Indigenous Cuisine Highlighted in Oakland

Chef Crystal Wahpepah, a member of the Kickapoo and Sac and Fox tribes, honed her culinary skills at Le Cordon Bleu, focusing on French cooking before embarking on a journey across the United States to learn more about Native farming and cooking. Wahpepah's Kitchen, which opened in November 2021, is the culmination of a 25-year journey that began with cooking for family and evolved into a catering business. The restaurant is located in the Fruitvale district of Oakland, an area that is part of the ancestral lands of the Ohlone people. Before opening her brick-and-mortar restaurant, Wahpepah ran a successful catering company for over a decade and was the first Native American chef to compete on the Food Network's "Chopped." Her work has earned her significant recognition, including being a James Beard Award finalist for Emerging Chef in 2022 and receiving the Indigenous Artist Activist Award. Wahpepah has also been inducted into the Native American Almanac as one of the first Native American women to own a catering business. The menu at Wahpepah's Kitchen is a celebration of intertribal cuisine, featuring ingredients sourced from Indigenous producers across the country. Diners can find blue corn from the Ute Nation in Colorado, hand-harvested wild rice from Minnesota, and acorn flour milled by a member of the Mono Nation in Fresno. Dishes have included Kickapoo bison chili, blue corn waffles, bison meatballs in blueberry sauce, and a "Three Sisters Veggie Bowl" with heirloom corn, quinoa, and squash. Wahpepah's establishment is one of only a handful of Indigenous restaurants in the nation and was the first of its kind in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her mission extends beyond the plate, aiming to reclaim Native foodways and educate the community on their health benefits. The restaurant's decor reflects this, with murals by Native artists depicting Indigenous trade routes and shelves displaying the very seeds and ingredients used in the kitchen.