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Decolonizing Food: The Sioux Chef. [1]
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Date: 2023-01-10
Welcome to the Street Prophets Coffee Hour.
I know that food is a wonderful way for people to express their culture and traditions, and for others to appreciate them. It's something I really enjoy. Last year I heard part of an interview with chef Sean Sherman on the radio. It fascinated me so much that I looked him up online.
Sean Sherman: restaurateur, CEO chef, and James Beard Award winner.
Something that really caught my attention was Mr Sherman's commitment to "decolonizing food"- that is, to use only those ingredients available to Indigenous people prior to the arrival of Europeans in the Americas. Which of course means no beef, no wheat, no dairy. No white rice, no cane sugar, no pork, no chicken. No canned anything. Staples in just about any other restaurant in the US. It might make a person wonder, what's left? Turns out, a very great deal.
Sunflower seed cake with agave squash caramel. Looks absolutely scrumptious. All the pictures of his dishes are just beautiful.
During the interview Mr Sherman explained that while exclusively using native ingredients, his restaurant isn't offering a recreation of dishes eaten by Native Americans prior to colonization. It's not a time travel back to the centuries preceding 1492. It is a unique, contemporary celebration of the healthful and delicious foods that have been part of Native American cultures since day one.
A look at a dinner menu from Owamni by The Sioux Chef.
Mr Sherman, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Growing up he saw firsthand the effects that government commodities, highly processed convenience foods, and ordinary American cooking can have on native people. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease and more. He saw the devastating effects of erasing an entire culture by replacing the foods- an essential part of any culture- traditionally eaten by Native Americans with the colonizers foods. Not to mention the suppression of the traditional methods of growing and harvesting Indigenous foods. It's been absolutely tragic.
Mr Sherman has worked in the restaurant business most of his life, from bussing tables to executive chef. A year spent in Mexico living among Huichol people was a turning point for him. Observing how they lived, what they ate, everything about their daily lives pointed up something of a disconnect between himself and his own cultural heritage. It inspired him to take a very deep dive into the past, and imagine ways to bring that heritage into the present. Both traditional and as fresh, creative, and contemporary as anyone could ever wish for. The result is the company he founded with his partner Dana Thompson, called The Sioux Chef. Offering catering and a full service restaurant in Minneapolis called Owamni. Using fresh, seasonal ingredients sourced from Indigenous food producers, Owamni was named 2022's Best New Restaurant in the United States by the James Beard Foundation. If I ever find myself in Minnesota I'm making reservations.
For more about Mr Sherman, his mission, his nonprofit, and his restaurant/ catering business, check out these links:
owamni.com
www.natifs.org
sioux-chef.com
Oh, and he has a cookbook! www.upress.umn.edu/… (This won the James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook in 2018)
Thank you for reading. This is an open thread, all topics are welcome.
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/10/2140849/-Decolonizing-Food-The-Sioux-Chef
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