I go by many real names.
Shane Mederic Chartrand. That is my adopted family name, given to me by the family who raised me and saved me from foster care.
Shane St. John Gordon. That is my birth name, from my blood family.
Wase Acahkos. Bright shining star. That one was given to me by my community for the giving and teaching I have done with youth, elders, and knowledge keepers.
Three names, one person. I carry all of them.
The Years Without Roots
I was given up from my reserve at the age of one. Between then and the age of seven, I went through more than ten different homes in Calgary. At seven, I was adopted.
Even after that, I did not celebrate my roots. I knew I was Indigenous, but I had no clue where I was from. That not knowing stayed with me for a long time.
Then, at the age of thirty, I finally found my origin. Enoch Cree Nation!
To me, that was catch up time.
Catching Up
By then I already had my professional culinary training behind me. I had competed, written books, travelled, been on television. But finding Enoch Cree Nation meant it was time to celebrate Cree cuisine and what it truly means to me.
I went to powwow. I went to ceremony. I danced. It was time for me to catch up with my culture.
Now I do not only celebrate my own culture. Through my recipes, I carry knowledge bundles. I choose Indigenous workshops, Indigenous contracts, and Indigenous food on every level, because I want to teach the world why Indigenous food is the real first Canadian cuisine.
Why Don’t We See More Indigenous Restaurants?
The answer is that food was taken from our elders, the same way our voices, our culture, and our regalia were taken. But not from all of our elders. There are still some who teach real food. But it takes time for people to study and do research on our world well enough to understand our food. It would take a lifetime to fully understand it.
But we must start somewhere.
Where My Recipes Come From
My recipes are based on where I have visited and the other Nations I have gotten to know and become great friends with, Blood Tribe, Lummi Nation, Stoney, Coast Salish, Haida, Metis, Anishinaabe, and more.
I have visited and cooked Indigenous food in Chicago, New York City, the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto, Cairo, and Sharm El Sheikh, among other places.
Bannock
As I recall from my own studies and research, Bannock was given to us, or traded to us, by the Scottish during trade.
I am not a historian, but here is my take on what it means to me.
Bannock is a fried, baked, or open fire bread that helped us survive across the land as we travelled. There is no leavener from the earth in it. There is no white flour that comes from our land either. That bothered me for years, knowing that we celebrate a bread that is not even from our culture.
As the years passed, through travelling, cooking, television, and powwows, I learned a few things about Bannock.
My matriarchs, elders, and knowledge keepers all eat Bannock. Think of it this way. If you were gifted a recipe through trade, how do you return it? Did it help us? The answer is yes, in the harsh winters and hot summers we needed it to survive.
We celebrate Bannock with ceremony, not to over consume it, since we know that is not good for our health, but to join together. We took the original recipe and made it our own. What came from the Scottish became ours.
I believe Bannock is not only part of our traditions, and I will not challenge our elders on that, but it is also big part of our lineage and our story.
2.5 cups whole grain wheat flour
2 tsp salt (maldon)
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp baking powder
1 cup (approx) warm water (around 25 c)
4 cups canola oil in a stainless steel pot
1. Add the sifted flour, salt, baking powder and oil into a medium large bowl.
2. Add warm water slowly as you mix with a wooden flat bottomed spoon to ensure you are scrapping the bottom of the bowl to get all the flour folded into the mixture.
3.Heat up oil to 300F carefully and drop the batter in the oil using a small ice cream scoop to form “Bannock bits”. Or you can form flat with 2 holes. Just watch the oil, as it heats up and cools as you cook the Bannock. Be sure NOT to over or under mix your bannock dough, this will take time to get the mixture correct as well as the manipulation of oil temperature.
4. Once done, dump onto to paper towel or a cooling rack to rid extra grease and rest.
My Trips to the West Coast Nations
During my travels, I have done documentaries and a lot of cooking with the Haida, the Coast Salish, and others, celebrating their life and their language.
On those trips, I was able to showcase Alberta products, bison tallow, corn, and potatoes from our local farmers, Lacombe Fresh and Maplewood Acres.
The plating I was taught by my own family is rustic, and this dish reflects that. Done carefully, rustic can look incredible.
Tuna is a fish I absolutely love. Spending time out west always brings me back to what the Tagish and others taught me.
2 albacore tuna loins, whole
8 oz corn nibbles
6 oz Yukon potatoes
salt & pepper (to taste)
4 oz bison tallow
smoked salt (to taste, to finish)
4 oz chives
canola oil
6 oz milk
1. Heavily season the tuna loins with salt and pepper.
2. Heat up a pan to medium high heat. Add some canola oil, and sear the outside of the tuna on all sides. Set aside to cool.
3. Peel and cut potatoes into random medium chunks and boil until cooked but not OVER cooked.
4. Heat up the oven to 350F.
5. Toss the potatoes in canola oil, salt and pepper and roast until brown and crispy.
6. Heat up the corn in a pot with milk. And add the corn, garlic, salt and pepper. Bring to medium, high heat until the corn can be blended.
