Sean Sherman

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.

Sean Sherman
Born1974 (age 46–47)[1]
Pine Ridge, South Dakota, U.S.
EducationBlack Hills State University
Spouse(s)Dana Thompson
Culinary career
Cooking styleIndigenous cuisine
Websitesioux-chef.com

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]

Sherman foraging wild ramps

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
  • 2018 James Beard Award, Best American Cookbook[13]
  • 2019 James Beard Leadership Award[15]

Books

See also
  • Ingredients native to the Americas

References
  1. "Minnesota chef, indigenous food champion, to showcase his passion here". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  2. 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.
  3. Figueroa, Francisca (September 13, 2018). "Revitalizing Indigenous Cuisine". Edible Communities. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  4. Sean Sherman; Beth Dooley (2017). The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-9979-7.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. Al-Sulaiman, Salma (2018). "Decolonizing Our Diet: Sioux Chef". www.culturalsurvival.org. Archived from the original on June 4, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. "2019 Leadership Award Winner Sean Sherman | James Beard Foundation". James Beard Foundation. Archived from the original on May 14, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  13. "The Sioux Chef". www.cbsnews.com. November 18, 2018. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  14. "The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen". www.publishersweekly.com. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  15. March, Stephanie (May 6, 2019). "The Sioux Chef's Sean Sherman Honored by James Beard Foundation". Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. Miller, Jen (2008). "Frybread". Smithsonian. Archived from the original on May 26, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
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