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KamaAina

(78,249 posts)
Wed Oct 8, 2014, 02:36 PM Oct 2014

The 'Sioux Chef' Is Putting Pre-Colonization Food Back On The Menu

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/10/07/354053768/the-sioux-chef-is-putting-pre-colonization-food-back-on-the-menu

Like most chefs, Sean Sherman practically lives in the kitchen. But in his spare time, this member of the Oglala Lakota tribe has been on a quest to identify the foods his ancestors ate on the Great Plains before European settlers appeared on the scene. After years of researching and experimenting with "pre-colonization" foods, he's preparing to open a restaurant in the Twin Cities this winter that showcases those foods, reborn for contemporary palates.

Sherman, who calls himself the Sioux Chef, grew up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. It's where he first started to learn about the traditional foods of the Plains, whether it was hunting animals like pronghorn antelope and grouse, or picking chokecherries for wojapi, a berry soup....

In the meantime, Sherman worked his way up in the restaurant world, eventually becoming an executive chef at Minneapolis' La Bodega in 2000. Around the same time, he had the idea to write a Lakota cookbook. Although there were some Native American cookbooks already on the market, he says he found that most of them focused on the Southwest or made too many generalizations about food across regions and tribes.

When he tried to learn more about the wild game — and especially the plants — native to the Great Plains, he came up short. He says many Americans don't have a sense of the Lakota diet beyond bison or frybread. (Frybread is actually a fairly recent addition and has a complicated history.)


"Sioux Chef" FTW!
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The 'Sioux Chef' Is Putting Pre-Colonization Food Back On The Menu (Original Post) KamaAina Oct 2014 OP
This reminds me of one of my favorite movies. aikoaiko Oct 2014 #1
Is that pic from the film "Smoke Signals"? FSogol Oct 2014 #5
Yes indeed. I read a couple of short stories too aikoaiko Oct 2014 #8
I've read all of his stuff. My fav is the short story, "What you pawn I will redeem" FSogol Oct 2014 #9
That was a really good movie! Lars39 Oct 2014 #10
"Sioux Chef" indeed - that is a top quality pun. hifiguy Oct 2014 #2
I wish him the best of luck Sanity Claws Oct 2014 #3
And the 3 were actually an import from quiet a distance. Igel Oct 2014 #4
great idea surrealAmerican Oct 2014 #6
took me a minute to get it Liberal_in_LA Oct 2014 #7

FSogol

(45,488 posts)
5. Is that pic from the film "Smoke Signals"?
Wed Oct 8, 2014, 07:37 PM
Oct 2014

I highly recommend reading everything by Sherman Alexie.

FSogol

(45,488 posts)
9. I've read all of his stuff. My fav is the short story, "What you pawn I will redeem"
Wed Oct 8, 2014, 10:13 PM
Oct 2014

It is available online in the 4/21/2003 issue of The New Yorker. Enjoy

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/04/21/what-you-pawn-i-will-redeem

 

hifiguy

(33,688 posts)
2. "Sioux Chef" indeed - that is a top quality pun.
Wed Oct 8, 2014, 02:45 PM
Oct 2014

This is a very interesting trip into culinary anthropology. May have to try his food when disposable income is on my menu once again.

Sanity Claws

(21,849 posts)
3. I wish him the best of luck
Wed Oct 8, 2014, 02:50 PM
Oct 2014

I would love to try traditional Native American diet.

About the only thing I know about the diet is its use of the 3 sisters, corn, squash and beans, and Pacific NW Indians' reliance on smoked salmon.
I'd love to know how they traditionally prepared shellfish and game.

Igel

(35,320 posts)
4. And the 3 were actually an import from quiet a distance.
Wed Oct 8, 2014, 07:30 PM
Oct 2014

There was also a lot of variation. Live in Massachusetts, you hardly eat bison. Shellfish, some fowl, and probably quite a bit of mast (which could be used to make flour, even).

Pawpaws were spread from their home in or near Arkansas up to near Quebec. Quite a range.

Ancestors of the Chumash so overfarmed coastal waters at once point they drove some shellfish species to extinction.

I'd be curious as to what seasonings he uses.

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