7. Blend the corn until it becomes creamed and add the tallow and re season.
8. Now plate. Take 2 plates or bowls, making a smooth pool of cream corn on the bottom of the bowls, then add the warm potatoes and finish with a fan of seared tuna on top of both plates. Enjoy!
Why We Celebrate the Bison
We believe the bison spirit lies in all of us, whether you want to believe it or not.
The bison symbolizes strength. During a storm, a bison runs through it. A cow hides. That shows how fearless a bison is!
We all carry the bison spirit as humans. It is up to you to find your strength, or maybe you have already found it.
4 cut short ribs (4 inches)
6 granny smith apples
4 oz natural honey
4 oz parsley
3 oz minced garlic
salt and pepper (to taste)
4 oz green onion
4 oz flax oil
2.5 cups apple juice
6 cups beef base
3 bulbs fennel
8 oz whole garlic
4 cups medium large cut mirepoix
canola oil
1. In a braising pot, add short ribs, 2 cups of mirepoix, beef base, water, garlic, salt, and pepper. Cover and braise at 300F until cooked gentle. Not to “Fall off the bone”!
2. Take out of liquid and keep warm.
3. Cut up the apple and take out the middle. Stew in honey and apple juice until tender to blend to apple sauce.
4. Blend parsley, green onion, flax oil, whole garlic, together to make a paste.
5. Shave fennel bulb on a mandoline to paper thin.
6. Plate- Apple sauce on plate, then short rib. Coat with paste tossed in shaved fennel and enjoy!
The Three Sisters
Corn, beans, and squash. Eaten together, they create a balanced diet. They are connecting plants, and a gift from Mother Earth.
Corn grows strong. Beans pull nitrogen into the soil. Squash keeps the soil moist. Each one helps the others.
My version of this recipe celebrates all three. With my professional chef training, I am able to create recipes of my own to showcase these ingredients!
1 side fresh wild coho salmon
1 cup curing salt
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup sugar
1 cup beet juice
6 oz tomato
6 oz beans
1 cup acorn squash
1 cup defrosted corn niblets
1 cup zucchini
6 oz thyme
6 oz sage
1 cup tomato sauce
canola oil
2 whole yellow onions
chips or crackers for serving
1. Cure the salmon for one night by adding the sugar, salt, beet juice in a shallow pan that can press the salmon down flat.
After 24 hours rinse the salmon off vigorously until completely rinsed and pat dry.
2. Cut up all of the vegetable evenly to “small dice” equivalency, about 1/4 inch square.
3. Chop up all of the herbs finely.
4. Saute the vegetables in oil, minced garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Let cool.
5. Dice up the salmon into the same dice and add to the Ratitoulle and gently mix.
6. Serve cold with your choice of chips or crackers.
This Is Only the Beginning
I will keep learning and cooking Indigenous cuisine until I expire. Food is all I know, and it is all I want to eat, see, listen to, and cook. More is always coming.
If you ask me to define our food in my own words, here it is. Ethically collected ingredients, cooked in a traditional manner, that evoke emotion and the spirit of life.
Hiy hiy.
About Shane Mederic Chartrand
Author, Indigenous Keynote Speaker, and Indigenous International Chef
Shane Chartrand is at the forefront of Indigenous cuisine in North America.
Raised in Central Alberta, Shane’s family taught him the values of fishing, hunting, and the outdoors, where his culinary and personal journey began. He is also from Enoch Cree Nation. Although he was adopted, he carries both a Metis name and a Cree Indigenous name.
Shane relocated to Edmonton, Alberta, where he pursued his culinary training at NAIT, graduating with his Red Seal. He later received an Honorary Degree and an Award of Excellence for his accomplishments beyond academics. He also holds an Indigenous Role Model Award and an Indigenous Culinary Arts Award, recognizing his ongoing work with children, adults, and elders.
Medals and Awards
- Chef of the Year competition, Gold
- Gold Medal Plates, two bronze, one silver, one gold
- Fridge Wars, television winner and trophy recipient
Shane has also written Tawaw: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine, an award winning cookbook and one of the most influential Indigenous cookbooks globally, recognized with a Global Award.
He has run hotels, restaurants, and resorts for over 25 years, including Marriott, Fantasyland Hotel, Dante’s Bistro and Skylounge, and the Sorrentino’s Group.
Television
- Top Chef Canada, competitor and featured judge
- Iron Chef Canada, second place
- Chopped Canada, second place
- Fridge Wars, winner
- Wall of Chefs, judge across four episodes
- Red Chef Revival, documentary
- APTN’s Michif Country
- Cook It Raw Alberta
Shane was the only Canadian Indigenous chef invited to attend COP27 in Cairo, Egypt as a keynote speaker, and appeared on radio and television broadcasts reaching 25 countries. He has judged the international cook off Cochon 555 and cooked at Fortune 500 events, where he was hand picked as one of the ten best chefs across Canada for functions attended by high profile guests.
Shane has taken his Indigenous food talks and demonstrations around the globe, from Toronto, the Northwest Territories, Boston, Yukon, and Vancouver to New York City and Sharm El Sheikh.