Ep 19 - "The Sioux Chef" Sean Sherman, Labrador Tea and Indigenous Eats

Did you know that there is a fragrant shrub with medicinal properties against respiratory infections, pain and diabetes that has been used by indigenous people spanning North America, Europe and Asia for centuries? Labrador tea is still valued today in the treatment of many ailments and is consumed as a traditional beverage. It is just one of many wild plants that make up the indigenous cuisine of Native peoples in the US and Canada. In this episode, we will chat with award-winning chef and indigenous activist, Chef Sean Sherman, who is raising awareness about the cultural and medicinal value of this and many other unique wild ingredients with his company “The Sioux Chef” and nonprofit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems. Cassandra Quave Dr. Cassandra Quave is best known for her ground breaking research on the science of botanicals. Scientists in her research group work to uncover some of nature’s deepest secrets as they search for new ways to fight life-threatening diseases, including antibiotic resistant infections. Working with a global network of scientists and healers, Cassandra and her team travel the world hunting for new plant ingredients, interviewing healers, and bringing plants back to the lab to study. Besides research, Cassandra is an award-winning teacher, and has developed and taught college classes like “Food, Health and Society” and “Botanical Medicine and Health” at Emory University. @QuaveEthnobot on Twitter and Instagram @QuaveMedicineWoman and “Foodie Pharmacology with Cassandra Quave” on Facebook About Chef Sean Sherman Chef Sean Sherman, Oglala Lakota, born in Pine Ridge, SD, has been cooking across the US and Mexico over the past 30 years, and has become renowned nationally and internationally in the culinary movement of indigenous foods. His main focus has been on the revitalization and evolution of indigenous foods systems throughout North America. Chef Sean has studied on his own extensively to determine the foundations of these food systems to gain a full understanding of bringing back a sense of Native American cuisine to today’s world. In 2014, he opened the business titled, The Sioux Chef as a caterer and food educator in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area. He and his business partner Dana Thompson also designed and opened the Tatanka Truck, which featured pre-contact foods of the Dakota and Minnesota territories. In October 2017, Sean was able to perform the first decolonized dinner at the James Beard House in Manhattan along with his team. His first book, The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen was awarded the James Beard medal for Best American Cookbook for 2018 and was chosen one of the top ten cookbooks of 2017 by the LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle as well as the Smithsonian Magazine. This year, Chef Sean was selected as a Bush Fellow, as well as receiving the 2019 Leadership Award by the James Beard Foundation. The Sioux Chef team of twelve people continues with their mission to help educate and make indigenous foods more accessible to as many communities as possible through the recently founded nonprofit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS). Learn more at www.natifs.org.Did you know that there is a fragrant shrub with medicinal properties against respiratory infections, pain and diabetes that has been used by indigenous people spanning North America, Europe and Asia for centuries? Labrador tea is still valued today in the treatment of many ailments and is consumed as a traditional beverage. It is just one of many wild plants that make up the indigenous cuisine of Native peoples in the US and Canada. In this episode, we will chat with award-winning chef and indigenous activist, Chef Sean Sherman, who is raising awareness about the cultural and medicinal value of this and many other unique wild ingredients with his company “The Sioux Chef” and nonprofit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems.