12 Indigenous People In Food Who Are Changing The Culinary Landscape

Oftentimes when "American foods" are advertised in the media, plates of hamburgers, hotdogs, and chicken wings accompanied by piles of french fries or coleslaw are the standard. The original indigenous foods of the Americas are something quite different altogether. They are cultivated, foraged, and preserved for thousands of years yet are still significantly underrepresented in the commercial food industry. The Indigenous food sovereignty movement, supported by organizations like the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, celebrates, validates, and works to revive these nutritious, and sustainable practices and traditions — noting that they are not practices of the past but the present and of the future.

Understanding and growing these traditional foods and foodways, many of which were stripped or severed from Native American and Indigenous peoples by the U.S. government (via National Geographic), helps to heal and preserve the spiritual and communal health of many Native American communities.

"Native foods" are not just one thing. There are 547 federally recognized tribes in the U.S. alone. The varying climate, agriculture, and customs work to create nuanced dishes, ingredients, and cooking techniques within each community. The network of chefs, cooks, agriculturalists, ethnobotanists, and healthcare workers, stemming from these communities is wide and continues to grow, working to protect and improve the health of their communities and preserve the foodways. Here are just some of the many doing such work, changing the culinary landscape, and expanding how Indigenous foods are seen.

Chef and community organizer Brian Yazzie is no stranger to the overlap between Indigenous chef and Indigenous activist. He has been using the kitchen as his own form of resistance since his work at the Standing Rock demonstrations, organizing the kitchen to include Indigenous foods, which he supplied to help feed and fuel fellow activists in the fight to protect Sioux sacred burial grounds and water resources from the Dakota Access Pipeline.

During the onset of the pandemic, Yazzie was working as a traveling chef, caterer, and educator as co-owner of the business Intertribal Foodways, set up by Yazzie and his wife Danielle Yazzie-Polk. When his work suddenly dried up, Yazzie turned to his local community to see how best to use his skill set. He and other local volunteers set up the #feedingourelders community kitchen, which cooked and transported free meals to local Indigenous senior citizens, many of whom were vulnerable and had limited access to food and supplies. The movement gained momentum, eventually being picked up and supported by World Central Kitchen.

Yazzie now works as the executive chef at the Gatherings Café, notes The Circle, located at the Minneapolis American Indian Center.

Pyet DeSpain was crowned winner of the first season of Next Level Chef, a high-pressure cooking contest run by Gordon Ramsay, Nyesha Arrington, and Richard Blais. Pyet, a shortened name from her Native American name Pyetwetmokwe, grew up in Kansas, with part of her childhood spent on the Osage Indian Reservation. She later relocated to Los Angeles (via Pyet's Plate).

DeSpain told Mashed, "I'm a woman in the culinary world. I'm also a Native American, also Mexican American, I think it's phenomenal and I'm super honored and proud to represent indigenous food. It's not only that I am native, but I'm also making native food on the show and I'm trying to bring my heritage in and it's a phenomenal experience."

Though Indigenous and Native foods and their history are moving more into the public eye and public acknowledgment, (via QRS magazine), it is still the anomaly, rather than the norm, especially within reality television cooking competitions.

DeSpain uses her culinary training and wellness and nutrition certification in her work as an LA-based private chef, with a focus on health and Indigenous ingredients at the heart of her work. She also works to incorporate her "Indigenous Fusion " point of view, which uses both her Native American and Mexican roots. In 2021, she was named as one of the top ten private chefs in Los Angeles by Entrepreneur Magazine.

Freddie J. Bitsoie was not always aware his anthropology degree would lead him into the kitchen. Growing up in the Southwest and within the presence of Native American communities and traditions, he became interested in topics around culture, identity, and history. After his degree, Bitsoie went on to train in classic French cuisine before bringing his understanding of Indigenous foods, from a studied and a lived experience together with his culinary training.

In 2013, while working as executive chef at the Navajo Nation's Fire Rock Casino in New Mexico, Bitsoie won the Living Earth Festival Native Chef Cooking Competition, held annually as part of the Living Earth Festivals, by the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. In 2016, Bitsoie stepped into his new role as Executive Chef at the Mitsitam Café, located inside the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. He tells the Independent, "Thinking about what Native American cuisine is; that's so many different cultures!"

Bitsoie held the role until the start of the pandemic when museums in D.C. shut down. During this time, he wrote his first book, "New Native Kitchen: Celebrating Modern Recipes of the American Indian" published in 2021. He tells New Mexico Magazine, "It's new Native American food. The world has changed; our palates evolve. But this is what Native Americans contributed to the world. I want that to resonate."

Siobhan Detkavich made her television debut as both the youngest chef and the first Indigenous chef to take part in the popular cooking competition Top Chef Canada in its most recent ninth season. Given the 600+ First Nation communities federally recognized in Canada, this was a long time coming.

Though Detkavich is still in the earlier stages of exploring her Cowichan culinary roots and their influence, she is proud of her heritage and the platform she's had to showcase the beauty of Indigenous cultures and communities within the public eye (via APTN News). She told Abeego, "With the incredible opportunity to take part in season nine of Top Chef Canada, it gave me a platform to bring awareness to cooking for reconciliation and sovereignty... to inspire the Indigenous youth to strive to achieve whatever they put their mind to if they work hard for their goals."

Detkavich is now hosting her very first T.V. series called "Dine Your Sign" which began airing in September (via gusto tv).

Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz is a type of traditional healer called a curandera. She is also a trained natural foods chef, and the author of her first book "Earth Medicines," which was recently named the winner of the "Eating the West" category of the Reading the West book awards.

Cocotzin Ruiz was recently featured alongside above chef Brian Yazzie, in an episode titled "The Original Americans" as part of Padma Lakshmi's award-winning series "Taste the Nation."

Cocotzin Ruiz teaches a lot about the notion of "self-care" and what that can look like from an Indigenous Native American and Indigenous Mexican perspective. In a series called "Nourished Mama," she and her sister Andrea, a midwife, work together by providing resources and support, helping people during and through postpartum recovery. This offering also includes foods based on ancestral traditions.

Cocotzin Ruiz is passionate about changing the often-whitewashed culture around health and wellness, by expanding it to include Indigenous plants and plant medicine.

Nephi Craig is the founder of the Native American Culinary Association as well as the founder and executive chef of Café Gozhóó, located inside the Rainbow Treatment Center. Craig also serves as Nutritional Recovery Program Coordinator on the White Mountain Apache reservation. The ties between delocalization, health, and recovery are inherently linked.

During some of the hardest parts of the pandemic, many chefs were digging into their creative resources and the power of technology to connect to audiences. Craig was no exception, using his extensive culinary training and knowledge of Indigenous ingredients in what he called "Wu-Tang Wednesdays." Craig would play music and demonstrate a wide range of dishes from refined creations to comfort foods. His joy and honesty resonated with his audience each of the 36 weeks he did this.

Recently, at an annual conference for Native American Nutrition, Craig opened his speech by saying, "The best thing I can do is be open and transparent about my journey because that's the most powerful tool I have. The same is true for you." He went on to discuss themes around colonial violence, mental health struggles, addiction, and recovery. His vulnerability and humor combined with extensive knowledge are radical.

Craig has cooked Native foods, not only in his own community but across the world — in London, Germany, Japan, and Brazil (via Rouxbe.com). He continues to speak powerfully and honestly about health, recovery, and decolonization within the kitchen and the classroom.