Toasted Sister Podcast

Freddie Bitsoie (Diné) is the executive chef of Mitsitam Cafe inside the National Museum of the American Indian where he uses his imagination and knowledge of history to bring Indigenous flavors to the museum experience. He studied anthropology in college but took a different route when he noticed everything he thought about was food. In this episode, Freddie talks about his culinary upbringing, t...

Before food gets to your table it’s grown and cared for by someone. And that someone could be a Native farmer or tribal food producer. Dan Cornelius (Oneida Nation of Wisconsin) is a technical assistance specialist in the Great Lakes region of the Intertribal Agriculture Council (IAC) and manager of the Mobile Farmers Market. He and the IAC are working to reconnect trade routes by promoting foods...

Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz (Tewa, Tiwa, Mexican, Spanish) is a holistic healer and chef (kitchencurandera.com). She learned about traditional food and plant medicine from her relatives and from growing up in the Southwest desert. In her work, she exposes people to the delicious bounty of the desert and bridges eastern medicine with Southwestern medicine. In this episode, she talks about her love and re...

Since he was 13 years old, Sean Sherman (Oglala Lakota) was in the kitchen. The skills he learned over the years helped him rise above the ranks in culinary school to become one of many most awesome Native American chefs. He’s the owner of The Sioux Chef, an Indigenous catering and education group. He and the crew have some exciting things coming up, including launching a nonprofit organization ca...

Our grandmothers' recipes are amazing. For Ben Jacobs (Osage), owner of Tocabe, his family’s frybread recipe helped him create a beautiful restaurant that showcases Native food in Denver. Although he doesn’t consider himself to be a chef, he’s become a voice in the Native food world. In this episode, Ben talks about the struggles of starting a Native restaurant, the meaning behind the restaurant’s...

When white people steal Native images, stories and fashions and then claim them as their own, it’s called appropriation. When they steal Indigenous recipes, well, that means we’re no longer gentle Indians on Toasted Sister. In this episode, I’m joined by Neftalí Duran (Mixteco) Oaxaca chef, Erica Scott-Pacheco (Lenape), social justice fundraiser, Sean Sherman (Oglala Lakota), owner of The Sioux Ch...

After the Gold King Mine spill in 2015, Navajo agriculture in the Four Corners area took a turn for the worse. Two years later, Brandon Francis (Navajo), Four Corners farmer and research lab technician at the New Mexico State University Agricultural Science Center in Farmington, New Mexico, is using his science skills to boost Navajo farmers’ confidence in the soil and water. In this episode, Bran...

The Toasted Sister podcast is Natives talking about food, even if it’s Natives who aren’t particularly “foodies” talking about food. In this episode I talk with my friend and coworker, Monica Braine (Assiniboine, Hunkpapa Lakota) and James Simermeyer (Coharie, Navajo descent) about our odd food habits, weird food combinations, frybread and what a ceramic knife says about how Native cooking and att...

In this podcast extra, I bring my sister, Alisha Murphy (Navajo), into the studio to talk about our upbringing, poor man's food, the power of food memories and how our relationship with Mexican food changed.

Crystal Wahpepah (Kickapoo and Sac and Fox) loves her urban Native community in Oakland, California. As the owner of a successful Native catering business called Wahpepah’s Kitchen, she shows her love with food and by sharing food stories. In this episode, Crystal talks about her love for catering, the need for more Native flavors in the Bay Area (and everywhere else) and why she got chopped on th...

Donell Barlow (Ottawa), certified holistic health coach, was raised on processed food and meatloaf. But now, she’s focused on Indigenous food, urban Native youth and updating her sleeve of tattoos. She’s the host of Dance Jam Kitchen and creator of one of my favorite meatloaf recipes.

E7: Brian Yazzie — “Constantly working” When you love something, it consumes you. When asked what he does outside of the kitchen, Brian Yazzie (Diné), chef de cuisine at The Sioux Chef, said he’s thinking about being the kitchen. In this episode, Brian talks about becoming a chef, decolonizing his cooking and what’s next for him and The Sioux Chef crew.

In this podcast extra, I talk with David Manuel (Anishinaabe), foods coordinator for the Red Lake Food Initiative. He's been busy tapping maple trees for that sweet, sweet sap. He's also a beekeeper.

UPDATE: As of 2022, Hoover has admitted she has no Indigenous ties. Dr. Elizabeth Hoover (Mohawk and Mi’kmaq. UPDATE: As of 2022, Hoover has admitted she has no Indigenous ties.) travels around asking Native people what their definition of food sovereignty is. It’s actually a great many things to different tribes. Native communities lost certain parts, or all of their food sovereignty, but the peo...

Seeds carry tribal stories, history and nourishment for Native bodies. That’s why seeds are crucial to Indigenous food sovereignty. Rowen White (Akwesasne Mohawk), seed keeper, founder and director of Sierra Seeds Cooperative and national project coordinator for the Indigenous Seed Keepers Network, is out to plant a new crop of Native seed stewards.

Once, Monica Braine (Assiniboine, Hunkpapa Lakota) ate a whole large pizza by herself. She has an eating disorder and she’s on a journey to love food. We don’t often talk about this side of food where it creates a hellish nightmare for those struggling with food addiction. But in this episode, Monica, a Native journalist, talks about the struggle to take control and treat her disorder.

He learned classical French cooking from the best and became an esteemed chef. These days, humble chef, Nephi Craig (White Mountain Apache, Diné), is between kitchens and looking to truly feed his Native community by starting up a new cafe on the White Mountain Apache reservation in Arizona. In this episode, I talk with Craig about the resurgence of Native food, decolonization and breaking away fr...

With no Indigenous teachers or elders to learn about traditional foods from, Andrea Murdoch largely taught herself. And now, she can’t stop the learning process. She’s trained in pastry arts, but crossed over to full-on Indigenous food. Murdoch, Indigenous from the Andes, is the creator and owner of Four Directions MKE in Wisconsin (soon to move to Colorado).

The Toasted Sister Podcast is radio about Native American food because it has come a long way. Traditional, indigenous foodways were lost, found, redefined and modernized in the last few hundred years. And here it is today, in the hands of Native chefs and foodies who work to keep their traditional flavors and ingredients alive. In this first episode, I talk with chef Karlos Baca (Tewa, Diné, Ute)...