The Sioux Chef works to educate and make indigenous foods more accessible. Attend this year’s Annual Owner Meeting Tuesday, Oct. 30, 6-8 p.m., at the University of Minnesota’s student union, to enjoy a meal designed by founder and CEO chef Sean Sherman (Oglala Lakota) and executed by Seward Co-op Creamery Café. The results of the board election will be announced, as will our 2019 Community Choice SEED grant recipients.
Informed by The Sioux Chef’s mission to re-identify what is recognized as North American food, the dinner will feature indigenous foods and ingredients native to this region. Expect fruit, vegetables, meat, foraged ingredients and no sugar, gluten, wheat or dairy. Vegan and vegetarian options will be available.
While Sean is sometimes misidentified as The Sioux Chef, the name actually refers to the entire team. The Sioux Chef is a group of Anishinaabe, Mdewakanton Dakota, Navajo, Northern Cheyenne, Oglala Lakota and Wahpeton-Sisseton Dakota. The team includes chefs, ethnobotanists, food preservationists, adventurers, foragers, caterers, event planners, artists, musicians, food truckers and food lovers.
Tickets for the Annual Owner Meeting are $5 in advance or $15 at the door. Children (5-12): $3; Children 4 and under are admitted for free.
Menu
Roasted Native Harvest Veg with Maple + Pepita
Wild Rice Salad
Hominy and Squash Soup
Smoked Turkey + Sunchoke (Vegan Option is Smoked Forest Mushrooms + Sunchoke)
Sweet Blue Corn Pudding + Dried Fruit + Berries
The menu is naturally free of gluten, dairy, soy, processed sugar, beef, pork and chicken. Vegan and vegetarian options available.
Purchase tickets via Eventbrite.
A Leader in the Indigenous Foods Movement
Sean has been cooking across the United States and Mexico over the past 30 years. He is internationally renowned in the culinary movement of indigenous foods.
In 2014, he opened The Sioux Chef as a caterer and food educator in the Twin Cities area. He and his business partner, Dana Thompson (Wahpeton-Sisseton/Mdewakanton Dakota), also created the Tatanka Truck, a food truck featuring pre-contact foods of the Dakota and Minnesota territories.
In October 2017, Sean and his team performed the first decolonized dinner at the James Beard House in Manhattan. His first book, “The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen,” earned the James Beard medal for Best American Cookbook for 2018.
This year, Sean was selected as a Bush Fellow. The Sioux Chef team of 12 people continues to spread their mission to as many communities as possible through their recently founded nonprofit NATIFS.
Why The Sioux Chef?
Seward Co-op hosted Tunde Wey at the 2017 Annual Owner Meeting. Tunde is a Nigerian chef who led staff in the preparation of a Nigerian meal and a discussion with LaDonna Sanders Redmond, the co-op’s diversity and community engagement manager, about Blackness, immigration and labor in America. This year, Sanders Redmond wanted to go deeper—into the impact of white supremacy on Indigenous people. She invited Sean and The Sioux Chef team to design the menu and offer teachings on indigenous food sovereignty.