With His New Cookbook, Chef Sean Sherman Decolonizes North American Cuisine

With his first buzzy cookbook, The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen—a collection of innovative recipes built around clean, locally-sourced ingredients—Oglala Lakota Sioux chef Sean Sherman won a 2018 James Beard Award. At the time, Sherman wanted to eliminate colonial influences from Indigenous cuisine—including elements such as dairy, chicken, pork, wheat flour, and even black pepper—and go back to basics with wild or foraged ingredients. “I wanted to see what it would taste like, to have purely Indigenous ingredients in those recipes,” says Sherman. “And to show that we can still make a lot—even with that challenge.”

Today, Sherman is now following up the critically acclaimed cookbook with his second highly anticipated release. The book, titled Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America, goes across the continent region by region, and highlights different local flavors and cuisines. Once again, Sherman does so by focusing on decolonized ingredients, utilizing the fresh game, fish, or fruits and vegetables that were used pre-colonization. “There is a vast diversity of Indigeneity across North America,” Sherman says. “I wanted to tell the story of what food looks like when you take out colonial lines completely. Some places are extremely distinct—and some places have a little more commonality with others.”