Chef Sean Sherman who is Oglala Lakota was raised on a reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. After he started working in a commercial kitchen, he became interested in incorporating some of the ingredients of his heritage into his food.
"I had this vision of doing a cookbook just focusing on Lakota foods," he says. "But when I started researching, I wasn't finding the information I was looking for. I had to devise my own education plan and found the basics of Native American food."
"There was no 'Joy of Native American Cooking' that I could turn to," he laughs.
During this Talk of Iowa interview, Sherman talks with host Charity Nebbe about working with ingredients used by different tribes in various parts of the country and how he learned about how those tribes were preserving foods and cooking them.
"I started with foraging books and got an idea of plant identification," Sherman explains. "I want to show how varied Native American dishes are."
Kelly Schott, who owns Historical Pathways and teaches classes on traditional cooking methods, also joins the conversation.
