Sean Sherman
Sean Sherman | |
---|---|
![]() Sherman foraging wild ramps | |
Born | 1974 (age 46–47)[1] |
Education | Black Hills State University |
Spouse(s) | Dana Thompson |
Culinary career | |
Cooking style | Indigenous cuisine |
show
Award(s) won | |
Website | sioux-chef |
Sean Sherman (born 1974)[1] is an Oglala Lakota Sioux chef, cookbook author, and promoter of indigenous cuisine.[2][3] Sherman founded the indigenous food education business and caterer The Sioux Chef, as well as the nonprofit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems. He received a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award and his 2017 cookbook, The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen, won the 2018 James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook.
Early life[]
Sherman was born in 1974 and grew up on his grandparents' ranch on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.[4]:1[5] He hunted and foraged from an early age, recalling his grandfather giving him a shotgun on his seventh birthday.[4]:77[6] He grew up eating many government commodity foods[6] such as cereal, shortening, and canned hash, which he cites as the norm he seeks to depart from.[7] He attended Black Hills State University.[8] His grandparents were fluent in Lakota.[4]:1
Early career[]
Sherman got his first restaurant job washing dishes at 13, soon moving onto the line.[7] He spent a summer working for the US Forest Service in the Black Hills, identifying plants.[9][10] He spent most of his twenties working in a series of Minneapolis restaurants[11] and by 27 was working as an executive chef.[12] By 29 he was burnt out and spent some time in Mexico regrouping; while in Puerto Vallarta he spent time with some Huichol people and had an "epiphany", saying: "After seeing how the Huicholes held onto so much of their pre-European culture through artwork and food, I recognized I wanted to know my own food heritage. What did my ancestors eat before the Europeans arrived on our lands?”[11]
Career[]
In 2014 Sherman founded indigenous food education business and caterer The Sioux Chef. The Washington Post called it "a homonym to another ... culinary concept",[2] the sous-chef.
He founded the nonprofit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NĀTIFS) with his business and life partner Dana Thompson.[6][10] The organization includes the Indigenous Food Lab, which works with ethnobotanists to record the earliest names of native plants.[6]
In 2017 Sherman co-authored The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen, published by the University of Minnesota,[6] which won the 2018 James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook.[13] In order to create the book's recipes, he interviewed older community members and searched archives for descriptions of traditional Lakota foods.[5] Recipes in the book contain no dairy, wheat, beef, pork, or cane sugar, as these are non-indigenous ingredients, brought to North America by European colonizers.[5][13] Sherman describes the recipes as "hyperlocal, ultraseasonal, uber-healthy [and] most of all, it's utterly delicious."[5] Publishers Weekly called the book, "an illuminating guide to Native American food that will enthrall home cooks and food historians alike."[14] That same year he prepared a six-course dinner at the James Beard House.[2]
In 2018 he participated in a National Museum of American History roundtable at the Food History weekend event.[5] During the event he prepared a traditional dish, Mag˘áksic˘a na Psíŋ Wasná, duck and wild rice pemmican.[5]
In 2019 Sherman received a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award, which recognizes people and organizations that "(work) to change our food world for the better."[15]
The New York Times called his style "colorful and elegant".[7]
Philosophy[]
Sherman abandoned the use of ingredients that are not endemic to North America[16] after having "an epiphany" while working at a restaurant in Mexico that used local ingredients[17] and realizing that the traditional foods of the Oglala were "completely unrepresented in American cuisine."[18] He objects to indigenous cuisine being called "the next big thing", saying, "This is not a trend. It's a way of life."[2] He told the James Beard Foundation, "We're not trying to cook like it's 1491. We're trying to take knowledge from the past and evolve it for today."[12]
Along with some other Native American chefs,[2] Sherman rejects frybread, often associated with "traditional" Native American cuisine, calling it "everything that isn't Native American food"[19] and writing that it represents "perseverance and pain, ingenuity and resilience."[4]:9 While a symbol of resilience,[2] as it was developed out of necessity using government-provided flour, sugar, and lard, these chefs also consider it a symbol of colonial oppression,[2] as the ingredients were being provided because the government had moved the people onto land that could not support growing traditional staples like corn and beans.[20][21] Frybread's significance to Native Americans has been described as complicated[20] and their relationship with it conflicted.[22]
