after that, he started coming every year, and that’s how our relationship grew, and in 2001 we married in Moscow.”
Two years later, in 2003, Yelena and her children left Russia for a new life in Melstone, the small eastern Montana town founded in 1908 as a base for crews building the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. The Mattheis family lived there for about a year before moving briefly to Parshall, North Dakota. In 2005, Gary accepted a position as the agriculture teacher at Big Timber High School, and the family settled in Big Timber, where they have remained ever since.
Cooking became Yelena's path to a new career in Montana. "I worked at the Grand Hotel and Restaurant for a few years, where I learned how to cook American food," she says. "Then I worked at Sweet Grass County High School for 17 years, where I gained valuable experience preparing and serving meals."
Those years in professional kitchens gave Yelena the confidence and skills to pursue a long-held dream. Drawing on both her Siberian heritage and the experience she had gained in Montana, she decided it was time to venture out on her own.
“I always loved cooking and baking, and deep inside I always kept my piece of home, my tradition, my culture, and my food,” Yelena says. “My mother-in-law, she taught me how to make piroshkis and Russian sweet rolls.”
To prepare herself for the challenges of starting a restaurant on wheels, Yelena traveled to Portland, Oregon, to learn from the city’s vibrant food cart culture. There was also a personal reason for the trip. "I was babysitting with my granddaughter," Yelena shares, as her granddaughter lived in the area.
Portland, known as a pioneer of the street food movement and al fresco dining, offered Yelena the opportunity to see firsthand how mobile kitchens could become successful culinary destinations. Inspired by what she observed, she opened a cart at Chill N Fill, a popular growler shop founded by Steve Cooper and Paul Moglia that featured rotating taps of craft beer, wine, cider, and kombucha.
Yelena gained invaluable knowledge from Steve. “So he helped me a lot about how to set up this food cart.” From October of 2023 to the spring of the following year, Yelena worked in Portland to return to Big Timber.
“Because I was working by myself, it was a little hard to do everything by myself, to go shopping, and cleaning and everything, and traffic in Portland it’s very busy. I decided to come back home.”
Today, Yelena’s 16-by-8-foot trailer sits in the parking lot of the Town Pump, easily overshadowed by the massive convenience store and rows of fuel pumps surrounding it. “It’s a very good location because it’s traffic, and here are many truck drivers, Russian truck drivers drive through from all over, former Soviet Union, from Ukraine, from Moldova, and from Kygyzstan, Uzbekistan, and of course, tourists, and there is so many Russian communities like in Billings, in Bozeman,” she explains.
Yelena’s workday begins early. She typically arrives at her trailer around 8 a.m., and even earlier—at 7 a.m.—on days when she prepares her signature borscht for the 11 a.m. opening. From Wednesday through Sunday, she spends long hours behind the counter, closing at 7 p.m.
At the heart of Taste of Siberia is something simple but essential: her house-made yeast dough. It is the foundation for many of the dishes she creates.
“I make my dough every morning. It’s fresh dough,” Yelena says. “It’s half water and half milk, and I put in butter, a little bit of egg, a little bit of sugar, and yeast. So, I use my yeast dough for everything.”
That daily ritual reflects the care and tradition behind each pirozhki and dish that leaves her trailer—an old-world technique carried from Siberia and made fresh each morning in Montana.
Yelena has also added her own touches to traditional recipes, including an ingredient not typically found in classic Russian cuisine: cheese.
“I use mozzarella, cheddar Jack cheese, and cheddar cheese,” she explains. “I thought it would add a little bit more flavor.”
These small adaptations reflect Yelena’s journey between two cultures—honoring the flavors of her Siberian roots while welcoming the tastes of her Montana customers. To appeal to the American palate, she also offers sauces such as ketchup and mustard alongside her golden, fried turnovers, creating a familiar accompaniment to these traditional dishes.
Pelmenis, beef-filled dumplings served in broth, are another handmade specialty on Yelena’s menu. A dozen delicate parcels, wrapped in unleavened dough, are boiled, and served in a rich chicken stock with a side of dill sour cream. Yelena prefers dipping each dumpling into the tangy sauce, while other diners stir the sour cream directly into the broth, creating a creamy, flavorful soup.
At Taste of Siberia, owner and chef Yelena Mattheis serves a dozen pelmenis—traditional Siberian beef dumplings—in a fragrant herb-infused chicken broth, accompanied by a side of dill sour cream. Credit Stella Fong.
Another distinctive offering at Taste of Siberia is borscht, a soup recognized by its deep fuchsia hue from the beets. “Borscht, it’s vegetables, beets, beef soup,” Yelena explains. She creates the foundation of the dish by simmering beef bones in water to develop a rich, savory stock, then adds carrots and onions for layers of flavor.
Chebureks, a favorite of Yelena’s husband, Gary, are made from unleavened dough enriched with milk, butter, and salt. The dough is rolled into a large circle, filled with a thin layer of seasoned ground beef and onions, folded into a half-moon shape, and fried until crisp and golden. Gary enjoys this traditional Siberian turnover served with the familiar American condiments of mustard and ketchup—another example of how Yelena’s cooking bridges two cultures.
Yelena’s commitment to making each dish by hand, with patience and care, allows the flavors of her heritage to shine through every bite. Through Taste of Siberia, she shares more than food; she shares a story of tradition, perseverance, and the memories carried through generations of cooking.
