Education, News

Zingerman’s Welcomes Chef Sean Sherman of The Sioux Chef

Zingerman’s is honored to welcome Chef Sean Sherman, founder of The Sioux Chef and acclaimed indigenous food activist, for two special events in August.

On Tuesday, August 6, Cornman Farms will host Chef Sean for a tasting, talk and cookbook signing. Tickets can be purchased for this event at this link.

On Wednesday, August 7, Miss Kim will host a sold out, multi-course tasting menu experience featuring recipes from his James Beard Award-winning cookbook, The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen. The event will include a talk from Chef Sean, as well as a cookbook signing. Copies of Chef Sean Sherman’s cookbook will be available for purchase courtesy of Literati Bookstore. Get on the waitlist at this link.

Food, Land and Family
Chef Ji Hye is excited to collaborate with Chef Sean in her kitchen, which much like Chef Sean, is rooted in respect for tradition and a connection to food, land and family. The Miss Kim staff shares Chef Ji Hye’s enthusiasm for Chef Sean’s vision – many put in early requests to work the event!

During his visit, Chef Sean will highlight his approach to long buried and often inaccessible Native American cuisine featuring hyper-seasonal, locally-sourced ingredients. Rooted in his passionate quest to rekindle and restore stolen traditions, the spirit of Chef Sean’s work joyfully reinforces Chef Ji Hye’s own integration of Korean food roots and ancestral traditions. The result is a rare and intimate evening with one of the most inspired social, political and culinary change agents of our time.

Reclaiming Native American Cuisine
Chef Sean is blazing a timely trail to recognize and honor tradition’s sacred connection to the fundamental human experience of community, land and food. Chef Sean, Oglala Lakota, born in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, has cooked across the United States and Mexico over the past 30 years. He’s primarily focused on revitalizing indigenous food systems throughout North America, while gaining international recognition as a leader in the indigenous foods culinary movement.

Here’s a timeline of some of his recent accolades:

  • 2017: Chef Sean and his team presented the first “decolonized” dinner at the James Beard House in Manhattan
  • 2018: The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen cookbook earned the 2018 James Beard Best American Cookbook award as well as recognition by Smithsonian Magazine
  • 2019: The Sioux Chef team won the James Beard Foundation’s Leadership Award

Today, the Sioux Chef team (comprised of chefs, ethnobotanists, food preservationists, adventurers, foragers, caterers, event planners, artists, musicians, food truckers and food lovers) continues to work to educate and make indigenous foods more accessible through its nonprofit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS).

Credit: Heidi Ehalt