Biography of My Native Cooking

Being non-native, my immersion into Native American cuisine, started in the 1990's. There were very few cookbooks on Indigenous America then. Most of them had some European introduced ingredients: wheat flour, butter, cream, garlic, etc. I realized early on, that in order to develop creativity for this cuisine, I needed to know the historical
ingredients, modes of preparation, cultural festivities, and traditions that surrounded the hunting, gathering, the cooking of pre-contact native ingredients. I started reading Archaeology, Ethnobotany, Anthropology, Natural History books on Native America.

My first Native American dinner occurred in October, 2004 in Oakland. It was in conjunction with Slow Food East Bay. I had also arranged to secure a very distinguished guest for my dinner: Julia Parker, a Paiute, Miwok (CA tribes), a renowned basket maker, and one of the few traditional acorn flour makers left.

As time goes on, my modus operandi has been to be honest to the historical (pre-contact) approach of creating native food. Questions like: Where would they have gotten salt? Was vinegar used? When were apples, pears, pigs, cows, wheat, etc. introduced? What can I use instead? What would have the ancients used? What are the Native sources?

I have been involved with The California Native Garden Foundation, created by Alrie Middlebrook, a native CA landscape designer.
We conducted Saturday workshops, teaching to garden with CA native plants and I created recipes using these CA natives, an ultimate extension of the locavore movement. www.CNGF.org.

I am a member of Slow Food, Chef's Collaborative, board member of the Marin Museum of the American Indian, and continue to use listed ingredients of the Ark of Taste and RAFT: Renewing America's Food Tradition. I support native sourcing of ingredients whenever
possible.

My cooking is at once, both historical and modern.

Chef's Comment: "Right now, the market and sourcing for California Native and America's indigenous ingredients are almost nonexistent. Education, marketing, and supply of native species can only grow if we eat them, thereby creating a demand for them. I work to help this cause."

“Spirit, History, and Passion are active in Native Foods”

John Farais
52 Shannon Ct.
Novato,CA 94949
zencowboy.1@netzero.net