EATSS

Featured chefs

Chef Ben JACOBS

Chef Ben (Osage Nation) is a nationally renowned chef and the co-founder of Tocabe, An American Indian Eatery, now with two restaurant locations and a food truck in Denver, making it the country’s largest Native American restaurant chain.

Tocabe expands on Jacobs’s Osage family recipes to create a new and unique take on Native cuisine. He works to support Native American food professionals and communities by using Native-made and sourced ingredients whenever possible. Tocabe has been recognized by the Food Network, Food&Wine magazine, The New York Times, The Atlantic magazine, and many other national media outlets.

CHEF ANDREA MURDOCH

Chef Andrea (Andean Native; Caracas, Venezuela) is the owner of Four Directions Cuisine, which is founded on four main pillars: sourcing locally, sourcing Indigenously, education and community work. Murdoch is using food to trace her own culture while educating the public about the expansive world of Indigenous food systems. After being classically trained as a pastry chef at The Culinary Institute of America, Murdoch started exploring Indigenous flavors and origins which she shares through cultural conversations in the form of food.

CHEF BRADLEY DRY

Chef Bradley (Cherokee) has been a professional chef for twelve years, cooking traditional Cherokee dishes from healthy, local ingredients. Growing up in Oklahoma and based in Tulsa, his family inspired him to cook, as it was their tradition to cook together with everyone helping, under the guidance of his grandmother – which is where he learned most of what he knows about navigating a kitchen! Bradley’s goal is to bring happiness and community to those who enjoy his heartfelt food – and he specializes in traveling to prepare food for special events and people, including PowWows, Folklorama and the cast and crew of Reservation Dogs. Ultimately Bradley hopes to one day own his own restaurant, which he will name Elisi, the Cherokee word for grandmother.

CHEF SHERRY POCKNETT

Chef Sherry is an indigenous chef and educator, specializing in the Bounty of the Season, Native American indigenous food and New England cooking. Chef Sherry owns her own restaurants, Sly Fox Den, and Sly Fox Den Too.  Sherry’s knowledge of traditions, her ingenuity and work ethic carry over into the mouthwatering dishes being served at her restaurants.   She believes the best way to teach is hands-on with kids, young adults, and even parents, and has led special events with up to 100 kids in the class.

CHEF LORETTA BARRETT ODEN

Chef Loretta is an authority on indigenous foods of North America. She’s an expert in the field, a widely respected resource, and a fantastic chef. Her life’s mission has been to share knowledge of her culinary heritage and support First Americans’ food sovereignty efforts. Her most recent endeavor is as a menu curator for Thirty Nine Restaurant in the new First Americans Museum (FAM) in Oklahoma. The mission at Thirty Nine is to use the indigenous ingredients of the First Americans represented at FAM who relocated to Oklahoma from all over the contiguous U.S. 

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