18 | NATIONAL INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY FRIDAY, JUNE 21
FOOD
Feasting on tradition
she said. “Being part of that process was really empowering.” Eventually, an opportunity arose for Guenther to open a restaurant in the former Ellice Café and Theatre venue. She started the business in 2015, earning acknowledgment as one of very few Indigenous restaurants in Canada. “If you look at my menu at Feast, it’s modern dishes rooted in First Nations foods. Everything is homemade and fresh. We support local Indigenous communities as much as we can for our products such as wild rice and berries,” she said. “We’ve gone out to the bison farm to lay down an offering to thank them and pay respect for their sacrifice and the importance to our community.” The mouth-watering menu at Feast aims to put traditional foods on the plate, using accessible ingredients at a price point that people can afford. One popular pick is the powwow taco smothered with homemade bison chili. Another top seller is the roasted butternut squash bannock pizza. “We’re trying to incorporate a lot of our traditional ways, practices and love at Feast,” Guenther said. “We can be authentic and promote our culture through food — and be successful at the same time.” Currently, Feast is undergoing an expansion to create more space for prep work and catering. Guenther will also expand her team to keep up with the demands of the bustling business. “At Feast, we pride ourselves on giving job opportunities to people who may have barriers to employment,” she said, “including those from our First Nations and Métis communities.” Guenther and her Feast team also honour the environment through their practices. “We’re very mindful of Mother Earth. We have lots of plants at Feast so if there’s water left at the tables, we put it in a bucket to water them. We freeze all the bones and vegetable trimmings and cook them down for stock,” she said. “We’re also very community-minded. We do school tours and we let community kids take turns making healthy snacks to feed to the other children. It’s important to create those connections — and we’re here to help.”
BY JENNIFER MCFEE
A LOCAL INDIGENOUS RESTAURANT NOURISHES A NEED FOR HEALTHY HERITAGE FOODS. F east Café Bistro, located at 587 Ellice Ave., celebrates bold Indigenous flavours cooked with fresh seasonal ingredients that are locally sourced. Owner Christa Guenther grew up in Winnipeg’s North End, with roots stemming from Peguis First Nation. “We were quite poor but we did have a small garden,” she said. “We mainly cooked at home because we couldn’t afford to eat out, which is a blessing now that I look back.” At age 22, Guenther opened up her own licensed daycare with support from the Youth Entrepreneurship Program and Aboriginal Business Canada. Around the same time, Canada’s Food Guide for First Nations, Inuit and Métis became available. “The food guide listed a lot of ingredients that I didn’t even know belonged to our First Nations culture. So many of us are so disconnected from our traditional foods and from the land, water and sky, and the basic life skill of cooking,” she said. “So I became really curious about our traditional foods and I started incorporating a lot of those into our food program.” Along with the daycare kids, she planted a mini garden to grow some of the traditional ingredients. “We had to cook on a budget,” Guenther said. “That’s when I developed my recipes, trying to incorporate three Indigenous ingredients into a dish along with everyday foods so that they were affordable.” These Indigenous ingredients can include different squashes, beans, berries and corn, as well as wild rice, hazelnuts, bison, goose — and so much more. “By reconnecting to our culture through food, we had this new sense of identity and pride and self-worth,”
Clockwise from left: Feast owner Christa Guenther and her staff visit the bison farm that provides all the meat for her café and customers; Guenther poses outside her café, located at 587 Ellice Ave.; breakfast sandwich on bannock featuring farm eggs, Bothwell Cheese and tomatoes; the interior view of Feast; elk stew served in acorn squash.
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