Indigenous chef teams up with Bingemans to highlight Indigenous cuisine

Positive feedback at last summer's Neebing Indigenous Art Show proved to be a springboard for chef Destiny Moser. The response from her participation in the art show helped her establish the groundwork for Cedar Spoon Indigenous Catering.

Created in association with Bingemans, Cedar Spoon allows Moser to shine a light on Indigenous cuisine and the cooks preparing it, but it also allows her to explore and discover her own cultural heritage.

According to Moser, her mother was part of the Sixties Scoop, which resulted in thousands of Indigenous children being taken from their families and placed in the child welfare system.

Moser is Status First Nations. She is part of the Ojibwe tribe of the Rainy River Band. Her mother was taken from her community when she was just four years old and lived in foster care until she was six when she was adopted by a family in Waterloo region, where Moser was born.

"My mom passed away a couple of years ago, and we've been on a reconciliation journey," Moser says. "When I had the opportunity to think about food, I really wanted to learn more about my culture by digging into Indigenous food culture."

Exploring culture through food

The name of the business, Cedar Spoon, is a nod to both her background and a key element of Indigenous culture.

"Cedar is one of the medicines of the Indigenous people. It's healing as we go through truth and reconciliation. It's strong and resilient. And I didn't grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth," she adds. "I had to go over hurdles to get where I am, so more of a wooden spoon."

Part of a large family, Moser often found herself cooking at family barbecues and other events.

She has taught cooking in the local community, including teaching kids about food at the Kitchener Market. Moser eventually attended Top Toques cooking school in Kitchener, known as Liaison College at the time.

While the farm-to-table approach to food has been well-known in Canadian food culture over the past several decades, Moser says that the food of Indigenous farm-to-table is different; she calls it "hyper-local and ultra-seasonal."

Highlighting traditional Indigenous ingredients

Instead of beef, Moser's cooking includes bison; maple syrup substitutes for brown sugar, sumac for lemon and sunflower oil for olive oil.

She adds that her cooking technique includes unique preparations of ingredients that are found in the Indigenous pantry; Saskatoon berries, hominy and pheasant.

Examples from her menus include sumac and rosemary-braised beef short rib with roasted chestnut, bison and three-sisters chili, roasted leg of lamb with juniper-onion sauce and wild rice salad with roasted corn, sweet grass-smoked salmon and dried cranberry.

Moser strives for more recognition for traditional Indigenous ingredients — and is working to gaining access for them in stores and restaurants in which they are prohibited.

She points out that settlers brought their livestock from Europe, and that it isn't the original Indigenous food.

"Over time, [settler food] became Canadian cuisine," she says. "But the issue is that there are laws against certain foods, like game, that the Indigenous community would have. I understand why, but there are ways to make it accessible."

Creating opportunities for other Indigenous chefs

Moser has a number of objectives for Cedar Spoon which include helping to build a broader foundation that can provide opportunities for Indigenous food and the local Indigenous cooks and chefs working with it.

"I want to see more Indigenous food being prepared for the general public. When I first became a chef, I was striving to find other Indigenous chefs in our region," she says.

"I found some, but they are few and far between. It would be great to mentor and nurture more young Indigenous chefs, especially within our community, and to give them an opportunity to know that we have a place."