October 3, 2024
First Nations
No stranger to cooking competitions, Cree chef Shane Chartrand says Top Chef Canada is the real deal
Chartrand has also competed on Chopped Canada and Iron Chef Canada
CBC Indigenous: The new season of Top Chef Canada is launching later this month and for one Cree chef being asked to compete was “a dream come true.”
Shane Chartrand from Enoch Cree Nation near Edmonton is no stranger to cooking competition shows, having been on Chopped Canada and Iron Chef Canada, but says Top Chef Canada is “the real deal.”
“If you think you can do a show like this, be prepared,” said Chartrand.
“Being a great cook is obviously why we’re chosen … you’ve got to have the grit, [and] confidence.”
Chartrand, the fifth Indigenous chef to compete on the show, said he wants to showcase as much of his Cree culture as he can.
“The past 12 years I’ve been working very hard at trying to extend what Indigenous culinary arts is in the celebratory way, in the spiritual way and … on the plate,” said Chartrand.
“I thought it was really important to be able to bring all those touchstones of information to national TV because there’s a lot of people who don’t understand who we are.”
Chartrand is the executive chef at SC, the restaurant at the River Cree Resort and Casino, and in 2019 he published his first cookbook, tawâw: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine.
A chef’s competition
One person that knows just how grueling Top Chef Canada can be is Tawnya Brant, a Mohawk chef from Six Nations of the Grand River near Hamilton.
She said when she competed on season 10, she initially thought her time on the show would be the relaxing break she needed after having just opened her restaurant Yawékon Foods months before.
“Top Chef is the hardest television show to do, because you don’t know what you’re doing,” said Brant.
“A lot of the other cooking competition shows, they already know what they’re doing, it’s just a matter of executing in a certain amount of time.”
She said she was ecstatic when she found out Chartrand was competing this season.
“Honestly there’s two chefs in Canada, maybe three, that I was like ‘They need to go on this show; why haven’t they yet?’ And Shane is one of them,” said Brant.
Brant said before the show she was never a competitive chef, and she thinks this is where Chartrand may have the upper hand.
“He knows how to do high-end food, because he’s an amazing plating artist and because he already has a whole cookbook to go on,” said Brant.
From dishwasher to chef
Chartrand said his interest in cooking started when he got his first kitchen job as a teenager. He had been eyeing a pair of Air Jordan shoes and his mom told him he needed to earn enough money to buy them himself.
“I rode my bike all the way down to the closest place that had jobs and so I became the dishwasher at a legitimate truck stop,” said Chartrand.
“I saw the other guys were cooking and making awesome food … all that noise in the kitchen was what I wanted, that’s what inspired me.”
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Now, Chartrand teaches cooking to kids, and hopes to inspire Indigenous kids interested in pursuing a culinary career. He said one of the reasons he aspired to be on Top Chef Canada was to be the example he always wanted to see on television when he was a kid.
“I don’t care where they are, who they are, what skin colour they have, just mentorship is super important,” said Chartrand.
When asked what’s the one dish he’s excited to share with Canadians, he says it’s deep-fried reindeer lichen — surprisingly, a dish he doesn’t consider Indigenous cuisine.
“The reindeer moss is edible moss, and if you clean it, dry it, deep fry it — it becomes very, very delicate but with this really awesome flavour,” he said.
“You just hit it with salt and honestly, it’s delicious.”
Top Chef Canada season 11 begins Oct. 14 on Food Network Canada.
About the Author: Stephanie Cram
Stephanie Cram is a climate reporter based in Edmonton. Previously she worked for CBC in Winnipeg as a reporter, and as a producer for CBC Radio’s Unreserved. She is the host of the podcast Muddied Water: 1870, Homeland of the Métis.
September 13, 2023
First Nations
Oren Lyons helped bring lacrosse to the world stage
CBC Indigenous: Oren Lyons, who helped found the Haudenosaunee Nationals lacrosse team in the 1980s, will be added to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame next month.
Lyons, now 93, was born in 1930 on the Onondaga Nation in New York state. He earned a scholarship to play lacrosse at Syracuse University, where he was teammates with NFL legend Jim Brown. During his time at Syracuse he also won All-American Honours and the Orange Key Award for athletic and academic excellence.
The Haudenosaunee Nationals became the first (and currently only) sovereign Indigenous team competing in international sport, winning bronze medals at the World Lacrosse Championships in 2014, 2019 and 2023.
Lyons spoke recently with CBC Indigenous.
The following was edited for length and clarity:
Q: What were your thoughts when you first found out you were being inducted into the hall of fame?
A: It’s amazing, an amazing honour. It caught me by surprise. I got it in the letter, but I had to keep quiet about it until the announcement. When I think back to all the great players out there, to receive this is an amazing honour. It caught me by surprise, a good surprise and you don’t get that kind of surprise this time of your life, I’ll tell you that.
Q: Why was lacrosse so important to you all these years?
A: To the Haudenosaunee, it’s much more than a sport. It’s a medicine game and we’ve been playing it over 1,600 years. In fact, we played it on the other side of the stars. Any of our nation’s people can call for a game, you never question it because it’s spiritual and it activates the whole community. It’s played in the old style, no pads, just sticks and the ball and up to 60 to 80 people.
Q: Can you tell me about your first experience with lacrosse?
A: My father took me to his game when I was five years old. They were playing indoor box lacrosse in 1935, in Geneva, N.Y. I think they played on a basketball court but the game was fast, I remember that. They were playing indoor box with no face mask, no health care.
The best thing I remember about that whole event was the spaghetti dinner after.
During the Second World War, a lot of the men went off to the war and it left the really young and the old men behind to play and I ended up playing with my father.
Q: Why did you play so long?
A: A lot of fun and kind people, and eventually people wanted me in net because I was a pretty good goaltender. I played for Syracuse University and made All American, then played for several box lacrosse teams. I went on to the New York City Lacrosse Club and also the New Jersey Lacrosse Club. I played for a long, long time.
Q: Would you have any advice for up and coming players?
A: Stay clean. Stay off the drugs and work hard on your conditioning. Be respectful. One thing I see today is the public is just not treating referees in a respectful way. They often volunteer their time and then get yelled at by screaming fans. It’s just not fair.
Lyons will join fellow inductees Phyllis Bomberry, Georges St. Pierre, Hiroshi Nakamura, Danielle Peers, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and the Ferbey Four at the Hall of Fame ceremony Oct. 19 at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Oscar Baker III is a Black and Mi’kmaw reporter from Elsipogtog First Nation. He is the Atlantic region reporter for CBC Indigenous. He is a proud father and you can follow his work @oggycane4lyfe