Revitalizing Food: Oglala Lakota Chef Serves Pre-Colonization Menu   
      
      
      
   Alysa Landry   
      
      
      
   9/30/14   
      
      
      
      
   Before there was fry bread, there were sage, white pine, chokecherries and   
   wild buffalo.   
      
   Before Europeans unloaded wheat and sugar cane and introduced beef to Turtle   
   Island, Natives hunted and fished. They planted potatoes, squash and corn, and   
   they flavored their food with purslane, rose hips and dandelion.   
      
   That traditional diet, or what Chef Sean Sherman calls the "pre-colonization   
   diet," is the bedrock for a new restaurant set to open this fall in the Twin   
   Cities area of Minnesota. Sherman, who is Oglala Lakota, plans to use only   
   indigenous foods in the    
   restaurant, which he has appropriately named The Sioux Chef.   
      
   "I'm not using any European ingredients," he said. "Everyone knows what meat   
   was here, but I was interested in the other things--how they dried corn and   
   squash; how they ground things into flour; and all the beans, berries,   
   wildflowers and tree fruits.    
   There are plenty of flavors to play with."   
      
      
   Shown on this plate is smoked turkey wasna, purslane, wild rice flat bread and   
   mixed berry wojapi. (Sean Sherman)   
   Shown on this plate is smoked turkey wasna, purslane, wild rice flat bread and   
   mixed berry wojapi. (Sean Sherman)   
      
   Sherman, 40, was born in Pine Ridge and learned some of the traditional ways   
   of preparing and preserving food from his grandfather. His great-grandfather   
   fought in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, he said, so his grandfather was   
   among the first    
   generation of Lakota to live on the reservation and attend mission schools.   
      
   "My family knows what was growing on the prairies," Sherman said. "When I have   
   a big pot of chokecherries or buffalo simmering on the stove, or when I'm out   
   there picking things from the forests or prairies, it's definitely nostalgic.   
   When I'm out there    
   gathering sage, all those flavors bring back memories."   
      
   Sherman started working in restaurants at age 13 and continued while studying   
   business at Black Hills State College, in Spearfish, South Dakota. After   
   college, he moved to Minneapolis, where he pursued a serious culinary career,   
   eventually becoming a    
   chef at age 28.   
      
      
   This dried timpsula, or prairie turnip, is braided in the traditional Lakota   
   style from South Dakota. (Sean Sherman)   
   This dried timpsula, or prairie turnip, is braided in the traditional Lakota   
   style from South Dakota. (Sean Sherman)   
      
   Sherman was sought after by restaurant owners who wanted a redesign or   
   "rebranding" of existing kitchens, said Jael Kampfe, Sherman's stepmother and   
   owner of a working guest ranch in Montana. Several years ago, Kampfe hired   
   Sherman to create a new menu    
   and dining experience for clients.   
      
   "What I really love about what he is doing is the relationship he creates   
   between food and culture," Kampfe said. "Food is his central focus and he   
   creates everything around it."   
      
   Always drawn to local, organic foods, Sherman quickly found a niche working   
   directly with farmers and ranchers to put quality, fresh meals on restaurant   
   tables. He studied indigenous ingredients in Spain and Mexico, establishing   
   communities around    
   locally produced food and a return to regions' indigenous flavors.   
      
      
   Shown on this plate is wild rice flatbread, grilled duck, dandelion, dried   
   blueberry and forest mushroom. (Sean Sherman)   
   Shown on this plate is wild rice flatbread, grilled duck, dandelion, dried   
   blueberry and forest mushroom. (Sean Sherman)   
      
   When it came to preparing foods native to his own people, Sherman found he had   
   to do a lot of research. Many tribes cite fry bread as part of the traditional   
   diet, he said, but he needed to dig deeper into the past.   
      
   "I realized there wasn't a lot of information out there in terms of how to   
   process foods or what they really ate," he said. "I spent a long time studying   
   wild foods. I talked to people and got oral stories. A lot of it had to come   
   from history books and    
   other accounts of how things were."   
      
   His studies took him to reservations in Wyoming, Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin   
   and the Dakotas, and resulted in dishes like smoked turkey wasna, mixed berry   
   wojapi, wild rice flatbread and grilled duck.   
      
   Sherman, who often does food demonstrations or hosts discussions about healthy   
   eating, decided earlier this year that he wanted to open a restaurant and   
   serve traditional Lakota and Ojibwe foods. He's now catering in the Twin   
   Cities area and plans to    
   open that restaurant by December--once he finds the right space.   
      
      
   Sean Sherman, otherwise known as the Sioux Chef, demonstrates Native food   
   preparation at the 2014 Minnesota State Fair. (Sean Sherman)   
   Sean Sherman, otherwise known as the Sioux Chef, demonstrates Native food   
   preparation at the 2014 Minnesota State Fair. (Sean Sherman)   
      
   When The Sioux Chef opens, patrons can expect a fine dining experience that   
   will appeal to simple and sophisticated palates. Sherman, who is equally   
   comfortable picking berries in the woods and serving five- or six-course meals   
   to black-tie guests, plans    
   to use his restaurant to blend modern cooking techniques with traditional   
   cuisine.   
      
   "It's really a family-style concept of dining, but with pre-colonial foods,"   
   he said. "My goal is to let the dishes speak for themselves."   
      
   According to Kampfe, the restaurant couldn't open at a more opportune time.   
      
   "This is really vital for the future of culture," she said. "We have all this   
   talk about revitalization of language or ceremonies, but there's not enough   
   talk about revitalizing food."   
      
      
   Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/09/3   
   /revitalizing-food-oglala-lakota-chef-serves-pre-colonization-menu-157108   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)