The Future of Food Is Indigenous
“Late spring of 2022 Dipping Spoon held our first weeklong Culinary Arts Camp Intensive in rural Alaska at Bethel Regional High School for ten Indigenous students from the Lower Kuskokwim School District. The culinary camp was a week-long intensive teaching the fundamentals of cooking as they dove into the four elements that make food taste great. Dipping Spoon student programming was rooted in FoodSTEM, Cultural Identity, Food Sovereignty and traditional values merged with modern day techniques. We utilized The Edible Schoolyard’s curriculum which introduced basic knife, cooking and cleaning skills with the curriculum slightly tweaked based on the needs of Bethel’s rural location. This included creating our own harvest map and seasonal hunting guide.
Camp leaders and students loosely followed Chef Samin Nosrat’s cookbook and Netflix show and format: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and Alison Roman’s Home Movie pantry receipes. Each day was themed around all episodes with continuing discussions around tastes and flavors while we cooked and communed together. And did we cook together!
#SelfFSTEAM campers took field trips to the grocery store and visited the only farm in Bethel, Alaska, Meyer Farm. Our students journaled about their cooking experiences at home and camp, blind tasted food and noted what excited or didn’t them about a new taste and flavor, they produced their own food photography, food writing, menu development and working together as a team. They learned when we respect our ingredients in the kitchen and workstation, we in turn are respecting the land, ocean and sky. Which leads to our identity and culture.
After a week long intensive, cooking two meals a day our campers took on the ambitious task of catering Bethel Regional High School’s Student Art Showcase where they debuted their culinary art and menu. Chef are artists, food is their paint. Chef’s are also scientists, chemists’, mathematicians, poets and businesspeople. Our students embarked on a massive feat and delivered big time on taste, presentation, flavor and creativity. Like Salmon, Dipping Spoon students understood the art of facing things, trying new things and not being afraid to journey to a destination unknown.”
READ MORE ON our Substack, Hood To Table.
