The Quiet (R)evolution: Food as the Narrator

Revolutions don’t always begin in the streets. Sometimes they begin in the kitchen. Moderated by Kamila Avila-Salmon, Founder and CEO of Kas Kas Productions, this fireside chat features James Beard Award–winning chef Sean Sherman and explores how storytelling can confront erasure, reclaim identity, and build bridges across communities. They will dive deeper into how “The Sioux Chef,” Sean Sherman, has been at the forefront of reclaiming and mainstreaming Native American cuisine in the United States. Through his groundbreaking restaurant Owamni, his nonprofit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems, and recent NYT best-selling cookbook Turtle Island, he has reintroduced Indigenous ingredients, techniques, and foodways to national audiences, challenging colonial narratives about American cuisine and redefining what “American food” truly means. By centering pre-colonial ingredients and eliminating colonial staples such as wheat flour, dairy, and cane sugar, Sherman’s work is both culinary innovation and cultural restoration. This conversation asks us to see food not just as sustenance, but as a story—and to recognize that when we honor the origins of what we eat, we honor the people and cultures who have carried those traditions forward against all odds.