Photograph: Gabriela Hasbun/The Guardian Crystal Wahpepah: ‘Everyone can make a difference in our food system’ The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.Ĭrystal Wahpepah’s philosophy on food is to eat in a natural way according to what’s in season and what’s local. The Guardian sat down with Wahpepah to discuss how her upbringing and heritage shaped her cuisine, her passion for food sovereignty, and healing her community through food. I believe life is a circle in how it all comes back and if it did it for me it can do it for somebody else.” “Those are the best times and actually one of the healing times for me. It’s memories of me growing up and picking blackberries with my grandfather,” she says. “I find berries the most beautiful thing. Take the elderberries and blackberries she loves to cook with, for instance.
Working alongside her three daughters, Rosario, Rikki and Kala Hopper, who are registered Big Valley Pomo, her sous chef Josh Hoyt (Ojibwe) and Ecuadorian head chef Diego Cruz, Wahpepah’s mission is to introduce people to real Indigenous cuisine while making sure her family traditions endure. A mural by the artist Votan Henriquezan depicts Indigenous food warriors from across the Americas, while columns painted by Diné artist Tony Abeyta are adorned with golden corn – Navajo symbols of fertility and sustenance – set against turquoise and cobalt blue clouds. Today, Wahpepah’s Kitchen is a bustling hub filled with bright colors and artwork that tells the story of the food they serve. Right: Crystal Wahpepah’s mission is to introduce people to real Indigenous cuisine at her Oakland, California, restaurant. Left: Wahpepah’s Kitchen is filled with bright colors and Indigenous foods. During the pandemic, when her rented catering kitchen closed, fellow Bay Area chef Reem Assil invited Wahpepah to take over her former restaurant space just under the Fruitvale Bart station. Wahpepah, a graduate of San Francisco’s La Cocina food incubator program, launched a catering business 12 years ago specialising in Native American foods such as salmon, acorns, berries, and her grandmother’s Kickapoo bison chili. But food traditions anchored her to her family and Native American heritage. She says it was hard being the only mixed-race kid in the family, the only one without a father in her life. When her parents split, her father, who was Black, went back to Louisiana. She’s registered with the Kickapoo tribe of Oklahoma, like her mother and grandfather.
Wahpepah, 50, grew up in Oakland’s close-knit Native American community. Photograph: Gabriela Hasbun/The Guardianīut for all the buzz, Wahpepah’s overnight success has been a lifetime in the making. Chef Crystal Wahpepah has seen an overnight success and is a finalist for a James Beard award.
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