Tommy Orange<\/a>, Wahpepah\u2019s book invites readers to a pre-colonial cuisine of bison roast with chokeberry rub, acorn muffins and wild rice fritters stuffed with apples, cranberries, pepita crema\u00a0and much more.<\/p>\n![\"Bison](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/EBT-L-SVCHAT-022526-6.jpg\")
Bison tacos at Wahpepah’s Kitchen on Wednesday, February. 11, 2026, in Oakland, Calif. (Aric Crabb\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: For those who are unfamiliar with Native American cuisine, what are its signature tastes?<\/p>\n
A: When it comes to the flavors, we come from a game meat background \u2014 a lot of buffalo, a lot of deer, turkey, quail. And we come from a veggie background, veggies and grains. We eat in season, meaning what is available in the seasons. We\u2019re in winter time, so of course we have a lot of soups and stews. When it comes to harvesting of the meat, that\u2019s where you\u2019re filling yourself up with a lot of meats. But then, as you go into spring and summer, you have a lot of the veggies, and the land has more to offer.<\/p>\n
Q: You\u2019ve said before that you learned how to cook with your grandmother in Oklahoma, but you\u2019re also formally trained at Le Cordon Bleu. How were those learning environments different?<\/p>\n
A: The teaching is totally different. A lot of just pretty much living on the land when it comes to my grandmother. Of course, my grandfather was a hunter, so he would bring home a lot when it comes to deer and how my family hunts to this day. It\u2019s a lot of utilizing all parts of the animal and then also foraging \u2014 we called it \u201chunting berries.\u201d Just seeing what\u2019s available on the land. You\u2019re pretty much exploring the landscape, and you\u2019re out there picking berries or wild onions. With Cordon Bleu, everything is hand-chopped, diced, how you\u2019re going to make your reductions, all those kinds of things. (My food) is pretty much having the two meet together.<\/p>\n
Q: Considering your Kickapoo heritage, I\u2019m curious how these recipes and traditions were passed down in your family.<\/p>\n
A: I think a lot of it is just a habit that was passed along, something that we do to this day. We have the green corn, for instance. That\u2019s where we harvest and dry it out and save it for the winter. We do a lot of harvesting. We do a lot of planting and harvesting. It\u2019s something that has always taken place for thousands of years. It still does. But some of it got away, especially if you\u2019ve relocated on a different land. Since my tribe comes from the Illinois area \u2013 we got federally recognized in Oklahoma \u2013 you can think about the seeds that were lost along the way, and the different squashes and beans.<\/p>\n
![\"Wild](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/EBT-L-SVCHAT-022526-5.jpg\")
Wild native mushroom pumpkin seed mole at Wahpepah’s Kitchen on Wednesday, February. 11, 2026, in Oakland, Calif. (Aric Crabb\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Q: Many families have a special dish; for instance, my mother makes a special green chile chicken casserole on Christmas and Easter. What do you make for your family when you get together on those special occasions?<\/p>\n
A: Definitely the deer and dried corn. That\u2019s something we have for birthdays or for holidays. And that\u2019s why I really look forward to going to Oklahoma, because I know I\u2019m gonna have that! It\u2019s a delicacy to me. It\u2019s not every day you get to have corn \u2013 you see all the gentrified corn in stores and all that, but nothing like that really fresh, fresh corn.<\/p>\n
Q: How do you balance the traditional elements of Native American cuisine with the desire to innovate within a culinary sphere?<\/p>\n
A: I think that\u2019s fun. That\u2019s what keeps me going, is creating Indigenous dishes where I really try to highlight each ingredient on each dish, but then also doing what people are really familiar with. So that\u2019s why I talk about this as what\u2019s going on in Native cuisine today. We\u2019re pretty much putting our own spin, our own touch. Like, we have a canyon oak acorn cr\u00eape, right? Well, traditionally, acorn is almost a mush or a porridge, I guess you would say, but I transform it into a cr\u00eape.<\/p>\n
Q: Do you believe that cooking Native American in 2026 is connected to cultural and political movements like Land Back?<\/p>\n
A: It definitely is, when it comes to food sovereignty and food justice. It flows into that, but with Native foods, it\u2019s really about reclaiming and keeping what is ours. A lot has been just gentrified out. We\u2019ll talk about the corn, for instance. Just our foods alone have become really commodified. But then I talk about it more as having a human right to have our own traditional foods. I really want people, when they come to Wahpepah\u2019s Kitchen, to know that these foods are sourced from Native farmers, Native food producers, that have been keeping this traditional for thousands of years.<\/p>\n
Q: Lately, I\u2019ve seen people use the phrase \u201cwe\u2019re losing recipes\u201d to describe the replacement of home-cooked meals with DoorDash, and, more broadly, the loss of passed-down culinary traditions. In the context of Native American cuisine, what does that phrase mean to you?<\/p>\n
A: When it comes to recipes, they\u2019ve been lost because a lot of relocation has happened. But then also, we\u2019re finding them again. It\u2019s similar to Tommy\u2019s book (Wandering Stars), where you can get lost when it comes to identity and culture. But when you start back at home, you\u2019ll find your way back.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Profile<\/p>\n
Name: Crystal Wahepah<\/p>\n
Position: Owner\/Chef of Wahpepah\u2019s Kitchen and author<\/p>\n
Education: Le Cordon Bleu (waiting on HS)<\/p>\n
Residence: Oakland<\/p>\n
Education: Dewey High School, Le Cordon Bleu\u2019s San Francisco Campus<\/p>\n
Family: 3 daughters<\/p>\n
Five facts<\/p>\n
Crystal Wahpepah is an enrolled member of the Kickapoo of Oklahoma. The Kickapoo\u2019s original lands are located in present-day Illinois. The tribe now exists in federally recognized bands in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and the Mexican state of Coahuila.
\nIn 2016, Wahpepah was the first Native American chef to compete in the Food Network show \u201cChopped.\u201d She later appeared on \u201cBeat Bobby Flay.\u201d
\nIn 2022, she was a finalist for the prestigious James Beard Award in the Emerging Chef category.
\nWahpepah is an inductee of the Native American Almanac for being one of the first Native American women to own a catering business.
\nAll of the ingredients for Wahpepah\u2019s Kitchen are sourced from Native American farms across the western United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The recipes that define the Bay Area\u2019s food scene are often handed down through generations of immigrant families,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[184,21267,647,387,7,91560,332,413,421,181,971,22264,143,145,144,412,23192,420],"class_list":{"0":"post-196500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-best-bay-area-foods","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-cookbooks","14":"tag-east-bay","15":"tag-food","16":"tag-food-and-drink","17":"tag-latest-headlines","18":"tag-lifestyle","19":"tag-native-americans","20":"tag-oakland","21":"tag-oakland-headlines","22":"tag-oakland-news","23":"tag-restaurants","24":"tag-sv-chat","25":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}