Personal life[]
Sherman lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[6] He has one son.[23]
Awards[]
Books[]
See also[]
- Ingredients native to the Americas
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Minnesota chef, indigenous food champion, to showcase his passion here". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Judkis, Maura (November 22, 2017). "'This is not a trend': Native American chefs resist the 'Columbusing' of indigenous foods". Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
- ^ Figueroa, Francisca (September 13, 2018). "Revitalizing Indigenous Cuisine". Edible Communities. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Sean Sherman; Beth Dooley (2017). The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-9979-7.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Young, PhD, Ashley Rose (December 17, 2018). ""Hyperlocal, ultraseasonal, uber-healthy, and utterly delicious": Reviving indigenous food cultures". National Museum of American History. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Walhout, Hannah (October 2, 2017). "Sean Sherman on Decolonizing the American Diet". Food & Wine. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Rao, Tejal (August 16, 2016). "The Movement to Define Native American Cuisine". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
- ^ Al-Sulaiman, Salma (2018). "Decolonizing Our Diet: Sioux Chef". www.culturalsurvival.org. Archived from the original on June 4, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ^ Dean, Lee Svitak (October 7, 2017). "'Sioux Chef' serves up indigenous foods: 'It's what paleo wants to be'". Star Tribune. Archived from the original on June 4, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Treuer, David (September 9, 2016). "The Sioux Chef Spreading the Gospel of America's First Food". SAVEUR. Archived from the original on November 17, 2016. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Forbes, Paula (November 29, 2017). "A Look Inside the Cookbook Redefining Native American Cuisine". Food52. Archived from the original on June 4, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "2019 Leadership Award Winner Sean Sherman | James Beard Foundation". James Beard Foundation. Archived from the original on May 14, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "The Sioux Chef". www.cbsnews.com. November 18, 2018. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen". www.publishersweekly.com. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
- ^ Jump up to: a b March, Stephanie (May 6, 2019). "The Sioux Chef's Sean Sherman Honored by James Beard Foundation". Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
- ^ Moya-Smith, Simon (April 6, 2019). "Native Americans are reclaiming fry bread, the food of our oppression". NBC News. Archived from the original on June 17, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ^ Cosier, Susan (September 22, 2017). "The "Sioux Chef" Shares His Roots (and the Midwest's, Too)". National Resources Defense Council. Archived from the original on June 4, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ^ Twilley, Nicola; Graber, Cynthia. "The 'Sioux Chef' Reviving Native American Cuisine". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on June 4, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ^ Lam, Francis (November 3, 2017). "Exploring indigenous kitchens of North America with Sean Sherman". www.splendidtable.org. Archived from the original on June 4, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Miller, Jen (2008). "Frybread". Smithsonian. Archived from the original on May 26, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ^ d'Errico, Peter (July 13, 2017). "(Not) Fry Bread: The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen". IndianCountryToday.com. Archived from the original on June 4, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ^ Rupp, Rebecca (November 23, 2016). "Native American Cuisine Returns to Its Roots". National Geographic. Archived from the original on June 4, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
- ^ Armitage, Lynn (September 1, 2016). "Sioux Chef Has a Plan: Introduce Traditional Native Cuisine One Region at a Time". IndianCountryToday.com. Archived from the original on June 4, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
External links[]
- 1974 births
- Living people
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers
- 21st-century Native Americans
- American male chefs
- American chefs
- American nonprofit chief executives
- Black Hills State University alumni
- Businesspeople from South Dakota
- Businesspeople from Minneapolis
- Chefs from Minnesota
- American cookbook writers
- Indigenous cuisine of the Americas
- James Beard Foundation Award winners
- Native American chefs
- Native American writers
- Oglala people
- Writers from Minneapolis
- Writers from South Dakota