Where People Feast: An Indigenous People's Cookbook

by Dolly Watts, Annie Watts

The food traditions of North America’s indigenous peoples are centuries old and they endure to this day. For almost two decades, Dolly Watts and her daughter Annie have served native cuisine that is both traditional and modern; for them, Where People Feast, one of very few indigenous cookbooks available, is the culmination of a lifetime dedicated to introducing people to extraordinary foods that are truly North American. Recipes include Smoked Salmon Mousse, Indian Tacos, Venison Meatballs, Alder-Grilled Breast of Pheasant, Blackberry-Glazed Beets, Wild Rice Pancakes, and Wild Blueberry Cobbler. Includes sixteen full-color photos and 120 recipes.

Dolly and Annie Watts run Vancouver’s Liliget Feast House, the only Native American fine dining establishment of its kind, which received a four-star “recommended” rating from The New York Times. In 2004, Dolly won on an episode of the Food Network’s Iron Chef.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Nonfiction, Indigenous

196 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2007

Reviews

[Kitchen Tourist · Rating 3 out of 5]

I checked out this book because we wanted to serve more Native American dishes at our Thanksgiving dinner. I enjoyed reading the cookbook quite a bit - the photographs are beautiful, the recipes look delicious, and the authors have an interesting story. But I didn't end up using any of the recipes because they depend heavily on local ingredients that can't be found in the Midwest (or at least not easily in November). For anyone from the Pacific Northwest, this would definitely be a lovely book to read and explore.

The authors ran what is described in the book as the only first nations independent restaurant in the world; I'm not sure how provable that claim is, but clearly the recipes in the book are designed to appeal to customers interested in both the traditional cooking and more upscale presentation. For this reason, may recipes also include less traditional ingredients (like Feta cheese) that would probably appeal to cooks who want to try "inspired by" rather than straight traditional recipes.

Some use the author's culinary training in traditional European techniques, others depend on traditional local methods like specific types of woodsmoke. That restaurant approach makes some of the recipes much less accessible to a general cook, though more adventurous foodies may enjoy testing the fruits of the extra effort.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

A "foodie" cookbook created by a woman from British Columbia who ran what is described in this book as the world's only restaurant based on an indigenous cuisine. When she shut down the restaurant in 2007, she wrote this book based on the recipes served there.

Since it's based in the Pacific Northwest, recipes for seafood are heavily emphasized along with other ingredients that may not be available elsewhere. Since the recipes were originally served in a restaurant, some techniques may be less accessible to a home cook (like cooking over an ash-wood fire) but substitute techniques are included.

The author is a culinary school graduate and also incorporates European techniques and non-native ingredients to complement her recipes at times, such as feta cheese.