Episode 18: Brian Yazzie On Cooking In Two Worlds

“We’re fighting for our indigenous rights, we’re fighting for what is beneath our feet, what is our food…

“I use the philosophy of cooking in two worlds, having that ancestral memory but with the modern techniques, with the modern times.”

From https://www.yazziethechef.com: Brian Yazzie (a.k.a. Yazzie the Chef) is a Diné Chef from Dennehotso, Arizona which is located on the Northeastern part of the Navajo Nation. He currently resides in Saint Paul, MN and has a degree in Associate of Applied Science (AAS) in Culinary Arts from Saint Paul College. Yazzie focuses on bringing together hyper-local indigenous ingredients from the streams, rivers, and forests to revitalize healthy indigenous cuisine.

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Episode #18 Notes

1:00 - What motivated you to become a chef?

2:00 - How has white settler colonialism impacted the food ways of the indigenous people in the US?

3:45 - On weaponizing foods.

5:40 - What has the impact of “the standard American diet” on native people in the US?

10:30 - How did you end up working with Sean Sherman?

14:45 - What are some of the traditional, pre-contact foods you use in your cooking?

16:30 - Recipes!

18:45 - Tell us about your experience serving food at Standing Rock, and how did this experience effect you?

22:30 - How do you define food sovereignty?

24:00 - What are some of the biggest threats or challenges that need to be overcome in your work?

25:20 - What can listeners do to help bring back native food ways?

26:30 - How will your work - and the larger indigenous rights and food movement - impact things like agricultural policy and land reform?

30:00 - What’s your vision for the food system?

34:00 - What books would you like to recommend?

Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden - Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians, Gilbert L. Wilson