Sharing Indigenous cuisine, one recipe at a time

The booming Whitehorse food scene could soon see an addition in the form of a restaurant specializing in Indigenous cuisine — that's if some aspiring First Nations cooks have their way.

Some of them were in the kitchen this week at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre working alongside some of Canada's most respected chefs.

The idea was to inspire the Yukon cooks and show them where they can take traditional recipes.

I'm just so excited to be here - Heather Johnston, culinary student

"I'm part of a group of Indigenous chefs that comes to different communities and helps train and work with local culinary community members and people eager to be in culinary — and we work together to spread our Indigenous story through food," said Bill Alexander, an executive chef based in Calgary.  

"A lot of our culture is that...learning and growing, and what you realize is a lot of them have a lot more experience than they've even given themselves credit for."

The two-day cooking collaboration between expert chefs and rookies to the kitchen seems to have paid off.

The cooks laughed as they built a menu that featured all local ingredients, including Yukon wild game.

"I think it's a pretty great opportunity for all of us to learn something, and so many of our young ones are here, including my son," said Teresa Ward, who makes a living as a cook in Whitehorse. 

"We've got quite a few young people that are really interested in working with their First Nations and their culture and their food."

'It's a big opportunity'

One of those young people is Heather Johnston, a culinary student at Yukon College. 

"When I first showed up I was nervous, but right now I'm just taking it all in, step-by-step," said Johnston. "I just feel it's a big opportunity for me since I am starting off as a student right now... I'm just so happy to be here."

After just a few hours new ideas pop up, such as a restaurant or food truck.

The students are drawing inspiration from Paul Nattral. Last year, the Vancouver-based chef opened what he says is the city's first Indigenous food truck, Mr. Bannock.

In one day alone, he served up more than 2,400 orders of bannock.

Like Alexander, Nattral came to Whitehorse to show local cooks what's possible when you take cultural pride and mix it with traditional recipes and local ingredients.

"Everybody's excited, there's probably a handful of them that are interested in something similar," said Nattral.

"They came up and introduced themselves and we just chatted about 10 or 15 minutes about the Mr.Bannock food truck, and their goals on how to get there."

As good as the opportunity has been for the Yukon cooks, the experience has also benefited the visiting expert chefs.

"I'm really proud of what we do, and I'm not doing it for me — this is the way for me to pass on the recipes for my grandmother and the people and the generations that lived before her," said Alexander.

"There's a lot of respect that goes along with that, when you don't feel like you're doing it all by yourself. So I think that's where I really draw a lot from, is all this team, everybody working together and the people that did it before for the people that will do it after us."