Cult of Taste

Walter Whitewater: Native American Chef
By Lois Ellen Frank

Many people know Walter Whitewater from cooking with him--at least that's how I met him. Years ago during an Apache Sunrise Dance Ceremony in San Carlos, Arizona, I was helping my girlfriend, Gina Thomas, prepare and cook food for her daughter, Aleshia. Aleshia was going through her puberty ceremony, the Sunrise Dance. The family was engaged in extensive food preparation, since throughout the four-day ceremony they had to provide food and gifts to all participants and visitors. Walter was also there helping his uncle, who was dating Gina at the time.

Walter has always wanted to be around Native American foods from the time he was a young man at a ceremony with his family and saw another man making bread. "When I saw this man making bread for the ceremony, I just knew I wanted to work with traditional foods. I grew up very traditional, in a place called Pinon, Arizona, on the Diné (Navajo) Reservation, and men don't cook in my tradition, so when I told everyone that I wanted to be a chef, they tried to get me to work with the livestock instead."

Walter's family has always had sheep. His grandmother, Susie Whitewater Begay, was the matriarch of his family until she passed away several years ago. Now his dad is the caretaker of the sheep and Walter has decided to work with his dad to reintroduce the Navajo-Churro Sheep into their herd. Brought into the Rio Grande Valley by the Spanish in the 16th century as a source of food and clothing, the Navajo-Churro breed is the oldest known sheep in North America. The Churra (later corrupted to "Churro" by American frontiersmen) is originally an ancient Iberian breed. Flocks of Churros were acquired by Native Americans through trading and became an important part of the Diné economy and culture.

Organizations including the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, the Navajo-Churro Sheep Association, Diné Be'ina, Black Mesa Weavers and the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University have been working with the Navajo-Churro sheep, and Slow Food USA has placed it on its Ark of Taste as well as making it one of their Presidia foods. "Revitalizing these sheep is very important to me. I think that these sheep are not only considered to be sacred to my People but represent life to many elders in my community, and that's why I want to help continue to have them for our future generations," Walter says. They have a very lean meat with a distinctive, sweet lamb flavor. They provide abundant milk and have a very prized coat in an array of colors. And they are hardy and require less water and grass than other sheep.

Walter loves to use lamb when he cooks and was one of the culinary consultants with me on my James Beard Award winning cookbook, Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations. Presently, Walter and I work together preparing foods and catering for Red Mesa Cuisine, LLC, a new company that specializes in Native American traditional foods of the past with a modern twist.

Walter is a self-taught chef. He began his culinary career with chef David Tannis at Café Escalera in Santa Fe who was taught by the legendary Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley. After cooking there for more than five years, Walter cooked with chef and owner, Mu Jing Lau at Mu Du Noodles to learn about Asian foods. After a little more than a year, Walter left Mu Du Noodles and began cooking at Bishop's Lodge. He learned contemporary Southwest foods under chef Zachary and then went on to learn Latin fusion foods as well as many traditional cooking techniques under chef Alfonso Ramirez at the same location.

Cooking and teaching about foods has become a part of Walter's life. He co-teaches a Native American class at the Santa Fe School of Cooking every month and will be working with the school this season on their culinary tours teaching about Native American influences on contemporary foods in Santa Fe today. Since Walter has received all of this acclaim in the culinary industry and made appearances on several Food TV network shows, his family has accepted the fact that he has become a chef and is quite proud of him and his endeavors. You should see the Aunties and members of his family boast about how he is a famous chef. Walter has crossed the imaginary gender line that existed when he started cooking as a traditional Native American man to become a role model for young Native men in his community and on the Reservation.

What makes Walter so unique is his approach to food. Food to him is very sacred; it is the essence of life. He handles all of the food he prepares with the utmost care and respect. "When I handle food, a piece of me goes into everything I touch. The knowledge of my People, my ancestors, is in the food I cook. All of who I am is served in every dish I make. This way I can pass on my traditions, the songs, the traditional agriculture practices, the raising of the sheep and what the true meaning of Native American foods are to everyone that eats it. I do this with the hopes that they too can work with Native Peoples all over to continue the practices and foods that make up this cuisine and help to keep them alive for future generations."

Recently, I accompanied Walter to New York City to receive James Lewis Award, an award presented by the BCA, a national non-profit who's mission is to create awareness, exposure and educational opportunities for people of color within the culinary profession. The award is presented each year to honor James Lewis, a self-taught chef with a 40-year career in the culinary industry and is given in honor of Chef Lewis' work ethic, dedication and longevity. Walter is the first Native American recipient of this award.

At the awards ceremony this past March, Walter went up on stage and spoke with a simple eloquence that was both profound and powerful. He stated that food was a part of all of us regardless of color and that when you eat someone's food you are immediately connected to him or her through the food. You become a relative, so to speak. Then he sang a song in his own language that had the entire audience in tears. "We need to all work together, to bring back and to keep alive the sustainable traditions of the Native Peoples, to work with our local communities and grow foods that promote our health and wellness and to teach this traditional knowledge to our future generations so that they can carry them on. This is the only way we can continue to live on this Earth, as one people." Walter's words resonated within me and with everyone in the room so much so that the next speaker made everyone get up and give Walter a standing ovation before he could introduce the next award recipient.

Foods connect us as human beings. Eating is the one thing we all need to do, regardless of race, religion, size, shape or locality. A chef like Walter Whitewater, what he does and how he approaches food, is an inspiration to all of us and an example of how important and sacred food is.